If Hasbro truly cared about it's users and wanted a thriving community, they wouldn't be forcing us into 2025 rules. I'm still in the middle of running a campaign using the 2014 rules and i'm finding more things disappearing and more broken links. I don't think they realize how long it takes to play a game or how tenacious gamers are.
Until a couple tears ago, I played ADVANCED. I skipped 3, 3.5, and 4th edition. If I have too, I will go back to using books to continue playing. At that point, they will lose my yearly subscription fee and any more books I would've added to my Beyond account. Are their servers so full that they can't fit the 2014 rules in there anymore?
If they had any sense, they'd let 2014 continue to run, but I have little hope of that.
If you ignore the Unarmed Strike options & the visible Weapon Mastery Properties because they don't affect you or your players, & don't click on them, as well as remember to turn on Legacy content & Expanded Rules in the Character Creator, suddenly the 2024 rules aren't "forced" on you.
Are any of these a problem? Or is it something else?
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.
If you ignore the Unarmed Strike options & the visible Weapon Mastery Properties
... and the missing 2014 initiative rules, and the way 2024 rules are listed first on other conditions, and the inability to turn off/hide 2024 rules in the builder etc. I could go on, but we both know that it is currently impossible to play with just the 2014 rules. You are forced to filter out all the 2024 stuff yourself, and as DM deal with players asking what (x) is then having to explain that it's not relevant to the game you're playing.
They should have implemented a switch on the character builder to let you choose 2014/2024/mixed rules and only showed the relevant rules on the sheet, but they have chosen not to. DDB is a paid service that is supposed to make the game easier to run, forcing their customers to ignore the rules on the sheet and reference the compendium/physical books is the opposite of that.
I don't know why you keep popping up to try and defend the status quo, but the current setup no longer properly supports 2014 play, and the DDB clearly have no intention of fixing it. Unless that changes you will continue to see complaints. Dismissing peoples concerns just because you are happy with them is not a good look.
Adding a way to 'toggle' between the different year versions (2014/2024) is actually a good idea! Maybe you could add a poll to this thread and people could vote on it? If it got enough votes maybe it would be noticed, and they would implement it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're interested in learning about them, here are my Endless Dark characters: Alexius, Suixela, and Tortuga.
It is possible to play with just 2014 so you are not "forced" to play 2024.
However, it is very inconvenient to play just 2014. The Maps tool automatically uses 2024 initiative rules requiring extra, awkward, steps to use 2014 initiative. Some tooltip rules list both rules with 2014 ones at the bottom. Items are replaced with 2024 versions meaning it is awkward to use the 2014 versions (like the lance) which have different stats - necessitating custom adjustments on the sheet.
When selecting class the 2024 classes are listed first and just called "Core Rules" instead of "2024 Core Rules", and it is not clear that people need to scroll down to "2014 Core Rules" to select the right class. This had resulted in A LOT of confusion and "why is the subclass missing?!" posts.
The way "backwards compatibility" has been implemented is very clunky and awkward.
And so on.
And this is deliberate.
There are problems with "just 2014 only" playstyles because this site is focused on 2024 now. Proper 2014 support is no longer the focus - and this does cause problems. Being dismissive of this when people point this out is not helpful to the discussion. Now, I'm not gonna be anti-D&DB about it because I remember the interviews with original devs about the point of D&D Beyond. So, the 2024 focus is not surprising and is fully within my expectations. D&D Beyond is meant to focus on the current and updated rules, which is now 2024. The 2014 stuff is legacy and will eventually stop being sold altogether - the amount of people using D&D beyond for 2014 only games will eventually diminish and will stop being the profitable demographic.
System-agnostic sites will fair better with people playing older rules and so those sites, like Roll20 and others, will have better support for legacy-only rulesets. This is why Roll20 lets you easily limit to 2014 only rules - their business model projections support it because they also get pathfinder players, cypher players, daggerheart players, marvel players, werewolf-the apocalypse players, vampire the masquerade players, and others, D&D Beyond's doesn't.
Most people don't understand this, so to them D&D Beyond's awkwardness about having 2014 only games is nothing but a shortsighted hinderance to players.
D&D Beyond is intending to be 2024-only. It would have been already, if we hadn't complained. If it wasn't for us complaining, you wouldn't have the option to use 2014 versions of some spells, subclasses, magic items, etc. They were originally going to be fully replaced and you would have needed to recreate, from scratch, using homebrew to use those old 2014 versions. So when people complain about the lack of ease and flexibility of using 2014 only rules, maybe don't be dismissive? If it wasn't for such complaints 2014 support wouldn't even be available.
It's just unfortunate that these complaints will not do anything - D&D Beyond will be moving to 2024-only focus now. And as frustrating and annoying that is for players, the business analyst in me understands that as a mono-system toolset it is actually the only way D&D Beyond remains profitable.
If you want to play 2024 or a mix of 2024 and 2014 then D&D Beyond is best. If you want to play 2014 only my only advice, as it is for anyone wanting to play older rules, is try a different toolset. Roll20 is my usual suggestion because I know it fully supports 2014-only, 4th and 3.5 edition rulesets (and is an official WotC licensed toolset).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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 totally agree with you, it's frustrating to see resources that we still actively use disappear. I also have an ongoing campaign with the 2014 rules, and I don't plan to shake everything up to keep up with Hasbro. We should be able to choose our edition, especially if we pay a subscription. The fact of deleting content gives the impression that they are pushing us towards change without respect for everyone's rhythm. Fortunately, the paper books are still there, and I plan to keep them.
I totally agree with you, it's frustrating to see resources that we still actively use disappear. I also have an ongoing campaign with the 2014 rules, and I don't plan to shake everything up to keep up with Hasbro. We should be able to choose our edition, especially if we pay a subscription. The fact of deleting content gives the impression that they are pushing us towards change without respect for everyone's rhythm. Fortunately, the paper books are still there, and I plan to keep them.
What resources have disappeared? What content has been deleted?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
Seems they've been listening to the community. Just went to make a character for a one shot and there's a new option to disable the core rules. It seems like it disables the 2024 rules as people have been asking for.
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.
Seems they've been listening to the community. Just went to make a character for a one shot and there's a new option to disable the core rules. It seems like it disables the 2024 rules as people have been asking for.
Amusingly, if you disable EVERY source except Partnered Content, all I can roll is a Blood Hunter.
But it's definitely a worthwhile change that's been made. Even though I am now fully 2024 adapted myself, thankyou D&D Beyond Staff for bucking the corporate push, and providing the options that continue to make the site the best choice for running D&D of all flavours.
Now... could we get 2024 support for Homebrew? 😜 I need to make my Origin/Boon/Fighting Style Feats and set my Background ASI's.
Seems they've been listening to the community. Just went to make a character for a one shot and there's a new option to disable the core rules. It seems like it disables the 2024 rules as people have been asking for.
Nice one! If this is the case I will be happily eating my words and reenabling my subscription.
There's no "if this is the case", it is the case. I was making a one-shot character and was able to not just disable 2024 content, but basically all content and the character builder told me off. (Well, it didn't, it just told me my selection returned no options and I needed to enable more sources.) It works really nicely and seems robust
Seems they've been listening to the community. Just went to make a character for a one shot and there's a new option to disable the core rules. It seems like it disables the 2024 rules as people have been asking for.
Nice one! If this is the case I will be happily eating my words and reenabling my subscription.
There's no "if this is the case", it is the case. I was making a one-shot character and was able to not just disable 2024 content, but basically all content and the character builder told me off. (Well, it didn't, it just told me my selection returned no options and I needed to enable more sources.) It works really nicely and seems robust
There's a couple of bugs due to decisions made about "If there's no change, it's 2024 now", but I'm sure those will be ironed out pretty quickly and people can actually go ahead with making new 2014 characters unhindered.
I've been told that armor and weapons should be available to folks who have the new rules disabled now. Might take a refresh or cache clear. Thanks for bringing it to our attention! The team is working through the hiccups.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Your Friendly Neighborhood Community Manager (she/her) You can call me LT. :)
CM Hat On| CM Hat Off Generally active from 9am - 6pm CDT [GMT-5]. Thank you for your patience if you message me outside of those hours!
If Hasbro truly cared about it's users and wanted a thriving community, they wouldn't be forcing us into 2025 rules. I'm still in the middle of running a campaign using the 2014 rules and i'm finding more things disappearing and more broken links. I don't think they realize how long it takes to play a game or how tenacious gamers are.
Until a couple tears ago, I played ADVANCED. I skipped 3, 3.5, and 4th edition. If I have too, I will go back to using books to continue playing. At that point, they will lose my yearly subscription fee and any more books I would've added to my Beyond account. Are their servers so full that they can't fit the 2014 rules in there anymore?
If they had any sense, they'd let 2014 continue to run, but I have little hope of that.
End Rant.
If you ignore the Unarmed Strike options & the visible Weapon Mastery Properties because they don't affect you or your players, & don't click on them, as well as remember to turn on Legacy content & Expanded Rules in the Character Creator, suddenly the 2024 rules aren't "forced" on you.
Are any of these a problem? Or is it something else?
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.
... and the missing 2014 initiative rules, and the way 2024 rules are listed first on other conditions, and the inability to turn off/hide 2024 rules in the builder etc. I could go on, but we both know that it is currently impossible to play with just the 2014 rules. You are forced to filter out all the 2024 stuff yourself, and as DM deal with players asking what (x) is then having to explain that it's not relevant to the game you're playing.
They should have implemented a switch on the character builder to let you choose 2014/2024/mixed rules and only showed the relevant rules on the sheet, but they have chosen not to. DDB is a paid service that is supposed to make the game easier to run, forcing their customers to ignore the rules on the sheet and reference the compendium/physical books is the opposite of that.
I don't know why you keep popping up to try and defend the status quo, but the current setup no longer properly supports 2014 play, and the DDB clearly have no intention of fixing it. Unless that changes you will continue to see complaints. Dismissing peoples concerns just because you are happy with them is not a good look.
I agree, I am not planning on switching to the 2024 rules any time soon, I want to still have access to it here.
Adding a way to 'toggle' between the different year versions (2014/2024) is actually a good idea! Maybe you could add a poll to this thread and people could vote on it? If it got enough votes maybe it would be noticed, and they would implement it.
If you're interested in learning about them, here are my Endless Dark characters: Alexius, Suixela, and Tortuga.
And here is the updated version of my quiz: Quiz.
Here is my background music for combat: On Soundcloud.
Life Advice: If someone annoys you, just cast Prestidigitation on them and soil their pants.
And here is my extended signature: (^v^)
It is possible to play with just 2014 so you are not "forced" to play 2024.
However, it is very inconvenient to play just 2014. The Maps tool automatically uses 2024 initiative rules requiring extra, awkward, steps to use 2014 initiative. Some tooltip rules list both rules with 2014 ones at the bottom. Items are replaced with 2024 versions meaning it is awkward to use the 2014 versions (like the lance) which have different stats - necessitating custom adjustments on the sheet.
When selecting class the 2024 classes are listed first and just called "Core Rules" instead of "2024 Core Rules", and it is not clear that people need to scroll down to "2014 Core Rules" to select the right class. This had resulted in A LOT of confusion and "why is the subclass missing?!" posts.
The way "backwards compatibility" has been implemented is very clunky and awkward.
And so on.
And this is deliberate.
There are problems with "just 2014 only" playstyles because this site is focused on 2024 now. Proper 2014 support is no longer the focus - and this does cause problems. Being dismissive of this when people point this out is not helpful to the discussion. Now, I'm not gonna be anti-D&DB about it because I remember the interviews with original devs about the point of D&D Beyond. So, the 2024 focus is not surprising and is fully within my expectations. D&D Beyond is meant to focus on the current and updated rules, which is now 2024. The 2014 stuff is legacy and will eventually stop being sold altogether - the amount of people using D&D beyond for 2014 only games will eventually diminish and will stop being the profitable demographic.
System-agnostic sites will fair better with people playing older rules and so those sites, like Roll20 and others, will have better support for legacy-only rulesets. This is why Roll20 lets you easily limit to 2014 only rules - their business model projections support it because they also get pathfinder players, cypher players, daggerheart players, marvel players, werewolf-the apocalypse players, vampire the masquerade players, and others, D&D Beyond's doesn't.
Most people don't understand this, so to them D&D Beyond's awkwardness about having 2014 only games is nothing but a shortsighted hinderance to players.
D&D Beyond is intending to be 2024-only. It would have been already, if we hadn't complained. If it wasn't for us complaining, you wouldn't have the option to use 2014 versions of some spells, subclasses, magic items, etc. They were originally going to be fully replaced and you would have needed to recreate, from scratch, using homebrew to use those old 2014 versions. So when people complain about the lack of ease and flexibility of using 2014 only rules, maybe don't be dismissive? If it wasn't for such complaints 2014 support wouldn't even be available.
It's just unfortunate that these complaints will not do anything - D&D Beyond will be moving to 2024-only focus now. And as frustrating and annoying that is for players, the business analyst in me understands that as a mono-system toolset it is actually the only way D&D Beyond remains profitable.
If you want to play 2024 or a mix of 2024 and 2014 then D&D Beyond is best. If you want to play 2014 only my only advice, as it is for anyone wanting to play older rules, is try a different toolset. Roll20 is my usual suggestion because I know it fully supports 2014-only, 4th and 3.5 edition rulesets (and is an official WotC licensed toolset).
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.
Honestly, the reason the 2 aren't separate is Hasbro being cheap, & refusing to hire people to get this site to be better on multiple levels.
I also blame Chris Cao treating DND like software.
But it's not the complaint about inconvenience itself I find questionable.
It's the culture behind the complaints & the puffery & bandwagoning employed to justify a quite reasonable position that doesn't need exaggeration.
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.
I totally agree with you, it's frustrating to see resources that we still actively use disappear.
I also have an ongoing campaign with the 2014 rules, and I don't plan to shake everything up to keep up with Hasbro.
We should be able to choose our edition, especially if we pay a subscription.
The fact of deleting content gives the impression that they are pushing us towards change without respect for everyone's rhythm.
Fortunately, the paper books are still there, and I plan to keep them.
Mini Militia App Lock
What resources have disappeared? What content has been deleted?
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.
Seems they've been listening to the community. Just went to make a character for a one shot and there's a new option to disable the core rules. It seems like it disables the 2024 rules as people have been asking for.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Holy shit, I never expected they would do that!
Well done, D&D Beyond! Thank you for listening!
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.
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Amusingly, if you disable EVERY source except Partnered Content, all I can roll is a Blood Hunter.
But it's definitely a worthwhile change that's been made. Even though I am now fully 2024 adapted myself, thankyou D&D Beyond Staff for bucking the corporate push, and providing the options that continue to make the site the best choice for running D&D of all flavours.
Now... could we get 2024 support for Homebrew? 😜 I need to make my Origin/Boon/Fighting Style Feats and set my Background ASI's.
There's no "if this is the case", it is the case. I was making a one-shot character and was able to not just disable 2024 content, but basically all content and the character builder told me off. (Well, it didn't, it just told me my selection returned no options and I needed to enable more sources.) It works really nicely and seems robust
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
There's a couple of bugs due to decisions made about "If there's no change, it's 2024 now", but I'm sure those will be ironed out pretty quickly and people can actually go ahead with making new 2014 characters unhindered.
Surprising and welcome news! While I personally much prefer 2024, I'm still in ongoing campaigns using the 2014 rules.
2014 Core Rules doesn't give us any languages to pick from. You have to keep Core Rules on to get any of the main languages to show up to be selected.
How to: Replace DEX in your AC | Jump & Suffocation stats | Build a (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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I've been told that armor and weapons should be available to folks who have the new rules disabled now. Might take a refresh or cache clear. Thanks for bringing it to our attention! The team is working through the hiccups.
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You can call me LT. :)
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Thank you for your patience if you message me outside of those hours!
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