I do wonder what happens in the dev and what's currently prioritized. Many of these suggested changes etc. seem like things that shouldn't take more than ½-1 days of dev time due to the way functions etc. in coding is structured. So unless you're sitting with hardcoded spaghetti code I dunno, it makes me wonder from time to time.
Small changes rarely take a small amount of time due to the fact that the development work is only one small part of it. Here's what a lot of people think the flow might be:
Someone on the team sees the feedback
Gets passed to a dev
Dev programs it
Pushes live
Done
The process is actually (at least for the company I work at) a lot more like:
Someone on the team sees the feedback
Feedback gets passed to the producer/project manager
Feedback gets triaged against all other feedback, pending tasks and deadlines (this can take a while)
Feedback is made into a task and assigned to either a developer, or if using agile flow, made ready to be picked by a developer
Dev gets the task (this can take several days/weeks depending on the backlog of existing tasks)
Dev programs it (potentially very short amount of work)
Dev commits changes for code review and merging to test branch
Senior dev(s) review code changes, approve commits, merge to test branch
Task created for QA to test changes. Goes into QA backlog (can take days)
QA begins testing of all areas the change could affect, including existing characters. This can take weeks.
Assuming no bugs are found (otherwise go back to step 4 with a bug fix task), the change is approved to the live environment
Changes are committed to be merged once it has live approval
Changes are merged usually at the same time each week
Changes go live
So for a relatively small bit of actual code change, it can take weeks or even months for it to go live depending on backlog of tasks, availability of devs, and if any bugs are found. Half a day of dev work can produce a month of total work.
Makes sense. I'm in development as well, although in the financial sector.
There was once a public roadmap, do we still have something similar? Even if things are prioritized, I suppose the output of "simple" changes should still be somewhat decent. It is certainly not our table to critize, only to provide feedback given the forum is available.
My experience is that elimination of technical debt and the fixing/updating of core features generates more value than new features, if the product is perceived as unpolished by the customer base. Personally I feel that Dndbeyond is a bit unpolished and would benefit from a focus on core features and bug fixes rather than new features.
You probably have a big timesink in implementing new content books released by WOTC, I imagine the player base expect this content available ASAP and that of course prevents a focus on core features.
The Dev updates are now the go-to place for feature progress; the public roadmap was proving to not be fit for purpose in providing accurate, up to date information. There is a new feedback flow coming as well, which was discussed in the last update.
D&D Beyond is always trying to remove tech-debt as much as possible, but that's a bit of a moving target with all the new and cool stuff that comes out with each book release; for example, we've got Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft dropping tomorrow. You can look at the feedback across the forums and see it's very conflicting; everyone wants the features they care about prioritised over the ones they don't, but people all care about different features.
I'm with Kaneda on this one. The amount of work going into features like game logs, the dice system, and other features revolving around playing the game don't make as much sense to me since there isn't a dedicated VTT for DnDBeyond. Those features are fully encapsulated in secondary services that players literally have to use to play DnD using DnDBeyond. It would make much more sense to spend that dev time on improving the user experience for the core product, character sheets.
And I'm not saying this as a free user. I have a max subscription and have for years and I own all the books through DnD Beyond, I would gladly pay more for a subscription with a VTT too, but until such a time I wish that the dev time was focused more on the character sheet functionality, specifically the customization system.
It seems so odd that this would be overlooked. I just want to make a custom Form of the Beast attack with a +1 from a magic item, but I can't increase it with a +1 override like the others and there isn't a way to augment it with a magic item. I mean, it's a custom action, not an 'almost custom' action.
I ran into a similar problem. I wanted to display Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade as Attacks (which is weirdly not possible?). I then tried to add a custom attack/action for them, but i always end up with my dex bonus added to the thunder/fire damage of the spell. I hope there is a better solution than making a magic item for each cantrip...
I ran into a similar problem. I wanted to display Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade as Attacks (which is weirdly not possible?). I then tried to add a custom attack/action for them, but i always end up with my dex bonus added to the thunder/fire damage of the spell. I hope there is a better solution than making a magic item for each cantrip...
Those cannot be displayed as attacks because they do not use their own spell attack. Both of those cantrips require the character to make a melee weapon attack. Suppose you have a a rapier and a rapier, +2, one of those grants a bonus to both the attack and damage rolls, the other does not. How would the cantrip know which to use? So instead the sheet is set up to roll the weapon attack and damage as normal for the weapon, and then simply roll the Cantrip damage separately on the Spells tab of the sheet.
However, if you still really, really wanna do it the way you have been attempting simply change the Action type from either “Weapon” or “Spell” to being a “General Action.” That will tell the character sheet to not add any modifier to the damage rolls. However, you will still need to make the weapon attack separately and roll the weapon damage separately as well.
The whole point here is that there is no way to modify the attack bonus. Only the damage as "fixed value". I am having this issue as well, because my character has a custom spell-like ability that adds proficiency+5 to the attack roll and there's no way to add that "+5" to the action.
Great Weapon Master attack action gives a -5 to hit and a +10 to damage. Having a custom attack for this would be preferable than jumping through two loopholes of custom magic items to get the penalty. Seems very silly to arbitrarily not have the capacity to add a penalty or bonus to hit.
You can. Tap the weapon on the Actions tab of the Character sheet, touch “Customize” and put -5 in to modify the Attack, and +10 in to modify the damage.
Small changes rarely take a small amount of time due to the fact that the development work is only one small part of it. Here's what a lot of people think the flow might be:
Someone on the team sees the feedback
Gets passed to a dev
Dev programs it
Pushes live
Done
The process is actually (at least for the company I work at) a lot more like:
Someone on the team sees the feedback
Feedback gets passed to the producer/project manager
Feedback gets triaged against all other feedback, pending tasks and deadlines (this can take a while)
Feedback is made into a task and assigned to either a developer, or if using agile flow, made ready to be picked by a developer
Dev gets the task (this can take several days/weeks depending on the backlog of existing tasks)
Dev programs it (potentially very short amount of work)
Dev commits changes for code review and merging to test branch
Senior dev(s) review code changes, approve commits, merge to test branch
Task created for QA to test changes. Goes into QA backlog (can take days)
QA begins testing of all areas the change could affect, including existing characters. This can take weeks.
Assuming no bugs are found (otherwise go back to step 4 with a bug fix task), the change is approved to the live environment
Changes are committed to be merged once it has live approval
Changes are merged usually at the same time each week
Changes go live
So for a relatively small bit of actual code change, it can take weeks or even months for it to go live depending on backlog of tasks, availability of devs, and if any bugs are found. Half a day of dev work can produce a month of total work.
I would like to point out this thread request started in 2018 and along with not being able to add negative integers to fixed value ie damage bonus. These to me seem like something the community has wanted for a while. Instead we get item notes deleted when containers like bag of holding were added. With OUT notice from my perspective. Was there a warning?
Great Weapon Master attack action gives a -5 to hit and a +10 to damage. Having a custom attack for this would be preferable than jumping through two loopholes of custom magic items to get the penalty. Seems very silly to arbitrarily not have the capacity to add a penalty or bonus to hit.
You can. Tap the weapon on the Actions tab of the Character sheet, touch “Customize” and put -5 in to modify the Attack, and +10 in to modify the damage.
Having to customize the action every time I want to switch between using great weapon master and not using it is a major pain.
Add a second copy of the item and customize it to -5 to hit and +10 to damage. Change the name to Weapon Name GWM. You might zero out the weight on this too since technically the same weapon just the the GWM calculations included in the dice rolls.
Great Weapon Master attack action gives a -5 to hit and a +10 to damage. Having a custom attack for this would be preferable than jumping through two loopholes of custom magic items to get the penalty. Seems very silly to arbitrarily not have the capacity to add a penalty or bonus to hit.
You can. Tap the weapon on the Actions tab of the Character sheet, touch “Customize” and put -5 in to modify the Attack, and +10 in to modify the damage.
Having to customize the action every time I want to switch between using great weapon master and not using it is a major pain.
Add a second copy of the item and customize it to -5 to hit and +10 to damage. Change the name to Weapon Name GWM. You might zero out the weight on this too since technically the same weapon just the the GWM calculations included in the dice rolls.
Not only 0 the weight, but I stick it in a container renamed as convenience hacks and hurry it at the bottom of my PC’s inventory so it’s like it’s not even there.
From the moderator's feedback, I'm guessing that this issue isn't on the developer's radar at all, despite it being both a bug (fixed value isn't) and a really, really easy feature request (add one more box for attack mod, plus maybe a checkbox for 'magic'). (I am a commercial software developer - of much more complex software than this. Please just don't with the patronizing 'it's not that easy' excuse list. If you don't want user feedback, just say so - and suffer the consequences.)
It'd be really nice if the response to user suggestions was, "We'll consider it - your voice has been heard," instead of, "Why can't you just be happy with what we've given you?"
We've got a house rule about Mounted Combat where a rider is allowed to spend their action instructing a trained mount to perform an attack -- for example, a Warhorse' Hooves attack. But there's no way to add this as a proper attack action with the correct To Hit value.
It's bizarre that you can customize a standard weapon attack with a To Hit override, yet on a completely custom attack action, there's no such option, instead you're restricted to the player's ability score and proficiency bonus.
We've got a house rule about Mounted Combat where a rider is allowed to spend their action instructing a trained mount to perform an attack -- for example, a Warhorse' Hooves attack. But there's no way to add this as a proper attack action with the correct To Hit value.
It's bizarre that you can customize a standard weapon attack with a To Hit override, yet on a completely custom attack action, there's no such option, instead you're restricted to the player's ability score and proficiency bonus.
Maybe I'll just customize an existing weapon.
They could just add the custom action for damage only (2d6+4) and when rolling for attack just use the custom dice to roll the 1d20 and add 6.
Or run things through the Encounter Builder / Combat Tracker on here adding the warhorse as a NPC so you can click and roll things that way.
You can also make a char using builder and have stats the same as the warhorse and add custom actions that way since they'll now be based on warhorse stats so to-hit and such will matchup.
--
Not as ideal, sure but these methods will work for saving time.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I'd rather they put in the small amount of effort to fix the problem. But it's been a couple of years now since D&D Beyond cared about improving the core player tools, even for glaring omissions like this. There are so many threads like this that have been utterly ignored by the devs, some for years.
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Damn, this is unfortunate, seems like such an easy solution too.
Still no ability to modify custom 'to hit' on a custom attack seems really strange.
I do wonder what happens in the dev and what's currently prioritized. Many of these suggested changes etc. seem like things that shouldn't take more than ½-1 days of dev time due to the way functions etc. in coding is structured. So unless you're sitting with hardcoded spaghetti code I dunno, it makes me wonder from time to time.
Love the site though.
Altrazin Aghanes - Wizard/Fighter
Varpulis Windhowl - Fighter
Skolson Demjon - Cleric/Fighter
Small changes rarely take a small amount of time due to the fact that the development work is only one small part of it. Here's what a lot of people think the flow might be:
The process is actually (at least for the company I work at) a lot more like:
So for a relatively small bit of actual code change, it can take weeks or even months for it to go live depending on backlog of tasks, availability of devs, and if any bugs are found. Half a day of dev work can produce a month of total work.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Makes sense. I'm in development as well, although in the financial sector.
There was once a public roadmap, do we still have something similar? Even if things are prioritized, I suppose the output of "simple" changes should still be somewhat decent. It is certainly not our table to critize, only to provide feedback given the forum is available.
My experience is that elimination of technical debt and the fixing/updating of core features generates more value than new features, if the product is perceived as unpolished by the customer base. Personally I feel that Dndbeyond is a bit unpolished and would benefit from a focus on core features and bug fixes rather than new features.
You probably have a big timesink in implementing new content books released by WOTC, I imagine the player base expect this content available ASAP and that of course prevents a focus on core features.
Altrazin Aghanes - Wizard/Fighter
Varpulis Windhowl - Fighter
Skolson Demjon - Cleric/Fighter
The Dev updates are now the go-to place for feature progress; the public roadmap was proving to not be fit for purpose in providing accurate, up to date information. There is a new feedback flow coming as well, which was discussed in the last update.
D&D Beyond is always trying to remove tech-debt as much as possible, but that's a bit of a moving target with all the new and cool stuff that comes out with each book release; for example, we've got Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft dropping tomorrow. You can look at the feedback across the forums and see it's very conflicting; everyone wants the features they care about prioritised over the ones they don't, but people all care about different features.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I'm with Kaneda on this one. The amount of work going into features like game logs, the dice system, and other features revolving around playing the game don't make as much sense to me since there isn't a dedicated VTT for DnDBeyond. Those features are fully encapsulated in secondary services that players literally have to use to play DnD using DnDBeyond. It would make much more sense to spend that dev time on improving the user experience for the core product, character sheets.
And I'm not saying this as a free user. I have a max subscription and have for years and I own all the books through DnD Beyond, I would gladly pay more for a subscription with a VTT too, but until such a time I wish that the dev time was focused more on the character sheet functionality, specifically the customization system.
It seems so odd that this would be overlooked. I just want to make a custom Form of the Beast attack with a +1 from a magic item, but I can't increase it with a +1 override like the others and there isn't a way to augment it with a magic item. I mean, it's a custom action, not an 'almost custom' action.
I ran into a similar problem. I wanted to display Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade as Attacks (which is weirdly not possible?). I then tried to add a custom attack/action for them, but i always end up with my dex bonus added to the thunder/fire damage of the spell. I hope there is a better solution than making a magic item for each cantrip...
Those cannot be displayed as attacks because they do not use their own spell attack. Both of those cantrips require the character to make a melee weapon attack. Suppose you have a a rapier and a rapier, +2, one of those grants a bonus to both the attack and damage rolls, the other does not. How would the cantrip know which to use? So instead the sheet is set up to roll the weapon attack and damage as normal for the weapon, and then simply roll the Cantrip damage separately on the Spells tab of the sheet.
However, if you still really, really wanna do it the way you have been attempting simply change the Action type from either “Weapon” or “Spell” to being a “General Action.” That will tell the character sheet to not add any modifier to the damage rolls. However, you will still need to make the weapon attack separately and roll the weapon damage separately as well.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Thanks, that did work now. I thought i tried that already, but apparently not.
The whole point here is that there is no way to modify the attack bonus. Only the damage as "fixed value". I am having this issue as well, because my character has a custom spell-like ability that adds proficiency+5 to the attack roll and there's no way to add that "+5" to the action.
Having to customize the action every time I want to switch between using great weapon master and not using it is a major pain.
I would like to point out this thread request started in 2018 and along with not being able to add negative integers to fixed value ie damage bonus. These to me seem like something the community has wanted for a while. Instead we get item notes deleted when containers like bag of holding were added. With OUT notice from my perspective. Was there a warning?
Add a second copy of the item and customize it to -5 to hit and +10 to damage. Change the name to Weapon Name GWM. You might zero out the weight on this too since technically the same weapon just the the GWM calculations included in the dice rolls.
How to: Replace DEX in AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Spell & class effect buff system | Wild Shape effect system | Tool Proficiencies as Custom Skills | Spells at higher levels explained | Superior Fighting/Martial Adept Fix | Snippet Codes Explored - Subclasses | Snippet Math Theory | Homebrew Weapons Explained
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Not only 0 the weight, but I stick it in a container renamed as convenience hacks and hurry it at the bottom of my PC’s inventory so it’s like it’s not even there.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
From the moderator's feedback, I'm guessing that this issue isn't on the developer's radar at all, despite it being both a bug (fixed value isn't) and a really, really easy feature request (add one more box for attack mod, plus maybe a checkbox for 'magic'). (I am a commercial software developer - of much more complex software than this. Please just don't with the patronizing 'it's not that easy' excuse list. If you don't want user feedback, just say so - and suffer the consequences.)
It'd be really nice if the response to user suggestions was, "We'll consider it - your voice has been heard," instead of, "Why can't you just be happy with what we've given you?"
We've got a house rule about Mounted Combat where a rider is allowed to spend their action instructing a trained mount to perform an attack -- for example, a Warhorse' Hooves attack. But there's no way to add this as a proper attack action with the correct To Hit value.
It's bizarre that you can customize a standard weapon attack with a To Hit override, yet on a completely custom attack action, there's no such option, instead you're restricted to the player's ability score and proficiency bonus.
Maybe I'll just customize an existing weapon.
They could just add the custom action for damage only (2d6+4) and when rolling for attack just use the custom dice to roll the 1d20 and add 6.
Or run things through the Encounter Builder / Combat Tracker on here adding the warhorse as a NPC so you can click and roll things that way.
You can also make a char using builder and have stats the same as the warhorse and add custom actions that way since they'll now be based on warhorse stats so to-hit and such will matchup.
--
Not as ideal, sure but these methods will work for saving time.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I'd rather they put in the small amount of effort to fix the problem. But it's been a couple of years now since D&D Beyond cared about improving the core player tools, even for glaring omissions like this. There are so many threads like this that have been utterly ignored by the devs, some for years.