For those who don't want to read my full thoughts:
TL;DR: People have long requested full homebrew class creation on D&D Beyond, but it hasn’t happened — possibly due to technical or database limitations rather than just money or low priority. I suggest adding “Blank Classes” (with only a hit die and no features) so homebrewers can create custom classes without cluttering the site's official class database. This would help the community while keeping full class creation reserved for official content.
For those who want the full ramble:
A lot of people have asked for full homebrew class creation on D&D Beyond, but despite repeated requests, it seems either it’s not a high priority for the team — or they simply don't want to offer it (maybe for business reasons, though that seems a bit odd).
One thought I had is that the site appears to serialize classes — each class and subclass has a specific code embedded in the URL.
Not long ago, when the homebrew subclass creation tool broke again, I posted a guide with a temporary fix that worked for me. I shared it so other homebrew enthusiasts could continue creating content while the dev team worked on fixing the issue.
While discovering that workaround, I started thinking: maybe the issue isn’t about business priorities, but rather a technical/database limitation. After all, the devs can create classes with custom IDs (for example, the 2014 Barbarian is labeled 9-barbarian on the site).
If that's the case, here’s my suggestion: Introduce "Blank Classes" — basic templates that have no features except a hit die (one each for d4, d6, d8,d10 and maybe d12 — though just covering the main three would already be a huge help).
Having blank classes would open up huge creative possibilities for homebrewers. It would allow for fully custom classes in a way using existing homebrew races/species and subclasses without being forced to have the base class features.
This would support the homebrew community while keeping the core class database clean and reserved only for future official content releases (in a way it's a win for us and a win for the company so people are stil "forced" in a way to buy books on the site if they want to play a specific class like the Artificer or Illrigger class, if that's what they are looking for).
What do you all think? (I know, I know — maybe I’m just daydreaming — but I still have hope we'll get something like this one day!)
Part of the problem is the much-maligned "Spaghetti coding" leftover from the pre-buyout Curse era that, quite frankly, was never meant to be used by as many people as it is now, nor do the kinds of complex content that 3pp pull off ahead of the current Beyond programmers' means to compensate.
Another part is the current HB system is HEAVILY abused to sneak in Non-Partnered 3PP, & DMSGuild material, w/o the consent and/or compensation of its devs.
And the mass firings of Beyond staff(seemingly just before the storefront makeover & Sigil's dev kicked in) didn't help in the slightest.
Unless some SERIOUS re-budgeting occurs, a lot is going to fall through the cracks of priority for reasons I don't want to go into.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
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For those who don't want to read my full thoughts:
TL;DR:
People have long requested full homebrew class creation on D&D Beyond, but it hasn’t happened — possibly due to technical or database limitations rather than just money or low priority.
I suggest adding “Blank Classes” (with only a hit die and no features) so homebrewers can create custom classes without cluttering the site's official class database.
This would help the community while keeping full class creation reserved for official content.
For those who want the full ramble:
A lot of people have asked for full homebrew class creation on D&D Beyond, but despite repeated requests, it seems either it’s not a high priority for the team — or they simply don't want to offer it (maybe for business reasons, though that seems a bit odd).
One thought I had is that the site appears to serialize classes — each class and subclass has a specific code embedded in the URL.
Not long ago, when the homebrew subclass creation tool broke again, I posted a guide with a temporary fix that worked for me. I shared it so other homebrew enthusiasts could continue creating content while the dev team worked on fixing the issue.
While discovering that workaround, I started thinking: maybe the issue isn’t about business priorities, but rather a technical/database limitation. After all, the devs can create classes with custom IDs (for example, the 2014 Barbarian is labeled 9-barbarian on the site).
If that's the case, here’s my suggestion:
Introduce "Blank Classes" — basic templates that have no features except a hit die (one each for d4, d6, d8,d10 and maybe d12 — though just covering the main three would already be a huge help).
Having blank classes would open up huge creative possibilities for homebrewers. It would allow for fully custom classes in a way using existing homebrew races/species and subclasses without being forced to have the base class features.
This would support the homebrew community while keeping the core class database clean and reserved only for future official content releases (in a way it's a win for us and a win for the company so people are stil "forced" in a way to buy books on the site if they want to play a specific class like the Artificer or Illrigger class, if that's what they are looking for).
What do you all think? (I know, I know — maybe I’m just daydreaming — but I still have hope we'll get something like this one day!)
Monke see problem -> Monke hit problem with stick -> Problem fixed -> Monke happy
Part of the problem is the much-maligned "Spaghetti coding" leftover from the pre-buyout Curse era that, quite frankly, was never meant to be used by as many people as it is now, nor do the kinds of complex content that 3pp pull off ahead of the current Beyond programmers' means to compensate.
Another part is the current HB system is HEAVILY abused to sneak in Non-Partnered 3PP, & DMSGuild material, w/o the consent and/or compensation of its devs.
And the mass firings of Beyond staff(seemingly just before the storefront makeover & Sigil's dev kicked in) didn't help in the slightest.
Unless some SERIOUS re-budgeting occurs, a lot is going to fall through the cracks of priority for reasons I don't want to go into.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.