Yes, “functionally.” That’s because they haven’t added Actions to Magic Items yet. That’s what they should have is an action with a limited use that refreshes on a rest. But that’s not actually a charge. They just programmed it as such since they “functionally” work that way. But now they are somewhere in the process of adding Actions to Magic Items and when they do, those will stop being treated mechanically as charges and start being treated as actions with 1ce/rest limited uses. And as anyone who has ever taken a rest on a character sheet can tell you, those do reset on rests. Trust me, from your standpoint you should be looking forward to DDB fixing that shortcut they took faster than anyone.
Items that have uses tied to rests but don't explicitly say "charges" on them should not be talked about in this thread?
As I'm sure you know, there is currently an option while making a homebrew item to tie charge resets to rests. It doesn't do anything currently, and I would like it to. The only way anyone can even tell it's there is if they edit or make a copy of the item.
As I'm sure you know, there is currently an option while making a homebrew item to tie charge resets to rests. It doesn't do anything currently, and I would like it to.
Just curious, how do you know they are "somewhere in the process" of fixing this issue? I am not disputing you, I am genuinely curious where you got that info.
Just curious, how do you know they are "somewhere in the process" of fixing this issue? I am not disputing you, I am genuinely curious where you got that info.
Because they are somewhere in the process of revamping lots of stuff, and part of that is adding Actions to Magic Items. (Where in the process I have no idea.)
Just a simple search of official content of magic items yielded fifteen (15) full pages of results.
Please show me these 15 pages of official Magic items with charges that refresh on a rest. There are 15 pages of Magic items, but any that specifically refer to “charges” always refresh at dawn. Any of them that refresh on a “rest” never refer to charges.
Can we at least get a way to manually increase our charges? That seems like it would be an easy stopgap. Right now the items/spells/abilities lose their charges irretrievably, and the only course of action is to delete them and recreate with a new set of charges.
Is there a way for Homebrew creations to have the selectable squares like spellslots? or Magic Initiate Feat? That seems like the best way to handle charges anyways, and it wouldn't require any additional coding for automatically adding charges. Players could simply click the boxes.
Can we at least get a way to manually increase our charges? That seems like it would be an easy stopgap. Right now the items/spells/abilities lose their charges irretrievably, and the only course of action is to delete them and recreate with a new set of charges.
Is there a way for Homebrew creations to have the selectable squares like spellslots? or Magic Initiate Feat? That seems like the best way to handle charges anyways, and it wouldn't require any additional coding for automatically adding charges. Players could simply click the boxes.
Uhhh…. You can just manually uncheck those boxes directly on your character sheet.
Only magic items have charges, and they are available for homebrewed magic items too. Feats, Subclasses, and Races all use “Actions” with “Limited Uses” for those checkboxes, and those also work in homebrew too. The homebrewer is the exact same system the Devs used to create the official stuff.
Players can simply click the boxes. And then “unclick” them the exact same way.
Spells do not use those, so there is no way to add those checkboxes to spells. (Spell slots are a function of the character’s class which is who’ll separate and uneditable.)
For magic items, in the section right below Basic Information, named (shockingly) “Additional Information,” there is a field where you can enter how many charges the item has, and another where you can list the refresh conditions. (You must also include both the number of charges and the reset condition in the description of the item itself.)
For Feats, Subclass Features, and Racial Traits, you have to create an Action attached to that Feat/Feature/Trait, and select a “Refresh Condition” from the designated dropdown and then [SAVE] the Action. Then, you have to edit that newly created Action and all the way at the bottom you will see a new subsection where you can [ADD LIMITED USE DATA]. After you fill in whatever you need, you then must [SAVE] the limited use data, then [SAVE] the Action again, then [SAVE CHANGES] for that Feature or Trait, and finally you MUST re-save the entire Homebrew using the main [SAVE CHANGES] button under Basic Information or the system won’t pick up your changes.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate the detailed breakdown. I've followed these steps, but I still don't have the checkboxes for the uses of any of my creations. Spells, actions of a feat, items or anything. I can get single use charges that never come back, but that's not very helpful. The most helpful thing would be to get the checkboxes.
For example, on the 'Magic Initiate' feat you can see that your single use per day 1st level spell gets this checkbox under actions. I tried to copy that feat and recreate it, but I can't get the checkbox to appear.
Are there steps to make use of these checkboxes for homebrew creations?
The “checkboxes” represent one of two things. If you stop thinking “checkboxes,” and start thinking what they represent then you will have an easier time because (and this is the key) they are labeled in the homebrewer by what they represent. They are not labeled anything even remotely similar to “checkboxes.”
When you add a spell to a homebrewed Feat, Subclass, or Race, those checkboxes represent “uses.” Therefore, on the form where you add the spell, you need to look for one of two fields. One of them is labeled “Number of Uses,” and the other is labeled “Uses by Ability Modifier.” The first one lets you enter an integer (positive whole number like 1, 3, or 5) as the “Number of Uses,” the second one lets you select one of the 6 Ability Scores, and the system will use the modifier for that ability as the ”Number of Uses.” For example, if you select Str from that dropdown, the system will use that character’s Str mod to set the number of uses, if you select Wis, it would use the Wis mod.
But that just indicates to the system how many uses to display. In addition to that, you need to also set something called the “Reset Type.” That’s what indicates how they get those uses back. For example, from the Tiefling racial traits:
Infernal Legacy. You know the thaumaturgy cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the hellish rebuke spell as a 2nd-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the darkness spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
When that racial trait was programmed they added in hose three spells listed. When they added hellish rebuke and darkness, they entered “1” in the field labeled “Number of Uses,” and they selected “Long Rest” in the dropdown labeled “Reset Type.” If you don’t designate me hat reset type then the system will assume the listed uses do not reset and it will be treated as if it were a consumable (like a potion or scroll).
When you want to designate a “Limited Number of Uses” for a racial trait, class feature, or feat that does not have a spell attached, you add an action and follow the steps I mentioned in my previous post:
For Feats, Subclass Features, and Racial Traits, you have to create an Action attached to that Feat/Feature/Trait, and select a “Refresh Condition” from the designated dropdown and then [SAVE] the Action. Then, you have to edit that newly created Action and all the way at the bottom you will see a new subsection where you can [ADD LIMITED USE DATA]. After you fill in whatever you need, you then must [SAVE] the limited use data, then [SAVE] the Action again, then [SAVE CHANGES] for that Feature or Trait, and finally you MUST re-save the entire Homebrew using the main [SAVE CHANGES] button under Basic Information or the system won’t pick up your changes.
Those instructions will add the checkboxes to track limited uses directly on the feature/feat/trait, without actually adding an “Action” to the character sheet. So the checkboxes will display on the Features & Traits tab, but absolutely nothing will appear anywhere on the Actions tab at all. Anytime you see those checkboxes on a feature or trait and next to it it says “(No Action),” this is how that gets accomplished.
To have an actual Action with Limited Uses appear on the Actions tab, then it’s the same process with one significant difference. You also have to select an “Activation Type” from that dropdown too. If you select “Action,” then it will list it under the full Actions for that character along with normal Attacks, and anything else that includes the phrase “as an action….” By instead selecting “Reaction,” it would l list it under the Reactions section where it also list Opportunity Attacks.
For Magic Items that grants spells, or anything else the requires “Charges,” simply follow the instructions in my previous post:
For magic items, in the section right below Basic Information, named (shockingly) “Additional Information,” there is a field where you can enter how many charges the item has, and another where you can list the refresh conditions. (You must also include both the number of charges and the reset condition in the description of the item itself.)
I’ll admit that I could have been slightly more explicit, so allow me to elaborate:
Expand the “Additional Information” section, check the box next to “Has Charges,” enter an integer in the field that labeled “Number of Charges,” and in the dropdown labeled “Charge Reset Condition” select either “Dawn,” “None, Consumable,” or “Other.” Currently charges must be reset manually by the player, it’s as easy as simply clicking the little boxes again and the red squares go away.* Now, some magic items (like the alchemy jug and dark shard amulet grant Actions with Limited Uses, but DDB hasn’t programmed Actions onto magic items yet. So in the meantime those get faked by setting Charges and selecting either Short Rest or Long Rest as the Reset Condition. Those also do not get reset automatically and need to be unchecked manually by the player just like Charges.*
*(That technically works for everything by the way.)
And again, as always, after you add, edit, or remove ANYTHING on a homebrew (ALL HOMEBREWS), you MUST re-save the entire thing using the main [SAVE CHANGES] button under Basic Information or the system won’t pick up your changes. It can take up to 20 minutes to update on a character sheet. So be patient.
I truly hope that helps, because I cannot be any clearer, and am not inclined to go through everything a third time. If you have any specific questions about anything I just explained I will happily answer those.
Thank you for this reply. It is very extensive and I greatly appreciate the time and energy you've invested into it. I'm having trouble here because I have already carefully followed these steps before I even posted my first reply to this thread. I save each setting at each stage (Limited Uses --> Action --> Feat). I have done exactly these things to this Homebrew feat I put together, but the checkboxes do not appear.
I am attempting to add some extra abilities to my sheet to represent the moves that my Steel Defender has. Most of them are working fine, but specifically the 'Repair' ability has limited uses, and I have used that section to define those limitations, but the nonetheless the checkboxes do not appear. Can you help me understand what I may have done wrong here?
I’m not a Mod or Staffer, so I cannot look at the guts of your ‘brew to see how you coded it. (I don’t work here, I just live here.) However, if you post a link to your character sheet I can likely figure it out from that, and if not there are other ways.
Well they should hire you as community manager. You're the most responsive person the forums far and above. Your insights into the innerworkings of the site are invaluable. I appreciate your dedication and expertise. <3
Here is a link to a character that I added the Homebrewed feat to:
... and now that I'm looking at it I'm going to go crawl into a cave. I'm shocked... The checkboxes are there! I spent a long time working on this and they never appeared, and now well there they are... I hope you don't think I'm insane. Thanks again for all your help. :-)
Dark Shard Amulet, and Hat of Wizardry both functionally have charges that reset with a rest.
Yes, “functionally.” That’s because they haven’t added Actions to Magic Items yet. That’s what they should have is an action with a limited use that refreshes on a rest. But that’s not actually a charge. They just programmed it as such since they “functionally” work that way. But now they are somewhere in the process of adding Actions to Magic Items and when they do, those will stop being treated mechanically as charges and start being treated as actions with 1ce/rest limited uses. And as anyone who has ever taken a rest on a character sheet can tell you, those do reset on rests. Trust me, from your standpoint you should be looking forward to DDB fixing that shortcut they took faster than anyone.
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If I'm understanding your argument right:
Items that have uses tied to rests but don't explicitly say "charges" on them should not be talked about in this thread?
As I'm sure you know, there is currently an option while making a homebrew item to tie charge resets to rests. It doesn't do anything currently, and I would like it to. The only way anyone can even tell it's there is if they edit or make a copy of the item.
Yes!!! I want it too!!!
Carpe DM - gimme a roll!
Just curious, how do you know they are "somewhere in the process" of fixing this issue? I am not disputing you, I am genuinely curious where you got that info.
Carpe DM - gimme a roll!
Just a simple search of official content of magic items yielded fifteen (15) full pages of results.
Carpe DM - gimme a roll!
Because they are somewhere in the process of revamping lots of stuff, and part of that is adding Actions to Magic Items. (Where in the process I have no idea.)
Please show me these 15 pages of official Magic items with charges that refresh on a rest. There are 15 pages of Magic items, but any that specifically refer to “charges” always refresh at dawn. Any of them that refresh on a “rest” never refer to charges.
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Well September 2021 and this is still an issue. I guess I'll just have to wait... more.
It's been 2.5 years and this still doesn't work for the Hat of Wizardry (from XGtE) nor a homebrew item of mine.
Is there any update on this?
Thanks
The first update we will get is when it works.
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Can we at least get a way to manually increase our charges? That seems like it would be an easy stopgap. Right now the items/spells/abilities lose their charges irretrievably, and the only course of action is to delete them and recreate with a new set of charges.
Is there a way for Homebrew creations to have the selectable squares like spellslots? or Magic Initiate Feat? That seems like the best way to handle charges anyways, and it wouldn't require any additional coding for automatically adding charges. Players could simply click the boxes.
Uhhh…. You can just manually uncheck those boxes directly on your character sheet.
Only magic items have charges, and they are available for homebrewed magic items too. Feats, Subclasses, and Races all use “Actions” with “Limited Uses” for those checkboxes, and those also work in homebrew too. The homebrewer is the exact same system the Devs used to create the official stuff.
Players can simply click the boxes. And then “unclick” them the exact same way.
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Yeah that's why they would work so well. How do we add boxes like that to homebrew spells, items, and abilities?
Spells do not use those, so there is no way to add those checkboxes to spells. (Spell slots are a function of the character’s class which is who’ll separate and uneditable.)
For magic items, in the section right below Basic Information, named (shockingly) “Additional Information,” there is a field where you can enter how many charges the item has, and another where you can list the refresh conditions. (You must also include both the number of charges and the reset condition in the description of the item itself.)
For Feats, Subclass Features, and Racial Traits, you have to create an Action attached to that Feat/Feature/Trait, and select a “Refresh Condition” from the designated dropdown and then [SAVE] the Action. Then, you have to edit that newly created Action and all the way at the bottom you will see a new subsection where you can [ADD LIMITED USE DATA]. After you fill in whatever you need, you then must [SAVE] the limited use data, then [SAVE] the Action again, then [SAVE CHANGES] for that Feature or Trait, and finally you MUST re-save the entire Homebrew using the main [SAVE CHANGES] button under Basic Information or the system won’t pick up your changes.
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Thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate the detailed breakdown. I've followed these steps, but I still don't have the checkboxes for the uses of any of my creations. Spells, actions of a feat, items or anything. I can get single use charges that never come back, but that's not very helpful. The most helpful thing would be to get the checkboxes.
For example, on the 'Magic Initiate' feat you can see that your single use per day 1st level spell gets this checkbox under actions. I tried to copy that feat and recreate it, but I can't get the checkbox to appear.
Are there steps to make use of these checkboxes for homebrew creations?
Okay, hold up.
The “checkboxes” represent one of two things. If you stop thinking “checkboxes,” and start thinking what they represent then you will have an easier time because (and this is the key) they are labeled in the homebrewer by what they represent. They are not labeled anything even remotely similar to “checkboxes.”
When you add a spell to a homebrewed Feat, Subclass, or Race, those checkboxes represent “uses.” Therefore, on the form where you add the spell, you need to look for one of two fields. One of them is labeled “Number of Uses,” and the other is labeled “Uses by Ability Modifier.” The first one lets you enter an integer (positive whole number like 1, 3, or 5) as the “Number of Uses,” the second one lets you select one of the 6 Ability Scores, and the system will use the modifier for that ability as the ”Number of Uses.” For example, if you select Str from that dropdown, the system will use that character’s Str mod to set the number of uses, if you select Wis, it would use the Wis mod.
But that just indicates to the system how many uses to display. In addition to that, you need to also set something called the “Reset Type.” That’s what indicates how they get those uses back. For example, from the Tiefling racial traits:
When that racial trait was programmed they added in hose three spells listed. When they added hellish rebuke and darkness, they entered “1” in the field labeled “Number of Uses,” and they selected “Long Rest” in the dropdown labeled “Reset Type.” If you don’t designate me hat reset type then the system will assume the listed uses do not reset and it will be treated as if it were a consumable (like a potion or scroll).
When you want to designate a “Limited Number of Uses” for a racial trait, class feature, or feat that does not have a spell attached, you add an action and follow the steps I mentioned in my previous post:
Those instructions will add the checkboxes to track limited uses directly on the feature/feat/trait, without actually adding an “Action” to the character sheet. So the checkboxes will display on the Features & Traits tab, but absolutely nothing will appear anywhere on the Actions tab at all. Anytime you see those checkboxes on a feature or trait and next to it it says “(No Action),” this is how that gets accomplished.
To have an actual Action with Limited Uses appear on the Actions tab, then it’s the same process with one significant difference. You also have to select an “Activation Type” from that dropdown too. If you select “Action,” then it will list it under the full Actions for that character along with normal Attacks, and anything else that includes the phrase “as an action….” By instead selecting “Reaction,” it would l list it under the Reactions section where it also list Opportunity Attacks.
For Magic Items that grants spells, or anything else the requires “Charges,” simply follow the instructions in my previous post:
I’ll admit that I could have been slightly more explicit, so allow me to elaborate:
Expand the “Additional Information” section, check the box next to “Has Charges,” enter an integer in the field that labeled “Number of Charges,” and in the dropdown labeled “Charge Reset Condition” select either “Dawn,” “None, Consumable,” or “Other.” Currently charges must be reset manually by the player, it’s as easy as simply clicking the little boxes again and the red squares go away.* Now, some magic items (like the alchemy jug and dark shard amulet grant Actions with Limited Uses, but DDB hasn’t programmed Actions onto magic items yet. So in the meantime those get faked by setting Charges and selecting either Short Rest or Long Rest as the Reset Condition. Those also do not get reset automatically and need to be unchecked manually by the player just like Charges.*
*(That technically works for everything by the way.)
And again, as always, after you add, edit, or remove ANYTHING on a homebrew (ALL HOMEBREWS), you MUST re-save the entire thing using the main [SAVE CHANGES] button under Basic Information or the system won’t pick up your changes. It can take up to 20 minutes to update on a character sheet. So be patient.
I truly hope that helps, because I cannot be any clearer, and am not inclined to go through everything a third time. If you have any specific questions about anything I just explained I will happily answer those.
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Thank you for this reply. It is very extensive and I greatly appreciate the time and energy you've invested into it. I'm having trouble here because I have already carefully followed these steps before I even posted my first reply to this thread. I save each setting at each stage (Limited Uses --> Action --> Feat). I have done exactly these things to this Homebrew feat I put together, but the checkboxes do not appear.
Here is the homebrew feat I have created:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/feats/746946-steel-defender-abilities
I am attempting to add some extra abilities to my sheet to represent the moves that my Steel Defender has. Most of them are working fine, but specifically the 'Repair' ability has limited uses, and I have used that section to define those limitations, but the nonetheless the checkboxes do not appear. Can you help me understand what I may have done wrong here?
I’m not a Mod or Staffer, so I cannot look at the guts of your ‘brew to see how you coded it. (I don’t work here, I just live here.) However, if you post a link to your character sheet I can likely figure it out from that, and if not there are other ways.
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Well they should hire you as community manager. You're the most responsive person the forums far and above. Your insights into the innerworkings of the site are invaluable. I appreciate your dedication and expertise. <3
Here is a link to a character that I added the Homebrewed feat to:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/SuperFungi/characters/49433443
... and now that I'm looking at it I'm going to go crawl into a cave. I'm shocked... The checkboxes are there! I spent a long time working on this and they never appeared, and now well there they are... I hope you don't think I'm insane. Thanks again for all your help. :-)
There’s a caching delay of up to 20 minutes. A homebrew hasn’t “not worked” until it hasn’t worked for a half hour. 😉
PS- Thanks, it’s nice to feel appreciated now and then.
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