I've been working with the homebrew tools for a few weeks now and in general I enjoy the concept of homebrewing very much. However, the tools are very unintuitive, uninformative, and limiting. Some various issues:
1. There are no official documentation for snippet code. I only found out code for snippets existed from a random post while looking up other issues.
There is a lot that can be done with snippet code, but there is nothing to help a user even know this option exists. There really should be a link to documentation on the snippet code rather than forcing black-box testing by users.
2. The tool options are so limiting that you can't even replicate some of the existing sub-class features. Even when cloning an existing sub-class it sometimes doesn't function the same as the pre-compiled official version of the sub-class.
A general rule of thumb for good tools is that the developers should be using it themselves to create official content (a.k.a. dog-fooding). If the homebrew tools can't be used to create classes, or even mimic existing sub classes, then the current toolset is not appropriate for the needs of many homebrewers.
3. The way the homebrew tools are setup now are VERY labor intensive for the D&D Beyond dev team to maintain.
If there was a scripting language, changes could be rapidly made to the API without the labor of implementing the GUI. This would also allow for the much needed complexity of class creation to be exposed in a meaningful and useful way.
Overall I've really been enjoying DND Beyond. I really hope that advanced tools for homebrewing are implemented in the near future so that homebrewers can enjoy more from the services without being restricted by the development team's limited resources.
2. Those forms are the exact same ones we use to create official content.
3. There's a lot more complexity than you are assuming. Whilst we do plan to have API, it's incredibly unlikely that will include any way to load in homebrew.
I've been working with the homebrew tools for a few weeks now and in general I enjoy the concept of homebrewing very much. However, the tools are very unintuitive, uninformative, and limiting. Some various issues:
1. There are no official documentation for snippet code. I only found out code for snippets existed from a random post while looking up other issues.
There is a lot that can be done with snippet code, but there is nothing to help a user even know this option exists. There really should be a link to documentation on the snippet code rather than forcing black-box testing by users.
2. The tool options are so limiting that you can't even replicate some of the existing sub-class features. Even when cloning an existing sub-class it sometimes doesn't function the same as the pre-compiled official version of the sub-class.
A general rule of thumb for good tools is that the developers should be using it themselves to create official content (a.k.a. dog-fooding). If the homebrew tools can't be used to create classes, or even mimic existing sub classes, then the current toolset is not appropriate for the needs of many homebrewers.
3. The way the homebrew tools are setup now are VERY labor intensive for the D&D Beyond dev team to maintain.
If there was a scripting language, changes could be rapidly made to the API without the labor of implementing the GUI. This would also allow for the much needed complexity of class creation to be exposed in a meaningful and useful way.
Overall I've really been enjoying DND Beyond. I really hope that advanced tools for homebrewing are implemented in the near future so that homebrewers can enjoy more from the services without being restricted by the development team's limited resources.
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D&D Beyond FoundersHeya,
Some quick answers as it's late here.
1. There are a number of pinned threads in the homebrew forums, including one on snippets. https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules
2. Those forms are the exact same ones we use to create official content.
3. There's a lot more complexity than you are assuming. Whilst we do plan to have API, it's incredibly unlikely that will include any way to load in homebrew.
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If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
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