Hey all, me again.

( other than 2014 toggles, so don't bother mentioning it ) I am curious about what you all would like to see them improve in the character builder.

Now, I am not a programmer or anything even close to one, so this isn't about me creating a tool of my own. I wouldn't even know how to begin. I do use a lot of the optional rules -- I have Sanity and Honor and I use a Spell Point system and then some homebrew stuff -- and because I use them I am unable to effectively use the character builder here. It is, in a word, useless to me. That, in turn, makes the other tools useless to me, like Maps and the like. Because they are all tied together and you can't even get a token without at least tossing something up into the CB, and if you do that, well, then it can get to be a pain in the ass.

Now, this isn't a bash WotC type thing -- I get why things are the way they are and all that. But the CB is a major focal of the whole site -- and I find that it is significantly lacking in functionality for folks who have my playstyle. I like to track carry cap and ammunition and food and water and time and the rest. But what I want is quite a bit different, and one of the things I noticed about the 2024 rules is that they left out a LOT of optional rules; if anything, they sorta really put more effort into making it fit the CB as it is now.

Now, there's no VTT out there that will work for my group -- they haven't really caught up with the concept of making them genuinely customizable in a way that doesn't require programming. For example, if I want to add in a new ability score, I should be able to click a button and add it and the engine behind it will automatically calculate it out and give me a list of things I can connect it to, and all that. The designers simply aren't there yet -- building up this kind of thing takes time.

But it is easiest to start where the baseline is, and if this one moves, the rest will.  So, that's why the post:

What you would like them to add in as a feature to the Character Builder?

I have a very long list, but my top 3 are:

• Tracking Time, Ammunition, Food, Water, Carrying Capacity
• Existing Options from 2014 book
• Customizing Rest Periods

What are your top three to ten?

Greetings AEDorsay,

While I can't speak to the type of play that you prefer, I can say that even those that like to play the way that D&D Beyond is set up for, there are still items that would be great to add to the Character Builder.

I totally understand that all of the requests I have could be handled by a Google Sheet, but it would be great if it was added to the Character Builder so I don't have to utilize other means (Notepad or Google Sheets). In no specific order:

• Section for Notes for Personal Quests (things my character wants to learn/achieve).
• Section for Notes for DM Assigned Quests (to keep track of all of the mini quests that pop up in addition to the Main Quest)

These are both pretty simple and I use Google Sheets to keep track of these currently as we are spread between 3 states and play VTT.

Now about playing VTT, and not having one that will work with your play style, I am confused.
Yes, I agree that D&D Beyond Maps is tied to the Character that you built within the website, so you would not be able to use it, but we use Arkenforge, and it is wonderful if you want Animated Maps, or even a Digital Play Surface for in-person sessions.

I don't see anything with how your style of play would prevent you from being able to use this VTT, and I'm sure many others. You mentioned Ability Scores as a reason you cannot use a VTT, but I don't know of many VTT that incorporate Ability Scores as they are made for many different RPG systems and not just D&D.
Just sharing some info from my experience :)

Cheers!

More than anything else: The ability to add major and minor benefits/detriments to items from the character sheet.  Or from the builder generally.  Or really anywhere, other than having to homebrew them.

Legendary equipment is a core component of the game - it should feel exciting to give out something like that as a DM.  D&D Beyond turns that excitement into a chore, requiring the item be homebrewed to include its full functionality in the character sheet.

Quote from Caerwyn_Glyndwr >>

More than anything else: The ability to add major and minor benefits/detriments to items from the character sheet.  Or from the builder generally.  Or really anywhere, other than having to homebrew them.

Legendary equipment is a core component of the game - it should feel exciting to give out something like that as a DM.  D&D Beyond turns that excitement into a chore, requiring the item be homebrewed to include its full functionality in the character sheet.

 Agreed!

I am currently playing a Character that has a "Dark Gift" from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, which came out in May of 2021, and the Dark Gifts are still not incorporated into D&D Beyond as an option to add to a character.
I had to Homebrew the Dark Gift as a 'Ring' and that way my character would be displayed correctly.

Not trying to turn the thread into a list of complaints about what is not added to the site as that was not what the original post was about, but yea, I agree.

Cheers!

Coming at this from a different angle, and I realize this would probably be difficult to implement, but it would be nice if the DM could set a flag/switch in the campaign that only allows players to use homebrew that the DM has created. I don't share my homebrew (as I'm sure similar stuff already exists and I don't think other people would be interested as most of it is world-specific to my homebrewed world) but having players turn on the homebrew option often results in players adding some feat, item, etc. from someone else that causes issues or that I wouldn't allow because it unbalances things. It's not a huge deal to fix, but it can be tricky sometimes to track down where it's coming from, especially when players don't realize they've added a homebrewed item, feat, ability, etc.

My top 3:

1) Character creation date. Really not sure why this isn't there

2) Better integration for wildshape, ideally being able to select the beast and have the overall stats change to match. 

3) Similarly, likely in conjunction with Avrae or equivalents, triggerable buff/debuff effects. 

I agree with several points so far, so unmentioned things:

1. The ability to fluidly move between what you're selecting when creating the character. Previously, I found it frustrating because I prefer to choose my Class before my Race. I appreciate that it's changed to do it the way I prefer - but I also appreciate that others think the other way. I'd like it so that it's easy and undisruptive doing it whatever way you prefer.
2. The ability to play whatever combination I wish. Specifically - the ability to play 2014 Subclasses with 2024 Classes even when they've been superceded and, if possible, 2024 Subclasses with 2014 Classes (although the latter may be harder to implement and I'm less pushy on). I'm happy for there to be a toggle that you have to turn off to do that so it's easier for those who want to stick to RAW, but I want to be able to do it.
3. Be able to control what content appears. There is some degree of that, but I want to be able to really fine tune like in the Listings section of the App so if something is banned, I can just turn it off. Also, let DMs do that in the campaign so everyone can just know exactly what's allowed and what's not by building their character within the campaign.

Mostly, it's that I want the CB to be a tool to aid me in creating my vision, rather than a referee trying to conform to DDB's idea of what should be. It's part way there, I just want it to shift further.

I have to say, I like several of the things mentioned so far!

i hadn’t even known some of them weren’t possible!

Beyond being able to fully implement all of RAW and optional rules. That is kind of a broad statement, but that basically solves most issues that people have with Beyond.

One step above that is to implement all official minor content that appears elsewhere on this site, such as all the Extra Life and Adventurer's League content. And we might as well put all semi-official stuff too, like all the UA and MTG Plane Shift PDFs.

And we need more toggles, preferably down to the book level like in the database. The 2014/2024 thing is just the latest thing that people want excluded, and the same exclusionary sentiment happened to TCOE and AI too. While it is not my style to exclude content (I allow anything Wizards publishes, even UA), being able to temporarily exclude content in the character builder helps me narrow things down and find things. Even if Beyond is able to fully implement RAW and fix artificial item bloat with customizable items (so no more over a hundred listings of various Armors of Resistances for example), there is still a lot of items to go through due to natural bloat. Most people will eventually be familiar with all the items in the DMG and PHB, and being able to turn them off temporarily will make it so much easier to find stuff in other books.

Another feature I would like is an explantion of how certain numbers came to be. If we take a look at the character sheet, a new player might know that their Athletics score is 17, but they might not know why it is 17; and for some players, they might have gotten the formula wrong and is wondering why their own calculation does not match the character sheet's calculation. Having an explanation breaking down the math makes it easier for people to learn how the rules work. I think having the explanation in both tooltip form and in the number-overwriting menu would be nice, so players cannot miss it.

Being able to highlight things on the character sheet would be a cool little feature. And to add to that, if we can highlight words to have the letters flash in rainbow like the Party Wizards, that would be pretty awesome.

Having alternative character sheet format would be nice too.

Multilingual support would also be nice, although that would be more of a sitewide issue, but starting at the character sheet is not a bad idea in my opinion.

While there are a few minor things I find annoying from time to time, my biggest beef is the spell sheets. They're, well, useless. At least, in the pdf you can print out for your character. I'm a pen and paper kind of guy, so while the character builder is great for filling in my character sheet, I want to print it out and hold it in my grubby little paws while I'm playing.

The Spell Sheet has a Notes column, but it never really contains anything except Duration, AoE, and which of the 3 types of components (VSM) are required. ALL of that information is already in dedicated columns on the spell sheet, and something as essential as the damage done by a spell isn't included. 

So, great....I can see my character has fireball, and that it's prepared, and that it's a 20' sphere that requires Verbal, Material, and Somatic components. But now I have to look it up in the book to see how much damage it does and what happens if someone makes their save against it. 

Quote from Paradox_Traveler >>

Quote from XXXGammaRay >>

Beyond being able to fully implement all of RAW and optional rules. That is kind of a broad statement, but that basically solves most issues that people have with Beyond.

One step above that is to implement all official minor content that appears elsewhere on this site, such as all the Extra Life and Adventurer's League content. And we might as well put all semi-official stuff too, like all the UA and MTG Plane Shift PDFs.

And we need more toggles, preferably down to the book level like in the database. The 2014/2024 thing is just the latest thing that people want excluded, and the same exclusionary sentiment happened to TCOE and AI too. While it is not my style to exclude content (I allow anything Wizards publishes, even UA), being able to temporarily exclude content in the character builder helps me narrow things down and find things. Even if Beyond is able to fully implement RAW and fix artificial item bloat with customizable items (so no more over a hundred listings of various Armors of Resistances for example), there is still a lot of items to go through due to natural bloat. Most people will eventually be familiar with all the items in the DMG and PHB, and being able to turn them off temporarily will make it so much easier to find stuff in other books.

Another feature I would like is an explantion of how certain numbers came to be. If we take a look at the character sheet, a new player might know that their Athletics score is 17, but they might not know why it is 17; and for some players, they might have gotten the formula wrong and is wondering why their own calculation does not match the character sheet's calculation. Having an explanation breaking down the math makes it easier for people to learn how the rules work. I think having the explanation in both tooltip form and in the number-overwriting menu would be nice, so players cannot miss it.

Being able to highlight things on the character sheet would be a cool little feature. And to add to that, if we can highlight words to have the letters flash in rainbow like the Party Wizards, that would be pretty awesome.

Having alternative character sheet format would be nice too.

Multilingual support would also be nice, although that would be more of a sitewide issue, but starting at the character sheet is not a bad idea in my opinion.

 
   If you want to see score breakdown just click/or tap the name of the score to get the side bar.

   If the sidebar also expanded the breakdown of what each bonus and override is associated with, and if PDF prints were designed to have a reference section of all relevant information, instead of page references, it would speed up the need to hunt down book or digital references.

   Bring alignment back, served as a reference for players that don’t play on a consistent basis to remember where their character was when last they played as far as mental state and moral debates, a re-calibration of character compass if you will.

    Better separation between offensive/defensive/utility elements and the ability to customize the visual layout to aid newer or older players with information accessibly that is more intuitive to the user.

    Broader ability to Customize,( not exclude but refine), all content based on a DM/GM preference system or a personal preference system, and access to said content limited to the greater of the preference level ( DM/GM preference in campaign settings override the personal preference if both contain a 85% compatibility level of similar preferences, otherwise a notification is given.)

   Milestone substone markers, beginning, middle and end to indicate where between milestones a character might be.

     A lot of folks have asked for updates to a lot of different parts of this place, don’t hold your breath if it takes a decade for it to be considered.( not being inconsiderate, just pointing out the digital red tape and paperwork is a thing, and wants have to be measured by cost to implement, meaning it might not be considered until it is deemed cost beneficial. )

    Best of luck waiting for this to be considered, maybe in two years, if your lucky?

 
I think slow implementation over the next six years is more likely — DDB as a site is janky as hell, and honestly I think they would do better to build from scratch behind the wall then cross populate and migrate. 

they won’t do that, mind you…

I also don’t think they will really even start to look at the CB until after Sigil is released.

i did not realize alignment wasn’t in the CB!

Blessing, curses and supernatural gifts. Implementing conditions, diseases, magical contagions. Optional rules from 2014 and 2024 dmg toggles I feel would all be nice.

Quote from Paradox_Traveler >> 

   If you want to see score breakdown just click/or tap the name of the score to get the side bar.

   If the sidebar also expanded the breakdown of what each bonus and override is associated with, and if PDF prints were designed to have a reference section of all relevant information, instead of page references, it would speed up the need to hunt down book or digital references.

There is no break down for skills, saving throws, passive senses, and spell modifier/attack/save DC on the character sheet. It would be nice to have the break down for spell known/preparation in the character builder as well.