I am a DM running a homebrew campaign. I create all kinds of stuff for my players, be it weapons with extra damage, items with special effects as well as homebew monsters. Kinda like any DM.
This week I ran the final bossfight for my campaign. The BBEG was creating multiple weakened Simulacrum of himself, so I was tracking 1 main Legendary mage and 4 lesser mages. All of these mages had spell slots. There were also lair actions.
And what I used was a piece of paper. I had them in the turn tracker sure and I was monitoring my players health in Encounters, but everything else about them was on the paper next to me.
I had painted a scroll on each of the simulacrum a different colour to tell them apart. and then added a "Clone of Archmage" creature in the custom creatures but as you cant rename the creatures in the combat tracker, I had a thing with "Clone A = Red, Clone B = Blue" on paper. Yes, I guess I could have created 6 custom creatures with a different name each time to differentiate them, but that would be insane.
I was then tracking the spell slots used by the mages on paper. (also applies to "can be used 3 times a day" abilities, or recovering dragon breath"
I was then tracking the legendary actions and legendary resistances on paper.
I was then tracking the conditions that the players had put on the monsters on paper.
I was then tracking concentration spells on paper.
I had an NPC on a piece of paper I had given to a character to use. and I had hand written out their spells and abilities because there was no way of customising it and sharing.
And there has been no update to this tool this year. So I ask the question of the D&D beyond team. Is this product considered finished?
because as a DM it is terrible. Sure, great for players. and great for campaigns below level 3 when no one can do anything apart from damage each other. but at high levels (and this is level 8 combat, not exactly ridiculous) it is really hard to manage using this tool.
It is harder in terms of management of spells and abilities to be a DM than a player in this game. And yet players have all of the tools available in their character sheet.
Something like adding a notes section to each monster would go a long way to paper over the cracks.
And my god, would it kill you to default to newest encounter first??? I press that "sort encounters by created" twice every time I go to that page.
That is tragic and disturbing. Encounters has been in some form of development since 2020, and the feedback forum for it was apparently discontinued over a year ago. By appearences, it's been abandoned. As I've said elsewhere, the VTT better be the best thing since sliced bread...
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Is "Encounters" considered a finished product?
I am a DM running a homebrew campaign. I create all kinds of stuff for my players, be it weapons with extra damage, items with special effects as well as homebew monsters. Kinda like any DM.
This week I ran the final bossfight for my campaign. The BBEG was creating multiple weakened Simulacrum of himself, so I was tracking 1 main Legendary mage and 4 lesser mages. All of these mages had spell slots. There were also lair actions.
And what I used was a piece of paper. I had them in the turn tracker sure and I was monitoring my players health in Encounters, but everything else about them was on the paper next to me.
I had painted a scroll on each of the simulacrum a different colour to tell them apart. and then added a "Clone of Archmage" creature in the custom creatures but as you cant rename the creatures in the combat tracker, I had a thing with "Clone A = Red, Clone B = Blue" on paper. Yes, I guess I could have created 6 custom creatures with a different name each time to differentiate them, but that would be insane.
I was then tracking the spell slots used by the mages on paper. (also applies to "can be used 3 times a day" abilities, or recovering dragon breath"
I was then tracking the legendary actions and legendary resistances on paper.
I was then tracking the conditions that the players had put on the monsters on paper.
I was then tracking concentration spells on paper.
I had an NPC on a piece of paper I had given to a character to use. and I had hand written out their spells and abilities because there was no way of customising it and sharing.
And there has been no update to this tool this year. So I ask the question of the D&D beyond team. Is this product considered finished?
because as a DM it is terrible. Sure, great for players. and great for campaigns below level 3 when no one can do anything apart from damage each other. but at high levels (and this is level 8 combat, not exactly ridiculous) it is really hard to manage using this tool.
It is harder in terms of management of spells and abilities to be a DM than a player in this game. And yet players have all of the tools available in their character sheet.
Something like adding a notes section to each monster would go a long way to paper over the cracks.
And my god, would it kill you to default to newest encounter first??? I press that "sort encounters by created" twice every time I go to that page.
No, it's still in Beta
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
That is tragic and disturbing. Encounters has been in some form of development since 2020, and the feedback forum for it was apparently discontinued over a year ago. By appearences, it's been abandoned. As I've said elsewhere, the VTT better be the best thing since sliced bread...