Can I do this? My adventures are usually based around bad guys created from my character creation page. So I can add the monster minions (Homebrew is an issue I read they are adding soon) but my big bad boss guys I can not use. Am I missing something?
If you are using Characters for encounter i suggest using the Extra Tab on the character sheet and add monsters there. You can even customize them there and live track their HP
Just going to bump this and say +1 for please give us a place to create and store NPC's. It will be interesting to see if that will be using full "PC" creation rules, or "monster" creation rules, or give us the option between the two, which would be the best, IMO. NPC's usually don't need the full depth that a PC needs, or they get cumbersome to manage and create if you treat them like PCs.
Just going to bump this and say +1 for please give us a place to create and store NPC's. It will be interesting to see if that will be using full "PC" creation rules, or "monster" creation rules, or give us the option between the two, which would be the best, IMO. NPC's usually don't need the full depth that a PC needs, or they get cumbersome to manage and create if you treat them like PCs.
Hey there!
The functionality you're referring to won't be part of the Encounter Builder tool - its closer to being part of the monster builder tool which is coming at a later point in time. Currently the team is focused on making sure people can build encounters fully within the tool itself before moving onto other projects such as that.
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
If you're adding them on the party side, just add a pc of the appropriate level.
If you're trying to add them on the enemy side, D&D isn't designed with PvP in mind, it assumes at most you give player levels to a monster stat block. The encounter building rules aren't designed with opposing PC stat blocks in mind.
Adding to the enemy side. Well honestly though, I know the CR calculator doesn't work for NPCs, and doesn't factor into the difficulty rating either. But how many of us haven't had NPCs that are enemies in combat at one point or another? I'm thinking from more a "one place to manage all the actors in an encounter". The current Encounter Builder only estimates difficulty anyways, We know for example adding a couple of Intellect Devourers to an encounter even for a higher level group can become lethal. I treat the NPCs the same way. Adding them I need to mentally figure out what their impact will be.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that imo (and it really just is my opinion) having all the actors of an encounter in one place is more important than ensuring all the behind the scenes math is up to par. I would totally accept being able to drag and drop NPCs I created into an encounter, the difficult bar not budge one bit, but an asterisks appears by the difficulty rating with the footnote saying,
"You've added NPCs these add an unknown level of difficulty, beware".
It would future proof for the next step (which is running the encounter I would imagine). And provide a more complete view of the encounter currently built (granted not perfect).
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If you don't care about difficulty calculations, then what's the point in using the encounter builder? It's a tool whose whole purpose is building encounters.
Well the difficulty calculation is a guide right? Job done I'd say. What's next? Running the encounter right? It's not about not caring, it's about acknowledging that in that regard DnDBeyond has done it. Based on the building block example given so far by the team, the important question would be, "How do we provide feedback as a community to make the tool a one-stop shop for encounters". I'm just trying to provide positive, constructive feedback as to what I as a single lone DM will find useful when managing encounters. If and when they decide to implement is their prerogative of course.
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Want to see Virtual Table Top like no other before it built within DnDBeyond.com? Upvote the feature request. It's 2nd highest voted so far:
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
My point was that if you're not factoring the difficulty modification of adding PC stat blocks to the opposing side of an encounter (something D&D at it's core isn't designed with in mind) then why do you need to be able to add those to the encounter builder?
Have you tried making homebrew monsters and giving them PC levels per the steps described in the Dungeon Master's Guide? That'll let you add them to the encounter builder.
Adding to the enemy side. Well honestly though, I know the CR calculator doesn't work for NPCs, and doesn't factor into the difficulty rating either. But how many of us haven't had NPCs that are enemies in combat at one point or another? I'm thinking from more a "one place to manage all the actors in an encounter". The current Encounter Builder only estimates difficulty anyways, We know for example adding a couple of Intellect Devourers to an encounter even for a higher level group can become lethal. I treat the NPCs the same way. Adding them I need to mentally figure out what their impact will be.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that imo (and it really just is my opinion) having all the actors of an encounter in one place is more important than ensuring all the behind the scenes math is up to par. I would totally accept being able to drag and drop NPCs I created into an encounter, the difficult bar not budge one bit, but an asterisks appears by the difficulty rating with the footnote saying,
"You've added NPCs these add an unknown level of difficulty, beware".
It would future proof for the next step (which is running the encounter I would imagine). And provide a more complete view of the encounter currently built (granted not perfect).
Heya! Just to clarify, do you mean you'd like to have NPCs that you create appear alongside PCs/Monsters in a single unified location? If so, I believe that's something that will be planned with the encounter tracker which is still being worked on.
That being said, I have noticed that a lot of people in general use the character builder as a method of NPC creation (admittedly more than I *personally would have anticipated). Thankfully the team is not as oblivious as myself and have been factoring that into consideration as they work on the first phase of the encounter tracker.
Perfect thanks! I can be definitely counted among those that has used the Character Builder to create NPCs. GPyromania you captured exactly what I'd like to do (and maybe others as well).
Sincerely,
Envaris
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Want to see Virtual Table Top like no other before it built within DnDBeyond.com? Upvote the feature request. It's 2nd highest voted so far:
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
the CR calculations works the very same way on characters. unfortunately you'd be surprised by the actual challenge each classes offers. with say druids and barbarians topping the defensive CR and Rogues and Paladins topping the Offensive CR. calculating the CR of level 20 characters really is an exercise in maths as you cannot just add the numbers, you actually have to encompasses the first 3 rounds as mentionned in the DMG. thus you have to calculate what they'd do during the first 3 rounds. and then calculating the things based off that.
the results i have gotten is that a druid at level 20, based on capstone of infinite health if he is moon archetype... would be a CR 30 to defeat. while barbarians with full on tough feat and capstone would be closely behind with a CR 24. others would be lacking much. a monk for exemple would only be a CR16 at level 20. while a mage would be CR20. mind you these all depends on archetypes and i have not done them all, but i have to say the CR calculations works great even for players as the system in 5e was designed with the same numbers.
also consider this much... while players and classes have much less hit points then monsters and NPC who usually have more hit points and levels. if you clone the group and pit it against themselves, you will ntice how horribly wrong that becomes. somehow your group cannot even defeat themselves. they just get wrecked and you are looking at a TPK. so one has to calculate why such an encounter is so broken. the reality being that CR do not calculates strategies, so thats why CR is a bit of a mess, not because the calculations are wrong, but because people want an easy system that cannot be existing. there is no simple way of calculating strategies in a strategy game.
but, i have to agree. being able to see characters in the encounter would be great. even if we have to calculate the CR ourselves.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM of two gaming groups. Likes to create stuff. Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games --> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
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Can I do this? My adventures are usually based around bad guys created from my character creation page. So I can add the monster minions (Homebrew is an issue I read they are adding soon) but my big bad boss guys I can not use. Am I missing something?
Nope - NPCs aren't part of the encounter builder yet, but the team is planning on implementing them in a future update!
If you are using Characters for encounter i suggest using the Extra Tab on the character sheet and add monsters there. You can even customize them there and live track their HP
Thanks for that.
Just going to bump this and say +1 for please give us a place to create and store NPC's. It will be interesting to see if that will be using full "PC" creation rules, or "monster" creation rules, or give us the option between the two, which would be the best, IMO. NPC's usually don't need the full depth that a PC needs, or they get cumbersome to manage and create if you treat them like PCs.
Hey there!
The functionality you're referring to won't be part of the Encounter Builder tool - its closer to being part of the monster builder tool which is coming at a later point in time. Currently the team is focused on making sure people can build encounters fully within the tool itself before moving onto other projects such as that.
Hi,
I was just building an encounter that may include Monsters and some NPCs. I'd love to be able to add NPCs I've created into the encounter.
Thanks!
Envaris
Want to see Virtual Table Top like no other before it built within DnDBeyond.com? Upvote the feature request. It's 2nd highest voted so far:
https://dndbeyond.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115008597088-Virtual-Tabletop-Gameboard
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
NPCs as in custom monsters? You can, homebrew monster support got added recently.
D&D Beyond moderator across forums, Discord, Twitch and YouTube. Always happy to help and willing to answer questions (or at least try). (he/him/his)
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Hi,
I just use the character builder to make NPCs (not create monsters). So I mean using NPCs I've created using the existing character creation tool.
Thanks,
Envaris
Want to see Virtual Table Top like no other before it built within DnDBeyond.com? Upvote the feature request. It's 2nd highest voted so far:
https://dndbeyond.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115008597088-Virtual-Tabletop-Gameboard
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
If you're adding them on the party side, just add a pc of the appropriate level.
If you're trying to add them on the enemy side, D&D isn't designed with PvP in mind, it assumes at most you give player levels to a monster stat block. The encounter building rules aren't designed with opposing PC stat blocks in mind.
D&D Beyond moderator across forums, Discord, Twitch and YouTube. Always happy to help and willing to answer questions (or at least try). (he/him/his)
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat On - Mod Hat Off
Site Rules & Guidelines - Homebrew Rules - Looking for Players and Groups Rules
Adding to the enemy side. Well honestly though, I know the CR calculator doesn't work for NPCs, and doesn't factor into the difficulty rating either. But how many of us haven't had NPCs that are enemies in combat at one point or another? I'm thinking from more a "one place to manage all the actors in an encounter". The current Encounter Builder only estimates difficulty anyways, We know for example adding a couple of Intellect Devourers to an encounter even for a higher level group can become lethal. I treat the NPCs the same way. Adding them I need to mentally figure out what their impact will be.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that imo (and it really just is my opinion) having all the actors of an encounter in one place is more important than ensuring all the behind the scenes math is up to par. I would totally accept being able to drag and drop NPCs I created into an encounter, the difficult bar not budge one bit, but an asterisks appears by the difficulty rating with the footnote saying,
"You've added NPCs these add an unknown level of difficulty, beware".
It would future proof for the next step (which is running the encounter I would imagine). And provide a more complete view of the encounter currently built (granted not perfect).
Want to see Virtual Table Top like no other before it built within DnDBeyond.com? Upvote the feature request. It's 2nd highest voted so far:
https://dndbeyond.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115008597088-Virtual-Tabletop-Gameboard
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
If you don't care about difficulty calculations, then what's the point in using the encounter builder? It's a tool whose whole purpose is building encounters.
D&D Beyond moderator across forums, Discord, Twitch and YouTube. Always happy to help and willing to answer questions (or at least try). (he/him/his)
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat On - Mod Hat Off
Site Rules & Guidelines - Homebrew Rules - Looking for Players and Groups Rules
Well the difficulty calculation is a guide right? Job done I'd say. What's next? Running the encounter right? It's not about not caring, it's about acknowledging that in that regard DnDBeyond has done it. Based on the building block example given so far by the team, the important question would be, "How do we provide feedback as a community to make the tool a one-stop shop for encounters". I'm just trying to provide positive, constructive feedback as to what I as a single lone DM will find useful when managing encounters. If and when they decide to implement is their prerogative of course.
Want to see Virtual Table Top like no other before it built within DnDBeyond.com? Upvote the feature request. It's 2nd highest voted so far:
https://dndbeyond.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115008597088-Virtual-Tabletop-Gameboard
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
My point was that if you're not factoring the difficulty modification of adding PC stat blocks to the opposing side of an encounter (something D&D at it's core isn't designed with in mind) then why do you need to be able to add those to the encounter builder?
Have you tried making homebrew monsters and giving them PC levels per the steps described in the Dungeon Master's Guide? That'll let you add them to the encounter builder.
D&D Beyond moderator across forums, Discord, Twitch and YouTube. Always happy to help and willing to answer questions (or at least try). (he/him/his)
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat On - Mod Hat Off
Site Rules & Guidelines - Homebrew Rules - Looking for Players and Groups Rules
Heya! Just to clarify, do you mean you'd like to have NPCs that you create appear alongside PCs/Monsters in a single unified location? If so, I believe that's something that will be planned with the encounter tracker which is still being worked on.
That being said, I have noticed that a lot of people in general use the character builder as a method of NPC creation (admittedly more than I *personally would have anticipated). Thankfully the team is not as oblivious as myself and have been factoring that into consideration as they work on the first phase of the encounter tracker.
Hopefully that helps clarify a few things. :)
Perfect thanks! I can be definitely counted among those that has used the Character Builder to create NPCs. GPyromania you captured exactly what I'd like to do (and maybe others as well).
Sincerely,
Envaris
Want to see Virtual Table Top like no other before it built within DnDBeyond.com? Upvote the feature request. It's 2nd highest voted so far:
https://dndbeyond.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115008597088-Virtual-Tabletop-Gameboard
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
the CR calculations works the very same way on characters. unfortunately you'd be surprised by the actual challenge each classes offers. with say druids and barbarians topping the defensive CR and Rogues and Paladins topping the Offensive CR. calculating the CR of level 20 characters really is an exercise in maths as you cannot just add the numbers, you actually have to encompasses the first 3 rounds as mentionned in the DMG. thus you have to calculate what they'd do during the first 3 rounds. and then calculating the things based off that.
the results i have gotten is that a druid at level 20, based on capstone of infinite health if he is moon archetype... would be a CR 30 to defeat. while barbarians with full on tough feat and capstone would be closely behind with a CR 24. others would be lacking much. a monk for exemple would only be a CR16 at level 20. while a mage would be CR20. mind you these all depends on archetypes and i have not done them all, but i have to say the CR calculations works great even for players as the system in 5e was designed with the same numbers.
also consider this much... while players and classes have much less hit points then monsters and NPC who usually have more hit points and levels. if you clone the group and pit it against themselves, you will ntice how horribly wrong that becomes. somehow your group cannot even defeat themselves. they just get wrecked and you are looking at a TPK. so one has to calculate why such an encounter is so broken. the reality being that CR do not calculates strategies, so thats why CR is a bit of a mess, not because the calculations are wrong, but because people want an easy system that cannot be existing. there is no simple way of calculating strategies in a strategy game.
but, i have to agree. being able to see characters in the encounter would be great. even if we have to calculate the CR ourselves.
DM of two gaming groups.
Likes to create stuff.
Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses
If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games
--> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)