Hey guys, I'm a new DM, and I have a druid in my group that is about to hit 2nd level. My group is largely 11 years old, (I'm the dad of one of the players), and I'm doing the majority of the bookkeeping for the game. Is there an easy way to make reference cards or something for wildshapes? Just to make it easier to keep track of things. We're using DDB to keep track of characters, so is there something in the character section that will say "the druid is now a wolf" and give me a profile of their stats?
Yeah the creature feature, is a great addition to DnDBeyond.
It can be used for wild shapes, summons, familiars, polymorphs, NPC hirelings, etc
I made a custom creature called "Changeling Persona" and use it with the creatures section to keep track of my various persona's for my changeling characters.
I just rename them and add notes for race, or other important information.
I personally used a phone app to track my old Druid, but you're dealing with 11 year old. That's going to be distracting/complex.
Positives: WildShape uses the Beast Stats pure and simple, no matter what lvl the Druid is. So a lvl 2 Druid turned into a cat and a lvl 20 Druid turned into a cat have the same stat line. This actually reduces bookkeeping.
I'd recommend get one of your kid's older school folders. Talk to the player about what kind of animals they want to turn into and print those up ahead of time. When the player decides to "learn" an animal form, after the game print it and add it to the folder. The player can pull the sheet out at any time and say "I'm going to turn into X!" If they forget what they can turn into, they can flip through their notebook.
I'd search for all Beast in D&D Beyond picking 2 Environments with the player and have the player choose and assortment of beast that they would have chosen to turn into, based on the Environments the druid spent most of their time.
Firstly, there is no method that I know of to automatically export the Extras section to the character sheet. However, after exporting it to a PDF, it normally doesn't take me much time to add the few Wild Shapes I need to the "Additional Notes" section of the character sheet.
Yes, it is possible to add custom animals. First, ensure that homebrew is enabled on the character that you are using. Then, you can simply create a homebrew monster, and it will then be available in the Wild Shape extras section.
I've only just started using the cards because I'm smooth-brain and kept forgetting to take them with me to my D&D sessions but I've found it makes things really easy compared to having to switch between tabs for my character sheet on DnDBeyond, the Foundry Server, and the beast stat blocks.
I've also seen Wildshape "Mini notebooks" on Etsy that could do the trick. Or, if you're looking to save money, you could just grab a mini-notepad from somewhere that sells stationary and write in the relevant stats and actions into that.
yeah, I had hoped that if they set it up so that the changes were made to the statblocks of the wildshape creature in extras, that they would attach the dice roller to that creatures attacks so you could just roll from there. rather than needing to override the stats and then override the stats again when you change out of that wild shape.
What is wrong with just rolling generic dice and adding the bonus in the extras stat block? Which part are you really looking for? The rolling of the dice or the automatic addition of the bonus?
What are you editing? You’re just overriding your regular melee attack with the bonus and to hit of the creature?
Didn't want any overriding, or extra work and just clicking on the wildshaped statblock attacks listed there. Or have the selected wildshape automatically put the correct attacks into the actions menu with the correct bonuses.
Yeah, as I said, there is currently no solution for rolling attacks from beasts outside of encounters. I tried testing the custom actions/customize and neither of those seems to be able to provide an arbitrary attack bonus/damage. you might want to make a feature request.
I have some Monk levels. From my understanding I should have a higher AC and movement than is shown from Unarmored Defense and Unarmored Movement. Is there a way to recognize this in the stat block or am I mistaken that this works. This also doesn't add my proficiency bonus to the attacks though it is added to the skills. Are the creatures not proficient in their own attacks?
Could you provide more details (such as stats, proficiency bonus, wild shape creature, etc)?
I'm not sure about armor. It is possible that D&D beyond considers "natural armor" to be wearing armor, therefore unarmored defense doesn't display. It is also possible that your beast has a low dex or something.
As for proficiency, it is already included in the attacks in the stat block. D&D Beyond uses a strict reading of the wild shape rules for calculating bonuses. I think therefore it uses different rules for skill and saving throw proficiency vs attacks. All applicable skill or saving throw proficiencies are calculated as Druids PB + relevant ability mod, then compared to the one in the stat block. You keep the higher.
Since you aren't proficient in the beast's attacks, only the beast's proficiency applies. In fact, since wild shape has no text on attack calculations, I believe that is why they don't change (and is RAW and RAI for them to not change).
Hey guys, I'm a new DM, and I have a druid in my group that is about to hit 2nd level. My group is largely 11 years old, (I'm the dad of one of the players), and I'm doing the majority of the bookkeeping for the game. Is there an easy way to make reference cards or something for wildshapes? Just to make it easier to keep track of things. We're using DDB to keep track of characters, so is there something in the character section that will say "the druid is now a wolf" and give me a profile of their stats?
Thanks in advance!
Check the section "Creatures" on the character sheet. You can sort and select Wild Shapes.
Yeah the creature feature, is a great addition to DnDBeyond.
It can be used for wild shapes, summons, familiars, polymorphs, NPC hirelings, etc
I made a custom creature called "Changeling Persona" and use it with the creatures section to keep track of my various persona's for my changeling characters.
I just rename them and add notes for race, or other important information.
David Gearlock | Human | Artificer | Revenge Heist
Knox | Warforged | Cleric | Shadowthorn's Out of the Abyss
I personally used a phone app to track my old Druid, but you're dealing with 11 year old. That's going to be distracting/complex.
Positives: WildShape uses the Beast Stats pure and simple, no matter what lvl the Druid is. So a lvl 2 Druid turned into a cat and a lvl 20 Druid turned into a cat have the same stat line. This actually reduces bookkeeping.
I'd recommend get one of your kid's older school folders. Talk to the player about what kind of animals they want to turn into and print those up ahead of time. When the player decides to "learn" an animal form, after the game print it and add it to the folder. The player can pull the sheet out at any time and say "I'm going to turn into X!" If they forget what they can turn into, they can flip through their notebook.
I'd search for all Beast in D&D Beyond picking 2 Environments with the player and have the player choose and assortment of beast that they would have chosen to turn into, based on the Environments the druid spent most of their time.
Thanks guys, good suggestions.
To tag along with this question; Is there a way to add the Wild Shape Extras section to a printed character sheet?
Also, is it possible to add custom animals?
Firstly, there is no method that I know of to automatically export the Extras section to the character sheet. However, after exporting it to a PDF, it normally doesn't take me much time to add the few Wild Shapes I need to the "Additional Notes" section of the character sheet.
Yes, it is possible to add custom animals. First, ensure that homebrew is enabled on the character that you are using. Then, you can simply create a homebrew monster, and it will then be available in the Wild Shape extras section.
I don't see a creature section on the character sheet on dnd and beyond.
Yeah, it's now the Extras tab. Allows for more than just creatures.
I use one of three things:
I've only just started using the cards because I'm smooth-brain and kept forgetting to take them with me to my D&D sessions but I've found it makes things really easy compared to having to switch between tabs for my character sheet on DnDBeyond, the Foundry Server, and the beast stat blocks.
I've also seen Wildshape "Mini notebooks" on Etsy that could do the trick. Or, if you're looking to save money, you could just grab a mini-notepad from somewhere that sells stationary and write in the relevant stats and actions into that.
But is there a way to activate the wildshape so that actions include the wild shaped creatures attacks with their bonuses?
Wild shaped creatures have their attack bonuses built into the statblocks already.
So I can click their bite attack listed in the statblocks and it rolls the dice correctly?
Oh. No. You can’t roll any attacks for monsters outside of encounters on the site. I don’t know if you can even do it in encounters.
But you can add the creature to your wild shape extras, so you can easily find the bonuses.
yeah, I had hoped that if they set it up so that the changes were made to the statblocks of the wildshape creature in extras, that they would attach the dice roller to that creatures attacks so you could just roll from there. rather than needing to override the stats and then override the stats again when you change out of that wild shape.
What is wrong with just rolling generic dice and adding the bonus in the extras stat block? Which part are you really looking for? The rolling of the dice or the automatic addition of the bonus?
What are you editing? You’re just overriding your regular melee attack with the bonus and to hit of the creature?
Didn't want any overriding, or extra work and just clicking on the wildshaped statblock attacks listed there. Or have the selected wildshape automatically put the correct attacks into the actions menu with the correct bonuses.
Yeah, as I said, there is currently no solution for rolling attacks from beasts outside of encounters. I tried testing the custom actions/customize and neither of those seems to be able to provide an arbitrary attack bonus/damage. you might want to make a feature request.
I have some Monk levels. From my understanding I should have a higher AC and movement than is shown from Unarmored Defense and Unarmored Movement. Is there a way to recognize this in the stat block or am I mistaken that this works. This also doesn't add my proficiency bonus to the attacks though it is added to the skills. Are the creatures not proficient in their own attacks?
Could you provide more details (such as stats, proficiency bonus, wild shape creature, etc)?
I'm not sure about armor. It is possible that D&D beyond considers "natural armor" to be wearing armor, therefore unarmored defense doesn't display. It is also possible that your beast has a low dex or something.
As for proficiency, it is already included in the attacks in the stat block. D&D Beyond uses a strict reading of the wild shape rules for calculating bonuses. I think therefore it uses different rules for skill and saving throw proficiency vs attacks. All applicable skill or saving throw proficiencies are calculated as Druids PB + relevant ability mod, then compared to the one in the stat block. You keep the higher.
Since you aren't proficient in the beast's attacks, only the beast's proficiency applies. In fact, since wild shape has no text on attack calculations, I believe that is why they don't change (and is RAW and RAI for them to not change).