Hello everyone.

I am a long time RPG player who's coming back to D&D after a couple years hiatus. During this time I've played plenty of Pathfinder games, but for reasons I won't discuss here my group disbanded and I'm finding myself without a gaming party. Because of this I took interest in the play-by-post game format, and Google redirected me here.

First of all, let me say that this is a very nice and interesting site: the ability to easily create and store your playing characters in an easy to access place is great, and also the compendium is a fine tool to have to look for rules without having to search through many books (although having the physical manuals is always something I and many of other players will love). 

During my time as a Pathfinder player I used as an interactive help to store my character sheets a great application called Hero Lab, which some of you may already know. It's great to create and manage playing characters, and even monsters and NPCs encounters, but it lacks an online storage feature, and also has some other limitations which could make some people turn away from it.

Comparing DDB to HL, I noticed that something was a bit odd: the pricing. HL for Pathfinder is indeed very pricey, since if you want access to every source ever edited by Paizo Publishing (Pathfinder's editor) you'll have to spend a great deal of money (more than $500, in fact) but in the end you'll have access to a gargantuan amount of options. Still, if you want only some of those options - let's say, those you need to create an already well-defined character - you can buy those options (which are in fact game manuals) for a decent amount of money (I think the biggest "manuals" are sold for $12.99,  while the smallest ones are in 3-4 pieces bundles for $4.99).

Here on DDB the sources available are all very expensive, in my opinion. It's true, you not only get access to the options for character creation, but also to the compendium material, and this is kind of nice. But for a smaller amount of money I can buy a "manual" on HL and the PDF version of that manual from  paizo.com for $9.99, which is sometimes better, since PDF files could be used offline and copied to different devices, allowing other players in the same group to have access to that material.

I'm not writing this post to say that HL is better than DBB, or to argue that the prices here are unreasonably high, I'm just curious about where the money I'm probably going to spend on this site is going.

TL;DR: Why are the prices for DDB material so high?

Thank you in advance for your answers.

Hello Stormknight, thank you for your quick answer.

You are right, I should ask directly WotC about their pricing. I asked here first because maybe I was missing on some feature the digital version of the manuals could have that I didn't knew, but I see this is not the case.

It's not clear from your original post if you are aware that you can purchase piecemeal here at DDB.  So, if you have, as you say, "an already well-defined character," you can just buy the elements you need for that character.  In the marketplace, you can see the pricing for those by clicking on "More purchase options" on the book (or books) with the options you that interest you.   If you have access to the print books and have the time, you can even homebrew the options you need for free.  The Buyer's Guide in my signature might be helpful to you if you want to get a better grasp of the various options for purchasing the content you need here.

I've seen that options, and is indeed interesting, but I still find those prices a bit high. I'm not saying they're too high, they are still somewhat reasonable, I just wonder why they are more expensive than their competitor's products.

I'm confused; you said everything for Pathfinder at Hero Lab is $500.  The Legendary Bundle (i.e. every official 5e "book") is currently just under $400.  So how is DDB more expensive?

As far as comparing the other books, I don't know enough about Pathfinder to know page counts, number of character options, etc. in those packages.  How did their print prices compare to the print books for 5e?  I have a feeling you may be comparing apples and oranges.

That said, only you can decide if the services offered here serve your needs enough to be worth the cost, and/or if the your budget can bear the costs.  Some material is available for free, so you could always give 5e and the services here a try before spending any money;  For $10-12, you could create a character or two with purchasable options if you knew what you want to make.  (Even less if you don't play a caster)

If you buy everything for Pathfinder edited by Paizo on HL you're going to spend more than $500, true, but we are talking of hundreds of books, while the Legendary Bundle here costs under $400, but has less than 20 sourcebooks.

The options available in Pathfinder are way, way more than those available in 5E, and the print books are still cheaper. For example, the Pathfinder Core Rulebook costs $49.99 and is like the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide combined in one package, while those two books from WotC cost each $49.95. Other Pathfinder Rulebook's prices varies between $29.99 and $49.99, and all of them have more options than the 5E D&D books.

Again, I'm not saying that Pathfinder is better than D&D. I love D&D, while I like Pathfinder a lot. I just can't understand why D&D materials is so much more expensive than those of its major competitor. And since I'm probably going to buy 5E sourcebooks anyway this thread isn't a complaint, I'm just curious to know the answer to my question, if anybody in here knows it.