I've been playing around with the D&D builder for a month now and I have to say it's still pretty underwhelming. I get there are a lot of features to work on but maybe I'm just expecting too much :)
1. Character sheet/equipment needs a lot of work (and that seems to be a common theme). If I add a pack I don't want to have to unpack everything manually and just saying 'adventurer's pack' on my character sheet isn't acceptable. I need a breakout of everything that came in that pack so I can track the use of rations and such.
2. The 'equip' button is misleading. I have multiple weapons but they may not be equipped, I just need them to show up in my weapon slots so I know their modifiers. My racial (fire breathing) should show up under attacks and not under features/traits.
3. Features/Traits is almost worthless. Some info is worthless/doesn't belong and the info that is important is poorly lacking in info. At least a brief description of what the feature/trait does would be helpful.
4. Change spells from only shown 'prepared' to known. I need to know all the spells I have access to, not just the ones ready to be used. Also be handy if there was a spell card print out.
5. Let me pick what sources I'm pulling from. Buying the giant pack and having no filter for what came from what book is very frustrating
2. The 'equip' button is misleading. I have multiple weapons but they may not be equipped, I just need them to show up in my weapon slots so I know their modifiers. My racial (fire breathing) should show up under attacks and not under features/traits.
You speak a lot of truth, but the "equip" button is fairly standard for this sort of tool, IME.
Absolutely agree about the fire breathing, though.
5. Let me pick what sources I'm pulling from. Buying the giant pack and having no filter for what came from what book is very frustrating
Yes. Yes. A million times, yes. Over all, the entire site could stand to improve organization. I was extremely surprised that, after buying the PHB, DMG, and MM, I still have to know which book the rule is in (or do a global search and hope to get it right). So far, most things I need to look up are in the various Compendium lists. I'm still not sure why I can't click on the Aasimar or "variant aasimar" link in the Races section and actually see the DMG aasimar. That's the one we use and I have no plans to buy Volo's Guide (not saying I won't, just no plans). I appreciate that it's an option in the Character Builder, but I still want it to be "fluid" in presentation.
Will it at some time be possible to add homebrew classes?
The response they've been giving up to now has been, no, full classes are such a programming challenge that it's highly unlikely. It's possible, someday, if enough of the community seems to want it, but way down the list at this point. They have said that given the breadth of variety in the official classes, plus what's coming soon in Xanathar's Guide and eventually UA, the vast majority of users shouldn't need that functionality, really. Once they open up custom races, sub-races and sub-classes (fingers crossed that happens sooner rather than later) we should be able to brew up just about anything anyway, with a little creativity.
Quote from Caindris>>1. Character sheet/equipment needs a lot of work (and that seems to be a common theme). If I add a pack I don't want to have to unpack everything manually and just saying 'adventurer's pack' on my character sheet isn't acceptable. I need a breakout of everything that came in that pack so I can track the use of rations and such.
Today i opened this forum just for asking for this feature.
As master i had to ask to all players to substitute their equip's pack with the single objects. Fix this please!
I am sure this was expressed, but if there was a way to pick more than 1 source to choose from, I would be so happy.
Example: Player HB and SCAG are options for me to choose within. Let me choose to limit my chooses to just those two options, not ALL. I understand each entry says in gray text what it's source is, but I think it is easy for people to overlook that. (Remember, people don't fully read ANYTHING)
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DM: Adventures in Phandalin [Khessa], The Dread of Strahd[Darya], Dragons of Stormwreck Isle [Rook], Baldur's Gate Mysteries [4-Player] Player: Oona in MO's Icewind Dale Ru's Current Status
I've been playing around with the D&D builder for a month now and I have to say it's still pretty underwhelming. I get there are a lot of features to work on but maybe I'm just expecting too much :)
1. Character sheet/equipment needs a lot of work (and that seems to be a common theme). If I add a pack I don't want to have to unpack everything manually and just saying 'adventurer's pack' on my character sheet isn't acceptable. I need a breakout of everything that came in that pack so I can track the use of rations and such.
2. The 'equip' button is misleading. I have multiple weapons but they may not be equipped, I just need them to show up in my weapon slots so I know their modifiers. My racial (fire breathing) should show up under attacks and not under features/traits.
3. Features/Traits is almost worthless. Some info is worthless/doesn't belong and the info that is important is poorly lacking in info. At least a brief description of what the feature/trait does would be helpful.
4. Change spells from only shown 'prepared' to known. I need to know all the spells I have access to, not just the ones ready to be used. Also be handy if there was a spell card print out.
5. Let me pick what sources I'm pulling from. Buying the giant pack and having no filter for what came from what book is very frustrating
I'm sorry you're underwhelmed. We are actively working on improvements and hopefully that will change for you over time.
Some responses to your bullet points:
1. I'm not so sure this is a "common" theme at this point. The current state is in no way perfect, but it's in a much better place than it was to start. We are aware of the equipment pack and starting equipment issues and are working on getting those automated for everyone soon.
2. I'm not sure where you're seeing 'Equip' at this point. There is an Active Items category that helps people organize what they're using versus what they're carrying. To your point about displaying in weapon slots to see modifiers, you can already do this in your inventory by expanding the 'Customize' section and marking Display As Attack:
3. Short descriptions and a revamp of how all of that information will be displayed is on the way. We've talked a good bit about how general layout and what is displayed versus what is collapsed will be updated in the near future.
4. This point makes me understand that you must be specifically talking about the PDF character sheet export, since you can certainly see your entire list of known spells in the digital sheet. I will append here that the PDF is a first iteration that definitely needs work. If you meant the PDF on the earlier two points, then yes, we're aware of improvement opportunities there.
5. Not sure what you mean here, because it doesn't seem to fit in the context of the PDF export sheet. I would like to hear where you think it would be useful to have a source filter.
I've been playing around with the D&D builder for a month now and I have to say it's still pretty underwhelming. I get there are a lot of features to work on but maybe I'm just expecting too much :)
1. Character sheet/equipment needs a lot of work (and that seems to be a common theme). If I add a pack I don't want to have to unpack everything manually and just saying 'adventurer's pack' on my character sheet isn't acceptable. I need a breakout of everything that came in that pack so I can track the use of rations and such.
2. The 'equip' button is misleading. I have multiple weapons but they may not be equipped, I just need them to show up in my weapon slots so I know their modifiers. My racial (fire breathing) should show up under attacks and not under features/traits.
3. Features/Traits is almost worthless. Some info is worthless/doesn't belong and the info that is important is poorly lacking in info. At least a brief description of what the feature/trait does would be helpful.
4. Change spells from only shown 'prepared' to known. I need to know all the spells I have access to, not just the ones ready to be used. Also be handy if there was a spell card print out.
5. Let me pick what sources I'm pulling from. Buying the giant pack and having no filter for what came from what book is very frustrating
I'm sorry you're underwhelmed. We are actively working on improvements and hopefully that will change for you over time.
Some responses to your bullet points:
1. I'm not so sure this is a "common" theme at this point. The current state is in no way perfect, but it's in a much better place than it was to start. We are aware of the equipment pack and starting equipment issues and are working on getting those automated for everyone soon.
2. I'm not sure where you're seeing 'Equip' at this point. There is an Active Items category that helps people organize what they're using versus what they're carrying. To your point about displaying in weapon slots to see modifiers, you can already do this in your inventory by expanding the 'Customize' section and marking Display As Attack:
3. Short descriptions and a revamp of how all of that information will be displayed is on the way. We've talked a good bit about how general layout and what is displayed versus what is collapsed will be updated in the near future.
4. This point makes me understand that you must be specifically talking about the PDF character sheet export, since you can certainly see your entire list of known spells in the digital sheet. I will append here that the PDF is a first iteration that definitely needs work. If you meant the PDF on the earlier two points, then yes, we're aware of improvement opportunities there.
5. Not sure what you mean here, because it doesn't seem to fit in the context of the PDF export sheet. I would like to hear where you think it would be useful to have a source filter.
Thanks!
Adam are we going to get an update today or will it be pushed until next week? Thanks!
Can we please have full customization added to the digital character sheet? The ability to add a language or a feat that your DM allows you without having to Homebrew a magic item that grants the same properties would be great. It would be nice to just have a "+" next to the main fields like Features. You could use the + and then add a feat even if your character would normally not have one. Same for languages, proficiencies, etc.
This is also being added soon, just after we complete our revamp of Backgrounds next week.
Thanks!
that was the 19th next week its this week !!! ;) i know you said you dont give dates but i cant wait to see what you guys have done i just hope like someone said in one of the thread (i dont remember which one ....) that you guys make a new thread with a changelog that explain all the changes/updates you made for characters sheet and other stuff in that revamp. I hope you will do this too when you do change to the campaign manager etc... etc...
I've been playing around with the D&D builder for a month now and I have to say it's still pretty underwhelming. I get there are a lot of features to work on but maybe I'm just expecting too much :)
1. Character sheet/equipment needs a lot of work (and that seems to be a common theme). If I add a pack I don't want to have to unpack everything manually and just saying 'adventurer's pack' on my character sheet isn't acceptable. I need a breakout of everything that came in that pack so I can track the use of rations and such.
2. The 'equip' button is misleading. I have multiple weapons but they may not be equipped, I just need them to show up in my weapon slots so I know their modifiers. My racial (fire breathing) should show up under attacks and not under features/traits.
3. Features/Traits is almost worthless. Some info is worthless/doesn't belong and the info that is important is poorly lacking in info. At least a brief description of what the feature/trait does would be helpful.
4. Change spells from only shown 'prepared' to known. I need to know all the spells I have access to, not just the ones ready to be used. Also be handy if there was a spell card print out.
5. Let me pick what sources I'm pulling from. Buying the giant pack and having no filter for what came from what book is very frustrating
I'm sorry you're underwhelmed. We are actively working on improvements and hopefully that will change for you over time.
Some responses to your bullet points:
1. I'm not so sure this is a "common" theme at this point. The current state is in no way perfect, but it's in a much better place than it was to start. We are aware of the equipment pack and starting equipment issues and are working on getting those automated for everyone soon.
2. I'm not sure where you're seeing 'Equip' at this point. There is an Active Items category that helps people organize what they're using versus what they're carrying. To your point about displaying in weapon slots to see modifiers, you can already do this in your inventory by expanding the 'Customize' section and marking Display As Attack:
3. Short descriptions and a revamp of how all of that information will be displayed is on the way. We've talked a good bit about how general layout and what is displayed versus what is collapsed will be updated in the near future.
4. This point makes me understand that you must be specifically talking about the PDF character sheet export, since you can certainly see your entire list of known spells in the digital sheet. I will append here that the PDF is a first iteration that definitely needs work. If you meant the PDF on the earlier two points, then yes, we're aware of improvement opportunities there.
5. Not sure what you mean here, because it doesn't seem to fit in the context of the PDF export sheet. I would like to hear where you think it would be useful to have a source filter.
Thanks!
While not a high priority, I will say that having a 'filter by source' option when looking for equipment, spell, and magic items for your character would not be a bad thing. There might be times I only want the players to choose things from the DMG or PH for example.
Probably related to the--I think you called it 'whitelisting?-- where you can selectively makes sources available. But not quite the same thing I guess.
Not sure what the earlier poster was after, but here's my use case:
I've bought the legendary bundle because duh why not. My girlfriend is running Out of the Abyss soon. I reeeeeally don't want to give myself spoilers, but all the monsters, NPCs, magic items and such show up in the listings, and when I search for generic terms, OotA chapters show up. It's killing me!
I would very much like to be able to exclude sources from _all_ searches/listings.
As a DM I would like to see a log of what changes have been made to the character sheet and when. I know first thought is that I might be micro managing, but for me it's more about book keeping. So I could go back and make sure that a character's rations or torches, or whatever have been reduced accordingly. Or on the players side, they could see if I have made any changes on their character sheet...oo just thought, if I am DM they should be able to get notifications when I modify their sheets.
Can we please have full customization added to the digital character sheet? The ability to add a language or a feat that your DM allows you without having to Homebrew a magic item that grants the same properties would be great. It would be nice to just have a "+" next to the main fields like Features. You could use the + and then add a feat even if your character would normally not have one. Same for languages, proficiencies, etc.
This is also being added soon, just after we complete our revamp of Backgrounds next week.
Thanks!
that was the 19th next week its this week !!! ;) i know you said you dont give dates but i cant wait to see what you guys have done i just hope like someone said in one of the thread (i dont remember which one ....) that you guys make a new thread with a changelog that explain all the changes/updates you made for characters sheet and other stuff in that revamp. I hope you will do this too when you do change to the campaign manager etc... etc...
Unfortunately there will be no update today. We've encountered a couple of challenges that we're working through (as is typical for development).
I hope the Backgrounds revamp is ready for next week, but we'll have to see how it goes.
Regardless, all the changes will be collected in update notes. Additionally, I will be livestreaming updates (at least) monthly starting this month with information about recent changes, the near future, and time for Q&A.
So are changes made live when they are available or will changes be made on a schedule?
I assume this probably is dependent on the nature of the update.
If some changes go live when made available, is there a change log to see those changes as they are made? (Such as when you uploaded the player maps for modules?)
Thanks!
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The most memorable stories always begin with failure.
Can we please have full customization added to the digital character sheet? The ability to add a language or a feat that your DM allows you without having to Homebrew a magic item that grants the same properties would be great. It would be nice to just have a "+" next to the main fields like Features. You could use the + and then add a feat even if your character would normally not have one. Same for languages, proficiencies, etc.
This is also being added soon, just after we complete our revamp of Backgrounds next week.
Thanks!
that was the 19th next week its this week !!! ;) i know you said you dont give dates but i cant wait to see what you guys have done i just hope like someone said in one of the thread (i dont remember which one ....) that you guys make a new thread with a changelog that explain all the changes/updates you made for characters sheet and other stuff in that revamp. I hope you will do this too when you do change to the campaign manager etc... etc...
Unfortunately there will be no update today. We've encountered a couple of challenges that we're working through (as is typical for development).
I hope the Backgrounds revamp is ready for next week, but we'll have to see how it goes.
Regardless, all the changes will be collected in update notes. Additionally, I will be livestreaming updates (at least) monthly starting this month with information about recent changes, the near future, and time for Q&A.
Thanks!
The livestreaming idea sounds fabulous! Keep up the good work and thanks for keeping us in the loop!
So are changes made live when they are available or will changes be made on a schedule?
I assume this probably is dependent on the nature of the update.
If some changes go live when made available, is there a change log to see those changes as they are made? (Such as when you uploaded the player maps for modules?)
Thanks!
We favor allowing good things to be available as soon as they can be available, so update notes will certainly come after the fact at times.
In other words, I am just now about to post that the player versions of maps are complete, but several of the adventures had them last week. We won't let documenting changes slow down deployment of changes, but we will still provide those notes as soon as we're able.
So are changes made live when they are available or will changes be made on a schedule?
I assume this probably is dependent on the nature of the update.
If some changes go live when made available, is there a change log to see those changes as they are made? (Such as when you uploaded the player maps for modules?)
Thanks!
We favor allowing good things to be available as soon as they can be available, so update notes will certainly come after the fact at times.
In other words, I am just now about to post that the player versions of maps are complete, but several of the adventures had them last week. We won't let documenting changes slow down deployment of changes, but we will still provide those notes as soon as we're able.
You guys rock!
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The most memorable stories always begin with failure.
Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it! In hindsight I was pretty tired when I wrote most of that up and probably should of waited but I wanted to jot down what was fresh in my mind having just worked on a few characters. As to the underwhelming comment that mostly comes from (I think) me not fully understanding what this product fully was until a few days ago. I had heard of D&D beyond for a while and each time I tried all I saw was the very limited options from the PHB without ever really understanding what this service is/was so I found it very underwhelming when building a character. Now that I understand this is a licensed product and users pay to access content I understand it much better and find the builder much more useful with the purchases I have made - I don't necessarily like the model considering I still prefer the physical books but that's another discussion. I do think there's a lot of PR work to be done for outsiders to fully understand/embrace this.
I'll try to clarify my points below but most of my comments do indeed refer to the PDF export as that's primarily what I use this for.
1. The common theme comment was more around the few pages out of the 100+ on this thread that I had read where I found similar comments to mine. Maybe it's not as common as I think and I definitely give right-of-way to you as the product lead having read likely all of this :) Other then that I think you got my request.
2. I think this one can be disregarded the more I use the system. For someone new coming in it feels weird having to 'equip' multiple weapons but it really just comes down to what you want to name the button to make armor/weapons 'active' on a character. Breath weapons still need to move, though.
5. What I'm looking for is the option, from the time I hit 'build character' to limit what sources the builder users. If the DM says "only stuff from the PHB" then there's really no way to filter out background, gear, etc from other books. The race selector is close in that it lets me filter to a single source but there may be instances where I want to pull from all sources except for Volo's guide or Sword Coast. Hope that clears up the request.
6. I'm going to throw one in. Please add an index! Maybe I'm just too set in my ways with physical books but I was really struggling to try to find some info in Sword Coast last night. I did eventually find it and after I found it the location of said info made sense. In my mind it would be so much easier to have an index for the digital books where I can look for the keywords I'm looking for and they reference me to the right section of the digital book.
Thanks again for the response and I look forward to watching the product grow!
I've been playing around with the D&D builder for a month now and I have to say it's still pretty underwhelming. I get there are a lot of features to work on but maybe I'm just expecting too much :)
1. Character sheet/equipment needs a lot of work (and that seems to be a common theme). If I add a pack I don't want to have to unpack everything manually and just saying 'adventurer's pack' on my character sheet isn't acceptable. I need a breakout of everything that came in that pack so I can track the use of rations and such.
2. The 'equip' button is misleading. I have multiple weapons but they may not be equipped, I just need them to show up in my weapon slots so I know their modifiers. My racial (fire breathing) should show up under attacks and not under features/traits.
3. Features/Traits is almost worthless. Some info is worthless/doesn't belong and the info that is important is poorly lacking in info. At least a brief description of what the feature/trait does would be helpful.
4. Change spells from only shown 'prepared' to known. I need to know all the spells I have access to, not just the ones ready to be used. Also be handy if there was a spell card print out.
5. Let me pick what sources I'm pulling from. Buying the giant pack and having no filter for what came from what book is very frustrating
Will it at some time be possible to add homebrew classes?
I would love an option to duplicate a character. Would be great for experimenting with multi-classing and higher level planning.
I really want the ability to have character sheets visible to all people in a campaign, so people can see each other's inventories and stuff*
*If they wish to make it public
I am sure this was expressed, but if there was a way to pick more than 1 source to choose from, I would be so happy.
Example: Player HB and SCAG are options for me to choose within. Let me choose to limit my chooses to just those two options, not ALL. I understand each entry says in gray text what it's source is, but I think it is easy for people to overlook that. (Remember, people don't fully read ANYTHING)
DM: Adventures in Phandalin [Khessa], The Dread of Strahd [Darya], Dragons of Stormwreck Isle [Rook], Baldur's Gate Mysteries [4-Player]
Player: Oona in MO's Icewind Dale
Ru's Current Status
Re: source filter
Not sure what the earlier poster was after, but here's my use case:
I've bought the legendary bundle because duh why not. My girlfriend is running Out of the Abyss soon. I reeeeeally don't want to give myself spoilers, but all the monsters, NPCs, magic items and such show up in the listings, and when I search for generic terms, OotA chapters show up. It's killing me!
I would very much like to be able to exclude sources from _all_ searches/listings.
As a DM I would like to see a log of what changes have been made to the character sheet and when. I know first thought is that I might be micro managing, but for me it's more about book keeping. So I could go back and make sure that a character's rations or torches, or whatever have been reduced accordingly. Or on the players side, they could see if I have made any changes on their character sheet...oo just thought, if I am DM they should be able to get notifications when I modify their sheets.
Just a couple thoughts.
So are changes made live when they are available or will changes be made on a schedule?
I assume this probably is dependent on the nature of the update.
If some changes go live when made available, is there a change log to see those changes as they are made? (Such as when you uploaded the player maps for modules?)
Thanks!
The most memorable stories always begin with failure.
The most memorable stories always begin with failure.
Badeye,
Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it! In hindsight I was pretty tired when I wrote most of that up and probably should of waited but I wanted to jot down what was fresh in my mind having just worked on a few characters. As to the underwhelming comment that mostly comes from (I think) me not fully understanding what this product fully was until a few days ago. I had heard of D&D beyond for a while and each time I tried all I saw was the very limited options from the PHB without ever really understanding what this service is/was so I found it very underwhelming when building a character. Now that I understand this is a licensed product and users pay to access content I understand it much better and find the builder much more useful with the purchases I have made - I don't necessarily like the model considering I still prefer the physical books but that's another discussion. I do think there's a lot of PR work to be done for outsiders to fully understand/embrace this.
I'll try to clarify my points below but most of my comments do indeed refer to the PDF export as that's primarily what I use this for.
1. The common theme comment was more around the few pages out of the 100+ on this thread that I had read where I found similar comments to mine. Maybe it's not as common as I think and I definitely give right-of-way to you as the product lead having read likely all of this :) Other then that I think you got my request.
2. I think this one can be disregarded the more I use the system. For someone new coming in it feels weird having to 'equip' multiple weapons but it really just comes down to what you want to name the button to make armor/weapons 'active' on a character. Breath weapons still need to move, though.
3. Indeed this is for PDF. Just to clarify - bad info vs mostly useful but still needs work (sorry for the dropbox link, couldn't figure out how to insert images)
4. Sounds like you get the request here :)
5. What I'm looking for is the option, from the time I hit 'build character' to limit what sources the builder users. If the DM says "only stuff from the PHB" then there's really no way to filter out background, gear, etc from other books. The race selector is close in that it lets me filter to a single source but there may be instances where I want to pull from all sources except for Volo's guide or Sword Coast. Hope that clears up the request.
6. I'm going to throw one in. Please add an index! Maybe I'm just too set in my ways with physical books but I was really struggling to try to find some info in Sword Coast last night. I did eventually find it and after I found it the location of said info made sense. In my mind it would be so much easier to have an index for the digital books where I can look for the keywords I'm looking for and they reference me to the right section of the digital book.
Thanks again for the response and I look forward to watching the product grow!