Improvements​

• Operative Exploit Inoculation now adds an entry to the Situational Bonuses section.
• Theme Benefit Divine Boon from the Priest Theme now allows selection of a 1st level Mystic spell and adds an additional spell slot when appropriate.
• Added selections for techniques of the Qi Adept Soldier fighting style.
• Updated the color of the asterisk that indicates incomplete sections in the character creator so it's clearer in the light theme.
• Added counters for NPCs.
• The Jetpack armor upgrade can now be activated from the Selection 2.0 tab to provide a fly speed.
• The Selection 2.0 tab is now hidden if there aren't any selections that can be made.
• Added a dropdown with the XP field in the Details section Character Creator that can be used to add XP.
• The Space Station and Colony Ship frameworks for starships now alter the expansion bays, speed and maneuverability as described.
• FGU XML export now includes Armor, Weapons, Shields, Items, Augmentations and Ammunition.

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed item level for Culinary Synthesizer Mk 2 and 3.
• Added spells from Drift Crisis as options for feats and items.
• Skills selected as part of the feat Skill Synergy for drones now show up on the drone sheet.
• Added spell Prescience to the Precog class list.
• Fixed incorrect target listing for the spell Recall.
• Fixed incorrect price for the Load Lifter armor upgrade.
• Fixed Tiefling traits Winged Scion and Prehensile Tail replacing each other.

Homebrew - Phase 1 Complete​

This release marks the completion of the first phase of the Homebrew feature. As of now, you should be able to create homebrew equipment from the newly added "Homebrew Manager" link on the top bar.

Characters also now have an "Allowed Homebrew" tab within the Creator section where Homebrew items can be added. Once a homebrew item is in a Character's allowed list, it can be treated as any other item of that type. In the case of equipment, this means that allowed homebrew equipment will show up in the Creator > Equipment tab as well as the Add Equipment sidebar in the inventory.

The next phase of the feature will focus on adding homebrew spells, feats, races and themes.

Website Statistics - Part 4​

A fourth post with statistics is available on the Hephaistos Patreon (link). This one looks at an aspect which has been inadvertently ignored so far: drones.

Improvements​

• NPC attacks can now be marked as being part of a multiattack. This will adjust the attack bonus and show them correctly on the stat block.
• Incomplete sections of the character creator are now marked with an asterisk.
• Added options to select a saving throw as part of the Envoy Expertise Talent "Saving Expertise".

Bug Fixes​

• Added missing Weapon Mount mod to the Sage Drone chassis.
• Updated the specialization power for the Operative specialization Explorer to provide appropriate bonuses.
• The Guard's Protection feature of the Soldier fighting style Guard now grants powered armor proficiency.
• Fixed typo in the description of the Vault starship expansion bay.
• Fixed Cache Capacitor slots in the Selections 2.0 tab having incorrect title and description.
• Added multiple instances of Envoy Expertise Talent "Additional Skill Expertise" to represent different selections of the talent.
• Fixed typo in the Demon NPC subtype graft.
• Mystic Epiphany Reparing Touch now adds the spells Mending and Make Whole to the list of spells known.

Fantasy Grounds Unity XML​

It's been long overdue, but there's finally been some progress with Fantasy Grounds support. As of this release, you will be able to download an XML file from the Character Creator that can be directly imported into Fantasy Grounds Unity (more info). This is still a work-in-progress and the exported XML will be missing large sections or be incorrect in places.

A special thanks to all those who reached out and helped significantly expedite this feature.

Website Statistics - Part 3​

I've posted a third set of stats on Patreon, this time looking at the distribution of Creations across different levels/tiers/CRs (link).

Data​

• Added data AP 46.

Improvements​

• Types (Ex/Su/Sp) are now shown next to Class Features & Options when relevant.
• NPC skills that are automatically added (like Perception) can now be disabled.
• Added stat block page for Mechs.
• Equipment can now be renamed from the inventory.
• Base Frames in the Starship creator can now be filtered by size and sorted by name, cost and size.
• Spells in the Character and NPC creators can now be filtered by range, saving throw, spell resistance and harmless.
• Spells on the Character sheet can now be cast from their sidebar.
• Added selection on the sheet for the feat Deadly Aim.
• Equipment in the Character Creator can now be filtered by affordability.
• The system in which an augmentation is installed can now be selected in the sidebar.
• Stashing or unstashing an item will now appropriately update all other items attached to it.

Bug Fixes​

• Added missing descriptions for Preserver's Mantel and Shobhad Harness armor sets.
• Fixed various issues with the archetype Instinctive Metaphysicist.
• Fixed formatting issue with bulk display in the sidebar for items which can store things.
• NPC template grafts for summoned creatures that provide energy resistance equal to CR now provide a minimum of 1 ER of the listed type.
• Fixed XP earned not being exported as part of the character PDF.
• Fixed description for the Commander Fighting Style.
• Fixed Ryphorian racial trait Keen Senses not adding a bonus to perception.

More Statistics​

Given the positive response to the last set of stats I thought I'd post some more. This time, the stats are focused on the other things you can create in Hephaistos: Creature Companions, Starships, Mechs, Vehicles and NPCs. The post is available on the Hephaistos Patreon (link).

Improvements​

• Mystic Epiphany Expanded Skill Channeling now also marks selected skills as class skills.
• Items that can store things (eg. Backpack, Glove of Storing etc.) can now have equipment added to them from their sidebar.
• Bonus descriptions in sidebars are greyed-out if they aren't applicable in the final calculation.

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed incorrect source for the Ghibrani race.
• Fixed Operative Exploit Versatile Movement not granting bonus to swim and climb speeds.
• Solar Shield's unarmed strike now takes the feat Improved Unarmed Strike into account.
• Added description for Shiftskin armor.

Feature Voting​

Two new features have been added to the list of potential features:

• Starfinder Society Support: Support easier creation of SFS legal characters.
• Change Log: A log of changes and updates made to a character, starship etc. including selection of class features, purchasing equipment and so on.

2nd Anniversary​

This release marks the second anniversary of Hephaistos' original release. In the past year there's been support added for Mechs, Vehicles, NPCs and Creator Companions, along with innumerable smaller features and bug fixes. I wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone who has used the website, suggested features or reported bugs. The continued rapid improvement of Hephaistos is very much a community effort. Looking ahead, I'm excited for what's to come in year 3 with Homebrew support already in the works, and Infosphere and Campaign Management being the next highest ranked features.

Version Number & Beta tag​

With this being 2nd anniversary I feel it's a good time to bring in some changes in how Hephaistos releases are versioned. From this release on, the website's version number will consist of a single number (eg. v54 instead of 0.54.0). The "beta" tag will also be dropped from the version. The website has been continually improving in the past two years, and while there will always be features to add and bugs to fix, I think Hephaistos is at a point where I'm comfortable drawing a line in the sand and calling the "beta" phase done.

Character Statistics​

Partly because it's the 2nd anniversary, and partly because I thought people may be interested, I've compiled a set of graphs showing the distribution of races, themes, classes and archetypes across the characters in Hephaistos on the Patreon (link). If you have any suggestions for other statistics you'd like to see, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Data​

• Added items and special materials from Drift Crisis.
• Added data from AP 45.
• Added Diatha, Khefak, Thasteron Khefak & Purple Core as special materials for equipment.

Improvements​

• Envoy Expertise Talent Additional Skill Expertise now allows you to select the skill it applies to.
• Added buttons on the Creator > Source page for Rulebooks, Modules, Society Scenarios and each AP series to be quickly enabled or disabled.
• Mechanic Trick Technological Innovator now allows selection of subsequent tricks.
• Precog Focal Paradoxes that apply to chosen skills now allow selecting of skills.
• Added increment & decrement buttons around the "Adjust Price" input within the Buy & Sell dropdowns.
• Runeworm augmentation now has options to reflect it's usage to upgrade an existing Mk 2 personal upgrade.
• Added caster level check stat in the Spells section of the Character Sheet. The classes that contribute to the caster level can be configured and the resultant number can be clicked to roll the check.

Bug Fixes​

• Fixed feats Technomantic Dabbler, Reality Glimmer and Connection Inkling missing options for newer spells.
• Fixed issue with Weapon Specialization granting all operative melee weapons bonus damage.
• Fixed description for augmentation Focusing Membrane Mk 2.
• Starship shield controls and DC Ability dropdown in the Weapon sidebar are now disabled in read-only mode.
• Fixed Aeon Stone Viridian Bablis not increasing movement speed.
• Envoy Expertise Talent Skilled Linguist now provides bonus languages.
• Fixed typo in Mystic Ephiphany Mystic Flare.
• Updated Starship Quick page to display the correct maneuverability taking modifications to the distance between turns into account.
• Fixed reduction to armor check penalty from Soldier Fighting Style Guard being erroneously applied in certain cases.
• Fixed casting time for spell Grave Words being listed as 10 minutes instead of 1 minute.
• Precog Anomaly Time's Anchor now affects Base Attack Bonus as described.
• Fixed filtering weapon accessories by the Weapon Type they can be installed on.

Homebrew​

This release also marks the start of the work for adding Homebrew to the website. The scope of this feature is quite ambitious: to allow you to create your own options for any choice on the website. From weapons, to character themes, starship base frames, mech limbs, vehicle modifications, NPC grafts and everything in between. Because of this scope, it only makes sense to break this feature down and release it in stages, which is what I'll be doing.

The first stage will focus on the most important and technically challenging aspect: how homebrew interacts with characters, starships etc. The goal is to lay a solid foundation for this interaction, though at the release of Stage 1 you may only be able to homebrew something simple like weapons. After that, subsequent stages should only be a matter of constructing the user interfaces to create various homebrew items.

Well, that's the plan anyway. We'll see if it survives contact with the implementation.