Searching on D&D Beyond is a pain. So please implement the following fixes:
When searching, the closer are the search terms in any text, the higher that section/part should be in the results. For instance, search for "spell points" (with or without the quotes) and you'll be surprised you will never even find the "Variant: Spell Points" optional rule.
I should be able to search from within a specific source. For instance, if I'm playing a specific campaign, I want to find all information linked to that campaign, not everything in every book I own (and your marketplace says I own them all). So please, allow something like "in:DMG" or something similar. You have so many sources now, that it's become a pain sometimes.
Search should be insensitive to special characters and plural forms. That's a basic, but I still have this issue from time to time. Let's say I search for "dAhtenkhan", I get a failed investigation check. Hey, that's the exact name of "d'Ahten'khan" without apostrophes. I even kept the correct case, but just because the apostrophes aren't exactly placed where they should be, the search failed. Also, searching for "goblin" returns the monster as first result, but searching for "goblins" (plural form) returns god-knows-what results, and don't even think about seeing the "goblin" monster in the top 10 results.
Your failed investigation suggestion should be better. I was looking for "batiri", but I didn't know the exact word so I typed what I thought best: "bataris". As is, your search engine suggested "bareris" (for 3 hits) which is a word with a Levenshtein distance of 2 compared to what I typed. I tried removing the "s", so looking for "batari", no suggestion! Despite "batiri" having 13 results, and a Levenshtein distance of 1.
Remove duplicates in your result. If I search for "trollskull", results #1 and #4 are the same, #2 and #5 are the same, #3 and #6 are the same, #7 and #8 are the same, #9 and #10 are the same. And when I mean the same, I mean that they have the exact same search-result content and point to the exact same URL, down to the section.
If only all your content was available on real-world search engines, I'd not request this and use those, but because it's behind a paywall, you really have to up your game in searching.
Seconded. The search function is useful, but very janky. Filtering by source type (adventure, sourcebook, etc.) and whether you own the content would help.
These are all great suggestions. They also really need to remove sourcebooks you don't own, or at least de-prioritize non-core sourcebooks when you're searching for stuff. I don't need four entries for bleedin' Rick and Morty to come up BEFORE THE PHB when searching for a rule that is in both that and the PHB.
These are all great suggestions. They also really need to remove sourcebooks you don't own, or at least de-prioritize non-core sourcebooks when you're searching for stuff. I don't need four entries for bleedin' Rick and Morty to come up BEFORE THE PHB when searching for a rule that is in both that and the PHB.
Yes! I am constantly struggling to find the content I need. + a billion to these five suggestions.
To add onto point 2, we desperately need an "advanced search" set with, at minimum, the following options:
sources (including owned/unowned, search a specific source(s), exclude specific sources)
source type (sourcebook vs adventure)
option for more that 35
type of listing, all the regulars like spells, items, etc plus at least some of their "basic" options
Ie, the filters that are available on each page, without hitting the "Advanced filters".
Why is this important? If I want to search for the word "fire" in spells, I have 2 options: general search and hit the "spell" circle, or go directly to the spell page and search there. The general search has no filter options- not even the basic spell level or the school, so I'll have to click each one individually to get that info. But on the spell page, it only searches for the name, unless I add all "fire" in the damage type. And still, it's not going to pick up mentions of the word "fire" if those two conditions aren't met (IE Protection from Energy, Conjure Elemental, Web, etc)
Additionally, more advanced compendium content options/filters would be incrediably helpful, especially for those who have lots of sources (even more so for us legendary bundle folks.) All these great sources and options and our fingertips, except I can't find anything. These things would be a really good start to solving that:
maps/encounters/rooms (thinking specifically of all the compendium content that is keyed to a map, by having a "Letter number" designation, like "T1. Trollskull Manor")
NPCs (not just having to dig through the monster section to find an NPC. Have even a few adventures unlocked means that DMs have access to ready-built NPCs, many of which can easily be dropped into any campaign at any time, even on the fly. Problem is, I can't even find them on D&D beyond. I'm better off using my paper books for this, which is a bummer.
tables (same idea as NPCs. There's amazing tables in all kinds of sourcebooks, and they are very hard to find.)
Yes please fix search. It is so basic and unhelpful and not what anyone in the 21st century is used to (that isn't an exaggeration, this is a decades old 20th century level search bot).
Quite often I'll type in a rules term, and the search results will be full of monster entries and/or pages in specific adventures where the rule is referenced from. I'd much rather see rulebook entries before monster/adventure entries.
Quite often I'll type in a rules term, and the search results will be full of monster entries and/or pages in specific adventures where the rule is referenced from. I'd much rather see rulebook entries before monster/adventure entries.
Yes, and exclude duplicates. Many items are listed both under compendium entries and as spells/monsters/etc, not to mention I get a repeat any time I search for something both in the PHB and SRD.
Having worked for the past months on search engines in my company, I was flabbergasted that the defaults of Lucene work perfectly to solve almost all issues. The only one that failed was the "d'Ahten'khan" search and it's because the quotes aren't the straight quotes. So just a bit of normalization would just do wonders.
Honestly I've resorted to googling the term and adding DnD Beyond and it has worked better than the built in search for a while now.
The new sources (particularly the ones I do not own) make it hard. Rick and Morty comes up first for basic rules and since I don't own it I can't open it.
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Searching on D&D Beyond is a pain. So please implement the following fixes:
If only all your content was available on real-world search engines, I'd not request this and use those, but because it's behind a paywall, you really have to up your game in searching.
Seconded. The search function is useful, but very janky. Filtering by source type (adventure, sourcebook, etc.) and whether you own the content would help.
These are all great suggestions. They also really need to remove sourcebooks you don't own, or at least de-prioritize non-core sourcebooks when you're searching for stuff. I don't need four entries for bleedin' Rick and Morty to come up BEFORE THE PHB when searching for a rule that is in both that and the PHB.
This^
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Yes! I am constantly struggling to find the content I need. + a billion to these five suggestions.
To add onto point 2, we desperately need an "advanced search" set with, at minimum, the following options:
Additionally, more advanced compendium content options/filters would be incrediably helpful, especially for those who have lots of sources (even more so for us legendary bundle folks.) All these great sources and options and our fingertips, except I can't find anything. These things would be a really good start to solving that:
Yes please fix search. It is so basic and unhelpful and not what anyone in the 21st century is used to (that isn't an exaggeration, this is a decades old 20th century level search bot).
Quite often I'll type in a rules term, and the search results will be full of monster entries and/or pages in specific adventures where the rule is referenced from. I'd much rather see rulebook entries before monster/adventure entries.
Yes, and exclude duplicates. Many items are listed both under compendium entries and as spells/monsters/etc, not to mention I get a repeat any time I search for something both in the PHB and SRD.
To push this back to the top. This!
The search becomes more and more a pain in the ass, the more sources you add. Please do something about it.
Having worked for the past months on search engines in my company, I was flabbergasted that the defaults of Lucene work perfectly to solve almost all issues. The only one that failed was the "d'Ahten'khan" search and it's because the quotes aren't the straight quotes. So just a bit of normalization would just do wonders.
Honestly I've resorted to googling the term and adding DnD Beyond and it has worked better than the built in search for a while now.
The new sources (particularly the ones I do not own) make it hard. Rick and Morty comes up first for basic rules and since I don't own it I can't open it.