I'm having a lot of fun with the new character creation feature! the only thing I've noticed is that I cant add custom character portraits. Are there plans to make this a feature?
Yes, a staff member had said there was plans to do so in one of the forums. If I can find it again, I'll edit the link into this reply.
Used the character sheet for the first time during a game this weekend, and I've got a few thoughts. Though, to preface my feedback, I want to say that so far the tool is great. I created a Rock Gnome Wizard, and the spell management alone makes everything 10x better.
I used the tool on a iPhone 7, for reference.
In no particular order:
1) Navigation between the views for Abilities / Limited Use / Equipment, etc. needs to be easier to navigate for smaller screens. I'd actually prefer a clickable menu so I can select which view to travel to. For instance, if I'm looking at spells (Wizard, right?) and my DM calls for an ability check, it actually slows down the game a bit compared to paper sheets to have to swipe left four or five times before I get to the view that has my ability scores.
2) Leveling up. It'd be great if one of the menu options when you select your character is to "Level Up". Right now it's not exactly intuitive. When I leveled up, the first thing that I did was go to "Manage XP", and add the experience necessary to level. I was then confused when I went back to my character sheet and realized that my Wizard has no new features or spells. I assumed maybe there was a bug. It was only later that I realized you have to go back to the character builder, and specifically also make sure that your Wizard level is changed. It'd be great if there was a button to "Level Up", that took you through the quick process of not only adding XP, but also showing you what your options are to increase your current level.
3) Related to #2, increasing Max Hitpoints. Maybe I still need to look at this more closely, but I'm still confused about what the proper way to increase your max HP on level-up is. I ended up looking at what the suggested average was, and using the HP override. A clearer method here would be much appreciated. I'd love if there was, once again, a button to increase max HP, with the option to take the average, or enter a number manually.
These are the only issues I've had with the tool so far. Once again, great job, I'm loving it so far.
Used the character sheet for the first time during a game this weekend, and I've got a few thoughts. Though, to preface my feedback, I want to say that so far the tool is great. I created a Rock Gnome Wizard, and the spell management alone makes everything 10x better.
I used the tool on a iPhone 7, for reference.
In no particular order:
1) Navigation between the views for Abilities / Limited Use / Equipment, etc. needs to be easier to navigate for smaller screens. I'd actually prefer a clickable menu so I can select which view to travel to. For instance, if I'm looking at spells (Wizard, right?) and my DM calls for an ability check, it actually slows down the game a bit compared to paper sheets to have to swipe left four or five times before I get to the view that has my ability scores.
2) Leveling up. It'd be great if one of the menu options when you select your character is to "Level Up". Right now it's not exactly intuitive. When I leveled up, the first thing that I did was go to "Manage XP", and add the experience necessary to level. I was then confused when I went back to my character sheet and realized that my Wizard has no new features or spells. I assumed maybe there was a bug. It was only later that I realized you have to go back to the character builder, and specifically also make sure that your Wizard level is changed. It'd be great if there was a button to "Level Up", that took you through the quick process of not only adding XP, but also showing you what your options are to increase your current level.
3) Related to #2, increasing Max Hitpoints. Maybe I still need to look at this more closely, but I'm still confused about what the proper way to increase your max HP on level-up is. I ended up looking at what the suggested average was, and using the HP override. A clearer method here would be much appreciated. I'd love if there was, once again, a button to increase max HP, with the option to take the average, or enter a number manually.
These are the only issues I've had with the tool so far. Once again, great job, I'm loving it so far.
Definitely agree with you on the points of navigation and leveling up. Having a sidebar menu with different icons to quickly navigate to the different sections could prove to be super useful for the sheet view on mobile. As for leveling up, I believe they're still working on the systems for leveling up, but I do agree that it would be REALLY nice if when you leveled up, the app guided you through what leveling up does for your character and gives you a chance to actually select them all while you do that rather than forcing you to go back manually through the builder to adjust those things.
Here's more food for thought: a button next to elements on the character sheet to make rolls with those scores/skills/checks/abilities/weapons/etc.? If the app has already gone through the trouble of listing all of the numbers down, is there necessarily any harm in adding fields to make rolls with input from those stats, modifiers, and bonuses in a little side button accompanying the buttons? Only flaw I can think of is that it might get crowded, so perhaps it could be a sidebar/footer element and a little dice icon can be on the side of any element, with the rolled value and descriptor of what exactly was rolled in the pop up.
I too find having to swipe to navigate between the "tabs" (Abilities, Skills, etc) far too awkward and slow. I also think having the "edit" symbol on the same line as the "tabs" to be kind of wasted space as I doubt you are going to be going into the edit screen too often in the middle of gameplay. I feel like that edit button could easily be tucked away in the main drop down menu without losing anything.
I think a better solution would be to remove the "Edit" button and dedicate that whole row to your different character tabs, which can be accessed by tapping directly on them. You can reveal more tabs by dragging left and right on the row. I've thrown together a very rough mockup to illustrate what I mean:
Used the character sheet for the first time during a game this weekend, and I've got a few thoughts. Though, to preface my feedback, I want to say that so far the tool is great. I created a Rock Gnome Wizard, and the spell management alone makes everything 10x better.
I used the tool on a iPhone 7, for reference.
In no particular order:
1) Navigation between the views for Abilities / Limited Use / Equipment, etc. needs to be easier to navigate for smaller screens. I'd actually prefer a clickable menu so I can select which view to travel to. For instance, if I'm looking at spells (Wizard, right?) and my DM calls for an ability check, it actually slows down the game a bit compared to paper sheets to have to swipe left four or five times before I get to the view that has my ability scores.
2) Leveling up. It'd be great if one of the menu options when you select your character is to "Level Up". Right now it's not exactly intuitive. When I leveled up, the first thing that I did was go to "Manage XP", and add the experience necessary to level. I was then confused when I went back to my character sheet and realized that my Wizard has no new features or spells. I assumed maybe there was a bug. It was only later that I realized you have to go back to the character builder, and specifically also make sure that your Wizard level is changed. It'd be great if there was a button to "Level Up", that took you through the quick process of not only adding XP, but also showing you what your options are to increase your current level.
3) Related to #2, increasing Max Hitpoints. Maybe I still need to look at this more closely, but I'm still confused about what the proper way to increase your max HP on level-up is. I ended up looking at what the suggested average was, and using the HP override. A clearer method here would be much appreciated. I'd love if there was, once again, a button to increase max HP, with the option to take the average, or enter a number manually.
These are the only issues I've had with the tool so far. Once again, great job, I'm loving it so far.
Definitely agree with you on the points of navigation and leveling up. Having a sidebar menu with different icons to quickly navigate to the different sections could prove to be super useful for the sheet view on mobile. As for leveling up, I believe they're still working on the systems for leveling up, but I do agree that it would be REALLY nice if when you leveled up, the app guided you through what leveling up does for your character and gives you a chance to actually select them all while you do that rather than forcing you to go back manually through the builder to adjust those things.
You can click on the headings that are visible and it will go directly to that page. For example, if I am looking at spells, on my phone the attacks, equipment headings are visible and the skills heading is partially visible. If I click on the partially visible skills heading it takes me right to that section. Just wanted to point that out.
However, I do agree that some sort of icon would allow for more visibility, but the ability to click and go is already there.
Eldritch Evocations for warlocks, in general, don't seem to show their effects across the char sheet. For example, thirsting blade doesn't increase your number of attacks, eyes of the rune keeper doesn't affect languages known, etc. Things like that.
Second note that just popped into my head, spells on the attacks list don't list damage out like weapon attacks would. I would expect evocations like agonizing blast or lifedrinker to show up similarly like I've mentioned above.
Here's more food for thought: a button next to elements on the character sheet to make rolls with those scores/skills/checks/abilities/weapons/etc.? If the app has already gone through the trouble of listing all of the numbers down, is there necessarily any harm in adding fields to make rolls with input from those stats, modifiers, and bonuses in a little side button accompanying the buttons? Only flaw I can think of is that it might get crowded, so perhaps it could be a sidebar/footer element and a little dice icon can be on the side of any element, with the rolled value and descriptor of what exactly was rolled in the pop up.
I too find having to swipe to navigate between the "tabs" (Abilities, Skills, etc) far too awkward and slow. I also think having the "edit" symbol on the same line as the "tabs" to be kind of wasted space as I doubt you are going to be going into the edit screen too often in the middle of gameplay. I feel like that edit button could easily be tucked away in the main drop down menu without losing anything.
I think a better solution would be to remove the "Edit" button and dedicate that whole row to your different character tabs, which can be accessed by tapping directly on them. You can reveal more tabs by dragging left and right on the row. I've thrown together a very rough mockup to illustrate what I mean:
I'm sure a lot of this will be duplicates of already-posted items, but I've only read the first and last of the 47 pages of posts on this conversation. I promise none of my items are "why can't I find the non-SRD option?" 😉 Also, overall, great work! I'm looking forward to seeing the final, polished, includes-PHB-info product!
One of the first screens of the builder includes "character preferences" like advancement type, etc that are all very advanced options and completely arcane to anew D&D player. I recommend adding a "ask your DM" statement here, as it's really up to them anyway.
After choosing my race as variant human, I had to pick a Feat before deciding on a class or assigning ability scores. I know you will allow other orders of character building in the future, but mentioning you can change your choice later would help, as would disabling all of the feats that have incompatible requirements (e.g. All of the non-human racial feats like Svirfneblin Magic, which along with Grappler were my only choices).
I agree with other posters in this thread that it is really important to add a way to easily reference what each spell does when choosing spells, and indeed everywhere choices need to be made (e.g. when selecting a feat, or a Druid circle).
After assigning my ability scores (standard array), the totals did not show my two chosen racial increases (although later on my character sheet did).
I found having to use the equipment manager to search through every possible equipment to be very intimidating, and I'm not even a new D&D player. Agree with others that auto-adding non-choices makes sense. Also, if you get a "simple weapon", having a selection list of just those would be really helpful.
On the main character sheet screen, I wish I could scroll multiple tabs left or right, instead of just one at a time (using Safari on an iPhone).
When going up a level (through adding XP or otherwise), it should be very difficult to not immediately pick a new class level, and from there see new features highlighted in addition to required choices marked with an exclamation point. I'd like it to also be obvious and highlighted that I got an additional spell slot, and Wild Shape ability, for example.
When looking at the main char sheet window, when I pressed the DDB Menu button at the top right, the tab selection bar was still displayed on top of the menu pull-down (using Safari on iPhone).
The spell casting pull-down in the Class screen of the editor says "...as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Druid table", but the Druid table isn't shown. It would be helpful to show it, or at a minimum have a link to it.
My character (Talix) somehow lost his cantrips when I went up a level, and I had to re-choose them. As mentioned by others, it would be very helpful to not allow (or at least warn about) selecting the same spell as I did for the Circle of the Land class feature.
I feel like I was only prompted to pick one prepared spell at first (Druid) level, but I could be misremembering the interface. I did only pick one, and that should have perhaps resulted in a "ok, you can choose the others later" dialog.
Agree with other posters that spells from class features and other sources should be listed with other spells of the same level, not separately at the bottom, and ideally also on the attacks tab as appropriate.
The sling in my attacks tab doesn't have a range listed (should be 30/120), and the Magic Stone spell and Beast Bond spell have "null ft." listed as their Range/Area.
I hope some of that is useful, and thanks again for a very exciting product!
All of your observations and suggestions are great. I especially like your idea for "disabling" feats and things that your character fails to have the requirements for, BUT I think it would be even better to somehow highlight those you qualify for instead of completely disabling them (or another solution would be to create a selection list that places those things you qualify for under the label "you qualify for" at the top and then places those things you do not qualify for to the bottom of the list with a label that states "does not qualify" or something like that). These methods are better than completely "disabling" options because it's important to allow a DM to make exceptions and retain the ability to override rules, allowing players to add anything desired (for house rules and home brew games).
My campaign does a lot of homebrew and I'd love it if the character sheets could support that. I'd like a manual override option on every part of the character (the specific ones I need are: add / remove skills, include custom features and feats, but I assume it would be different for other people's games). Without that the character sheets are pretty useless to me because they can't reflect my character's actual stats and abilities.
I mentioned this back during the first couple days of the Phase I beta, and it was fixed for monsters, but passive Perception is a score, not a bonus. Therefore, it should be listed as just a number, and there should not be a "+" in front of the number.
I like rolling my stats like Matthew Colville does (4d6 drop lowest ,in order (reroll if you don't have 2 15s)). Then using the scores, determine what class is good for those attributes.
I'd like to see the Class page take into consideration the attributes and suggest classes.
Not sure if anyone mentioned it but the dragon origin sorcerer feature that increases AC when not wearing armour isn't showing on the character sheet. It still flags as being 10+Dex instead of 13+Dex
Good job so far. I noticed that when I tried to create a variant human character it only listed two feats that I could choose from and one of those was the deep gnome magic feat.
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Used the character sheet for the first time during a game this weekend, and I've got a few thoughts. Though, to preface my feedback, I want to say that so far the tool is great. I created a Rock Gnome Wizard, and the spell management alone makes everything 10x better.
I used the tool on a iPhone 7, for reference.
In no particular order:
1) Navigation between the views for Abilities / Limited Use / Equipment, etc. needs to be easier to navigate for smaller screens. I'd actually prefer a clickable menu so I can select which view to travel to. For instance, if I'm looking at spells (Wizard, right?) and my DM calls for an ability check, it actually slows down the game a bit compared to paper sheets to have to swipe left four or five times before I get to the view that has my ability scores.
2) Leveling up. It'd be great if one of the menu options when you select your character is to "Level Up". Right now it's not exactly intuitive. When I leveled up, the first thing that I did was go to "Manage XP", and add the experience necessary to level. I was then confused when I went back to my character sheet and realized that my Wizard has no new features or spells. I assumed maybe there was a bug. It was only later that I realized you have to go back to the character builder, and specifically also make sure that your Wizard level is changed. It'd be great if there was a button to "Level Up", that took you through the quick process of not only adding XP, but also showing you what your options are to increase your current level.
3) Related to #2, increasing Max Hitpoints. Maybe I still need to look at this more closely, but I'm still confused about what the proper way to increase your max HP on level-up is. I ended up looking at what the suggested average was, and using the HP override. A clearer method here would be much appreciated. I'd love if there was, once again, a button to increase max HP, with the option to take the average, or enter a number manually.
These are the only issues I've had with the tool so far. Once again, great job, I'm loving it so far.
-Game, digital, and web designer at large-
-D&D DM/player addict-
Here's more food for thought: a button next to elements on the character sheet to make rolls with those scores/skills/checks/abilities/weapons/etc.? If the app has already gone through the trouble of listing all of the numbers down, is there necessarily any harm in adding fields to make rolls with input from those stats, modifiers, and bonuses in a little side button accompanying the buttons? Only flaw I can think of is that it might get crowded, so perhaps it could be a sidebar/footer element and a little dice icon can be on the side of any element, with the rolled value and descriptor of what exactly was rolled in the pop up.
-Game, digital, and web designer at large-
-D&D DM/player addict-
I too find having to swipe to navigate between the "tabs" (Abilities, Skills, etc) far too awkward and slow. I also think having the "edit" symbol on the same line as the "tabs" to be kind of wasted space as I doubt you are going to be going into the edit screen too often in the middle of gameplay. I feel like that edit button could easily be tucked away in the main drop down menu without losing anything.
I think a better solution would be to remove the "Edit" button and dedicate that whole row to your different character tabs, which can be accessed by tapping directly on them. You can reveal more tabs by dragging left and right on the row. I've thrown together a very rough mockup to illustrate what I mean:
However, I do agree that some sort of icon would allow for more visibility, but the ability to click and go is already there.
Eldritch Evocations for warlocks, in general, don't seem to show their effects across the char sheet. For example, thirsting blade doesn't increase your number of attacks, eyes of the rune keeper doesn't affect languages known, etc. Things like that.
Second note that just popped into my head, spells on the attacks list don't list damage out like weapon attacks would. I would expect evocations like agonizing blast or lifedrinker to show up similarly like I've mentioned above.
Thanks for the great work everyone!
*Edited for grammer
in the sorcerer class the sorcerer points do not translate into increased spell slots when used
Probably been noted already, but just in case-- There needs to be an option for equipping a weapon offhand.
AD
I'm sure a lot of this will be duplicates of already-posted items, but I've only read the first and last of the 47 pages of posts on this conversation. I promise none of my items are "why can't I find the non-SRD option?" 😉 Also, overall, great work! I'm looking forward to seeing the final, polished, includes-PHB-info product!
One of the first screens of the builder includes "character preferences" like advancement type, etc that are all very advanced options and completely arcane to anew D&D player. I recommend adding a "ask your DM" statement here, as it's really up to them anyway.
After choosing my race as variant human, I had to pick a Feat before deciding on a class or assigning ability scores. I know you will allow other orders of character building in the future, but mentioning you can change your choice later would help, as would disabling all of the feats that have incompatible requirements (e.g. All of the non-human racial feats like Svirfneblin Magic, which along with Grappler were my only choices).
I agree with other posters in this thread that it is really important to add a way to easily reference what each spell does when choosing spells, and indeed everywhere choices need to be made (e.g. when selecting a feat, or a Druid circle).
After assigning my ability scores (standard array), the totals did not show my two chosen racial increases (although later on my character sheet did).
I found having to use the equipment manager to search through every possible equipment to be very intimidating, and I'm not even a new D&D player. Agree with others that auto-adding non-choices makes sense. Also, if you get a "simple weapon", having a selection list of just those would be really helpful.
On the main character sheet screen, I wish I could scroll multiple tabs left or right, instead of just one at a time (using Safari on an iPhone).
When going up a level (through adding XP or otherwise), it should be very difficult to not immediately pick a new class level, and from there see new features highlighted in addition to required choices marked with an exclamation point. I'd like it to also be obvious and highlighted that I got an additional spell slot, and Wild Shape ability, for example.
When looking at the main char sheet window, when I pressed the DDB Menu button at the top right, the tab selection bar was still displayed on top of the menu pull-down (using Safari on iPhone).
The spell casting pull-down in the Class screen of the editor says "...as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Druid table", but the Druid table isn't shown. It would be helpful to show it, or at a minimum have a link to it.
My character (Talix) somehow lost his cantrips when I went up a level, and I had to re-choose them. As mentioned by others, it would be very helpful to not allow (or at least warn about) selecting the same spell as I did for the Circle of the Land class feature.
I feel like I was only prompted to pick one prepared spell at first (Druid) level, but I could be misremembering the interface. I did only pick one, and that should have perhaps resulted in a "ok, you can choose the others later" dialog.
Agree with other posters that spells from class features and other sources should be listed with other spells of the same level, not separately at the bottom, and ideally also on the attacks tab as appropriate.
The sling in my attacks tab doesn't have a range listed (should be 30/120), and the Magic Stone spell and Beast Bond spell have "null ft." listed as their Range/Area.
I hope some of that is useful, and thanks again for a very exciting product!
All of your observations and suggestions are great. I especially like your idea for "disabling" feats and things that your character fails to have the requirements for, BUT I think it would be even better to somehow highlight those you qualify for instead of completely disabling them (or another solution would be to create a selection list that places those things you qualify for under the label "you qualify for" at the top and then places those things you do not qualify for to the bottom of the list with a label that states "does not qualify" or something like that). These methods are better than completely "disabling" options because it's important to allow a DM to make exceptions and retain the ability to override rules, allowing players to add anything desired (for house rules and home brew games).
My campaign does a lot of homebrew and I'd love it if the character sheets could support that. I'd like a manual override option on every part of the character (the specific ones I need are: add / remove skills, include custom features and feats, but I assume it would be different for other people's games). Without that the character sheets are pretty useless to me because they can't reflect my character's actual stats and abilities.
I mentioned this back during the first couple days of the Phase I beta, and it was fixed for monsters, but passive Perception is a score, not a bonus. Therefore, it should be listed as just a number, and there should not be a "+" in front of the number.
Yeah, that was bothering me a bit, too.
Feature Idea:
I like rolling my stats like Matthew Colville does (4d6 drop lowest ,in order (reroll if you don't have 2 15s)). Then using the scores, determine what class is good for those attributes.
I'd like to see the Class page take into consideration the attributes and suggest classes.
Thanks a bunch!
Not sure if anyone mentioned it but the dragon origin sorcerer feature that increases AC when not wearing armour isn't showing on the character sheet. It still flags as being 10+Dex instead of 13+Dex
Good job so far. I noticed that when I tried to create a variant human character it only listed two feats that I could choose from and one of those was the deep gnome magic feat.