Share your protips when it comes to modding Grim Dawn!
I’ll start:
shoutout to all of you using github
I have no idea what classtable.dbr does in the various class folders, but everytime I work with it it fucks up my mod and I haven’t actually found a reason to even include it. So Protip: don’t touch this.
DBR editing in general has been a horrendous nightmare for me. Two hours spent trying to just create a new NPC and no dice. I have no idea how any of this shit works.
Protip: Wherever possible, recycle.
Protip2: If you don’t understand something, recycle, and reverse engineer.
I skipped step two and just deleted the mod folder. I’m going to wait until there’s a solid set of tutorials before trying this again, been nothing but a headache thus far trying to work this overwrought editor.
Protip#1: Use a text editor to edit dbr files.
Anything else will just land you in a world of hurt.
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38045
a quick writeup on that matter.
Protip#2
Grim Dawn has many (engine) design flaws, the worst being the Item creation taking horrendously long,
!!Do not increase the items spawned by shops or monsters.!!
Each item spawned will take a second to fully generate and can freeze the game.
refer to my mod for proof.
Once you nail it, it all becomes worth the effort.
Make small changes first to make sure you are editing the correct stuff.
Keep multiple copies of your dbr files, like, every time something works. Keep this separate, or rename copies. Compare what works vs what is doesn’t work afterward, you can only do this if you have a copy of both files.
I use the DBR Editor and like it a lot. I do research with SciTE and edits with DBR Editor.
Read a lot. Read the included DBR. Read the forums. Read the manual.
There is a saying in Ninjitsu (the real kind), “Push where you are strongest.” Don’t try to make something into something it is not, go with the flow and try to push the boundaries slowly as you develop skill with repeated success. (You wouldn’t teach kids basketball by making them start with 3 pointers only would you?)
Compare implementations of similar functionality. The player stash “inventory” and the shared stash “transfer” are actually designed differently. In order to learn what to change, I compared the two a lot.
Ask yourself constantly, “Why did they make it this way?” Grim Dawn is an excellent example of “good design” and if you can understand why they did what they did, you can probably figure out how to do what you want to do.
Keep multiple copies of your mod. I ended up doing development in GD\mods\ and then created a production build environment in C:\GDmod\mod with multiple copies of template files. When I built the dev version of Stasher, I ended up with a 500mb mod due to template inclusions. When I limited the included templates to what I needed, 1.5mb and most of that is the graphics.
Sometimes ArchiveTool.exe fails silently. I killed the process, deleted the half generated arc file, did it again. Eventually I rebuilt the assets. My time was probably 80% graphics work, 10% pathing and asset tests 5% dbr edits and 5% loading the game over and over.
If you don’t change the assets, only a dbr, then you can just rebuild and load the mod from the main menu “start”. My repeated loads were “esc to main menu” and “start” BUT if you change the files that are included, (requiring an arz update) then you need to exit the game completely (it seems… but safer at least!)
If your assets aren’t loading, you might have them in the wrong path. I ended up trying mod\MODNAME\ directories: assets, source, resources, database, etc. My tex files are currently in resources\ui\caravan. assets\resources\ui\caravan too… but I don’t think that copy gets used since they aren’t “built” assets.
I REALLY WANT TO KNOW HOW MANY FILES ARE IN AN ARC. Asset Manager, Archive, Build… why you no tell me statistics? why do you hate me? why won’t you tell me you hate me!!! TAKE YOUR SHIT AND GET OUT… oh wait I need you nevermind 
I’m sorry Archive Builder, please be nice to me. (Seriously, I need to know what *** assets got included.)
The paths are relative to your mod as absolute base. If your graphics aren’t loading, try different paths. You might get a … checkerbox grid pattern… if they don’t load.
Make descriptions for your .dbr files to not get lost when editing your shit with the DBR editor.
This^
Keep me from going insane.
Add all the description you can to the .dbr files so if you decide to work on something else in the meantime, you can remember what you were doing just looking at file description.
Update description when needed.
Use notepad++
It. Is. Life changing. Powerful replace all abilities.
How come? I’ve seen very few people protest against the use of the DBR Editor but what they said about it was never enough for me to switch sides.
Because it has some very odd behaviours, for example when it has two entries of the same name in different groups…for example in skillbuff_passive there are two skilltargetradius entries in two different places but only one gets saved. (cast and skill config).
http://grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=383590
FYI. Don’t follow in my footsteps. ^That was a little scary.
Enable entry descriptions in dbr editor.
In menu View -> Show Descriptions
Wow!
I had no clue you could do that! O_O
That’s going to be helpful!
Thank you so much Elfe!
Not every entry has a description, unfortunatelly there are only a few but these are very helpful sometimes.
Your’re welcome 
No really a “pro tip” but I found some information that could be useful for a few people new to modding.
Actor Variables with description.