release-4.0.0

Character portrait art by Hocheol Ryu

The 4.0 release of the system is a huge milestone in its development. Several foundational elements of the system have been overhauled to more flexibly accommodate the game's rules and its content going forward. The flagship feature we are calling 'Activities', which allow a single 'Item' to house any number of different activations, where previously they could have only one. Activities will be discussed in greater detail below, and full patch notes are available at the bottom.

This release also coincides with the release of the 2024 Player's Handbook for Foundry Virtual Tabletop. The Player's Handbook makes full use of the new features presented here, all pre-configured and ready to use immediately. The game system remains compatible with the 2014 rules, while adding support for the 2024 rules in this release. Please see below for instructions on how to configure which rules the game system uses.

⚠️ COMPATIBILITY WARNING: ⚠️ The version 4.0.0 release of the system ONLY SUPPORTS Foundry Virtual Tabletop version 12 (release) and greater. To use this new game system version you must also use Foundry VTT version 12. If you do not wish to update your core software, please continue using a previous version of the dnd5e system.

Installation: To manually install this release, please use the following manifest URL: https://github.com/foundryvtt/dnd5e/releases/download/release-4.0.0/system.json

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Rules Version

There are a very small handful of rules automations built-into the game system itself that have changed with the latest version of the rules for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, as published by Wizards of the Coast. Additionally, some of the game terms have also changed. By default, the 4.0.0 release uses the latest rules, but you may opt to continue using the legacy rules by adjusting the 'Rules Version' setting.

Activities

Activities are the flagship feature of this release. Conceptually they are very general; they allow any given Item to do multiple 'things', making many spells, magical items, and features a lot easier to model in the game system. For a more concrete example, you can think of certain powerful magical items like the Luck Blade, that have different features that need to be tracked separately, or a spell like eyebite that can produce several different effects. These different features or effects can now be embedded directly on the Item itself in a self-contained manner.

Adding an Activity

You can add new activities on the item's Activities tab. Certain items, like weapons, will have activities added to them automatically when they are created. Any existing items you have when you update to the 4.0.0 release will be automatically migrated to include activities. For the vast majority of cases, this should not require any action on your part, and all your items should continue to work as they did before, but the migration process is inexact, so some items may need manual adjustments. In particular, if the item made heavy use of the versatile field (and it wasn't a versatile weapon), conditional damage parts, or the 'other formula' field, it may be worth checking to make sure they have migrated in a way that functions as you intend.

Activities can be edited, deleted, duplicated, or re-ordered in this tab. The activity at the top is considered the 'primary' activity. If any activity is more common or more important than the others, you should ensure it is at the top of this list, as this will affect certain things in the system, such as how the item is displayed in sheets, as well as which activity is used when the item use is 'fast-forwarded'.

There is no limit to the number of activities an item may have.

Configuring an Activity

Clicking an activity in the Activities tab will allow you to edit it. If you are used to configuring items in the system, activity configuration should feel familiar. Most of an item's 'activation' and 'action' configuration have now been moved into activities, with some additional refinement and new features added.

You can set certain identifying information like a custom name and icon in the Identity tab.

The Activation tab is split into several sub-tabs, allowing you to configure most of what used to be the old 'activation' configuration for items, such as limited uses, consumption, recovery, targets, and duration, etc.

Finally, the activity's effects can be configured in the Effect tab. This largely corresponds to the old 'action' configuration for items.

Using an Activity

Clicking an item from inside a creature's sheet will now bring up an additional dialog, allowing you to choose which activity you want to use. You may optionally 'fast-forward' through this dialog, automatically using the item's first activity, by shift+clicking the item instead. Finally, you may also expand the item inside the sheet, which will present all of the item's activities, allowing you to choose immediately from the sheet which activity to use, rather than via the dialog.

Activities can also be edited, duplicated or deleted from here via the right-click context menu. They can also be dragged to the character's favourites section.

Learn More

These release notes only cover a brief overview of the activities system. For more details, and a breakdown of each type of activity currently included with the system, please see the wiki article on the topic.

Item Sheets

In order to accommodate Activities, the system's item sheets have been given a fresh coat of paint with the new V2 styles. The legacy sheets are no longer available, as making them available would have required us to duplicate all the additional work done to the V2 sheets in order to support Activities. The legacy sheet API surface remains in order to not break any modules that reference the old API.

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⚠️ Breaking Changes

• ActionTemplate and ActivatedEffectTemplate have been deprecated in favour of ActivitiesTemplate. Fields on Item5e#system previously provided by these templates have been shimmed.
• EnchantmentField, EnchantmentData, SummonsField, and SummonsData have been deprecated in favour of EnchantActivity and SummonActivity respectively. Embedded enchantment or summons data on Items have been migrated to activities.
• Item5e#use has had its signature changed. It will continue to accept the legacy parameters, but it now returns ActivityUsageResults when invoked on an Item that has activities.
• Various hooks related to the Item activation lifecycle have been deprecated. Please see the wiki for a full list of which hooks have been deprecated and their alternatives.

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Compendium Content

• [#4208] [#4206] [#4184] [#4182] [#4172] [#4168] [#4157] [#4155] [#4153] [#4151] [#4146] [#4145] [#4131] [#4129] [#4125] [#4115] [#4112] [#4110] [#4108] [#4099] [#4093] [#4096] [#4082] Re-worked and improved many SRD icons.
• [#4161] Fixed Conjure Animals upcast summon formula.
• [#2258] Fixed Barkskin ActiveEffect to use new ac.min property.

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Bug Fixes

• [#4135] Fixed ActiveEffects targeting certain fields causing errors during Actor preparation.
• [#3890] Fixed in-sheet expanded item descriptions showing identified text even if the item was unidentified.
• [#4186] Fixed NPC experience value being visible to players with only LIMITED ownership.
• [#4193] Fixed features not being sorted by level in class summary pages.
• [#2227] Fixed skills defaulting to Dexterity instead of the system's configured default ability.
• [#4056] Fixed the encounter award button not awarding XP.
• [#3899] Fixed issues with deleting items granted via Item Grant or Item Choice advancements if the reference item had been deleted.
• [#4088] Fixed popped-out chat messages disappearing when minimised.
• [#4076] Fixed error thrown when rendering NPC sheet if the Perception skill was removed from the system's skill configuration.
• [#3462] Fixed placement of tokens on hex grids via TokenPlacement#place.
• [#3895] Fixed system simplification of certain roll formulae.
• [#3952] Fixed attack rolls against a target AC showing as a failure even if the attack was a critical hit.
• [#3530] Fixed critical hit calculation when using dice modifiers with critical hit house rules.
• [#3596] Removed erroneous constant simplification when damage rolls contain multiplication or division.
• [#3888] Fixed transforming an Actor removing its sight on the canvas.
• [#3893] Fixed long actor names causing minimised sheet headers to render strangely.

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Improvements

• [#1431] Allow rebinding the keys used for fast-forwarding d20 tests and damage rolls.
• [#4197] Allow referencing item data in resource recovery formulae.
• [#4013] Added status effects for cover.
• [#3759] Allow full-text search of system-provided journal pages.
• [#3122] Include active statuses in Actor roll data.
• [#4103] Respect pre-configured proficient value on Items when dropping them onto Actors.
• [#1539] Added identifiers to all items.
• [#4195] Added an option to class summary pages to format them like the 2024 class summary pages.
• [#2125] Do not show spells granted via Item Grant Advancements in class summary tables.
• [#3317] Thrown items now consume their own quantity, unless they also have the Returning property.
• [#4163] Added 2024 Hazards as status effects.
• [#3582] Added the Burning pseudo-condition.
• [#3785] Added the ability to refund consumption when using an Activity.
• [#4177] Added an application for configuring compendium browser source exclusions.
• [#2464] Allow activities to have multiple recovery profiles.
• [#1504] Range values now accept a formula.
• [#1609] Added the ability for an activity to request a specific skill when requesting an ability check.
• [#1467] Added an off-hand attack mode.
• [#904] Added distinct Damage and Heal activities.
• [#905] Improved clarity when configuring AoE dimensions.
• [#947] Added the ability to configure a target DC when requesting an ability check via an activity.
• [#692] [#1422] Allow all damage parts to be scaled with consumption, not only spells.
• [#4148] Allow results in the compendium browser to be filtered by source.
• [#3803] Allow Enchant activities to provide rider activities.
• [#3762] Allow Summon activities to provide rider ActiveEffects.
• [#4124] Added system-configured default abilities to tools.
• [#3801] [#3799] Allow modules to register source books via manifest flags. Automatically set source book for items provided by modules if the module only has one source book.
• [#2508] Allow filtering spells in the compendium browser by the spell list they are on.
• [#3341] Spells with free casts added via Advancement will automatically generate a free cast activity.
• [#3983] Added support for 2024 weapon masteries in item configuration, in actor proficiency configuration, and in Trait Advancements.
• [#1017] Added an Advancement to indicate when a class receives its subclass. Show a prompt on the character sheet if a character qualifies for a subclass.
• [#3814] Added a transformation option to keep the subject's HP and apply the target's HP as temporary HP.
• [#1012] Added source class field to owned spell items to track which of the character's classes the spell belongs to.
• [#1011] When placing templates for Emanation/Radius-type AoEs, the template's radius now adjusts to include the target token's dimensions.
• [#3701] Set the primary spellcasting ability automatically when adding a spellcasting class to a character for the first time.
• [#4063] [#3937] Added additional AoE shapes.
• [#1964] [#1421] [#941] [#461] Items may now contain multiple activities.
• [#1229] Display on the item sheet the spell lists that a given spell item is on.
• [#4043] Spell scrolls can now be created with the creator's spell save DC and attack modifier instead of fixed values.
• [#3786] Consolidate module-provided spell lists into master lists.
• [#3853] Allow filtering subclasses by the class they belong to in the compendium browser.
• [#3836] Allow filtering subclasses by whether they grant spellcasting in the compendium browser.
• [#2978] [#1021] Display the number of spells of a character has prepared on the spells tab, and how many total preparations they have.
• [#2937] Add numeric capacity values to container item sheets.
• [#1192] Hide dexterity tie-breakers in the combat tracker.
• [#1371] [#3781] Allow configuring whether a target includes the caster or not.
• [#4026] Add DC 30 concentration save limit when using 2024 rules.
• [#932] Allow save and ability check DCs to use a custom formula.
• [#3314] [#1039] Allow for selecting ammunition in the attack dialog.
• [#3268] Prompt for damage if ammunition has damage parts, even if the base weapon does not.
• [#825] Allow for any number of consumption targets.
• [#1037] Add the reach property to weapons.
• [#3590] Allow enchantments to be restricted based on item categories and properties.
• [#3910] Added attack modes to attack rolls.
• [#3911] [#3912] Allow for configuring multiple damage types per damage part, and prompting for a choice when rolling damage.
• [#4002] Added the 2024 College of Dance Bard's AC calculation to the system-configured AC calculations.
• [#2212] Allow for configuring the ability scores required to multiclass into or out of a given class.
• [#2551] Track the number of epic boons a given character qualifies for beyond level 20.
• [#2550] [#2201] Removed the XP cap at level 20.
• [#3920] Added support for the 2024 exhaustion rules.
• [#4000] Added additional 2024 feat categories.
• [#2129] Added hint text on additional dice scale value properties.
• [#2010] Added automatic tracking for the bloodied status.
• [#3865] Added a setting for configuring skills that should always be displayed on NPC sheets.
• [#3918] Added the ac.min property.
• [#2623] Allow for AbilityScoreImprovement Advancements to have abilities locked independently of whether they improve that ability or not.
• [#2349] Improved the snapping behaviour of measured template previews on hex grids.
• [#2331] Divorce target configuration from shape configuration.
• [#3901] Add getters to retrieve the smallest and largest available hit dice.

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Contributors

Many thanks to the following contributors: @arbron, @Fyorl, @roth-michael, @mattexdee, @dev7355608, @krbz999, @MrPrimate, @Larkinabout, @absymylyar, @Hoppyhob, @kaelad02, @trioderegion, @MangoFVTT

And a special thanks to @M0nk3yy for re-working and improving many of the SRD Item icons.