Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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When in the entire history of the game, going right back to 0e, has this been any different? Casters used to be squishier at level 1 sure, and there were no cantrips yet, but once they got established, it was the same thing.
Is your argument that because they've never got something right, they shouldn't bother even trying? Because these are design teams being paid actual money to work on this stuff.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
In a 50 year old, still very popular game? They clearly have gotten enough right to get this far.
Edit: And this is a luxury product. It is not like anyone will end up with malnutrition from any imbalances. Nor will their homes be too cold or too hot or the air or water somehow toxic. Perspective here. If you do not like the product, you are not obligated to buy it. Never have been.
I'm sorry, but... what are you talking about? Your existing purchases aren't going anywhere. DDB isn't going anywhere. D&D isn't going anywhere
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I mean, I do agree with what you're saying - it certainly isn't life or death here - but I don't think anyone's arguing that it is. I don't however agree that we can't critique a product, simply by merit of it being a luxury product.
And even then, I'm not complaining so much as pointing out they clearly don't feel passionately about a balanced system. It isn't the robust QA process that prevents them from releasing content for players to use - it's a lack of content that prevents that.
And even then, I'm not bemoaning the lack of content in and of itself - I'm Just saying - that if WOTC want players to buy more stuff (One of their core goals) then they should release books with enough content they will use to tempt them, and not some of the player-option-anaemic books they have, as of late.
Edit: I should clarify, I am a DM, and I own most of the books (Up until about the last year - bit light on the newest ones I have to admit).
But if we look at a recent example - The Book of Many Things. $30 - and total player options? 2 backgrounds, 1 feat, 3 spells. What player would spend $30 for those? If they were a completionist and wanted the full book? sure. But that's a relatively small number of the player base.
Add in a few more spells, feats and subclasses - and it actually starts looking like a tempting buy (See Tashas, Xanathars, etc).
I was really wondering about their logic with the Deck of Many Things book. The one item most experienced DM's learn to avoid at all costs and they want to write a whole rule book around it? WHY??? sigh...
And you are right about player options being far greater as selling points than other things, but then there are the 'More settings' folks who might be an influence there?
And I admit, I'm a sucker for a good setting book too. I'm still itching for a Dark Sun book. I think WOTC would do well to understand the value of seeing what each side of their consumer base want - Some are after monsters, settings, lore, adventures - and others are after options, and mechanics. Its not perfectly split down the middle between DM's and Players there - but I suspect the demographics lean in that way.
To me, the A la carté stuff was the perfect solution to that - A book that holds almost no appeal to a player could still generate some revenue from a person, if there was a particular feat, background or spell that leapt out. I would even understand it more if they stopped the 'micro' buys, if the card transaction fees are really a big deal - and switched to mini-bundles for each book. Varying degrees of "Buy all the player options" or "buy all the Feats" as opposed to allowing people to buy specific spells.
That's far too reasonable an idea for WotC to implement.
In seriousness, I might've been fine with that provided they actually announce their damned changes to begin with.
Free Content: [Basic Rules],
[Phandelver],[Frozen Sick],[Acquisitions Inc.],[Vecna Dossier],[Radiant Citadel], [Spelljammer],[Dragonlance], [Prisoner 13],[Minecraft],[Star Forge], [Baldur’s Gate], [Lightning Keep], [Stormwreck Isle], [Pinebrook], [Caverns of Tsojcanth], [The Lost Horn], [Elemental Evil].Free Dice: [Frostmaiden],
[Flourishing], [Sanguine],[Themberchaud], [Baldur's Gate 3], [Lego].I don't mean they are disappearing -- they are still here, but, to me, non-game policies clearly dictate what's supported and what works going forward.
This instance with the marketplace demonstrates a willingness to change/upset something that has been working without notice. Say you signed up for hero subs which currently has unlimited character creation. Next week, you find this has been limited to 50 -- same price. It's a legal move, but there's something clearly incorrect about it, no? This isn't any different, piecemeal purchases was a "feature" of DDB that worked in the context of making parts of D&D easier to access and play, now it is gone, and I cannot extend new conveniences with new content (and who knows if older content will eventually face some kind of reckoning -- I don't see any meaningful guarantees long term).
So for me, and I suspect a decent number of others, that we'll stop [digital] purchases of things we liked for now (or maybe for good). Even if this is reversed, which is unlikely, I'd still be concerned if this might circle back as an issue. Rationally, it would make sense for me to invest in another platform that isn't so whimsical, and on some level this can't be good for WoTC. Or maybe the P&L they've projected says different and this is how the maximize revenue.
In the end, I don't think I can rely on parking DDB for a few months between games and have the confidence that I can come back and play the way that I want without the risk of how I buy things to be predicable.
Yeah, you keep talking in these apocalyptic terms, with zero evidence to support your assertions
DDB already has legacy content. Books that are no longer sold on the marketplace are still supported. There is no reason other than doomsaying to believe that will change post-5.5
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Please give us back the option to buy a-la carte. I have bought the books but i found no reason to buy them again digitally...
But i have done a lot of individual purchase for the charcater builder, it was very handy.
I hope the d&d beyond team is going to reconsider this choice.
If not i simply have no reason anymore to use d&d beyond
This mischaracterization of the Deck of Many Things discussion is a great example of something I touched on earlier.
One of the big problems with lack of communication from Wizards is the fact the burden of communication often falls on more discerning players who require actual evidence before engaging in rampant, barely supported speculation. That is a really hard job for the community. All the things that make official announcements hard - things are harder for players to do.
Let us look at this situation - the actual argument presented was not “DoMT is a one-off” but “DoMT has some oddities - it may be a one-off, it may not be, but the data point is so weird we cannot extrapolate anything. We will have to wait to see what happens with Vecna before any meaningful predictions have been made.” That second point is very different from the first… but that does not stop angry people, who do not want to admit they are engaging in unsupported speculation, from seeing “wait and see” as “this is unique.” It does not stop people with poor reading comprehension from misreading the entire thesis and reading “weird data point that MIGHT be a one off” as “this is a one off.” It does not stop scared from buying into the baseless speculation because human nature is to see things which support our fears rather than internalize anything which might say they are presently unwarranted.
Wizards has all those problems as well - angry, communications challenged, or afraid people misreading their statements… but Wizards at least has actual information about what the future holds. They do not have to make “wait and see, we as players do not have data” statements to cool down temperatures because Wizards actually has the data.
Wizards ultimately dropped the ball on the DoMT and ultimate removal of piecemeal transactions, but they do not need to drop the ball for future changes.
Already, there are conspiratorial, fear mongering, or otherwise just afraid posts worried about what might happen to “Legacy” content. The community is trying to keep the level of fear low, but the community can only speculate. And a lot we cannot speculate on because we do not have enough data to make a meaningful extrapolation.
Will old subclasses not yet superseded be considered “Legacy” even though they work for 5e, or will only things like Soul Knife get the “Legacy” tag since a new version will be out? If a book is moved to legacy, but contains content that has not been superseded, will there be some way to get that content? There was not with some of the Tiefling variants; will a better system be used moving forward? How will D&D Beyond update subclasses for Classes that might have some of the subclass feature levels moved about (like Warlock moving subclass choice to a higher level)?
Wizards might not know the answer to some of those questions - but they probably know the answer to others. The sooner we get those answers, even if they are only answers to some questions, the sooner some folks can stop worrying and some others can stop trying to keep folks from worrying—and can start planning for what the future might bring.
I, for one, at very excited about the 2024 revisions - it makes me a bit sad that others cannot share in my excitement because they are afraid of the uncertainty of what 2024 might bring. For their sake, I hope they get the answers they seek sooner, rather than later. The attention on this thread from the D&D Beyond team, ex post facto as it might be, has given me some optimism that communications might improve.
Honestly, I find that the decision hurts individual players more than anything.
I'd love to see a la carte purchases come back in some form or fashion, same with bundle purchases, because this 1. Helps players who only want certain things and certain classes and don't want to invest in the whole book, and who don't have a dm who can financially provide all of those books for content sharing purposes. 2. Bundles makes larger purchases more feasible for a dm. I wouldn't have half the library that I do if I hadn't purchased it from the legendary bundle.
Additionally, I have my complaints about the marketplace as is in general, but that's not why I came here to complain. I just wish I had more time to buy the Spacejammers stuff because I just got back into DnD last month and have been trying to catch back up from two years off. The sudden change without any wording is just bad business.
I really hope for this as well. While I never bought things à la carte, I certainly understand and appreciate why it's so important to so many people. I just wish that Wizards would be more open and transparent about decisions/directions whenever possible before changes, etc. happen.
The fact that they can't fix the martial/caster divide has nothing to do with their QA process, or the skills of their designers.
It is deeply baked into the basic assumptions of the game.
They actually did fix it. In 4e. It required a radical reworking of how things were, and we know how popular that was among large swathes of the player base. Any such attempt is going to need fundamental reimagining, and even if one can do it without hacking off a lot of the ways that people play D&D, it's going to end up feeling a lot less D&D-like.
I think I am seeing the problem with A La Carte purchases.
DM's didn't use them as much since they wanted the whole of the books to make adventures with.
Players just didn't want to purchase the whole book but instead just wanted the little part that let them make or use the new character features in each book. (I can see why and understand) And for the most part did not have a DM who could share content with them.
This was a problem originating with the people who made it happen. WOTC. This whole argument would not be happening if they never made them available in the first place. But the cat is out of the bag now so they should stick to their end of the agreement. They need to keep A La Carte purchases open for the now legacy content.
They have no need to keep the practice going for the new content. Its their choice.
I am now thinking they under valued the A La Carte content. And i bet they think the same after looking through the numbers. In essence they figured out the secret. Especially after seeing this thread.
The next question is will they ever make the a la carte option available for the new content?
Except that this is still denying customers one of the most convenient ways to access new content. Forcing people to pay full price for an entire book when they only want a sub-class or feat is idiotic, because if the choice is between $2-3 purchase or $50+ purchase they won't purchase anything.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
As a DM I did not, at the time, really need the digital fluff of a whole book until recently. Only thing that was really worth any value was the char gen aspects of the content.
The PHB back then had class and race single purchase options,( 1.99 a piece), or a sub bundle of all the classes. ( I believe it was $9.99 )
WotC is the ones removing the feature, but that feature was part of this site long before the acquisition, and is what caught WotC’s eye.
Now it is currently no longer offered. Okay, but will it return? Personally I don’t see them doing this till after the three book new rules are out, and the sales numbers back the need of a-la-carte return.
If the new rules flop, and yes at this point one does have to consider the possibility, how much worst will the D&D side of WotC/Hasbro become till the decision is made to ether scrap the site, ( I doubt it will just up and disappear, but then you never can know for sure till it happens ), or sale whatever is left of the corpse of what D&D was. ( I doubt this, the brand name alone is currently worth a pretty penny, and fairly well known)
WotC / Hasbro should be looking at the forums and be thinking, “Damn, maybe an announcement would have been better” but instead we got “Who cares, milk’em harder, and if we lose 20% of the community, milk the remaining even harder.”
Place dental impression upon the metallic gluteus Maximus.
This exactly. I'm not going to roll my eyes and go "Guess you got me, whatever" and buy the whole book the feature I want is in.
I'm just going to find it online and manually keep track of it myself instead.
Was it WotC that implemented piecemeal purchasing? Or was it an idea the original owners of dndbeyond had? I don’t know, but it’s not necessarily that WotC changed their mind. They may have never liked it, but originally didn’t care too much since it was someone else’s problem to figure out the coding and implementation, and credit card fees, while WotC just collected licensing fees. I’m not privy to the details of the license, or anything. Just kind of wondering aloud.
I’m no MBA, but from a business standpoint, the change can make some sense. If it was $2 for a subclass, and it’s $30 for the book, they only need to convince 1 of 15 (6.6%) people to buy the book instead and they about even out on the revenue side, even if the other 14 buy nothing. And then they save money on the expense side, for reasons lots of people have already mentioned. And of course, they have years of sales data to use when they run these numbers. Yeah, they piss some people off, but people have short memories, and even if 93% of people who’d been buying piecemeal stop buying, they come out ok.
I’m not saying I agree with the choice, to be clear. I’m looking at starting a campaign, and was considering picking up some feats and subclasses for my players, from books I have no interest in, so I’m with you all that this sucks. I’m just saying it kind of makes some sense as a business decision.