as much as you guys like to defend DDB, he's right on many points. it is not as if you could just unplug your TV cable satellite whatever and plug another company in. this is us having to buy more and more of the same stuff over and over just to get a good experience.
the other point he is right about is that DDB is like blizzard entertainement when it comes to features and the likes... they seem to take ages to do. if DDB wants to pull a sony here and tell us that they'll have the stuff soon an then make us wait 2 years. that's their thing... but many of us players wants to play now, not in 2 or 3 years. and if you think correctly about it, with the confinement happenning... ddb is missing out on a ton of profit right now.
all that said, it doesn't mean DDB is bad or wrong to do this... it simply says "if you hope to gain new people, you should have VTT to at least compete with the ones you are fighting with" for now, every single feature we have on roll20 and FG are the very same features DDB offers. so up to this point DDB doesn't really have any strong points to figth this argument.
the only argument they have, is that its incoming, we don't know when, but its on the road map. a road map that takes ages to get through. oh and the argument that their site is neat...
honestly, to me i don't need VTT. i preffer to play live in the same room. I am using DDB because it's cheaper then its competitors, even though it offers much less then its competitors. it also enables the sharing of the content. which is not bad... but unlike its competitors, it doesn't allow one to create many characters. you have to pay the subs... something the competition doesn't have. honestly its is not their decisions in making or not features that i am disbeliving in.... it is their business models which to me feels like a really really shifty version of a mobile game micro transaction.
been subbed for 2 years now... Master at it... thats 10$ a month for 12 months, so 240$ for 2 years. that's literally the ammount i have saved by buying here instead of FG. but heres what FG allows me to do without any subs...
- buy the books (full on access) - Create a campaign (Players can join and create as many characters as they want on that campaign) - players have access all they want to the books i have a lisence for.
heres what DDB offer... - buy the book (full on access) - Create a campaign (players can join, but limited in the number of characters they can create) - Players have access to my books, but only compendiums - to do the above, one needs a master subs. Hero subs doesn'T do that.
there are fundamental differences between them and honestly FG has it better. those who argue that FG has been there for far longer... true... but those people have one problem in that argument... neither Roll20 nor FG took more then 2 years of development to get this far. their software already had VTT availlable after 2 years, they already had dice availlable, they had fog of war availlable, they had database availlable and basically had everything working. including their own customisation software which allowed people to do what they please with the engine.
also, both FG and Roll20 has free engines, which allows you to do what you want with them. now this last point has been solved by DDB by adding homebrews. so thats that.
still... both FG and Roll20 had been going way further in development then DDB has, and that in much less time. i'm not sure if its the employee or the company that is the problem, but there is definitely a problem there. FG and Roll20 also have to cope with new features coming in from WotC. but somehow they seem to be able to pull it off more easily. where as DDB seems to be struggling with their database and their own interface. as if none of those were thought out with change to begin with.
i'm just saying here... the guy has some point, and while defending DDB is great, you also have to acknowledge that DDB is far behind the competition right now. and i'm quite sure that in the next 2 years we still will be behind the competition. as DDB seems inclined to always just upgrade their character sheet as if it was the only important thing on their site.
i'll admit this though... ddb has been proving that html 5 is a beast when you take your time to use it correctly. thats for sure !
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM of two gaming groups. Likes to create stuff. Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games --> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
as much as you guys like to defend DDB, he's right on many points. it is not as if you could just unplug your TV cable satellite whatever and plug another company in. this is us having to buy more and more of the same stuff over and over just to get a good experience.
the other point he is right about is that DDB is like blizzard entertainement when it comes to features and the likes... they seem to take ages to do. if DDB wants to pull a sony here and tell us that they'll have the stuff soon an then make us wait 2 years. that's their thing... but many of us players wants to play now, not in 2 or 3 years. and if you think correctly about it, with the confinement happenning... ddb is missing out on a ton of profit right now.
all that said, it doesn't mean DDB is bad or wrong to do this... it simply says "if you hope to gain new people, you should have VTT to at least compete with the ones you are fighting with" for now, every single feature we have on roll20 and FG are the very same features DDB offers. so up to this point DDB doesn't really have any strong points to figth this argument.
the only argument they have, is that its incoming, we don't know when, but its on the road map. a road map that takes ages to get through. oh and the argument that their site is neat...
honestly, to me i don't need VTT. i preffer to play live in the same room. I am using DDB because it's cheaper then its competitors, even though it offers much less then its competitors. it also enables the sharing of the content. which is not bad... but unlike its competitors, it doesn't allow one to create many characters. you have to pay the subs... something the competition doesn't have. honestly its is not their decisions in making or not features that i am disbeliving in.... it is their business models which to me feels like a really really shifty version of a mobile game micro transaction.
been subbed for 2 years now... Master at it... thats 10$ a month for 12 months, so 240$ for 2 years. that's literally the ammount i have saved by buying here instead of FG. but heres what FG allows me to do without any subs...
- buy the books (full on access) - Create a campaign (Players can join and create as many characters as they want on that campaign) - players have access all they want to the books i have a lisence for.
heres what DDB offer... - buy the book (full on access) - Create a campaign (players can join, but limited in the number of characters they can create) - Players have access to my books, but only compendiums - to do the above, one needs a master subs. Hero subs doesn'T do that.
there are fundamental differences between them and honestly FG has it better. those who argue that FG has been there for far longer... true... but those people have one problem in that argument... neither Roll20 nor FG took more then 2 years of development to get this far. their software already had VTT availlable after 2 years, they already had dice availlable, they had fog of war availlable, they had database availlable and basically had everything working. including their own customisation software which allowed people to do what they please with the engine.
also, both FG and Roll20 has free engines, which allows you to do what you want with them. now this last point has been solved by DDB by adding homebrews. so thats that.
still... both FG and Roll20 had been going way further in development then DDB has, and that in much less time. i'm not sure if its the employee or the company that is the problem, but there is definitely a problem there. FG and Roll20 also have to cope with new features coming in from WotC. but somehow they seem to be able to pull it off more easily. where as DDB seems to be struggling with their database and their own interface. as if none of those were thought out with change to begin with.
i'm just saying here... the guy has some point, and while defending DDB is great, you also have to acknowledge that DDB is far behind the competition right now. and i'm quite sure that in the next 2 years we still will be behind the competition. as DDB seems inclined to always just upgrade their character sheet as if it was the only important thing on their site.
i'll admit this though... ddb has been proving that html 5 is a beast when you take your time to use it correctly. thats for sure !
...DDB is behind the competition because it wasn't designed to compete with them originally. It's a digital tool set with books, it was never meant to have a VTT. but people kept asking and asking and asking so they are laying the groundwork to improve their original purpose (a toolset, not a bloody VTT), and create the tools to do what was so commonly asked (to make a VTT). The character sheet *is* the most important thing because THAT IS WHAT THIS SITE WAS DESIGNED AROUND.
I repeat: DDB WAS NEVER ORIGINALLY MEANT TO COMPETE WITH THE OTHER VTTS, IT WAS JUST A DIGITAL TOOLSET TO ALLOW CHARACTER CREATION, CONTENT SHARING, AND BOOK ACCESS.
But people kept asking for a VTT, so we will get one eventually. Too bad some people don't want it, but we seem to be in the minority.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
this is us having to buy more and more of the same stuff over and over just to get a good experience.
I have purchased all the major sourcebooks (PHB, DMG, MM, XGtE, VGtM, E:RftLW, and the SCAG) from DDB. I have not purchased any of them in physical form because I simply don’t need the. With the app I have full offline access to all of them, and I have never even felt any need whatsoever to even visit those other sites that you will mention later in your post. Quite literally, I do not feel that I “have to” buy anything more than once. Except d8s, I never seem to have enough of those.
the other point he is right about is that DDB is like blizzard entertainement when it comes to features and the likes... they seem to take ages to do. if DDB wants to pull a sony here and tell us that they'll have the stuff soon an then make us wait 2 years. that's their thing... but many of us players wants to play now, not in 2 or 3 years. and if you think correctly about it, with the confinement happenning... ddb is missing out on a ton of profit right now.
all that said, it doesn't mean DDB is bad or wrong to do this... it simply says "if you hope to gain new people, you should have VTT to at least compete with the ones you are fighting with" for now, every single feature we have on roll20 and FG are the very same features DDB offers. so up to this point DDB doesn't really have any strong points to figth this argument.
the only argument they have, is that its incoming, we don't know when, but its on the road map. a road map that takes ages to get through. oh and the argument that their site is neat...
[sic]
there are fundamental differences between them and honestly FG has it better. those who argue that FG has been there for far longer... true... but those people have one problem in that argument... neither Roll20 nor FG took more then 2 years of development to get this far. their software already had VTT availlable after 2 years, they already had dice availlable, they had fog of war availlable, they had database availlable and basically had everything working. including their own customisation software which allowed people to do what they please with the engine.
also, both FG and Roll20 has free engines, which allows you to do what you want with them. now this last point has been solved by DDB by adding homebrews. so thats that.
still... both FG and Roll20 had been going way further in development then DDB has, and that in much less time. i'm not sure if its the employee or the company that is the problem, but there is definitely a problem there. FG and Roll20 also have to cope with new features coming in from WotC. but somehow they seem to be able to pull it off more easily. where as DDB seems to be struggling with their database and their own interface. as if none of those were thought out with change to begin with.
i'm just saying here... the guy has some point, and while defending DDB is great, you also have to acknowledge that DDB is far behind the competition right now. and i'm quite sure that in the next 2 years we still will be behind the competition. as DDB seems inclined to always just upgrade their character sheet as if it was the only important thing on their site.
You seem to know fewer of the facts than I, so let me inform you about some of the ones you appear to be missing. DDB was originally envisioned as, and therefore designed to be, one thing and one thing only. It was built to be the best, easiest to use tool anyone could find anywhere to assist actual people sitting in the same room with each other to build and manage their characters. That was all it was originally meant to be. (Unfortunately, WotC did the dumbest thing they could have possibly ever done, which was to get in DDB’s way. We’ll put a pin in that for now and get back to it in a minute.) The only reason DDB is making a VTT at all is because the vast majority of its users want one. The customers demand it, and you know what they say about customers being right.
So, now DDB has to pull a complete 180 on their model from being a resource for groups that meet in person, to catering to a market that demands the ability for seven people each on a different continent to be able to play together all on one site. Here they are, several years behind “the competition” who DDB never expected to consider competition in the first place. Basically they found out that they were in several laps behind in a race they never planned to enter at all. That really sucks eggs, don’t it? Quite a bit to catch up on, wouldn’t you say?
It might have been less of an issue were it not for the unfortunate timing of a global pandemic that is forcing everyone to not be in rooms with each other. You are right about that. (Heck, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.) That is inconvenient for both DDB, and it’s users. (Imagine how much more “inconvenient” it has been for the tens of thousands of people who died from CV19 worldwide, and the hundreds of thousands of loved ones left grieving because of those deaths.) Now, why is it going to take as long as it is? Why has DDB also been taking as long as it has to implement other things? For those answers and more, we have to go back and pull that aforementioned pin back out.
The entire framework for the engine used to input all the things so that the Character Sheet can do what it was meant to do was supposed to be far more dynamic and robust than what it ended up being. Adam and the DDB devs wanted to design a system that could basically make anything anyone could ever imagine. They were intending to release a fully fleshed out homebrew creator for users with that same functionality of making anything we could dream up. WotC told them to absolutely not do that under any circumstance ever. DDB was instructed by WotC to limit the scope of their engine to only create officially published material and nothing else. DDB was also told to never implement any system for homebrews whatsoever. Period. Full stop.
I can hear you thinking to yourself “Why in all the world would they do that?!?” To quote the great Inigo Montoya “Lemme ‘splain. No, that would take to long. Lemme sum up.” WotC did that because they were (understandably) sick and frikin’ tired of the tsunami of complaints they had received from dissatisfied customers about their terrible product. I know, now you’re thinking “What complaints? D&D is not a terrible product.” And, aside from the Ravnica book anyway, you would be correct. So where did those complaints come from? They came from people who had popped over to that completely junk-@$$ mess that is the D&D Wiki. WotC had been dealing with that PR nightmare for a while and had decided that enough was enough. They decided that since DDB was being billed as “The official online resource for all things 5e” that it should therefore onlyhaveofficial content. So that was the way DDB had to make it, and the character sheet framework was built to support only that as well.
Luckily for us, Adam “BadEye” Bradford had way more foresight than Messers Mearls and Crawford. He kept pressing WotC to green light homebrew on DDB because he reasoned, and quite correctly, that the greatest actual value of D&D lies not between the covers of the official books, but instead in its ability to unlock worlds of possibilities for anyone who plays the game. Eventually, after more than a year, and armed with volumes of requests by users, he has able to convince them of that fact. Finally WotC capitulated and gave DDB the conditional go ahead. The condition being that DDB had to make darn sure that it’s users didn’t get the same mistaken impressions about official vs homebrewed content that the Wiki’s users had gotten. At that point, DDB had to prove that they could, and they had to act quickly. Unfortunately, the only tool they had to work with was the extremely limited system that WotC had insisted upon in the beginning. So they had to take a system that was never designed for use by the general public, blocked off the most troublesome elements of that engine, and basically gave us all “guest access” with no admin privileges.
To further complicate things, that very limited system that WotC wanted them to design with only the capacity to recreate official content turned out to be too narrowly designed to make future official content. Every new release by WotC stressed that framework more and more. (That’s what happens when writers tell programmers how to write programs.) Ironically, if WotC hadn’t interfered in the first place, or if DDB had ignored them and built the system they wanted to anyway, none of these things would have been issues at all. But WotC did interfere, and the folks at DDB have integrity so they did what they said they would do. By the time that Ravnica book I mentioned was released, it was clear to DDB that the system they designed, and the character sheet framework they built as the interface were simply not going to cut it. So they assessed the problem and determined that the first thing that had to be upgraded was the interface, so they set to work redesigning the character sheet framework from basically square one. It took them almost a year, to undo the mess that was created by WotC’s shortsightedness, but now we finally have it.
Next, they intend to redesign the engine used to input all of the data for all of those worlds of imagination that I mentioned two paragraphs back. Remember all of those “guest” accounts we all have for creating homebrew that I mentioned? Well, wouldn’t you know that now all of those gagillions of strings of 1s and 0s that comprise all of that data, are so intertwined with the system that is in place, that they have to be very careful in what they do to make sure that none of us users loose our stuff. Because if users loose their stuff, you know what else they’re gonna loose. It would be pitchforks and torches as far as the eye can see. No bueno. I do not envy those poor souls their task. Quite literally, DDB has been so slow in keeping up with WotC’s release schedule because they are too busy fixing a system that wouldn’t have needed fixing at all if WotC hadn’t been hand-shy as a result of the Wiki’s general awfulness.
So, as one can see that,
since they have a metric wackton of stuff (it’s a technical term) to redesign from the ground up,
and since none of it would matter if the user interface (character sheet) couldn’t actually interface with anything if that wasn’t upgraded first,
and since that interface was and still is the central core of what DDB is,
clearly one must realize that while upgrading the character sheet may not be “the only important thing on their site” as you put it, it was in fact the most important part of a larger upgrade that was only made necessary because of “those meddling kids and their dog” over at WotC. (I have always wanted an excuse to quote every Scooby-Doo villain ever, so thank you for that opportunity. 😊)
honestly, to me i don't need VTT. i preffer to play live in the same room.
I think that is possibly the second thing you have ever posted to one of these forums that I actually 100% agree with you about. Cue movie slow clap. And cut!
I am using DDB because it's cheaper then its competitors, even though it offers much less then its competitors. it also enables the sharing of the content. which is not bad... but unlike its competitors, it doesn't allow one to create many characters. you have to pay the subs... something the competition doesn't have. honestly its is not their decisions in making or not features that i am disbeliving in.... it is their business models which to me feels like a really really shifty version of a mobile game micro transaction.
been subbed for 2 years now... Master at it... thats 10$ a month for 12 months, so 240$ for 2 years. that's literally the ammount i have saved by buying here instead of FG. but heres what FG allows me to do without any subs...
- buy the books (full on access) - Create a campaign (Players can join and create as many characters as they want on that campaign) - players have access all they want to the books i have a lisence for.
heres what DDB offer... - buy the book (full on access) - Create a campaign (players can join, but limited in the number of characters they can create) - Players have access to my books, but only compendiums - to do the above, one needs a master subs. Hero subs doesn'T do that.
You are correct there, DDB is the most cost effective way to play D&D without resorting to criminal activity such as piracy or theft. Full offline access to the compendium version of the sourcebooks for $20 (US) each is the lowest price available anywhere unless you buy physical copies that “fell of the back of a truck.” Those 7 purchased sourcebooks I listed earlier could have cost me as little as $140 total if I had gone that route. If I had made my purchase at my local game store I could have gotten at most 3 of those books for the same price. That’s literally less than half the value. And with the offline app, we don’t even have to carry around backpacks full of books like we did for the first 40 years of D&D’s existence. (I’m actually torn on which pith quote/paraphrase to go with here, “[They] had me at hello.” from Jerry Maguire, or “You can ride the donkey, or you can ride the tram. It is the same price.” from Ron White. You choose. I’m already on the tram.)
And for only $10 more, so $30US (the same price of a physical copy from Amazon) we get the additional convenience of all of those interactive features right there on the character sheet, only without the 2 day wait for delivery, and without the additional clunk of hardbacks. And that convenience is all done in such a way that, for the most part, it is very difficult to make mistakes during creation, and I have already explained the reasons for the issues that do exist. Since the fine folks at DDB have been working so tirelessly since the site launched to both make up for all the time lost because of interference from people who didn’t know what the eff they were talking about, and simultaneously continue to improve their own service, fortunately the value of that convenience will only improve over time.
And I also think you might be mistaken about your subscription (unless you have two DDB accounts) because, as one can clearly see for themselves by visiting the subscriptions area of DDB’s Marketplace: “D&D Beyond Master Annually ($54.99) billed every 12 months.” So the cost is literally half what you claim it to be, so therefore you should have saved an additional $120, almost what it would have cost for my entire 5e library had I gone with compendium only versions. And all three DMs in my gaming circle have access to that library as well.
As to your point about the 6 character limit without a subscription, I can only point out one thing. Most DMs only let players use one character per campaign. If every player is in a different campaign that meets on a set day each week, with 6 characters one could play D&D in a different campaign for every day of the week except one. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone who is in 7 concurrent campaigns. And if it really is an issue, one can follow that link I provided to the marketplace and see that a Hero tier subscription grants unlimited characters for about the same annually that the average Americans spend at Starbucks in a week. If I need that limit raised that bad I can take a thermos to work for a week (less with as much coffee as I go through) and be budget neutral.
As to the features provided by those other sites, a can not speak to them.
I hope this feedback has been helpful. “TTFN, Ta ta for now.” -Tigger (What? You didn’t seriously think I was going to wrap up without another pithy quote did you?)
I don't know if it ever was mentioned but don't want to read 38 pages of people arguing :-)
A suggestion for a new feature:
An integrated random spell scroll / magic item / treasure (horde) generator
You can find stuff on the internet, but since I have access to all the spells and magical items via DnDBeyond, why not use that massive amount of (correct) information to help us with that.
An integrated random spell scroll / magic item / treasure (horde) generator
I agree an integrated feature would be very comfortable but I have several workarounds if you want.
I added a list of all spells into a table inside a homebrew feat here and thus I can roll on it. I can give you the code, if you want. (Your generator doesn't include UA spells)
As for magic items, I have a magic items catalogue as a google sheet (see my signature) and that can be filtered, counted and rolled on.
For Treasure hoards, I use DonJon and replace their scrolls and items with a new roll as I already explained.
Hello, apologies if this has been mentioned in the last 38 pages but I checked the "feature-requests" page but did not see it.
I would love to have a small highlights on the sources that I own? Just cosmetic I know but can be also useful as a quick visual reminder of what you have on DDB.
I posted this in the forum here, but I'll put this here too. Multiple levels of bundles would be appreciated. As someone who doesn't use a ton of the rules or adventure content here, having something that caters to character creation specifically would be nice. Some ideas of bundles below.
All published spells
All published classes/subclasses
All published Races
All published items
All published rules and variants
A super "Character Creation" bundle that all Classes/subclasses, races, spells, and items
I would love to see DDB offer classic, 5e converted adventure modules. There are a number of homebrew options out there and a number of DMs who have converted their own. Still, imagine introducing some of the classic adventures to new players while accessing the beautifully woven compendium and sourcebooks at the same time. Additionally, many classic creatures and items would be reborn and soon integrated in homebrew adventures all over the world. Lastly, Wizards only produces so many adventures a year. Most classic modules can be played in a few sessions/months. This would add a treasure trove of adventures play tested for the past 40 years. Yes...with what you have built here...the tools...the worksheets and all that is coming in the future, it would make perfect sense for DDB to safeguard the rich historical past for all players old (like me) and new. Thank you!
Would it be possible to be able to preview every post on the forums before posting it like when you start a new thread? Personally I would love to be able to see what my dice rolls are so I can write accordingly without having to write, then do dice rolls, then post that with an "I will follow up shortly" message on there before editing and then writing more depending on how my dice rolls went. :)
I posted this in the forum here, but I'll put this here too. Multiple levels of bundles would be appreciated. As someone who doesn't use a ton of the rules or adventure content here, having something that caters to character creation specifically would be nice. Some ideas of bundles below.
All published spells
All published classes/subclasses
All published Races
All published items
All published rules and variants
A super "Character Creation" bundle that all Classes/subclasses, races, spells, and items
This is an interesting idea, and I would be interested in this as well (assuming that it would keep the "discount the a la cart price from the source" feature). There are sources I am not interested in reading, but I would love the character subclasses/other options, magic items, and spells to be in my compendium. I wonder how it would treat the character options that are buried in Adventures? For example, the Haunted One background that is in Curse of Strahd.
The zen desk doesn't work for me so I will just add that I would like an indicator of which Cleric spells I spent the time to configure online as "prepared" for when I print the PDF.
I don't want pages upon pages of spells and I don't want to lose work I did in the printed copy.
Ideally a) option to only generate the spells prepared
b) alternatively have some character indicator e.g. <P> on the first column which indicated it was selected as prepared online.
The zen desk doesn't work for me so I will just add that I would like an indicator of which Cleric spells I spent the time to configure online as "prepared" for when I print the PDF.
I don't want pages upon pages of spells and I don't want to lose work I did in the printed copy.
Ideally a) option to only generate the spells prepared
b) alternatively have some character indicator e.g. <P> on the first column which indicated it was selected as prepared online.
But wouldn’t that get confusing if the PCs spend three or four in-game days adventuring in the same game session? What if you switch your character’s spells each morning because you think they will need different things each day? It might all be one session for us as players, but last session my character swapped spells every morning, so three times in one session.
The zen desk doesn't work for me so I will just add that I would like an indicator of which Cleric spells I spent the time to configure online as "prepared" for when I print the PDF.
I don't want pages upon pages of spells and I don't want to lose work I did in the printed copy.
Ideally a) option to only generate the spells prepared
b) alternatively have some character indicator e.g. <P> on the first column which indicated it was selected as prepared online.
But wouldn’t that get confusing if the PCs spend three or four in-game days adventuring in the same game session? What if you switch your character’s spells each morning because you think they will need different things each day? It might all be one session for us as players, but last session my character swapped spells every morning, so three times in one session.
I don't know if this has been suggested before, but I'd like an option for homebrewing non-magical items. I'm dissatisfied with how underpowered some vanilla weapons (like the blowgun) are and would like to use my own versions instead. Additionally, some items don't currently have rules supports (like Wild West-style firearms, for example). Currently, if I want to change this, I need to take the base blowgun and edit it in the magic items section to give it additional modifiers that come together in a hacky hodgepodge that's still shown to my players as a magic item.
I'd be a lot happier if, instead, I could just create nonmagical items from scratch. All I'd need to do is flag my creation as a weapon, assign it a damage die, and tack on the appropriate modifiers for range, reload, and so on. Ideally, I'd then be able to use that homebrew weapon as a base for the magic item creator that now behaves as intended.
I don't know if this has been suggested before, but I'd like an option for homebrewing non-magical items. I'm dissatisfied with how underpowered some vanilla weapons (like the blowgun) are and would like to use my own versions instead. Additionally, some items don't currently have rules supports (like Wild West-style firearms, for example). Currently, if I want to change this, I need to take the base blowgun and edit it in the magic items section to give it additional modifiers that come together in a hacky hodgepodge that's still shown to my players as a magic item.
I'd be a lot happier if, instead, I could just create nonmagical items from scratch. All I'd need to do is flag my creation as a weapon, assign it a damage die, and tack on the appropriate modifiers for range, reload, and so on. Ideally, I'd then be able to use that homebrew weapon as a base for the magic item creator that now behaves as intended.
Already on the longterm roadmap.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
In my home game I have a character I home brewed a race for that is a slight variant from human but has an ability that when below 1/3 of their health they gain a bonus to their attack and damage rolls equal to their proficiency bonus. I have initiated us moving onto D&D beyond for ease of everything now that we are online and I am having a difficulty porting this as there doesn't seam to be a spot in the bonus part that makes it only active when below 1/3 HP. I noticed that for Tabaxi there is a "special" category for their feline agility that can be toggled as used or not. Would there be a way to make code it for the ability creator and the character sheet to reflect the change.
TL;DR: The change I am looking for is for the ability to have triggered effects when health is below or above a certain threshold.
In my home game I have a character I home brewed a race for that is a slight variant from human but has an ability that when below 1/3 of their health they gain a bonus to their attack and damage rolls equal to their proficiency bonus. I have initiated us moving onto D&D beyond for ease of everything now that we are online and I am having a difficulty porting this as there doesn't seam to be a spot in the bonus part that makes it only active when below 1/3 HP. I noticed that for Tabaxi there is a "special" category for their feline agility that can be toggled as used or not. Would there be a way to make code it for the ability creator and the character sheet to reflect the change.
TL;DR: The change I am looking for is for the ability to have triggered effects when health is below or above a certain threshold.
You'll probably have to wait for the General Features iteration of the Character Sheet.
You know what would be nice? If people like me, who have most of the 5e books, and don’t want to buy them on dndbeyond as well, could redeem them on here , so that they can access the resources they own on the compendium.
You know what would be nice? If people like me, who have most of the 5e books, and don’t want to buy them on dndbeyond as well, could redeem them on here , so that they can access the resources they own on the compendium.
This has been asked and addressed several times. The long and short of it is that D&D Beyond and WotC being two different companies, your purchase of the physical book provides no funding for the running of the the site, the development of its tools and the paying of the license to use the D&D rules set.
as much as you guys like to defend DDB, he's right on many points.
it is not as if you could just unplug your TV cable satellite whatever and plug another company in. this is us having to buy more and more of the same stuff over and over just to get a good experience.
the other point he is right about is that DDB is like blizzard entertainement when it comes to features and the likes... they seem to take ages to do.
if DDB wants to pull a sony here and tell us that they'll have the stuff soon an then make us wait 2 years. that's their thing... but many of us players wants to play now, not in 2 or 3 years. and if you think correctly about it, with the confinement happenning... ddb is missing out on a ton of profit right now.
all that said, it doesn't mean DDB is bad or wrong to do this... it simply says "if you hope to gain new people, you should have VTT to at least compete with the ones you are fighting with"
for now, every single feature we have on roll20 and FG are the very same features DDB offers. so up to this point DDB doesn't really have any strong points to figth this argument.
the only argument they have, is that its incoming, we don't know when, but its on the road map. a road map that takes ages to get through.
oh and the argument that their site is neat...
honestly, to me i don't need VTT. i preffer to play live in the same room.
I am using DDB because it's cheaper then its competitors, even though it offers much less then its competitors.
it also enables the sharing of the content. which is not bad... but unlike its competitors, it doesn't allow one to create many characters. you have to pay the subs... something the competition doesn't have. honestly its is not their decisions in making or not features that i am disbeliving in.... it is their business models which to me feels like a really really shifty version of a mobile game micro transaction.
been subbed for 2 years now... Master at it...
thats 10$ a month for 12 months, so 240$ for 2 years. that's literally the ammount i have saved by buying here instead of FG.
but heres what FG allows me to do without any subs...
- buy the books (full on access)
- Create a campaign (Players can join and create as many characters as they want on that campaign)
- players have access all they want to the books i have a lisence for.
heres what DDB offer...
- buy the book (full on access)
- Create a campaign (players can join, but limited in the number of characters they can create)
- Players have access to my books, but only compendiums
- to do the above, one needs a master subs. Hero subs doesn'T do that.
there are fundamental differences between them and honestly FG has it better.
those who argue that FG has been there for far longer... true...
but those people have one problem in that argument... neither Roll20 nor FG took more then 2 years of development to get this far. their software already had VTT availlable after 2 years, they already had dice availlable, they had fog of war availlable, they had database availlable and basically had everything working. including their own customisation software which allowed people to do what they please with the engine.
also, both FG and Roll20 has free engines, which allows you to do what you want with them.
now this last point has been solved by DDB by adding homebrews. so thats that.
still... both FG and Roll20 had been going way further in development then DDB has, and that in much less time.
i'm not sure if its the employee or the company that is the problem, but there is definitely a problem there.
FG and Roll20 also have to cope with new features coming in from WotC. but somehow they seem to be able to pull it off more easily.
where as DDB seems to be struggling with their database and their own interface. as if none of those were thought out with change to begin with.
i'm just saying here... the guy has some point, and while defending DDB is great, you also have to acknowledge that DDB is far behind the competition right now.
and i'm quite sure that in the next 2 years we still will be behind the competition. as DDB seems inclined to always just upgrade their character sheet as if it was the only important thing on their site.
i'll admit this though...
ddb has been proving that html 5 is a beast when you take your time to use it correctly. thats for sure !
DM of two gaming groups.
Likes to create stuff.
Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses
If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games
--> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
...DDB is behind the competition because it wasn't designed to compete with them originally. It's a digital tool set with books, it was never meant to have a VTT. but people kept asking and asking and asking so they are laying the groundwork to improve their original purpose (a toolset, not a bloody VTT), and create the tools to do what was so commonly asked (to make a VTT). The character sheet *is* the most important thing because THAT IS WHAT THIS SITE WAS DESIGNED AROUND.
I repeat: DDB WAS NEVER ORIGINALLY MEANT TO COMPETE WITH THE OTHER VTTS, IT WAS JUST A DIGITAL TOOLSET TO ALLOW CHARACTER CREATION, CONTENT SHARING, AND BOOK ACCESS.
But people kept asking for a VTT, so we will get one eventually. Too bad some people don't want it, but we seem to be in the minority.
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
I have purchased all the major sourcebooks (PHB, DMG, MM, XGtE, VGtM, E:RftLW, and the SCAG) from DDB. I have not purchased any of them in physical form because I simply don’t need the. With the app I have full offline access to all of them, and I have never even felt any need whatsoever to even visit those other sites that you will mention later in your post. Quite literally, I do not feel that I “have to” buy anything more than once. Except d8s, I never seem to have enough of those.
You seem to know fewer of the facts than I, so let me inform you about some of the ones you appear to be missing. DDB was originally envisioned as, and therefore designed to be, one thing and one thing only. It was built to be the best, easiest to use tool anyone could find anywhere to assist actual people sitting in the same room with each other to build and manage their characters. That was all it was originally meant to be. (Unfortunately, WotC did the dumbest thing they could have possibly ever done, which was to get in DDB’s way. We’ll put a pin in that for now and get back to it in a minute.) The only reason DDB is making a VTT at all is because the vast majority of its users want one. The customers demand it, and you know what they say about customers being right.
So, now DDB has to pull a complete 180 on their model from being a resource for groups that meet in person, to catering to a market that demands the ability for seven people each on a different continent to be able to play together all on one site. Here they are, several years behind “the competition” who DDB never expected to consider competition in the first place. Basically they found out that they were in several laps behind in a race they never planned to enter at all. That really sucks eggs, don’t it? Quite a bit to catch up on, wouldn’t you say?
It might have been less of an issue were it not for the unfortunate timing of a global pandemic that is forcing everyone to not be in rooms with each other. You are right about that. (Heck, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.) That is inconvenient for both DDB, and it’s users. (Imagine how much more “inconvenient” it has been for the tens of thousands of people who died from CV19 worldwide, and the hundreds of thousands of loved ones left grieving because of those deaths.) Now, why is it going to take as long as it is? Why has DDB also been taking as long as it has to implement other things? For those answers and more, we have to go back and pull that aforementioned pin back out.
The entire framework for the engine used to input all the things so that the Character Sheet can do what it was meant to do was supposed to be far more dynamic and robust than what it ended up being. Adam and the DDB devs wanted to design a system that could basically make anything anyone could ever imagine. They were intending to release a fully fleshed out homebrew creator for users with that same functionality of making anything we could dream up. WotC told them to absolutely not do that under any circumstance ever. DDB was instructed by WotC to limit the scope of their engine to only create officially published material and nothing else. DDB was also told to never implement any system for homebrews whatsoever. Period. Full stop.
I can hear you thinking to yourself “Why in all the world would they do that?!?” To quote the great Inigo Montoya “Lemme ‘splain. No, that would take to long. Lemme sum up.” WotC did that because they were (understandably) sick and frikin’ tired of the tsunami of complaints they had received from dissatisfied customers about their terrible product. I know, now you’re thinking “What complaints? D&D is not a terrible product.” And, aside from the Ravnica book anyway, you would be correct. So where did those complaints come from? They came from people who had popped over to that completely junk-@$$ mess that is the D&D Wiki. WotC had been dealing with that PR nightmare for a while and had decided that enough was enough. They decided that since DDB was being billed as “The official online resource for all things 5e” that it should therefore only have official content. So that was the way DDB had to make it, and the character sheet framework was built to support only that as well.
Luckily for us, Adam “BadEye” Bradford had way more foresight than Messers Mearls and Crawford. He kept pressing WotC to green light homebrew on DDB because he reasoned, and quite correctly, that the greatest actual value of D&D lies not between the covers of the official books, but instead in its ability to unlock worlds of possibilities for anyone who plays the game. Eventually, after more than a year, and armed with volumes of requests by users, he has able to convince them of that fact. Finally WotC capitulated and gave DDB the conditional go ahead. The condition being that DDB had to make darn sure that it’s users didn’t get the same mistaken impressions about official vs homebrewed content that the Wiki’s users had gotten. At that point, DDB had to prove that they could, and they had to act quickly. Unfortunately, the only tool they had to work with was the extremely limited system that WotC had insisted upon in the beginning. So they had to take a system that was never designed for use by the general public, blocked off the most troublesome elements of that engine, and basically gave us all “guest access” with no admin privileges.
To further complicate things, that very limited system that WotC wanted them to design with only the capacity to recreate official content turned out to be too narrowly designed to make future official content. Every new release by WotC stressed that framework more and more. (That’s what happens when writers tell programmers how to write programs.) Ironically, if WotC hadn’t interfered in the first place, or if DDB had ignored them and built the system they wanted to anyway, none of these things would have been issues at all. But WotC did interfere, and the folks at DDB have integrity so they did what they said they would do. By the time that Ravnica book I mentioned was released, it was clear to DDB that the system they designed, and the character sheet framework they built as the interface were simply not going to cut it. So they assessed the problem and determined that the first thing that had to be upgraded was the interface, so they set to work redesigning the character sheet framework from basically square one. It took them almost a year, to undo the mess that was created by WotC’s shortsightedness, but now we finally have it.
Next, they intend to redesign the engine used to input all of the data for all of those worlds of imagination that I mentioned two paragraphs back. Remember all of those “guest” accounts we all have for creating homebrew that I mentioned? Well, wouldn’t you know that now all of those gagillions of strings of 1s and 0s that comprise all of that data, are so intertwined with the system that is in place, that they have to be very careful in what they do to make sure that none of us users loose our stuff. Because if users loose their stuff, you know what else they’re gonna loose. It would be pitchforks and torches as far as the eye can see. No bueno. I do not envy those poor souls their task. Quite literally, DDB has been so slow in keeping up with WotC’s release schedule because they are too busy fixing a system that wouldn’t have needed fixing at all if WotC hadn’t been hand-shy as a result of the Wiki’s general awfulness.
So, as one can see that,
I think that is possibly the second thing you have ever posted to one of these forums that I actually 100% agree with you about. Cue movie slow clap. And cut!
You are correct there, DDB is the most cost effective way to play D&D without resorting to criminal activity such as piracy or theft. Full offline access to the compendium version of the sourcebooks for $20 (US) each is the lowest price available anywhere unless you buy physical copies that “fell of the back of a truck.” Those 7 purchased sourcebooks I listed earlier could have cost me as little as $140 total if I had gone that route. If I had made my purchase at my local game store I could have gotten at most 3 of those books for the same price. That’s literally less than half the value. And with the offline app, we don’t even have to carry around backpacks full of books like we did for the first 40 years of D&D’s existence. (I’m actually torn on which pith quote/paraphrase to go with here, “[They] had me at hello.” from Jerry Maguire, or “You can ride the donkey, or you can ride the tram. It is the same price.” from Ron White. You choose. I’m already on the tram.)
And for only $10 more, so $30US (the same price of a physical copy from Amazon) we get the additional convenience of all of those interactive features right there on the character sheet, only without the 2 day wait for delivery, and without the additional clunk of hardbacks. And that convenience is all done in such a way that, for the most part, it is very difficult to make mistakes during creation, and I have already explained the reasons for the issues that do exist. Since the fine folks at DDB have been working so tirelessly since the site launched to both make up for all the time lost because of interference from people who didn’t know what the eff they were talking about, and simultaneously continue to improve their own service, fortunately the value of that convenience will only improve over time.
And I also think you might be mistaken about your subscription (unless you have two DDB accounts) because, as one can clearly see for themselves by visiting the subscriptions area of DDB’s Marketplace: “D&D Beyond Master Annually ($54.99) billed every 12 months.” So the cost is literally half what you claim it to be, so therefore you should have saved an additional $120, almost what it would have cost for my entire 5e library had I gone with compendium only versions. And all three DMs in my gaming circle have access to that library as well.
As to your point about the 6 character limit without a subscription, I can only point out one thing. Most DMs only let players use one character per campaign. If every player is in a different campaign that meets on a set day each week, with 6 characters one could play D&D in a different campaign for every day of the week except one. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone who is in 7 concurrent campaigns. And if it really is an issue, one can follow that link I provided to the marketplace and see that a Hero tier subscription grants unlimited characters for about the same annually that the average Americans spend at Starbucks in a week. If I need that limit raised that bad I can take a thermos to work for a week (less with as much coffee as I go through) and be budget neutral.
As to the features provided by those other sites, a can not speak to them.
I hope this feedback has been helpful. “TTFN, Ta ta for now.” -Tigger (What? You didn’t seriously think I was going to wrap up without another pithy quote did you?)
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I don't know if it ever was mentioned but don't want to read 38 pages of people arguing :-)
A suggestion for a new feature:
An integrated random spell scroll / magic item / treasure (horde) generator
You can find stuff on the internet, but since I have access to all the spells and magical items via DnDBeyond, why not use that massive amount of (correct) information to help us with that.
An example of a scroll generator: https://dnd5spells.rpgist.net/generators/scroll
Thx
I agree an integrated feature would be very comfortable but I have several workarounds if you want.
I added a list of all spells into a table inside a homebrew feat here and thus I can roll on it. I can give you the code, if you want. (Your generator doesn't include UA spells)
As for magic items, I have a magic items catalogue as a google sheet (see my signature) and that can be filtered, counted and rolled on.
For Treasure hoards, I use DonJon and replace their scrolls and items with a new roll as I already explained.
Check out all my important links here.
May we live in Less Interesting Times
Hello, apologies if this has been mentioned in the last 38 pages but I checked the "feature-requests" page but did not see it.
I would love to have a small highlights on the sources that I own? Just cosmetic I know but can be also useful as a quick visual reminder of what you have on DDB.
I posted this in the forum here, but I'll put this here too. Multiple levels of bundles would be appreciated. As someone who doesn't use a ton of the rules or adventure content here, having something that caters to character creation specifically would be nice. Some ideas of bundles below.
I would love to see DDB offer classic, 5e converted adventure modules. There are a number of homebrew options out there and a number of DMs who have converted their own. Still, imagine introducing some of the classic adventures to new players while accessing the beautifully woven compendium and sourcebooks at the same time. Additionally, many classic creatures and items would be reborn and soon integrated in homebrew adventures all over the world. Lastly, Wizards only produces so many adventures a year. Most classic modules can be played in a few sessions/months. This would add a treasure trove of adventures play tested for the past 40 years. Yes...with what you have built here...the tools...the worksheets and all that is coming in the future, it would make perfect sense for DDB to safeguard the rich historical past for all players old (like me) and new. Thank you!
Would it be possible to be able to preview every post on the forums before posting it like when you start a new thread? Personally I would love to be able to see what my dice rolls are so I can write accordingly without having to write, then do dice rolls, then post that with an "I will follow up shortly" message on there before editing and then writing more depending on how my dice rolls went. :)
This is an interesting idea, and I would be interested in this as well (assuming that it would keep the "discount the a la cart price from the source" feature). There are sources I am not interested in reading, but I would love the character subclasses/other options, magic items, and spells to be in my compendium. I wonder how it would treat the character options that are buried in Adventures? For example, the Haunted One background that is in Curse of Strahd.
Homebrewed by PhantomTim: Weapons | Items
The zen desk doesn't work for me so I will just add that I would like an indicator of which Cleric spells I spent the time to configure online as "prepared" for when I print the PDF.
I don't want pages upon pages of spells and I don't want to lose work I did in the printed copy.
Ideally a) option to only generate the spells prepared
b) alternatively have some character indicator e.g. <P> on the first column which indicated it was selected as prepared online.
But wouldn’t that get confusing if the PCs spend three or four in-game days adventuring in the same game session? What if you switch your character’s spells each morning because you think they will need different things each day? It might all be one session for us as players, but last session my character swapped spells every morning, so three times in one session.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
No.
I don't know if this has been suggested before, but I'd like an option for homebrewing non-magical items. I'm dissatisfied with how underpowered some vanilla weapons (like the blowgun) are and would like to use my own versions instead. Additionally, some items don't currently have rules supports (like Wild West-style firearms, for example). Currently, if I want to change this, I need to take the base blowgun and edit it in the magic items section to give it additional modifiers that come together in a hacky hodgepodge that's still shown to my players as a magic item.
I'd be a lot happier if, instead, I could just create nonmagical items from scratch. All I'd need to do is flag my creation as a weapon, assign it a damage die, and tack on the appropriate modifiers for range, reload, and so on. Ideally, I'd then be able to use that homebrew weapon as a base for the magic item creator that now behaves as intended.
Already on the longterm roadmap.
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
Looking forward to homebrewing non-magical items as well. Specifically for ammunition, and non-magical weapons.
Homebrewed by PhantomTim: Weapons | Items
In my home game I have a character I home brewed a race for that is a slight variant from human but has an ability that when below 1/3 of their health they gain a bonus to their attack and damage rolls equal to their proficiency bonus. I have initiated us moving onto D&D beyond for ease of everything now that we are online and I am having a difficulty porting this as there doesn't seam to be a spot in the bonus part that makes it only active when below 1/3 HP. I noticed that for Tabaxi there is a "special" category for their feline agility that can be toggled as used or not. Would there be a way to make code it for the ability creator and the character sheet to reflect the change.
TL;DR: The change I am looking for is for the ability to have triggered effects when health is below or above a certain threshold.
You'll probably have to wait for the General Features iteration of the Character Sheet.
Check out all my important links here.
May we live in Less Interesting Times
You know what would be nice? If people like me, who have most of the 5e books, and don’t want to buy them on dndbeyond as well, could redeem them on here , so that they can access the resources they own on the compendium.
This has been asked and addressed several times. The long and short of it is that D&D Beyond and WotC being two different companies, your purchase of the physical book provides no funding for the running of the the site, the development of its tools and the paying of the license to use the D&D rules set.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here