Improvements​

• Added description for the Tumble task as part of the Acrobatics skill sidebar.
• Added missing "Size and Type" traits for the Astriapi and Gathol species.
• Plus/minus buttons around the XP input can now be used to add/subtract 0.25 to track fractional XP.
• Updated documentation to be more specific about permissions required for FoundryVTT.
• Effects for items (eg. personal upgrades) are now exported as part of the JSON.
• JSON export now includes class feature option effects.
• Amount of remaining ammunition can now be changed in the ammunition's sidebar.
• Weapons loaded with ammunition will now be automatically unloaded when removed or sold.
• Cybernetic and biotech augmentations can now be added as necrografts.
• Soldier gear boost Forceful Throw now automatically uses Strength instead of Dexterity to calculate grenade DCs if it's higher.
• The Grenade Mastery feat will now automatically add bonuses to grenade DCs as described.
• Alternate class features can now be added directly to homebrew Classes.
• Added a "New" button next to the search bar on the Creation, Homebrew and Campaign managers to quickly create a new instance without having to scroll to the bottom.
• Characters in a campaign will now automatically load changes to the campaign.
• Improved stability of item ordering in the inventory.
• Foundry Hephaistos Importer module has been updated to 0.14.0 (Release Notes).
• Roll20 API import script has been updated to 0.15.0 (Release Notes).

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed incorrect page numbers for feats from Ports of Call.
• Fixed issue where non-biomechanical starships were getting a speed bonus when they took any critical damage.
• Fixed spelling error in the name for the item "Fearmonger".
• Fixed homebrew spells not being selectable for NPCs.
• Deprecated one of the duplicate entries for the Kiirinta species.
• Fixed issue preventing the ability used to calculate the DC for grenades from being overridden.
• Fixed Khizars not providing Limited Telepathy.

Three Years of Hephaistos​

This release marks the third anniversary of Hephaistos' initial public release. The last twelve months have been a giant leap forward for Hephaistos. The ability to create homebrew items now lets you customize every single choice you can make, while the Campaign Manager brings together all creations in your game on a single page. The past year has also seen a significant jump in Hephaistos' user base. The number of registered users has grown from just over 18,000 in June 2022, to over 44,000 as I write, with almost 600 new sign-ups every week.

Looking ahead, there's a lot to be excited about. The second phase of the Campaign Manager will bring the ability to share items, and after that we have coming up the Infosphere, Improved PDF exports and Infinite Worlds, which adds tools for GMs to manage star systems. You can see and vote for the big-ticket items on Hephaistos' roadmap on the Features page.

Thanks to everyone who uses the website, provides feedback and reports bugs. And, thanks to everyone who contributes via Patreon or Ko-fi to help offset the infrastructure costs. The website would be nowhere near what it is today without the community that supports it.

Improvements​

• Items in the inventory can now be put in collections. See the documentation for details.
• Starships can now be marked as biomechanical from the Creator > Details page.
• Added a link to the infosphere preview on the main website.
• Campaign dashboard now shows conditions, perception and sense motive bonuses, starship critical damage, and vehicle attack modifiers.
• Added missing Starship combat actions from the Starship Operations Manual.
• The Ascetic Warrior Soldier class feature now adds special properties to unarmed strike as described.
• The Bone Blade augmentation now adds a separate weapon to the inventory when equipped to represent the actual blade.
• Added ability to mark the Squirming Entrails augmentation as extruded or retracted from the Quick > Selections section.
• Counters on the Character sheet can now be marked to automatically reset on a short or long rest.

Bug Fixes​

• Class features that let you treat your class level as base attack bonus for the purpose of meeting feat prerequisites (eg. Warmonger Mystic connection and the Spell Sergeant archetype) are now correctly accounted for when calculating feat qualification.
• Fixed broken links in the docs.
• Fixed minor typo in description for spell Junk Armor.

VTT Support​

Firstly, I'm aware that v11 for the FoundryVTT has been officially released, and that the Hephaistos Importer module currently only supports v10. I'm hoping to tackle the upgrade between now and the next Hephaistos release in two weeks' time.

Hephaistos currently supports integration with three VTTs: FoundryVTT, Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds Unity. While I do my best to keep up with the developments on these VTTs, and test the integrations as new features are added, I don't use any of them personally, so it's relatively easy for me to miss things. I know there are a lot of Hephaistos users that rely on these integrations functioning properly, so if you encounter any issues, or have any feedback, please let me know. You can report issues and provide feedback using the usual methods (Reddit, Discord, Twitter, Patreon), or create tickets directly in the repository for the Foundry Module or Roll20 API Script.

I'm also happy to accept contributions in the Foundry Module or Roll20 API Script repositories, so feel free to create merge/pull requests in there.

Data​

• Added data from Ports of Call.

Improvements​

• The ability score used for each skill can now be overriden.
• Selected spells in the Creator > Class > Spells section are now first ordered by level, then alphabetically.
• Starship AC, TL, DT, CT, Max HP and Piloting Modifier can now be overriden.
• The Multifaceted Nature feat now has options to select a racial/species trait.
• Homebrew Starship Power Cores can now have descriptions.

Bug Fixes​

• Shell Knuckles can now have ammunition loaded into them.
• Fixed issue preventing selection of additional spells when using the prepared spellcasting variant.
• Fixed issue on the Feature ranking page where preferences would appear to not load correctly.
• Nanocyte feature Nanomedicine now automatically changes the Medicine skill to use Constitution if it's higher than Intelligence.
• Fixed weapon Battletune being incorrectly listed as an Advanced Melee weapon instead of a Basic Melee weapon.
• Fixed typo in description of Serum of Hibernation (Potent and Diluted).
• Fixed typo in description of the Spell Sergeant archetype.
• The bonus to fortitude saves gained by Stelliferas is now only shown when their hydrobody is active.
• The Pearly White Spindle Aeon Stone now actually provides a bonus to caster level.
• External Expansion Bays now actually increase the number of available expansion bays and increase the distance between turns as described.
• Starship expansion bay Drone Tube no longer takes up an additional bay.
• The Vesk and Goblinoid NPC subtype graft now list "armor savant" as a defensive ability.
• The Void Zombie NPC template graft now lists "susceptible to salt water" as a weakness.
• Added missing Dimorphic trait to the Lashunta and Gnome species. If you already have a character with either species, you will need to activate this trait manually from the Creator > Race section.
• Added a brief description to the sidebar for the Cloud Array Nanocyte class feature option.

Spell Statistics​

The next post of stats is now available at https://www.patreon.com/posts/83663654, this one looking at the popularity of spells at each level.

PaizoCon​

Thanks to everyone who dropped by the Hephaistos channel during PaizoCon. I am honored to be part of such a supportive community for this wonderful game.

In case you missed it, you can find a preview of the upcoming Infosphere feature at https://info.hephaistos.online/.

Improvements​

• Campaign dashboard now shows vital stats (Health, Stamina, Resolve, Shield etc.) for creations.
• Added support for prepared spellcasting.
• Lower level versions of multi-level spells now show in the Sheet > Quick > Spells section.
• Updated description for the Mechanic feature Exocortex Mods to include additional mods from Tech Revolution.

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed issue with changing between Creations, Homebrew and Campaigns on mobile.
• Fixed incorrect AC calculation for NPCs on the Campaign Dashboard.
• Fixed NPC initiative calculation on the Campaign Dashboard not accounting for Dexterity bonus.
• Fixed weapon sidebar and homebrew view showing the price twice.
• Fixed GM notes section in the Campaign manager updating the name.
• Fixed delete button not working in the Campaign manager.
• Fixed issue with items in the inventory spontaneously changing order.
• Fixed issue with Entropic Points selection where selecting the max number of EP would not add an enhancement bonus to AC.
• Fixed incorrect description for Gnome ability adjustments.
• Options in the Item sidebar are now ordered alphabetically.
• Selecting a multilevel spell for the Witchwarper Paradigm Shift "Eldritch Secret" will now add all lower levels of that spell to the Sheet > Quick > Spells section.

Feature Voting​

Based of feedback, I've added a "Backup & Restore Creations" feature to the feature voting page.

Data​

• Added data from AP 51.
• Added Pyric Revenant and Pyric Wraith NPC template grafts.

Improvements​

• Added "Weapon Effect" and "Equipped Effect" fields in the homebrew manager for weapons.
• The wealth sidebar in the Inventory now shows a more detailed brekadown of prices.
• Spell Command, Greater now includes the description of the Command spell.
• Increased NPC limit to 120.
• The Throwing weapon now updates a weapons range when installed.
• Envoy alternate class feature Tech Whisperer now allows selection of skills, and replaces the Skill Expertise class feature to better represent the difference in options and progression between the two features.
• Added documentation for item and weapon properties.
• Added documentation on sharing creations.

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed Halfling species trait Cunning only providing a +1 bonus to skills instead of +2.
• Added missing traits on Robot Dragon template grafts.
• Wealth calculation for characters now takes drone inventory into account.
• Fixed minor visual issue where attack bonuses from both the Weapon Focus and Versatile Focus feats would appear to be active, when only one of them should be.
• Fixed Drift Crashers AP parts two and three being listed as Modules instead of Adventure Paths in the Sources section.
• Fixed AC overrides not being represented in the Mech, Vehicle and NPC stat blocks.
• Fixed issue where rituals would be exported as null in the JSON file.

Campaign Manager - Phase 1​

With the release comes the first phase of the Campaign Manager. You can now:

• Create Campaigns.
• Add player creations (characters, creature companions, starships, mechs, vehicles and NPCs) to a Campaign.
• Restrict sources for all creations in a Campaign.
• Add homebrew which will be available to all creations in a Campaign.
• Have a dashboard to quickly see stats for all creations in a Campaign.

When I first mentioned I was working on the Campaign Manager a few release posts back, I got suggestions around having some sort of item sharing capabilities. These matched some ideas of my own, so that's what I'll be working on for Phase 2. However, before we get there I'd like to refine what we already have, so give the campaign manager a go and let me know what you think. I also want specific feedback about the dashboard: what stats would be helpful to see there? is there any other functionality that would make it more useful for you? and so on.

Importing Into Hephaistos​

One feature request that comes up frequently is importing characters, starships etc. back into Hephaistos. The current JSON export is designed to support Foundry and Roll20, and so, doesn't have the correct information to be able to import it back into Hephaistos. Before I start thinking about implementation or adding it to the Feature Voting page, I'd like to understand the use-cases people have for this feature. Broadly speaking, there seem to be two reasons for importing into Hephaistos:

• Backup and restore/transfer characters: This is the easier of the two use-cases, since only Hephaistos needs to know about the inner workings of the "backup" file.
• Import characters from VTTs: This is the harder use-case to implement, since Hephaistos will need to interpret each of the different VTTs' export formats.

If you're someone who would like to see this feature implemented, please let me know what your use-case is (one of the two above, or something else).