So I have played the game for a long time and have books such as Xanathars guide, Volo's guide, Guildmasters guide to Ravnica, Mordenkainens tome, and the players handbook. I have every book and find it easiest to use a site such as orcpub to make sheets for my party since I am the DM, but I cant because it wants me to buy everything again to gain access to them on this website.
I have the books physically so I would think that there would be a code or something so I would not have to pay to unlock needed content online to create characters
I have the books physically so I would think that there would be a code or something so I would not have to pay to unlock needed content online to create characters
Wizards of the Coast didn't provide any way to verify purchases when it created D&D 5e. As a result, there's no way that D&D Beyond could allow people to use those books to prove they own the product even if they wanted to - the infrastructure to support that just was never put in place prior to D&D Beyond being created (which happened years after 5e debuted).
Further, D&D Beyond pays Wizards of the Coast licence fees in order to provide this product. They get zero moneys from you if you purchase/purchased a hardcover D&D book.
If Wizards of the Coast had been paying D&D Beyond in order to create this, then maybe you'd be able to use your purchased hardcovers to unlock content. Similarly, if D&D Beyond had existed from the start of 5e, maybe they could have added one-use codes in the books that could verify that you owned them in order to allow unlocking D&D Beyond content of that book either for free or a reduced price (with WOTC waiving their licensing fees for those accounts due to the person already having given them money for a hardcover).
But none of those things happened. It's a simple business reality that D&D Beyond is a profit-making venture and, as such, can't just give you content for free, nor can they go back in time and add one-use codes into all of the D&D 5e books prior to them going to print.
So it seems the easiest thing to do is make homebrew of these books to create characters
Easiest? No! Cheapest, yes. But putting all of the information in to homebrew all of the classes in the PHB is a ton of work, let alone doing that work for the rest of the books! No thanks, I bought the books in both formats. My time is worth more than the time I’d spend copying the books into D&D Beyond.
You won't be able to homebrew classes. The easiest thing to do is to purchase the D&D Beyond content, even if it's just the individual classes/races/backgrounds etc that you need.
The important thing to remember is that your physical books have as much to do with what's on D&D Beyond as a physical copy of Harry Potter has to do with the kindle version.
All of the official base classes are available for free (because they are all in the SRD), so the inability to homebrew classes is only an issue for those who want to include homebrew or 3rd party classes.
I know I'm a little late to the party here but for anyone who doesn't want to/have time to watch the video:
D&D Beyond is not owned by or part of WotC, it is a separate company that licenses the material to sell on its platform
If you bought a book, Amazon/Waterstones/(insert bookshop here) received a cut of the sale and so did WotC. D&D Beyond did not
As D&D Beyond didn't receive any payment for access on their platform, they have no obligation to give you their digital copy or access to the content therein
In future, WotC could add a digital key to give access to Beyond content but that would increase the price of the books to factor in the money they would need to pay Beyond for the Key and this would likely also cause issues with other people who license the content such as Roll20
the analogy Sedge gave of buying a copy here then demanding a hard copy from your local bookshop is 100% correct, it simply wouldn't fly
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Plays Leo weekly on Chaotic Fabulous. Watch us weekly on twitch chaoticfabulous.com
I know I'm a little late to the party here but for anyone who doesn't want to/have time to watch the video:
D&D Beyond is not owned by or part of WotC, it is a separate company that licenses the material to sell on its platform
If you bought a book, Amazon/Waterstones/(insert bookshop here) received a cut of the sale and so did WotC. D&D Beyond did not
As D&D Beyond didn't receive any payment for access on their platform, they have no obligation to give you their digital copy or access to the content therein
In future, WotC could add a digital key to give access to Beyond content but that would increase the price of the books to factor in the money they would need to pay Beyond for the Key and this would likely also cause issues with other people who license the content such as Roll20
the analogy Sedge gave of buying a copy here then demanding a hard copy from your local bookshop is 100% correct, it simply wouldn't fly
6. If this is a service you want, then it has value, which means can't expect to receive it for free; that would be like walking into a McDonalds and answering the server's question of, "Do you want fries with that?" with, "Yes, but I don't want to have to pay for them because I already bought a burger."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
So I have played the game for a long time and have books such as Xanathars guide, Volo's guide, Guildmasters guide to Ravnica, Mordenkainens tome, and the players handbook. I have every book and find it easiest to use a site such as orcpub to make sheets for my party since I am the DM, but I cant because it wants me to buy everything again to gain access to them on this website.
But you haven't bought anything on D&D Beyond - how would you be buying it again?
Similarly, I can't buy a book on D&D Beyond and then walk into a gaming store and demand a free hard cover, can I?
I have the books physically so I would think that there would be a code or something so I would not have to pay to unlock needed content online to create characters
mmmm Watch this:
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
So it seems the easiest thing to do is make homebrew of these books to create characters
Wizards of the Coast didn't provide any way to verify purchases when it created D&D 5e. As a result, there's no way that D&D Beyond could allow people to use those books to prove they own the product even if they wanted to - the infrastructure to support that just was never put in place prior to D&D Beyond being created (which happened years after 5e debuted).
Further, D&D Beyond pays Wizards of the Coast licence fees in order to provide this product. They get zero moneys from you if you purchase/purchased a hardcover D&D book.
If Wizards of the Coast had been paying D&D Beyond in order to create this, then maybe you'd be able to use your purchased hardcovers to unlock content. Similarly, if D&D Beyond had existed from the start of 5e, maybe they could have added one-use codes in the books that could verify that you owned them in order to allow unlocking D&D Beyond content of that book either for free or a reduced price (with WOTC waiving their licensing fees for those accounts due to the person already having given them money for a hardcover).
But none of those things happened. It's a simple business reality that D&D Beyond is a profit-making venture and, as such, can't just give you content for free, nor can they go back in time and add one-use codes into all of the D&D 5e books prior to them going to print.
Easiest? No! Cheapest, yes. But putting all of the information in to homebrew all of the classes in the PHB is a ton of work, let alone doing that work for the rest of the books! No thanks, I bought the books in both formats. My time is worth more than the time I’d spend copying the books into D&D Beyond.
Professional computer geek
Actually the easiest thing would be to use the books you already have =)
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Great video. Thanks for sharing.
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May we live in Less Interesting Times
You won't be able to homebrew classes. The easiest thing to do is to purchase the D&D Beyond content, even if it's just the individual classes/races/backgrounds etc that you need.
The important thing to remember is that your physical books have as much to do with what's on D&D Beyond as a physical copy of Harry Potter has to do with the kindle version.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
All of the official base classes are available for free (because they are all in the SRD), so the inability to homebrew classes is only an issue for those who want to include homebrew or 3rd party classes.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
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I know I'm a little late to the party here but for anyone who doesn't want to/have time to watch the video:
Plays Leo weekly on Chaotic Fabulous. Watch us weekly on twitch chaoticfabulous.com
6. If this is a service you want, then it has value, which means can't expect to receive it for free; that would be like walking into a McDonalds and answering the server's question of, "Do you want fries with that?" with, "Yes, but I don't want to have to pay for them because I already bought a burger."
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
As the OP hasn't responded in 3 days, I'm locking this thread.
If you wish to continue the conversation on purchasing options, please see the following:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/6230-d-d-beyond-vs-physical-books-an-explanation