New user with spell questions

None of the spells are actually programmed in at all beyond name, and even that is separate from the effects window, where you'll have to save each spell's effect individually. You'll have to actually search and load the effect for a spell EVERY time you cast it, as it does not save the effect to the spell, it just saves the effect by name.

The spells and effects menus are due for some major overhaul soon, and from what I understand, they're working on that.

 

Frustratingly, the answer is yes. You can get better, albeit less convenient functionality by using the abilities tab to simulate spells. For some reason, you can save DC and duration to abilities, just not spells.

You'll need to apply variable non-damage effects by hand.

I still think that D20 offers great functionality, it's just that it could be even better with just a few minor tweaks. Casting a Bane spell in a pen-and-paper game onto a crowded map requires figuring out which of the 20+ goblins are in the area of effect, making saving throws for each one, and then tracking the durations and penalties for each one individually. The whole process can take 3-4 minutes. In D20, you can produce the same effect in about 30 seconds. My complaint is that with just a few minor tweaks, it could be done in 5 seconds instead.

 

Right now, the user base seems to be divided into two groups: those that think that the gameplay features are good-enough-for-now and want to see D20 getting more powerful map management features, and those that think that the map features are good-enough-for-now and want better gameplay features.

Dynamic fog of war was the single most requested item in the "Name Your Top Three Feature Requests" poll, with everything else being a distant second. It looks like the developers are listening to this and prioritizing FoW. I just disagree that this is the best work/benefit route that D20 can be taking right now. I'm sure that magic will get a re-vamping, but I'm afraid it's going to be in the somewhat far future.

EDIT: So long as I'm talking about the merits/drawbacks of D20, I just want to point out that the D20 has very strong features when it comes to attack and initiative management. These all work in with intuitive one-click UI and reduces the time needed to resolve large battles by a factor of anywhere from 5 to 10. If my old group ever meets in person again, I will probably insist on creating a LAN with our laptops just so that we can still use D20 to handle huge battles. I believe that the developers will eventually apply these same excellent design decisions to other parts of the software, which bodes well for the future of the product. So don't think I'm giving a thumbs down or anything, I really like this program, warts and all.

 

I'm in the same camp with Remaker, but perhaps even more extreme. In my experience, it has been easier and faster to handle virtually ALL spells completely by hand in d20pro, rather than use the clunky and frustrating spells/abilities/effects interfaces. All of the time saved with d20pro's cool combat features is wasted on trying to get spells to work properly. Which is kind of ridiculous. On the other hand at least we have SOME FoW functionality, which is a huge improvement over table top gaming. Dynamic FoW can wait. Let's make the core game function correctly first!

Having said that, I don't use d20pro to automate my game. It's nice, but not critical to me. I use d20pro to enable me to play when I otherwise wouldn't be able to. Which is why you'll see me here on the boards complaining about stuff every now and then—because as frustrating as certain aspects of d20pro are, it's the best solution for long-distance play.