How about another section or under combat for temporary/additional effects.
Then, the rest buttons can be consolidated into a "Time" menu where you can specify things like: 1/10/15/30 minutes passed, 1/2/4/8 hours passed, short rest, long rest, etc...
I hope you take my comments in the spirit that I wrote them - an attempt to explain our rationale for the design decisions we made and how much feedback and testing played into it - and not as anything personal. You do make some solid and valid points that we will add to our consideration as we parse feedback in the coming weeks.
Thanks!
Thoroughly appreciate the response - particularly because you posted hours ago that you were going to bed, so I'm sorry to have kept you from sleep!
I completely accept the comments in the spirit - and I'm sorry for having posted mine as a rant. I should have taken the time to phrase things more constructively. I want to make it clear that I thoroughly appreciate the work the team has done on this: no major product update is easy, and I can imagine how much effort has gone in behind the scenes. I may not personally agree with all the decisions made, but I absolutely respect the effort and passion of the team that's gone into the update, and think it's something you should collectively be proud of.
I'll dig through and respond, but this time I'll make sure that any criticism is more constructively expressed.
Right, so first things first, let me say that you guys have significantly improved a lot of the usability gripes I had at launch.
Re-worked and larger actions/skills etc pane is much better! In particular:
Thank you for bringing back the 'limited use' section - always liked being able to go there to easily find big abilities needed in an 'oh crap' moment.
The 'manage equipment/spells/etc' button is a great improvement over the little cog wheel. Thanks!
Out of curiosity, would it be feasible to have the headings in e.g. the equipment table be clickable, to sort ascending/descending by column, in the same way that search results for e.g. spells, items, etc are? It's probably unnecessary in most cases I admit, but again would go a long way towards making the digital sheet more versatile by using its digital nature, particularly for things like seeing what items weigh the most with regard to encumbrance.
This could potentially be useful in other tables, e.g. sorting skills by proficiency, or by modifier
Speaking of encumbrance, I don't suppose there's any chance of a toggle somewhere to change to metric units? Distances in feet I can get my head around; pounds, not so much.
One or two other minor suggestions for the actions pane:
A way to manually reset single use abilities from e.g. racial traits such as Infernal Legacy; currently seems like the only way to reset them at all is via a Long Rest Disregard, found the checkbox under Racial Traits; might be nice to have that accessible from the sidebar when you click on the particular single use ability from elsewhere. For example, if I click on the 'Darkness' spell provided by Infernal Legacy, as well as having 'Use' in the sidebar (which by the way is a clever distinction from 'Cast', that I greatly appreciate), possibly have the checkbox there too?
Love being able to sort by Concentration spells - would it be possible to sort by non-concentration too? And, pie in the sky maybe, but would it be possible to have a field that shows the last Concentration spell cast (maybe to the right of the spell level filter buttons), as a way to keep track of what you're concentrating on?
Filtering for Ritual spells still list spell slots, which seems a little redundant, but I assume that's an artefact of using the same headers, rather than an intentional design choice.
In terms of design more generally:
Mobile seems significantly better, but:
The floating menu button is still a problem, because it behaves in a way that is inconsistent with mobile design standards. Lateral navigation between equal 'depth' sections shouldn't use a floating button to open a menu; it should use the tabs or bottom navigation bar that're found in basically every mobile app ever. I know Google like their floating action button design (given that they popularised it with Material), but they specifically state it should be used for the primary action on a screen; navigation is managed very differently. Going by the standards, the character sheet should use the floating action button for something like "Cast a spell", while lateral navigation between sections should be managed via either tabs or a navigation bar.
This is a key part of what I was referring to when I said the redesign ignores web/mobile design standards - Google's Material design standards have been in place since 2014, and influence the 2 billion plus monthly active Android devices, as well as anyone and everyone that uses Google's web services too. It makes no sense to ignore a design behaviour that virtually every potential D&D player will have encountered at some point over the past four years.
Ongoing gripes:
Spell names in italics - I appreciate it's WotC's way of indicating what's a spell when used in a sentence, but in a list like this do they really need to be italicised, given that they are all clearly spells? Purely anecdata I admit, but I find italics are much harder to read at a glance.
The sheet still feels very lacking in colour and contrast - there's so much light grey and white space, and everything kind of feels washed out. I know, not exactly a technical term, but to me the overall feel of the sheet is still as though it's the black and white version for printing, that's stripped away all the colour and life.
Thoroughly support the use of colour to highlight the subheadings, and the subtle shaded grey around the subheadings when they're not selected! This was something I had planned to go into more detail on, because I've always loved how effectively colour and shading have been used in the lists of spells/monsters/equipment in the compendium (e.g. the shaded grey tab behind the filters, and the use of bold colours to show what can be interacted with, like the '+' to expand a list item, or the 'view details' button). I'd love to see more use of colour in this sort of way, as that would go a long way to mitigating my gripe about it feeling like a piece of paper - it'd be nice for example if when you click on something on the sheet and open the sidebar for more information, you got a subtle highlight on the item on the sheet to show that it was 'selected' in the sidebar.
Looking at the actual 5e paper sheet, it's clear just how much of the design comes from there - and to be honest, between that and the change of spell names to italics, I start to suspect that a driver behind the redesign was WotC insisting Beyond's character sheet design be brought back in line with the 'master brand'. Which is pure tinfoil-hat speculation of course, but it seems to make a certain sense.
The only real way I've found to 'fix' this has been messing with themes and backdrops to find a suitably colourful combination, but even then, the actual content could use more colour for differentiation. As a side note, the MToF backdrops are better for this, because they are actually a full backdrop; the default and XGtE backdrops only really fill the upper corners, presumably because that made more sense with the old design.
Pie in the sky:
The dream, as far as I see it, would be to have the layout of your character sheet page be completely customisable. Not exactly the best comparison, but I imagine something like how one alters the layout of widgets on Android home screens - drag and drop on a grid alignment, with a couple of different options for how to represent things. Unsurprisingly, I was one of those who spent hours and hours customising my user interface in World of Warcraft, to get it just right..
Probably ought to spend more time refining this, and I'm sure I've left things out, but the tl:dr is that it's nice to see that feedback has been implemented, and sorry again for the knee-jerk snark - hope this is more constructive than my previous feedback.
Speaking of encumbrance, I don't suppose there's any chance of a toggle somewhere to change to metric units? Distances in feet I can get my head around; pounds, not so much.
I would like the option for a total conversion to meters. Everything. It's much more convenient to me (and pretty much anywhere outside of the US). And 5 feet is 1.5 meters. I apologise to Mike Mearls in advance but if the ceiling is 10 feet and I tell my players it's 2 meters high, that feels cramped.
I would like the option for a total conversion to meters. Everything. It's much more convenient to me (and pretty much anywhere outside of the US). And 5 feet is 1.5 meters. I apologise to Mike Mearls in advance but if the ceiling is 10 feet and I tell my players it's 2 meters high, that feels cramped.
Yeah, I really wish they'd opted to use yards instead, since it is such an easy switch to meters.
really can't remember if this has been mentioned before, but i'm at my weekly game and one of my players has said "is there a way to see what spells i've got active?" as it's been a week since the last game and our memories are rubbish. we managed to remember that he had flame blade active but it took a while!
so, it would be great if we can keep a track on cast spells. click on cast and then it's listed somewhere as an active spell which can then be deselected when it's not active.
Speaking of encumbrance, I don't suppose there's any chance of a toggle somewhere to change to metric units? Distances in feet I can get my head around; pounds, not so much.
I would like the option for a total conversion to meters. Everything. It's much more convenient to me (and pretty much anywhere outside of the US). And 5 feet is 1.5 meters. I apologise to Mike Mearls in advance but if the ceiling is 10 feet and I tell my players it's 2 meters high, that feels cramped.
Well, since 10 feet is over 3 Meters, telling them it is 2 meters would feel a little cramped.
Speaking of encumbrance, I don't suppose there's any chance of a toggle somewhere to change to metric units? Distances in feet I can get my head around; pounds, not so much.
I would like the option for a total conversion to meters. Everything. It's much more convenient to me (and pretty much anywhere outside of the US). And 5 feet is 1.5 meters. I apologise to Mike Mearls in advance but if the ceiling is 10 feet and I tell my players it's 2 meters high, that feels cramped.
Well, since 10 feet is over 3 Meters, telling them it is 2 meters would feel a little cramped.
Mike Mearls said he converted 5 feet to 1 meter in a home game.
The floating menu button is still a problem, because it behaves in a way that is inconsistent with mobile design standards. Lateral navigation between equal 'depth' sections shouldn't use a floating button to open a menu; it should use the tabs or bottom navigation bar that're found in basically every mobile app ever. I know Google like their floating action button design (given that they popularised it with Material), but they specifically state it should be used for the primary action on a screen; navigation is managed very differently. Going by the standards, the character sheet should use the floating action button for something like "Cast a spell", while lateral navigation between sections should be managed via either tabs or a navigation bar.
I'm not convinced this is entirely accurate given that the character sheet is just one destination in the larger website. Navigation has to be considered in that context. Bottom navigation is for top level destinations so wouldn't make sense for just the character sheet and even ignoring that it is limited to 3-5 destinations. You didn't mention a navigation drawer but the site already has a drawer so that's immediately out as a quick navigation option within the character sheet. That just leaves tabs or a floating action button of related actions. Given that tabs are already used on various pages of the sheet I don't think tabs of tabs is an appealing option (plus I'm not a fan of scrolling tabs when each tab is of equal importance). Technically navigating to different pages of the character sheet IS the primary action as things stand today.
The floating menu button is still a problem, because it behaves in a way that is inconsistent with mobile design standards. Lateral navigation between equal 'depth' sections shouldn't use a floating button to open a menu; it should use the tabs or bottom navigation bar that're found in basically every mobile app ever. I know Google like their floating action button design (given that they popularised it with Material), but they specifically state it should be used for the primary action on a screen; navigation is managed very differently. Going by the standards, the character sheet should use the floating action button for something like "Cast a spell", while lateral navigation between sections should be managed via either tabs or a navigation bar.
I'm not convinced this is entirely accurate given that the character sheet is just one destination in the larger website. Navigation has to be considered in that context. Bottom navigation is for top level destinations so wouldn't make sense for just the character sheet and even ignoring that it is limited to 3-5 destinations. You didn't mention a navigation drawer but the site already has a drawer so that's immediately out as a quick navigation option within the character sheet. That just leaves tabs or a floating action button of related actions. Given that tabs are already used on various pages of the sheet I don't think tabs of tabs is an appealing option (plus I'm not a fan of scrolling tabs when each tab is of equal importance). Technically navigating to different pages of the character sheet IS the primary action as things stand today.
I don't really think there is a perfect solution.
Agree, I find the button easy to use. Not a huge learning curve at all. Badeye has also indicated they’re looking at reintroducing swiping too so stay tuned for that.
Well, since 10 feet is over 3 Meters, telling them it is 2 meters would feel a little cramped.
Mike Mearls said he converted 5 feet to 1 meter in a home game.
Just because Mike Mearls home ruled it that way doesn't mean you have to. I mean that seems like a pretty stupid home rule to me. If you want to use a rough estimate rule, use 5 feet = 1.5 meters (like you said earlier.)
Would it ever be possible to remove multiclass requirements in the builder? I have a fighter with a 10 charisma who is doing things in game that would make taking a level in Warlock appropriate but as the sheet currently is, I can't.
Would it ever be possible to remove multiclass requirements in the builder? I have a fighter with a 10 charisma who is doing things in game that would make taking a level in Warlock appropriate but as the sheet currently is, I can't.
Temporarily raise your CHR to 13, Multi, then lower the CHR again.
ritual casting feat, character sheet does not give an option to add those rituals. my suggestion would be to have it in the spells section, similar to how a class allows their spells to be added when multiclassing, but to be almost a hidden subclass... in my case, a sorc with wizard ritual casting could show the sorc spell list on the side bar, and add a section titled "ritual caster: wizard" and auto filter those spells as appropriate
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Warforged AC calculation is not correct on the character sheets. Prof modifier and new base are not applied correctly.
Hi Envaris,
I am only aware of one problem with Warforged AC calculation - it doesn't apply dex penalty due to low dex.
Please can you explain which option you selected for Integrated Protection, what AC you are seeing and what you expect to see?
edit: the issue with negative dex bonus has been resolved as well.
Hi,
If I understand correctly. If I am say a level 2 Fighter (so I have the light armour proficiency) and say a level 5 Monk. Say with 20 Dexterity and 16 Wisdom
Then the AC Calculation should be (I think): 10 (normal base AC for everyone) + 3 (proficiency modifier) + 1 (Darkwood Core {unarmored}) + 5 (Dexterity Modifier) +3 (Wisdom Modifier for Monk) =
= 10+3+1+5+3
= 22
DnDBeyond.com is showing 19 (missing the Monk Wisdom bonus).
Unless I've made an incorrect assumption somewhere?
Thanks!
Envaris
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Warforged AC calculation is not correct on the character sheets. Prof modifier and new base are not applied correctly.
Hi Envaris,
I am only aware of one problem with Warforged AC calculation - it doesn't apply dex penalty due to low dex.
Please can you explain which option you selected for Integrated Protection, what AC you are seeing and what you expect to see?
edit: the issue with negative dex bonus has been resolved as well.
Hi,
If I understand correctly. If I am say a level 2 Fighter (so I have the light armour proficiency) and say a level 5 Monk. Say with 20 Dexterity and 16 Wisdom
Then the AC Calculation should be (I think): 10 (normal base AC for everyone) + 3 (proficiency modifier) + 1 (Darkwood Core {unarmored}) + 5 (Dexterity Modifier) +3 (Wisdom Modifier for Monk) =
= 10+3+1+5+3
= 22
DnDBeyond.com is showing 19 (missing the Monk Wisdom bonus).
Unless I've made an incorrect assumption somewhere?
Thanks!
Envaris
Monk doesn't allow you to simply add Wisdom to your current AC, it gives you a new formula for calculating AC. That new formula is "10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier"
So you get to choose between using the Monk's calculation of AC or the Warforged calculation of AC, but not cherry-pick parts of both.
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How about another section or under combat for temporary/additional effects.
Then, the rest buttons can be consolidated into a "Time" menu where you can specify things like: 1/10/15/30 minutes passed, 1/2/4/8 hours passed, short rest, long rest, etc...
Check out all my important links here.
May we live in Less Interesting Times
Right, so first things first, let me say that you guys have significantly improved a lot of the usability gripes I had at launch.
A way to manually reset single use abilities from e.g. racial traits such as Infernal Legacy; currently seems like the only way to reset them at all is via a Long RestDisregard, found the checkbox under Racial Traits; might be nice to have that accessible from the sidebar when you click on the particular single use ability from elsewhere. For example, if I click on the 'Darkness' spell provided by Infernal Legacy, as well as having 'Use' in the sidebar (which by the way is a clever distinction from 'Cast', that I greatly appreciate), possibly have the checkbox there too?In terms of design more generally:
Probably ought to spend more time refining this, and I'm sure I've left things out, but the tl:dr is that it's nice to see that feedback has been implemented, and sorry again for the knee-jerk snark - hope this is more constructive than my previous feedback.
I would like the option for a total conversion to meters. Everything. It's much more convenient to me (and pretty much anywhere outside of the US). And 5 feet is 1.5 meters. I apologise to Mike Mearls in advance but if the ceiling is 10 feet and I tell my players it's 2 meters high, that feels cramped.
Check out all my important links here.
May we live in Less Interesting Times
Yeah, I really wish they'd opted to use yards instead, since it is such an easy switch to meters.
Tales from Candlekeep has a nice green double-up icon for advantage and red double-down icon for disadvantage that I think would work well for this.
really can't remember if this has been mentioned before, but i'm at my weekly game and one of my players has said "is there a way to see what spells i've got active?" as it's been a week since the last game and our memories are rubbish. we managed to remember that he had flame blade active but it took a while!
so, it would be great if we can keep a track on cast spells. click on cast and then it's listed somewhere as an active spell which can then be deselected when it's not active.
Well, since 10 feet is over 3 Meters, telling them it is 2 meters would feel a little cramped.
Mike Mearls said he converted 5 feet to 1 meter in a home game.
Check out all my important links here.
May we live in Less Interesting Times
I'm not convinced this is entirely accurate given that the character sheet is just one destination in the larger website. Navigation has to be considered in that context. Bottom navigation is for top level destinations so wouldn't make sense for just the character sheet and even ignoring that it is limited to 3-5 destinations. You didn't mention a navigation drawer but the site already has a drawer so that's immediately out as a quick navigation option within the character sheet. That just leaves tabs or a floating action button of related actions. Given that tabs are already used on various pages of the sheet I don't think tabs of tabs is an appealing option (plus I'm not a fan of scrolling tabs when each tab is of equal importance). Technically navigating to different pages of the character sheet IS the primary action as things stand today.
I don't really think there is a perfect solution.
Agree, I find the button easy to use. Not a huge learning curve at all. Badeye has also indicated they’re looking at reintroducing swiping too so stay tuned for that.
Just because Mike Mearls home ruled it that way doesn't mean you have to. I mean that seems like a pretty stupid home rule to me. If you want to use a rough estimate rule, use 5 feet = 1.5 meters (like you said earlier.)
Would it ever be possible to remove multiclass requirements in the builder? I have a fighter with a 10 charisma who is doing things in game that would make taking a level in Warlock appropriate but as the sheet currently is, I can't.
Temporarily raise your CHR to 13, Multi, then lower the CHR again.
ritual casting feat, character sheet does not give an option to add those rituals. my suggestion would be to have it in the spells section, similar to how a class allows their spells to be added when multiclassing, but to be almost a hidden subclass... in my case, a sorc with wizard ritual casting could show the sorc spell list on the side bar, and add a section titled "ritual caster: wizard" and auto filter those spells as appropriate
Warforged AC calculation is not correct on the character sheets. Prof modifier and new base are not applied correctly.
Assuming Fighter and Monk selected as classes. The Monk's wisdom bonus to AC doesn't seem to factored in.
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D&D Beyond FoundersHi Envaris,
I am only aware of one problem with Warforged AC calculation - it doesn't apply dex penalty due to low dex.Please can you explain which option you selected for Integrated Protection, what AC you are seeing and what you expect to see?
edit: the issue with negative dex bonus has been resolved as well.
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Hi,
If I understand correctly. If I am say a level 2 Fighter (so I have the light armour proficiency) and say a level 5 Monk. Say with 20 Dexterity and 16 Wisdom
Then the AC Calculation should be (I think): 10 (normal base AC for everyone) + 3 (proficiency modifier) + 1 (Darkwood Core {unarmored}) + 5 (Dexterity Modifier) +3 (Wisdom Modifier for Monk) =
= 10+3+1+5+3
= 22
DnDBeyond.com is showing 19 (missing the Monk Wisdom bonus).
Unless I've made an incorrect assumption somewhere?
Thanks!
Envaris
Want to see Virtual Table Top like no other before it built within DnDBeyond.com? Upvote the feature request. It's 2nd highest voted so far:
https://dndbeyond.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115008597088-Virtual-Tabletop-Gameboard
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D&D Beyond FoundersThe rules on armor class only allow you to use one armor calculation - you choose which one you want if you have multiple available to you.
In this case you choose one of:
They don't stack - you get to use the calculation as specified in the feature.
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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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https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/revenant-double-bladed-scimitar
This is missing as a selectable option as a Kensei weapon for Monks.
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Monk doesn't allow you to simply add Wisdom to your current AC, it gives you a new formula for calculating AC. That new formula is "10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Wisdom modifier"
So you get to choose between using the Monk's calculation of AC or the Warforged calculation of AC, but not cherry-pick parts of both.