I must confess I may be missing something, or it may not have been added yet. Apologies as well if this has already been brought up.
There don't seem to any options for NPC's in campaigns. One would think there would be a function for adding NPC characters to campaigns without taking up player slots.
I must admit that this caught me off guard because I thought this platform was developed as a single pane of glass. Meaning I would not need paper anymore - but to be fair I know there is a lot planned for future releases. The argument could be made that it should have been available at launch, however.
Is there a way to track and share NPC statistics and NPC info with player characters? Is there even a way to add or track NPCs at all? If not is this on the roadmap?
NPCs, even if they are traveling with the party, are monsters. You can add them, track them, and even share their stats with other people if you like, by home-brewing a monster.
Possibly, but often in my campaigns, an NPC doesn't have stats, abilities, spells and attack tables. They usually just have a name, race, sex, occupation, and maybe a few quirks, rumors or secrets that make them interesting or useful as plot components. If there is a reason to throw them into a fight or other type of contest, I make it up on the fly.
You can set your NPC's that you have created to private so that only you can see them. Then when you go to create your encounter, click manage characters and hide your NPC's so that they will not be used in combat difficulty calculations.
You can set your NPC's that you have created to private so that only you can see them. Then when you go to create your encounter, click manage characters and hide your NPC's so that they will not be used in combat difficulty calculations.
I am new to D&D beyond but not to D&D . I started in the 70's while in high school. I am slowing going blind due to advanced retinopathy, and I need the books on a huge monitor. I have the monitor and I know I can buy access to the books. I'd like to keep track of my NPCs on D&D Beyond as well because I can't use paper. But I am confused. What do I need to purchase to have this ability? I am okay with sharing some content to the players (all players middle-aged or older and many have trouble reading the books). Yet. I don't want to share dungeons I purchase nor details of NPCs. I have not played or DMed for years but after eye surgery and with a very large monitor, I think I can pull it off provided D&D Beyond can provide me with these things. Do I need to subscribe? Sharing is optional for me. They can always purchase the books online for themselves but all of us are on fixed incomes so if its echeaper for us to share and if I can share without exposing internals of my campaign, then I'd like that option.
You can set your NPC's that you have created to private so that only you can see them. Then when you go to create your encounter, click manage characters and hide your NPC's so that they will not be used in combat difficulty calculations.
I am new to D&D beyond but not to D&D . I started in the 70's while in high school. I am slowing going blind due to advanced retinopathy, and I need the books on a huge monitor. I have the monitor and I know I can buy access to the books. I'd like to keep track of my NPCs on D&D Beyond as well because I can't use paper. But I am confused. What do I need to purchase to have this ability? I am okay with sharing some content to the players (all players middle-aged or older and many have trouble reading the books). Yet. I don't want to share dungeons I purchase nor details of NPCs. I have not played or DMed for years but after eye surgery and with a very large monitor, I think I can pull it off provided D&D Beyond can provide me with these things. Do I need to subscribe? Sharing is optional for me. They can always purchase the books online for themselves but all of us are on fixed incomes so if its echeaper for us to share and if I can share without exposing internals of my campaign, then I'd like that option.
If you mean the ability to set NPCs to private, you don’t need to purchase anything.
If you mean what do you need to do to keep track of your NPCs on D&D Beyond, that depends on how you make NPCs. “Officially,” NPC are monster stat blocks and can be made with the homebrew monster tools. (All of the official NPCs in published materials are monster statblocks). But a lot of people make NPCs by using the character builder.
In terms of subscriptions:
If you make your NPCs as monster stat blocks, you don’t have to purchase any subscription, as there is not a limit to the number of homebrew monsters you can make.
If you make your NPCs using the character builder, you will probably want at least a Hero Tier subscription, as free accounts are limited to 6 characters. The Hero tier gives you unlimited characters, the ability to add public homebrew to your collection, no adds, and access to alpha features. A Master Tier gives you all that plus the ability to share content with up to 3 campaigns. Actually, through the end of the year it is 5 campaigns due to the pandemic.
in terms of content
It is important to understand that subscriptions by themselves do not grant you content. Only the SRD, the Elemental Evil Players Companion, and current Unearthed Arcana (UA) are available for free. Everything else must be purchased.
If you make your NPCs as monster stat blocks, you wouldn’t necessarily need to by any content, unless you wanted to be able to use existing NPC statblocks as templates for your homebrew. If you do, then you should purchase at least those NPC “monsters” you want to use that way.
If you make your NPCS with the character builder, then you will need to purchase the character options you to use. You can do that a la carte (e.g. the tabaxi race, the storm herald subclass, a particular spell), or you can purchase entire “books” (here called Sources since they aren’t physical books)
You can also just by the entire books/sources you want. This would be particularly good if you want to be able to read the book on the larger screen. If you (or someone else in your campaign) do get a Master Tier sub and share content, you as the DM can decided which compendiums (compendia?) get shared and which don’t. Players can still use character options from those sources, but not see the text of the book/source if you turn it off. (So, for example, they could use the archaelogist background from TOA, but wouldn’t be able to read the adventure)
I must confess I may be missing something, or it may not have been added yet. Apologies as well if this has already been brought up.
There don't seem to any options for NPC's in campaigns. One would think there would be a function for adding NPC characters to campaigns without taking up player slots.
I must admit that this caught me off guard because I thought this platform was developed as a single pane of glass. Meaning I would not need paper anymore - but to be fair I know there is a lot planned for future releases. The argument could be made that it should have been available at launch, however.
Is there a way to track and share NPC statistics and NPC info with player characters? Is there even a way to add or track NPCs at all? If not is this on the roadmap?
Thanks.
Veteran Dungeon Master with more than a decade of experience spanning 2nd edition to 5th edition.
Noticed this was brought up in this thread for beta feedback. Link below.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/d-d-beyond-feedback/3652-mega-thread-focused-feedback-campaign-management
Veteran Dungeon Master with more than a decade of experience spanning 2nd edition to 5th edition.
Why would PCs need access to NPC character sheets? Im able to access my NPCs just fine, and i dont need my PCs getting ahold of out of game knowledge.
NPCs, even if they are traveling with the party, are monsters. You can add them, track them, and even share their stats with other people if you like, by home-brewing a monster.
Possibly, but often in my campaigns, an NPC doesn't have stats, abilities, spells and attack tables. They usually just have a name, race, sex, occupation, and maybe a few quirks, rumors or secrets that make them interesting or useful as plot components. If there is a reason to throw them into a fight or other type of contest, I make it up on the fly.
i thought the point of making a campaign on d and d beyond was so a DM could organize all their NPC's character sheets there.
Daniel Christopher Knapp
You can set your NPC's that you have created to private so that only you can see them. Then when you go to create your encounter, click manage characters and hide your NPC's so that they will not be used in combat difficulty calculations.
I am new to D&D beyond but not to D&D . I started in the 70's while in high school. I am slowing going blind due to advanced retinopathy, and I need the books on a huge monitor. I have the monitor and I know I can buy access to the books. I'd like to keep track of my NPCs on D&D Beyond as well because I can't use paper. But I am confused. What do I need to purchase to have this ability? I am okay with sharing some content to the players (all players middle-aged or older and many have trouble reading the books). Yet. I don't want to share dungeons I purchase nor details of NPCs. I have not played or DMed for years but after eye surgery and with a very large monitor, I think I can pull it off provided D&D Beyond can provide me with these things. Do I need to subscribe? Sharing is optional for me. They can always purchase the books online for themselves but all of us are on fixed incomes so if its echeaper for us to share and if I can share without exposing internals of my campaign, then I'd like that option.
If you mean the ability to set NPCs to private, you don’t need to purchase anything.
If you mean what do you need to do to keep track of your NPCs on D&D Beyond, that depends on how you make NPCs. “Officially,” NPC are monster stat blocks and can be made with the homebrew monster tools. (All of the official NPCs in published materials are monster statblocks). But a lot of people make NPCs by using the character builder.
In terms of subscriptions:
If you make your NPCs as monster stat blocks, you don’t have to purchase any subscription, as there is not a limit to the number of homebrew monsters you can make.
If you make your NPCs using the character builder, you will probably want at least a Hero Tier subscription, as free accounts are limited to 6 characters. The Hero tier gives you unlimited characters, the ability to add public homebrew to your collection, no adds, and access to alpha features. A Master Tier gives you all that plus the ability to share content with up to 3 campaigns. Actually, through the end of the year it is 5 campaigns due to the pandemic.
in terms of content
It is important to understand that subscriptions by themselves do not grant you content. Only the SRD, the Elemental Evil Players Companion, and current Unearthed Arcana (UA) are available for free. Everything else must be purchased.
If you make your NPCs as monster stat blocks, you wouldn’t necessarily need to by any content, unless you wanted to be able to use existing NPC statblocks as templates for your homebrew. If you do, then you should purchase at least those NPC “monsters” you want to use that way.
If you make your NPCS with the character builder, then you will need to purchase the character options you to use. You can do that a la carte (e.g. the tabaxi race, the storm herald subclass, a particular spell), or you can purchase entire “books” (here called Sources since they aren’t physical books)
You can also just by the entire books/sources you want. This would be particularly good if you want to be able to read the book on the larger screen. If you (or someone else in your campaign) do get a Master Tier sub and share content, you as the DM can decided which compendiums (compendia?) get shared and which don’t. Players can still use character options from those sources, but not see the text of the book/source if you turn it off. (So, for example, they could use the archaelogist background from TOA, but wouldn’t be able to read the adventure)
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
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