I wrote a while back that I was extremely disappointed in not only how the  Character Sheet PDF was laid out, but even the DnD character page is completely generic and unoptimized for specific classes.

Well messing around building a Warlock and yet again, nothing is tailored or geared to actually show relevant and pertinent class information and abilities on the actual page itself.

The main example is under Eldritch Invocation you can pick Armor of Shadows, which gives you Mage Armor as a at will bonus spell which doesn't take up a spell slot. But in the spell section on the char sheet, not only can you NOT mark any spells as casted, you can't even keep track of the relevant bonus to AC.

Then I looked at my Celestial bonus spells, and they ONLY appear there, and there is no way to keep track of them.

What is the point of having a web tool that can't be used as a tool?  I wish I could be more understanding but when I am paying for content I want to be able to use it in a method that is effective. Not just half baked and un-optimized code. Almost everything on the page is just generic information, why do you not put in specific class and racial information at the top and stop hiding it in sub menus?  I don't need an explanation of what my Fiendish Pack is, I need to know what the pact was.  Link that info back to the compendium where it belongs and just represent relevant necessary for play on the top of the screen.

Not only am I beginning to regret buying the books on this site, but you make it extremely hard to justify using this tool with the rest of my veteran friends who generally scoff at this stuff in general. This is just a really lackluster effort for something which doesn't involve  alot of technology, just effort to design and implement.

 As was said in the last thread you made, a character sheet revamp is in development that should address issues such as relevant info being stuck in a nest of drop-down boxes.  If you haven't seen the developer update last Friday I recommend checking it out.  At about the 1 hr mark Badeye shows the new character sheet.

 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/239406509

I am curious about a few of your problems though.  When you say you cannot mark spells as cast do you mean that the check boxs are not updating, that the effects of spells do not update the character sheet (i.e. mage armor), or something else?  You can manually change ac by clicking on it to add the bonus for mage armor.  Celestial bonus spells are added to the spell list to pick from and appear in the spells section as they should.  Do you mean that you can't easily see why you are getting them?

A little of both. Mage armor specifically doesn't have a "cast spell" option, and therefore it does not adjust base AC on the sheet. I have screenshots but I have no way to show them.

Likewise none of the bonus spells listed under "Celestial Legacy" show up in the "Known Spells" and don't have the option to cast them so you can keep track of their usage.

This has been my overall experience while using this site. Coming from Herolab(which wasn't that great either) I am quite shocked how unfinished and unhelpful the site is to track you character while playing. For a 7 month product not to have basic layouts setup or having simple options available that already exist for other classes(IE sorcerer) Doesn't make sense.

I am starting to feel ripped off as I paid for official content and was promised this would be a comprehensive digital tool to manage your character. So far I have had to work to use this site as a way to effectively keep track of everything while in a game session, which should be the minimum functionality set when creating this site in the first place. Creating distinct layouts for each class is not a monumental development process and making sure all option and features track across the stats on the page should have been 1st goal before even releasing the site live for use. It's not like 5E is such a radical departure from the rest of the systems that the developers had to create UI systems straight from scratch.

Being told to wait for a new update which should have been version 1.0 of the page in the first place is also very discouraging. Seems like WOTC dropped the ball licensing 5E to these guys if this is the quality of the work they produce for paid content.

I am confused, so help me understand.

Armor of Shadows gives you Mage Armor to cast at will. There is no need to track a spell slot in this instance since the spell functions like a cantrip.

The Bonus Spell list for the Celestial is a (sorry for repeating) bonus spell list. Those spells are added to the Warlock spell list, but they are not automatically spell known for the Warlock.

Lastly, it is true that if you cast a Mage Armor spell from the sheet the AC doesn't get updated, but this is (for now) by design. You can update the AC yourself with the custom feature.

Addressing some of your points

• Mage Armor - Eldritch Invocation
  • If you click your armor class you can customize your AC easily. No spells affect the character sheets at all. That was never something that was said is possible. Mage Armor wouldn't show up in your spells anyways because it is not a spell, it is your invocation, which is why it is under the Eldritch Invocations section of the limited use area.
• Celestial spells
  • You do not get all of these spells just for picking the patron. You have to choose to take these spells whenever you gain spells. You have to add it before it will show on your Known Spells.
• Web tool
  • Myself and the 9 other people I repeatedly play with find this web tool very helpful, and while it could be better, it provides what we need. This site can most certainly be used as a web tool as is. The problem is not with the site, its that the site doesn't do everything YOU want it to do, which would never happen because everyone has different preferences. The whole purpose was to provide a space to have all the information you could need for your character and they do just that. You don't like it, but I do.
• "This is just a really lackluster effort for something which doesn't involve of technology, just effort to design and implement."
  • If you are saying this site and tools are not complicated to produce then you seriously underestimate development. There is a lot of work going into this, sorry that you don't like it. No one forced you to purchase without really checking it out first.

Yet my Draconic Sorcerer automatically get's his AC bonus from his Draconic Bloodline power?

And the whole invocation thing is a silly excuse to not be able to track that ability when there is clearly ways to "adjust the char sheet" like you said you can't.

And FYI there is no option to "select" bonus spells in the class features selection screen, the spells are supposedly automatically granted to you, and they are not listed under spells known. So I never saw the option you mentioned of picking them. 

I have been playing for 3 months on a weekly game and multiple times I have had to waste going through subtabs or having to look up information directly from the compendium because it was not listed on the front page. I still don't understand why generic PHB info is listed on the front char page and the specific option I selected no immediately visible. 

I mean I had a situation where I suffered a temp loss to one of my stats (str) and found I could not track it because you can't adjust ability stats. And that has been a basic of Dnd since 1st Ed.

I have worked in software dev companies, this entire tool is just a webapp with a database backend to correlate and cross reference data between fields.  Compared to other sites and webapps I have seen developed, this site doesn't require complex multimedia functionality, nor does it require integration with OS functions, nor does it have anything I would considered special or unique coding requirements.  This is essentially just a glorified formulated and macro'd spreadsheet with a DB backend. The fact that these guys are struggling to put in basic functionality and features is very troubling.  Seriously you can hire a few web developers and UI developer to make up what you see here. Don't be an apologist this is a product we paid for, we should expect a functional working product on launch.

Quote from Hurricanehugo>>

Yet my Draconic Sorcerer automatically get's his AC bonus from his Draconic Bloodline power?

And the whole invocation thing is a silly excuse to not be able to track that ability when there is clearly ways to "adjust the char sheet" like you said you can't.

The Draconic Resilience is a permanent AC feature. Mage Armor is not.

The custom AC adjustment has been made exactly for features that alter the AC temporary or for other home-made features.

I have been playing for 3 months on a weekly game and multiple times I have had to waste going through subtabs or having to look up information directly from the compendium because it was not listed on the front page. I still don't understand why generic PHB info is listed on the front char page and the specific option I selected no immediately visible. 

 

Every information about your character is displayed on the character sheet. Without an example, it is difficult to check if there are missing/not showing information.

I mean I had a situation where I suffered a temp loss to one of my stats (str) and found I could not track it because you can't adjust ability stats. And that has been a basic of Dnd since 1st Ed.

Quote from Hurricanehugo >>

And the whole invocation thing is a silly excuse to not be able to track that ability when there is clearly ways to "adjust the char sheet" like you said you can't.

And FYI there is no option to "select" bonus spells in the class features selection screen, the spells are supposedly automatically granted to you, and they are not listed under spells known. So I never saw the option you mentioned of picking them. 

Really?

Did you read the Shadow of Armor DESCRIPTION?

Armor of Shadows

You can cast mage armor on yourself at will, without expending a spell slot or material components.

And where does that SPELL show up?  In my "Known Spells" section of the page.

This is exactly what I am talking about; either it's a special feature and there is no place to track it, or it is a bonus spell and still there is no way to track it, because show me where on the page does it keep track of my ARMOR OF SHADOWS (AKA Mage Armor) being tacked or even accounted for in my stats?

And you solution for me keeping track of a TEMPORARY ability point loss is to go back to the character editor and adjust it there?  Instead of a simple adjustment section(like they had for AC) So even there it's exposed just how illogical and ridiculous the entire UI is laid out when you have to suggest 2 separate steps to adjust a temporary effect which is common during actual play. One of which is actually recreating my character in the editor.

Yeah I seemed to have made a mistake because if you consider those steps acceptable or effective or even efficient for a paid content site you have been fooled sir. Take it from me, I have over 10 years of technical support where I have had to deal with issues just like this and after all this time this entire site is a hot mess which shouldn't be anywhere near the unfinished state that it is. I really wanted to ditch pen and paper and go all digital and it's sad that not even WOTC has the will to make it happen.

Now I feel like I was ripped off. Guess I'll just have to use this site like a glorified book.

And as a final note:

From the Character creator:

The Celestial lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Celestial Expanded Spells

From the final character sheet:

And from the section immediate above it in the same window:

This right here is completely unacceptable and is a horrible design layout both for educational and for tracking purposes while in live play.  At the final page any and all spells should be viewable in the spells known list, with a source listed, like Eldritch Invocation, and it should have the ability to be marked as used and any and all relevant stat changes should be visible across the entire main char sheet.

I mean I hated Herolabs antiquated UI and archaic layout but they had a adjustment section and almost everything except for minor bugs here and there was represented and marked in their appropriate section.  These guys aren't even dealing with the type of mechanical complexity that Pathfinder lives in.  This is just plain unacceptable for a product I paid money for. I don't feel like an entitled spoiled brat I know exactly how hard it takes to make a webpage, next to none. Not with the types of features DnD Beyond has. You wanna see complexity, go log into Roll20 and guess how many sub programs have to be running for all that to work seamlessly.  This site isn't even close too that level of complexity.

Sorry this has extremely disappointed me.  And I advise that you take a careful look at how you are using this site and ask whether you are adapting to the limitations of what the site has or is the site adapting the way you play the game?  I would say it's more of the former.

Again - the upcoming character sheet revamp is going to address these concerns. Until then, this is the current way the sheet works:

• Invocations that are limited to once per day (usually using a Warlock Spell slot) will show up in the limited time section AND in your spell list (flagged as the source being and invocation)
• Invocations that are considered at will (like the Mage Armor one) will show up in the spell list (again, flagged) and ONLY if you have limited time invocations active, it will also show up there
  • Note if you only have invocations that are at will, the limited time section for invocations won't exist.
• Invocations that provide other benefits that are limited to uses/charges/once per rest ONLY show up in the limited time section.

Spells that are granted from a racial trait - whether it be an Aasimar, Tiefling, Yuan-ti, High-Elf, Forest Gnome, etc- these have always appeared in a separate section beneath the spell list AND in the limited time section (unless it's only granting a cantrip like the High-Elf or the Forest Gnome). In the sheets current state, this does mean extra scrolling, and remembering where things are. Remember we are putting out a new sheet that overhauls all of this, previews which have been shown in the last two Dev Streams.

On the topic of Mage Armor not updating - please keep in mind that D&D Beyond is not a video game, it's a tool to help with tabletop roleplaying. 8 hours for the first casting of Mage Armor might go past in 2 hours of play time, yet the 2nd time you cast it, it might be 5 mins (depending on the story line your DM, you, and fellow players are creating). DDB's character sheet doesn't know when your spell effects are going to end. There is the ability to manually modify your AC on the sheet already, if you want to update it.

I get that you feel the sheet isn't working the way you would like it to. I know there are other users that feel the same way. Please know that the DDB staff are listening to all feedback, and have collated a lot and worked it into many aspects of the updates and redesigns. I know Badeye and the rest of the team would love to have a working time machine to be able to get these updates out yesterday, however until then we will need to hold on until the updated sheet is released.