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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This is my concern. It's a major plus that D&D Beyond are including so much Third Party content......but having to implement it as a priority over fixing other core features that still don't work isn't encouraging. Just take the Player's Handbook 2024 - look at how many features are still not implemented. That's not even mentioning the old Player's Handbook (still can't apply a Sacred Weapon to a Devotion Paladin, 8 years after D&D Beyond was created).
I would rather a fix be put in for applying Agonizing Blast for the 1,000's of Warlock Players than yet another piece of Third Party content that will release with other features and bugs that will need fixing. The Development Team is stretched enough with multiple bugs from already existing products and having to implement new official D&D content that releases over time. Anyone who remembers how long it took D&D Beyond to correctly label digital dice that applied Healing will know how long it takes for features to be implemented. Adding more and more buggy Third Party content slows done the already slow progress that the D&D Beyond team are in charge of.
No shade towards those that love Third Party content. Speaking as someone who loves the Critical Role content, I would honestly prefer attention be spent fixing broken features from its own Core Rulebooks and the Tools this website advertises like the Encounter Builder.
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
Don’t worry it’ll get better, sooner or later something’s going to snap, and the screaming is going to be the silent whisper of millions of community members going….
“They were only half right, we made sure we won”
" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
The big problem is that for a digital native, buying physical, unsearchable books is an annoying crutch. And legally buying most of the books digitally is ONLY available here. So either we go to other systems, or we buy digital copies on D&D Beyond. We can't even buy PDFs any more.
Roll20 also has most if not all of the official books available for sale. Possibly other places as well.
Repeats tying yourself to a platform with issues.
PDFs were the old solution to this, and it's a real shame they stopped, but walking away from DnD Beyond to Roll20 is more likely a repeat of the same issues. There's no real way to have an indelible permanent electronic copy of the books, independent of ongoing WOTC control. Essentially we can never "own" an electronic copy. Only a license to access.
Add in that there seems to be NO customer service. I've had an ongoing problem with not receiving notifications.
Any request to Customer Service seems to fall on deaf ears
Exactly!
Core functionality should come first. Supporting third-party content is great, but not at the expense of fixing long-standing issues that affect everyday gameplay.
Feats - Hermit Crab & Superhero Landing
Item - Alertness & Skeleton Key
I'm not sure in what manner you think table top players are being left behind... What features have you lost that you used to use that are tabletop focused? None? Ya none...
The issue is you have reached a point in your life you fear change which seems is natural... I'm not sure why it happens but when it does you have to rage against the change.
I see zero messages books won't be available in paper format... I see see messages VTTs will be mandatory.
The ONLY thing happening is that it is bring brought into the modern era... And for many of us it is better.
So you are old school like me you remember 2nd edition where you had a separate handbook for fighters etc and all these feats like 2 handed and ambidexterity etc etc? You know how easy it is to make sure everything you selected has the pre-reqs met and the modifiers applied correct for a new player in the digital format? You know why they simplified the game so much after 2nd ex? The complaints about the complexity... You had to know what feats had what pre-reqs and existed in which books etc etc and have all those books open and in front of you it was RIDICULOUS... I was ok with it but new gamers were not.
Now you share your books on the interface they accept and make a character and it checks and applies everything so adding classes, sub classes and feats etc doesn't add much complexity for a newbie but adds all kinds of flavor for peeps like us... They can make it complicated again.
So we use maps on a TV with a touch frame so anyone can move their people around... We like minis and still paint them sometimes but this is so much easier for the people who won't...
The is a part of me that misses rolling dice as doing it in the interface means one never rolls too far away and I never have to do the math...so it's very tempting to not roll physical dice... But I have the option to do so at any time in my group.
But I just don't feel like they have taken anything away from in person gaming... I think combat is speeding up and the game is becoming easier for newbies regardless of the number of options that exist.
I think many in my age bracket are over reacting to an issue that doesn't actually exist.
From what they are saying core features that arent supported cant be fixed using the old backend programming, which is why they are in the process of programming that anew. I see and hear about a lot of work on all areas of the plattform so I dont feel they are neglecting it. Still people buying 3rd party books expect to be able to use those on Beyond. As far as I can tell people working on that are not the same as those updating features which are again not the same as people working on the backend overhaul. They have also said they have been able to hire enough people to do those jobs. I think that many people underestimate what it takes to fix some of those core issues.
I am not sure wether there is a lack of adventures. We have two starter sets, an anthology, a fully fleshed out and many more sketched out adventures in the Forgotten Realms book, adventure sketches in the DMG and quite a few little free adventures on Beyond for 2024. That is all just the official releases and ignoring all the 3rd party stuff. Did we really have much more in 2016/2017. You can do custom background in the homebrew section.
Oh I'm aware - a lot has changed since my post from over a year ago that you responded to 😜
It's great that there has finally been some acknowledgement of the issues by the D&D Beyond staff about the deep seated issues within the old programming and their commitment to redesigning it from the ground up to make something better. It's just a shame that's it's still been over year since any significant overhaul, but progress takes time.
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
With all the problems Dnd beyond has, pricing is the worst, I think if i choose digital products I should not be charged the same price as physical. I have been strongly into Dnd but its getting out of hand with, pricing and content. I feel bad for any new players or dms getting into it. Compared to sites like Roll 20, and foundry, the Dnd beyond Vtt is laughably simple and a bit lacking. But it serves its purpose. But lower your digital prices and not just for holiday sales.
You're not though? Digital books on D&D Beyond are charged at $29.95, which is less than half the $69.95 MSRP and just less than half the more common shelf price of $49.95. And if bought with the physical books, they're only $10.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
In the UK it's pretty close. $30 (around £23) each for the main 3 rulebooks digitally on DDB, about £28 each for physical books from Amazon. The physical prices on DDB are irrelevant as they're deliberately inflated so as not to compete with gaming stores.
A la carte made this more palatable, you could buy the physical book then just the digital bits you wanted to use, but now that they expect you to pay full price for both it's a bit ridiculus. I'm aware of the logistical issues preventing it right now, but they really need to find some way of letting you buy digital at a steep discount if you own the physical book (or just bring back a la carte in some form).
Actually there was Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Rise of Tiamat, Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Curse of Strahd, Storm King's Thunder, and Tomb of Annihillation by the end of 2017.
But the community also complained that it was all big campaigns that had to do a lot of work to fill in the details, instead of compact direct adventures that you could slot into your own game, so they switched mixing in anthologies (starting with Tales of the Yawning Portal in 2017) or more sandboxy books. Vecna was the last 5e era module, and they seem to have decided that anologies and campaign settings with lots of plot ideas sell better, judging by their new offerings.
I'm interested to see when the first big "full campaign" book comes out for 5.5e, but it likely won't be at least until 2027.
Just in case you weren't aware, here's my comment on this thread on the subject of a la carte:
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
The physical prices aren't inflated, given they're below MSRP still. And comparing to Amazon seems a touch dishonest given they sell stuff at a loss. If you compare digital prices to anywhere but Amazon (Waterstones, Forbidden Planet, Blackwell's, Game before it closed down, Geek Retreat, or pretty much any local gaming stores) the physical prices are closer to the £40-£60 mark, so still significantly above digital.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here