Custom lineage should work just like any race option, with the exception that you can customize the name. You can customize so many things on your character sheet, why is it so hard to make it possible to customize a race name. In fact, I think you should be able to customize any race name if you want.
“If you don’t like it, do it yourself!” is the laziest argument to a criticism one can make.
Contrary to most people here, I have actually designed and tried to code such a tool for 3e, it was a massive failure due to the complexity. And I did that for free, in my own time. Have you ever tried it ? Who's the lazy one here ?
You know what is even lazier ? Criticism.
No, sorry, I don't believe that newer players would like to make characters with unconventional characteristics, and I don't believe that the Custom Lineage has anything to do with playing the game, only one kind of player was excited by it, powergamers who want to be able to get optimised benefits by using a feature introduced solely to respond to the social media criticism of fantasy races stereotyping (which I still think is not an appropriate response but sue me, I'm an european).
That is the worst argument that I've seen in a long time. What have you paid for exactly ? What do you think you are entitled to ? On what ground ?
You having tried to make something yourself is great, but it doesn't have any effect on a specific argument like "Design one yourself." Just like any service, "Just do it yourself then" isn't a particularly well-reasoned response. If your food is wrong at a restaurant, if your brake fluid isn't filled after your car is serviced, if your cable channels stop showing up, no sensible person would respond with "Do it yourself whiner." A criticism of your argument isn't necessarily a criticism of you or your work ethic. You might not be a lazy person, but your argument is, being a basic criticism which you yourself labeled lazy in this same post.
As for the bit about "New players don't want X" I think that's a pretty big leap to make in a game touted for its nearly infinite variety of options and customization. It's the biggest thing TTRPGs have over other kinds of games. While I see how you'd like to use it to support your position, simply declaring new players don't want customizable races is unfounded.
As to the "What exactly do you think you've paid for" argument, I think it's quite obvious, so the question is a bit disingenuous. People have bought into DDB because it markets itself as a service that creates a better user interface for source material. All the "free" features factor into the value proposition on whether someone will bother spending their money at DDB, a competitor, or just getting things directly from WotC. Just because they're called "free" doesn't mean they can be removed from the equation and considered entirely optional, in the same way that any other complimentary additions can be removed from any other service. Free oil change, free continental breakfast, free bread at a restaurant. It's called "free" for marketing purposes, because people love to feel like they got something for free, but the cost is very much factored in by the business, and the benefit is very much factored in by the customer.
That said, I personally looked at other ways we could handle this, like creating a new race with appropriate options, but each of these suggestions still required development work to implement.
I guess I dont know how you guys coded the backend but as someone who is also in web development, given how you already have the framework I guess I'm missing where it would require substantial development outside of maybe an hour. The new custom lineage has these traits: Creature Type, Size, Speed, ASI, Feat, Darkvision or Prof and 2 languages.
Creature type is taken care of for you, it's only humanoid. Size has 2 options. If your system doesn't support variable sizes because none of the other races have variable sizes just stick with medium for now and call it a day. Variable ASI for races is already in the frame work (looks at warforged). Variable feat is already in the framework (looks at variant human). Speed is the same as 90% of the races. and variable language is supported by like all races.
So if you guys modularized your system with inheritable classes and interfaces it should be maybe an hour to develop and test a solution for this. Now if it's not modularized and you have to create races from scratch everytime I could see the problem but even then it makes working on this issue even more worth because you save production hours like crazy in the future the more streamlined your system is.
I'm sorry, but this is not how the world works. If you have a problem with a service not being delivered at all, then you have a right to complain. But if a free service is not exactly the way you want it, too bad. I've done tons of associative work in the RPG and in particular LARP environment, and the only way for it to work is that those who are right are those who do the work. Those who only benefit from it have no right to complain, if they want it done differently, they do it themselves, and they certainly don't call those who do it "lazy".
You read the argument wrong. deffdefyingclaimed that obviously Custom Lineage was something that was a feature targetted at new players, and for what ? For making unconventional characters. This is a blatant contradiction, I've never met a new player who wanted to make an unconventional character, and that's me with 42+ years of introducing scores and scores of new players to the game.
Of course, it's for marketing purpose, again that is the way this world works. It does not remove at all the fact that people have already seen what homebrew looks like, and if they don't like it, they can try and take their custom elsewhere. But it's not normal for people who do nothing but criticise and complain to perpetually do this to people who are actually providng value. If they don't like that value, they can, again, take their custom elsewhere.
After that, they can always make constructive criticism and suggestions, but just saying "you suck" is the lazierst and least constructive way of behaving there is.
And this is me, from decades of poividing systems to users, where the only thing that is sure is that no one will ever find an interface that everyone agrees upon. Everyone has their own ideas, which of course are much better and cleverer than anyone else's, but when you ask them to do something about it, suddenly, there's no one there.
This is not a free service. The argument "You can't complain about a free service" doesn't apply. DDB offers not only source materials (that could be obtained elsewhere) but subscriptions (in an attempt to make buying said source materials from them a better value). This is a feedback forum, specifically placed here BY DDB to get these kinds of complaints. Now, people saying "You guys are so lazy, I'm so mad, blah blah" aren't really defensible, but most people here aren't doing that. What they're asking for is reasonable and in line with expectations that DDB has set with previous materials. If you're going to throw around condescension like "This is how the world works," you should make sure it actually is.
I didn't read your argument wrong. I read it as you presented it, and you just confirmed I was correct in determining your meaning in your second post. "New players don't want to make unconventional characters because I personally have never met one" is the crux of your argument. It's anecdotal and demonstrably false. If you present a set of six options to a new player, they're going to pick from those six because they think that's the set of choices they're bound to. If you tell them, "You can make literally anything you can imagine" you're going to get a completely different reaction. If in 42 years you haven't offered that infinite freedom to a player, it's not surprising you've never encountered one who wanted to play something unorthodox like a half-elephant, half-monkey because they weren't told they could.
Again, I think it's worth restating this is a feedback forum that DDB specifically put here to get feedback. Dismissing any negative feedback as people saying "you suck" is misinterpreting (and frankly purposely misrepresenting) the intentions of the people providing that feedback. I want DDB to know that as a customer, I want a certain feature implemented, and as they've seen fit to give me an opportunity to tell them, I'm going to take it. Candidly speaking, when a bunch of people then rush to their defense, hurling character attacks and accusations of laziness and insensitivity, it's unproductive and unnecessary.
You read the argument wrong. deffdefyingclaimed that obviously Custom Lineage was something that was a feature targetted at new players, and for what ? For making unconventional characters. This is a blatant contradiction, I've never met a new player who wanted to make an unconventional character, and that's me with 42+ years of introducing scores and scores of new players to the game.
And here I am having to create the homebrew Custom Lineage Race because my players who never played DnD before our group (we are just 4-5 session in) want it to have more options for their character ideas. And I´m utterly frustrated to get the Variable Trait working as a simple drop down to choose a skill or Darkvision which I think won´t be possible without using the optional feature option.
To just assume because you haven´t experienced something makes it non-existent is the most ignorant view I ever encountered. I hope you don´t work in the scientific field.
Btw I stumbled upon this thread in the search for an answer to my problem with Variable Trait. So total coincidence after 42+ years you find someone contradicting your experience.
Personally I'm very grateful for the homebrew creation options provided, but it is a tedious system if you are having to make duplicates of something. Some options aren't nearly as versatile as is needed or at least not straight forward in that regard.For the amount of things I've made over the years since I joined DDB you'd think it would get easier, but I constantly forget what to put where or how to get a very niche feature to work.
I honestly made this thread to voice that there are people who need these features implemented officially for their groups to accept it. Hoping that others thought like I did and would help prompt a response that at the very least an optimal solution would be worked on DDB's end. This was not an open invitation for people to be calling each other out as lazy. Not everyone has the time to create a homebrew version for their players and not every group allows homebrew.
Lyxen, my problem with your argument is that book integration is NOT free at all. You can buy compendium only for cheaper, and pay more to have it integrated into dndbeyond character sheets. It is not free. You are paying for them to code it into the character creator.
I'd be fine with them saying they will get to it but have been strapped for time and had to prioritize other things. Not ideal, but part of the blame seems to also be on WotC for not delivering the book to them sooner. I also have seen some people make the argument that 90 percent of tashas was basically released a year ago in the UA but thats not super relevant to this topic.
I think the problem ended up being communication as the Tasha's bug & support thread basically said "we have a homebrew tool, use those instead" which is not what we want to hear when we buy a book on here, considering we could also just homebrew the subclasses if we wanted to.
I honestly don't understand your argument at all. Nothing precludes you from the right to complain about issues you have with a product you bought. I bought Tasha's Cauldron of Everything with the understanding that they would implement the book in their tools, as I paid for. I find that not implementing the custom lineage, and instead requiring me to use their homebrew tools to implement a part of the book is out of the realm for what I was expecting when I paid for the book.
The whole point of this website is that we are paying for a system where we can access dnd books, and have their content be implemented in a system that eases the creation of characters, and the running of games. By having us use the homebrew system to implement a feature of the book, they are requiring us to do work, that we are paying for them to do themselves.
It states on the page where you are buying the book that: "This purchase unlocks the contents of this source for use with D&D Beyond, including the book in digital format in the game compendium and access to all of the book's options in the searchable listings, character builder, and digital sheet."
Having me have to use the homebrew editor to do custom lineages is not including all of the book's options in the character builder. It's offloading that work onto me, the person who paid for them to have done the work.
There is nothing on that purchase page that says anything about Custom Lineages being considered covered by the homebrew editor. That's on a forum post, that you may not even see. And Custom Lineages are not considered homebrew by WOTC. It's a variant ruling. Variant rulings so far have been programed into dnd beyond in the normal character builder, so it IS a surprise to me that it's only being covered by the homebrew system.
Saying that we have no right to complain about something, because we paid money for it, is basically saying that we have no rights as customers. That if we do not get what we pay for, we have no recourse, and we should just take what we get, even if it's not what we paid for.
Now, as I stated before. I am not angry at them for not doing this. I understand that all of these features take work and time to implement. But nothing about any of this says that we shouldn't expect them to actually implement it at some point, or that we cannot request them do it, or be unsatisfied that they have not done so.
I understand not having everything you want sucks, I get it. Like others at DDB I've had ideas about how we could offer functionality like custom lineage, but there's been a few reality checks for us.
We only discovered that custom lineage existed for this book when we received the files from Wizards of the Coast, and that was less than 3 weeks ago.
This is the most rules heavy sourcebook since the players handbook. We've had to prioritize what we needed to do for release and people have been working some crazy hours to deliver that.
So from a personal perspective, it makes me sad to work 80 hour weeks, because I WANT this book to be as good as it can, but then something we had to sideline isn't there and people call us lazy.
I get that this isn't on the community though. I just wanted to shed some light on things.
When faced with expending development time to create a new feature, we have to look at various factors:
How many users will be affected by this feature being implemented or not?
It's it possible to do this if we don't develop a solution?
With the homebrew tools allowing full flexibility for creation of races, that means developing a solution for easy custom lineage had to be placed behind other rules content that doesn't have any form of workaround.
That said, I personally looked at other ways we could handle this, like creating a new race with appropriate options, but each of these suggestions still required development work to implement.
We're very aware that we've not finished work on developing tools and systems to support this sourcebook and we're going to be continuing to work on them for a while.
I'm not offering all of this as excuses, because I really want all of this stuff now myself.
I am just asking for some understanding before calling foul or lazy. ❤️
I can’t say that I know how your code works so maybe I’m in the wrong here, but considering one custom lineage character is mechanically the same as any other custom lineage character I can’t see the complexity.
it’s not like you have to have custom lineage subrace for every official race, just put custom lineage at the bottom as it’s own separate race. Then let the user choose the portrait to represent what species their character is.
I understand not having everything you want sucks, I get it. Like others at DDB I've had ideas about how we could offer functionality like custom lineage, but there's been a few reality checks for us.
We only discovered that custom lineage existed for this book when we received the files from Wizards of the Coast, and that was less than 3 weeks ago.
This is the most rules heavy sourcebook since the players handbook. We've had to prioritize what we needed to do for release and people have been working some crazy hours to deliver that.
So from a personal perspective, it makes me sad to work 80 hour weeks, because I WANT this book to be as good as it can, but then something we had to sideline isn't there and people call us lazy.
I get that this isn't on the community though. I just wanted to shed some light on things.
When faced with expending development time to create a new feature, we have to look at various factors:
How many users will be affected by this feature being implemented or not?
It's it possible to do this if we don't develop a solution?
With the homebrew tools allowing full flexibility for creation of races, that means developing a solution for easy custom lineage had to be placed behind other rules content that doesn't have any form of workaround.
That said, I personally looked at other ways we could handle this, like creating a new race with appropriate options, but each of these suggestions still required development work to implement.
We're very aware that we've not finished work on developing tools and systems to support this sourcebook and we're going to be continuing to work on them for a while.
I'm not offering all of this as excuses, because I really want all of this stuff now myself.
I am just asking for some understanding before calling foul or lazy. ❤️
Just wanted to say I appreciate your hard work & effort. <3
Lyxen, it isn't a bug. A bug is when something is coded and doesn't work properly. This is something that was expected to be put in the character creator and was not so people were upset and came here for answers.
Next, your claims about the worthlessness of customer complaints are completely false. Companies thrive on complaints to make a service better REGUARDLESS of a free trial. I have worked for fast food to gym services and childcare. All for major companies, and they all used complaints to make services better. The idea that people can't complain and that just makes them whiny babies is ridiculous
Third, you should drop your argument. Nobody agrees with you and your tone is unbelievably condescending. I think your time would be better spent going to a forum where your advice would be appreciated. (Not trying to be rude you give some very good advice on your other posts)
When I was new to d&d I would have killed for a custom race option because the whole point of the game is imagination and when you are brand new you do not know how to homebrew anything good. It takes practice platesting and experience. Even if it's a fairly small margin of players who want this (and in my experience it isn't, it was a heavily anticipated feature) that doesn't mean they should be ignored because YOU feel like it's for power gamers.
Finally, before you lump me in with the others, I use 100% of my d&d characters on paper. I exist here only for the community and never give money because frankly, I don't like their character creation. I however 100% agree with everyone that they are paying for a service and it should be provided. A dev even responded and agreed and just told everyone essentially sorry there was nothing we can do but we are working on it. I hope for your sake you never pay for something and you are called lazy and are not given respect.
And here I am having to create the homebrew Custom Lineage Race because my players who never played DnD before our group (we are just 4-5 session in) want it to have more options for their character ideas.
Unfortunately, even after you fight your way through the homebrew creator, you won't be able to share it with your group because it is considered official content and you cannot share official content as homebrew. I went through all of the effort of creating Custom Lineage - Small and Custom Lineage - Medium with all of the magic sauce (which I had to spend hours fumbling with to get right) only to find out that I am not allowed to share it.
And here I am having to create the homebrew Custom Lineage Race because my players who never played DnD before our group (we are just 4-5 session in) want it to have more options for their character ideas.
Unfortunately, even after you fight your way through the homebrew creator, you won't be able to share it with your group because it is considered official content and you cannot share official content as homebrew. I went through all of the effort of creating Custom Lineage - Small and Custom Lineage - Medium with all of the magic sauce (which I had to spend hours fumbling with to get right) only to find out that I am not allowed to share it.
You can share homebrew content with your group without publishing it; any homebrew in your collection is automatically shared with anyone you're in a campaign with. The campaign doesn't even need content sharing enabled; it's possible to share homebrew completely for free.
I just want to add to this that while I totally get not making custom lineages a priority, I would love for it to be an option in the character creator down the line. Having to exit to the homebrew creator to create a custom lineage is a lot more work than I want to do when experimenting with this, and it's DEFINITELY more work than any of my players would ever attempt.
Anyway, it's crazy you guys only got final text 3 weeks ago. So... not mad it's not implemented yet (or soon, since the other stuff on the roadmap seems more important), but add me as another person who would like it to be implemented down the road.Thanks!
Well lyxen, perhaps we have different perceptions. You saw many people being an *** to the devs and I only saw a few. In the end, yes some people called you lazy and vice versa but I truly think most people on this thread aren't attacking devs, they are just frustrated that expectations weren't met and in my job, which is in fact an international company not just an american one, someone would be in trouble for letting down this many people as the contract between the consumer and company says that money=good service. I agree that the dev has responded and that should be the end of it. There was more to the story and hopefully Wizards does better next time. They definitely got the short end of the stick but nobody knew that until mid way through this post. Most people were understanding after.
Just as gamers who nowadays receive games with hundreds of bugs and missing features and are even happy to buy early access versions which are even worse should be at least a bit understanding of the process and the fact that it's not a personal insult not to have all the features on day 0, especially when it's explained. DDB could have delayed the release as well, you know, sometimes it's just an impossible deadline...
This!
I like Bugthesda Bethesda games but they're known for all the bugs in their games. Skyrim is filled with them. Some bugs are quite bad and break missions and some are good. Even with all the patches and remasters and whatnot - you can still wall-phase glitch (which I use whenever doing the main quest to completely bypass the entire Blackreach section), or use the resto-pot glitch to become a God, or loot-loop Ahkari's merchant chest in Dawnstar... And yet, it remains my favourite game to date with over 1000 hours played. The game itself is so full of fun stuff and goodies that the bugs can be easily looked.
There will never be a perfect digital toolset. D&D Beyond does have flaws and limitations. But what you actually get and works makes it, arguably, one of the best out there and it's great value for money if you do end up willing to part with coin. The devs are doing what they can, however they can, and I don't blame them if they ended up saying "just use race creator" - they've got a massive crapload on their todo list already. Wanting them to remake a tool you can already use just because you can't be bothered to learn to use it is a bit disrespectful. It's not like the tool is all that difficult. At the end of day, you could just copy Variant Human, change or two things and voila - you've achieved the effect you want. Want to add all the fluff and have it on its own instead of listed under human - then learn to use the tool. Either way, you get the custom lineage you wanted with the effects and features applied to your sheet.
I much prefer the Devs to work on fixing things actually broken and implementing new things. Rehashing something you can already do just doesn't seem like the best use of Devs time.
As for the "buT i PaId!!!1!" stuff - and? You paid for the ability to implement a custom lineage. And D&D Beyond has a tool that lets you do exactly that. You've got what you paid for already. Sometimes getting a paid thing doesn't mean "in the precise manner I want" - if I wanted to buy a can of regular Coca-Cola, I don't get to decide the colour or design of the can - but I can still drink the contents just the same. So, sure, it's not presented in the way you'd like, but you can implement your custom lineage just the same.
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Custom lineage should work just like any race option, with the exception that you can customize the name. You can customize so many things on your character sheet, why is it so hard to make it possible to customize a race name. In fact, I think you should be able to customize any race name if you want.
You having tried to make something yourself is great, but it doesn't have any effect on a specific argument like "Design one yourself." Just like any service, "Just do it yourself then" isn't a particularly well-reasoned response. If your food is wrong at a restaurant, if your brake fluid isn't filled after your car is serviced, if your cable channels stop showing up, no sensible person would respond with "Do it yourself whiner." A criticism of your argument isn't necessarily a criticism of you or your work ethic. You might not be a lazy person, but your argument is, being a basic criticism which you yourself labeled lazy in this same post.
As for the bit about "New players don't want X" I think that's a pretty big leap to make in a game touted for its nearly infinite variety of options and customization. It's the biggest thing TTRPGs have over other kinds of games. While I see how you'd like to use it to support your position, simply declaring new players don't want customizable races is unfounded.
As to the "What exactly do you think you've paid for" argument, I think it's quite obvious, so the question is a bit disingenuous. People have bought into DDB because it markets itself as a service that creates a better user interface for source material. All the "free" features factor into the value proposition on whether someone will bother spending their money at DDB, a competitor, or just getting things directly from WotC. Just because they're called "free" doesn't mean they can be removed from the equation and considered entirely optional, in the same way that any other complimentary additions can be removed from any other service. Free oil change, free continental breakfast, free bread at a restaurant. It's called "free" for marketing purposes, because people love to feel like they got something for free, but the cost is very much factored in by the business, and the benefit is very much factored in by the customer.
If anyone needs help with Custom Lineage, send me a message. I can get you sorted out quick.
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I guess I dont know how you guys coded the backend but as someone who is also in web development, given how you already have the framework I guess I'm missing where it would require substantial development outside of maybe an hour. The new custom lineage has these traits: Creature Type, Size, Speed, ASI, Feat, Darkvision or Prof and 2 languages.
Creature type is taken care of for you, it's only humanoid. Size has 2 options. If your system doesn't support variable sizes because none of the other races have variable sizes just stick with medium for now and call it a day. Variable ASI for races is already in the frame work (looks at warforged). Variable feat is already in the framework (looks at variant human). Speed is the same as 90% of the races. and variable language is supported by like all races.
So if you guys modularized your system with inheritable classes and interfaces it should be maybe an hour to develop and test a solution for this. Now if it's not modularized and you have to create races from scratch everytime I could see the problem but even then it makes working on this issue even more worth because you save production hours like crazy in the future the more streamlined your system is.
This is not a free service. The argument "You can't complain about a free service" doesn't apply. DDB offers not only source materials (that could be obtained elsewhere) but subscriptions (in an attempt to make buying said source materials from them a better value). This is a feedback forum, specifically placed here BY DDB to get these kinds of complaints. Now, people saying "You guys are so lazy, I'm so mad, blah blah" aren't really defensible, but most people here aren't doing that. What they're asking for is reasonable and in line with expectations that DDB has set with previous materials. If you're going to throw around condescension like "This is how the world works," you should make sure it actually is.
I didn't read your argument wrong. I read it as you presented it, and you just confirmed I was correct in determining your meaning in your second post. "New players don't want to make unconventional characters because I personally have never met one" is the crux of your argument. It's anecdotal and demonstrably false. If you present a set of six options to a new player, they're going to pick from those six because they think that's the set of choices they're bound to. If you tell them, "You can make literally anything you can imagine" you're going to get a completely different reaction. If in 42 years you haven't offered that infinite freedom to a player, it's not surprising you've never encountered one who wanted to play something unorthodox like a half-elephant, half-monkey because they weren't told they could.
Again, I think it's worth restating this is a feedback forum that DDB specifically put here to get feedback. Dismissing any negative feedback as people saying "you suck" is misinterpreting (and frankly purposely misrepresenting) the intentions of the people providing that feedback. I want DDB to know that as a customer, I want a certain feature implemented, and as they've seen fit to give me an opportunity to tell them, I'm going to take it. Candidly speaking, when a bunch of people then rush to their defense, hurling character attacks and accusations of laziness and insensitivity, it's unproductive and unnecessary.
And here I am having to create the homebrew Custom Lineage Race because my players who never played DnD before our group (we are just 4-5 session in) want it to have more options for their character ideas.
And I´m utterly frustrated to get the Variable Trait working as a simple drop down to choose a skill or Darkvision which I think won´t be possible without using the optional feature option.
To just assume because you haven´t experienced something makes it non-existent is the most ignorant view I ever encountered. I hope you don´t work in the scientific field.
Btw I stumbled upon this thread in the search for an answer to my problem with Variable Trait. So total coincidence after 42+ years you find someone contradicting your experience.
Personally I'm very grateful for the homebrew creation options provided, but it is a tedious system if you are having to make duplicates of something. Some options aren't nearly as versatile as is needed or at least not straight forward in that regard.For the amount of things I've made over the years since I joined DDB you'd think it would get easier, but I constantly forget what to put where or how to get a very niche feature to work.
I honestly made this thread to voice that there are people who need these features implemented officially for their groups to accept it. Hoping that others thought like I did and would help prompt a response that at the very least an optimal solution would be worked on DDB's end. This was not an open invitation for people to be calling each other out as lazy. Not everyone has the time to create a homebrew version for their players and not every group allows homebrew.
Lyxen, my problem with your argument is that book integration is NOT free at all. You can buy compendium only for cheaper, and pay more to have it integrated into dndbeyond character sheets. It is not free. You are paying for them to code it into the character creator.
I'd be fine with them saying they will get to it but have been strapped for time and had to prioritize other things. Not ideal, but part of the blame seems to also be on WotC for not delivering the book to them sooner. I also have seen some people make the argument that 90 percent of tashas was basically released a year ago in the UA but thats not super relevant to this topic.
I think the problem ended up being communication as the Tasha's bug & support thread basically said "we have a homebrew tool, use those instead" which is not what we want to hear when we buy a book on here, considering we could also just homebrew the subclasses if we wanted to.
I honestly don't understand your argument at all. Nothing precludes you from the right to complain about issues you have with a product you bought. I bought Tasha's Cauldron of Everything with the understanding that they would implement the book in their tools, as I paid for. I find that not implementing the custom lineage, and instead requiring me to use their homebrew tools to implement a part of the book is out of the realm for what I was expecting when I paid for the book.
The whole point of this website is that we are paying for a system where we can access dnd books, and have their content be implemented in a system that eases the creation of characters, and the running of games. By having us use the homebrew system to implement a feature of the book, they are requiring us to do work, that we are paying for them to do themselves.
It states on the page where you are buying the book that: "This purchase unlocks the contents of this source for use with D&D Beyond, including the book in digital format in the game compendium and access to all of the book's options in the searchable listings, character builder, and digital sheet."
Having me have to use the homebrew editor to do custom lineages is not including all of the book's options in the character builder. It's offloading that work onto me, the person who paid for them to have done the work.
There is nothing on that purchase page that says anything about Custom Lineages being considered covered by the homebrew editor. That's on a forum post, that you may not even see. And Custom Lineages are not considered homebrew by WOTC. It's a variant ruling. Variant rulings so far have been programed into dnd beyond in the normal character builder, so it IS a surprise to me that it's only being covered by the homebrew system.
Saying that we have no right to complain about something, because we paid money for it, is basically saying that we have no rights as customers. That if we do not get what we pay for, we have no recourse, and we should just take what we get, even if it's not what we paid for.
Now, as I stated before. I am not angry at them for not doing this. I understand that all of these features take work and time to implement. But nothing about any of this says that we shouldn't expect them to actually implement it at some point, or that we cannot request them do it, or be unsatisfied that they have not done so.
I can’t say that I know how your code works so maybe I’m in the wrong here, but considering one custom lineage character is mechanically the same as any other custom lineage character I can’t see the complexity.
it’s not like you have to have custom lineage subrace for every official race, just put custom lineage at the bottom as it’s own separate race. Then let the user choose the portrait to represent what species their character is.
Just wanted to say I appreciate your hard work & effort. <3
Lyxen, it isn't a bug. A bug is when something is coded and doesn't work properly. This is something that was expected to be put in the character creator and was not so people were upset and came here for answers.
Next, your claims about the worthlessness of customer complaints are completely false. Companies thrive on complaints to make a service better REGUARDLESS of a free trial. I have worked for fast food to gym services and childcare. All for major companies, and they all used complaints to make services better. The idea that people can't complain and that just makes them whiny babies is ridiculous
Third, you should drop your argument. Nobody agrees with you and your tone is unbelievably condescending. I think your time would be better spent going to a forum where your advice would be appreciated. (Not trying to be rude you give some very good advice on your other posts)
When I was new to d&d I would have killed for a custom race option because the whole point of the game is imagination and when you are brand new you do not know how to homebrew anything good. It takes practice platesting and experience. Even if it's a fairly small margin of players who want this (and in my experience it isn't, it was a heavily anticipated feature) that doesn't mean they should be ignored because YOU feel like it's for power gamers.
Finally, before you lump me in with the others, I use 100% of my d&d characters on paper. I exist here only for the community and never give money because frankly, I don't like their character creation. I however 100% agree with everyone that they are paying for a service and it should be provided. A dev even responded and agreed and just told everyone essentially sorry there was nothing we can do but we are working on it. I hope for your sake you never pay for something and you are called lazy and are not given respect.
Edit: was too hostile. Tried to be more polite
Yeah but if you're a leech, like me, we can't make our Medium sized, non bad kobold race. So now what am I gonna do?
Unfortunately, even after you fight your way through the homebrew creator, you won't be able to share it with your group because it is considered official content and you cannot share official content as homebrew. I went through all of the effort of creating Custom Lineage - Small and Custom Lineage - Medium with all of the magic sauce (which I had to spend hours fumbling with to get right) only to find out that I am not allowed to share it.
You can share homebrew content with your group without publishing it; any homebrew in your collection is automatically shared with anyone you're in a campaign with. The campaign doesn't even need content sharing enabled; it's possible to share homebrew completely for free.
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And the penny drops.
I just want to add to this that while I totally get not making custom lineages a priority, I would love for it to be an option in the character creator down the line. Having to exit to the homebrew creator to create a custom lineage is a lot more work than I want to do when experimenting with this, and it's DEFINITELY more work than any of my players would ever attempt.
Anyway, it's crazy you guys only got final text 3 weeks ago. So... not mad it's not implemented yet (or soon, since the other stuff on the roadmap seems more important), but add me as another person who would like it to be implemented down the road.Thanks!
Well lyxen, perhaps we have different perceptions. You saw many people being an *** to the devs and I only saw a few. In the end, yes some people called you lazy and vice versa but I truly think most people on this thread aren't attacking devs, they are just frustrated that expectations weren't met and in my job, which is in fact an international company not just an american one, someone would be in trouble for letting down this many people as the contract between the consumer and company says that money=good service. I agree that the dev has responded and that should be the end of it. There was more to the story and hopefully Wizards does better next time. They definitely got the short end of the stick but nobody knew that until mid way through this post. Most people were understanding after.
This!
I like
BugthesdaBethesda games but they're known for all the bugs in their games. Skyrim is filled with them. Some bugs are quite bad and break missions and some are good. Even with all the patches and remasters and whatnot - you can still wall-phase glitch (which I use whenever doing the main quest to completely bypass the entire Blackreach section), or use the resto-pot glitch to become a God, or loot-loop Ahkari's merchant chest in Dawnstar... And yet, it remains my favourite game to date with over 1000 hours played. The game itself is so full of fun stuff and goodies that the bugs can be easily looked.There will never be a perfect digital toolset. D&D Beyond does have flaws and limitations. But what you actually get and works makes it, arguably, one of the best out there and it's great value for money if you do end up willing to part with coin. The devs are doing what they can, however they can, and I don't blame them if they ended up saying "just use race creator" - they've got a massive crapload on their todo list already. Wanting them to remake a tool you can already use just because you can't be bothered to learn to use it is a bit disrespectful. It's not like the tool is all that difficult. At the end of day, you could just copy Variant Human, change or two things and voila - you've achieved the effect you want. Want to add all the fluff and have it on its own instead of listed under human - then learn to use the tool. Either way, you get the custom lineage you wanted with the effects and features applied to your sheet.
I much prefer the Devs to work on fixing things actually broken and implementing new things. Rehashing something you can already do just doesn't seem like the best use of Devs time.
As for the "buT i PaId!!!1!" stuff - and? You paid for the ability to implement a custom lineage. And D&D Beyond has a tool that lets you do exactly that. You've got what you paid for already. Sometimes getting a paid thing doesn't mean "in the precise manner I want" - if I wanted to buy a can of regular Coca-Cola, I don't get to decide the colour or design of the can - but I can still drink the contents just the same. So, sure, it's not presented in the way you'd like, but you can implement your custom lineage just the same.
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