So anyone who's listened to me rant for five minutes knows I desperately want Slow Natural Healing for my games. It's a whole-table want - we hate the default "Injuries Don't Matter" PHB Wolverine Superhero Regeneration long rest rules, in which a long rest is equivalent to a ninth-level spell and no amount of combat damage matters or has any impact whatsoever on a character. It ruins immersion for us and the only reason combat retains any weight is because we've all kinda mutually agreed to pretend like it does - and because the DM of our longest-running game has introduced enemies with weapons/abilities that no amount of long-resting will fix. Alas, it's far more hassle than it's worth to try and use Slow Natural Healing on DDB. Oh sure, we could all constantly write down our current HP totals prior to pushing the 'Long Rest' button and then reset our HP after the long rest cures us up - and we did, in fact, try that. But one person forgetting even once turns it into a whole thing, and after a few weeks of trying to finagle DDB into letting us do the thing, we gave it up as a bad job and just accepted the terrible PHB rest rules.
'Course, Slow Natural Healing is far from the only PHB/DMG rule that DDB never has and never will implement. While everyone carps and craps on the DDB team for not getting whatever random flavor of "Feats except stronker and for free" the latest book has introduced implemented right away, rules that have existed since before DDB did that allow a DM to tune their game or give players interesting alternatives to conventional systems go lamentably, eternally undone. A few of them can be half-ass jiggered into working with clever homebrew hacks - IamSposta added useful tips in my previous thread touching on this subject for getting Hero Points and the Hollow One Supernatural Gift working via homebrew feats - but there's a goodly few rules from the DMG that DDB's current set-up actively blocks. There's no good way to use any of the variant skill proficiency rules, there's no way to run multi-DM games, and the Honor/Sanity/Other 'seventh ability score' rules are all hard-blocked from the start, among other things. Some of these rules are well known to improve the game quite a bit when used effectively by clever DMs - I've seen many, many DMs sing the praises of Honor/Sanity/Seventh-Score as one example, often giving each player in a campaign a seventh ability score specific to their background/culture and deeply enriching their game by doing so. But...well. Ya can't slap Honor on your sheet and be stronker in fyte, so nobody ever complains about not having access to those rules.
Here's your thread for complaining about not having access to those rules.
That diatribe you've always wanted to go on about how DDB makes it impossible to use Proficiency Dice? Post it up here! Your virulent hatred of the fact that you can't let sorcerers work off spell points instead of spell slots so sorcerers make bloody sense again? Here's your stage for venting it! Wanna tell people how much better D&D is with Lingering Injuries and combat that actually feels visceral, dangerous, and tense? Please do, we're listening even if DDB isn't!
Whatever system is in the books but not in DDB (that ISN'T Boons/Gifts/Marks/Pizza; see the thread in my signature and linked above for why I'm specifically not caring about you in this thread) that's holding you back from running the D&D game you've always wanted to? Let us know here. Maybe if we all band together, all show support for each other's favorite pet rules DDB has no interest in giving us, we can drum up enough of a disgruntled mob to help push at least one through.
And if not? Well, hell. At least we all get a chance to vent some gas and feel a little better, eh?
Honestly, I use DDB because of covid. That is absolutely the only reason. If the stuff you want to use is available in the tools then it's a very convenient environment, sure, but it will never be as flexible as good old pen and paper. I very much like that DDB has this entire community, since WotC threw all that social stuff out ages ago, but without "all play will be online only for the foreseeable future so we might as well use online tools" the forum would be all I'd be here for. And even then the use of online tools isn't my choice.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Literally all of the above, in the sense that D&D Beyond’s complete lack of flexibility is the absolute most frustrating thing about it. I will never pass up a chance to complain about the frankly embarrassing lack of tools and options the platform offers DMs.
If I want to give a particular spell to a character (just as an example, the Dynamancy spells in the Wildemount book, which the book says DMs are free to add to characters’ spell lists as appropriate), I should be able to just do that. I shouldn’t have to homebrew a copy of the spell, I shouldn’t have to homebrew a background or subclass for the character to get it added, I should just be able to press one damn button on the character sheet like for feats. But for some reason I can’t even do that (the reason is an inexcusable failure of planning when the platform was first being architected).
That’s just one example of the incredible friction DDB’s current system forces upon users.
I'm just wondering are the DMG options viable on the other online purveyors of D&D, Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds?
I think I'm in agreement with Pang. I don't find DDB essential to playing D&D, it facilitates character building within a narrower or stricter set of rules than the DMG allows. I actually did a head to head DDB Encounter Builder vs just using the steps in the DMG, and preferred the latter. Of course, I'm old school when TTRPG was called pencil and paper RPG (if you needed to make the distinction between LARP or something on your PC or a MUSH/MUD/etc) and as with many things, pencil and paper character sheets are just much more flexible than what DDB can presently do, both with DMG content and 3rd party materials. I actually have players on the younger side who prefer working off paper and using books more than DDB, because they're tired of being on screens all day these days (work and school, even in "reopened" environments). I think in this regard DDB is really like TurboTax (for U.S. filers). It's great for your garden variety 1040, but it's not going to accommodate the most "enterprising" filer, so to speak.
The alt hp healing mechanics are most easily implemented by saying no one use the rest button, and when rests occur the DM and party figure out hp recovered or whatever based on whatever system the DM was using, like it used to be. I agree it's unfortunate that the rest is "locked" out of the present DDB character sheet.
Not to derail the thread, but did anyone take the DDB survey last week? There was a particular question about how often you use third party content. I've seen that question in WotC surveys, but to my memory it was a new question for DDB.
I did take the survey last week, and when that question was given me I answered "Always". I have a great many third-party sources I'd love to use, even through simply homebrewing bits in when I need them, but it's often prohibitively difficult to do so. I understand that the ditigal tool will never be as flexible as pen-and-paper - outside of just using form-fillable PDFs and telling everyone to do their own math, which is what sites like Myth-Weavers do. But man, some of the restrictions that're in place really cramp, especially when nobody ever talks about them in between complaining that Boons/Gifts aren't available yet.
Heh, just figured I'd open up one brief little space for people to speak up in favor of things we want but will never get, just because.
I thought it was interesting they asked the question, maybe seeing how much of their understanding of the D&D market branches outside WotC (or the DDB market, not sure if there's much of a difference or if DDB doesn't have access to WotC's data when they ask ... it does seem they keep DDB arms length until marketing new book time comes around) possibly with thoughts toward accommodating that. My thought, we'll see custom classes and broader latitude with homebrew to accomodate 3rd party material (likely as homebrew unless they open "that" door post 2024) before we see the DMG options implemented. I'd like to see the full DMG represented in DDB too, but I think we're just more likely to see it the other way.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I would say Piety, but I guess that falls under your whole Boons/Gifts dealio.
I've never used these optional/variant rules but recently I got an urge to turn on the Honor ability score and just rename it "luck" because I was learning about how the Norse saw luck n such. Then I saw that DDB didn't have that option and I juts imagined they did, and that I was thinking of the roll20 game settings because they actually have that option.
Looking through all the optional/variant rules, the Epic Heroism rest variant seems great. Purely because I would only turn it on so I didn't have to do the math to make its rules for regaining spells slots a thing in my games. For the curious:
"......Consider allowing spellcasters to restore expended spell slots equal to only half their maximum spell slots (rounded down) at the end of a long rest, and to limit spell slots restored to 5th level or lower. Only a full 8-hour rest will allow a spellcaster to restore all spell slots and to regain spell slots of 6th level or higher."
I think this could help in the whole martials vs caster debacle a bit.
I chose to be disruptive but only because using this site for actual play is frustratingly difficult when compared to just using pen-and-paper and I can't understand why anyone would choose to use it for anything other than reference.
I chose to be disruptive but only because using this site for actual play is frustratingly difficult when compared to just using pen-and-paper and I can't understand why anyone would choose to use it for anything other than reference.
Begs the question as to why you're on it then. I use it to hold all my characters in it and to not have to do any math and write stuff down. I use roll20 and Beyond20 to roll off my DDB sheet into the R20 chat. DDB just makes everything simple and easy to use, save for these specific variant rules and such.
Back on topic however, have any of you actually used the variant skill prof rules before? How did it go?
I chose to be disruptive but only because using this site for actual play is frustratingly difficult when compared to just using pen-and-paper and I can't understand why anyone would choose to use it for anything other than reference.
Begs the question as to why you're on it then. I use it to hold all my characters in it and to not have to do any math and write stuff down. I use roll20 and Beyond20 to roll off my DDB sheet into the R20 chat. DDB just makes everything simple and easy to use, save for these specific variant rules and such.
I chose to be disruptive but only because using this site for actual play is frustratingly difficult when compared to just using pen-and-paper and I can't understand why anyone would choose to use it for anything other than reference.
I sorta see it as "training wheels" for character creation. You may not be able to do everything within the possibility of the game, but what you build won't be broken due to an arithmetic fail or rules interpretation error. It's a good set up for players still learning the game. I wish the barrier the structure imposes to homebrewing third party could be lifted but it's been great for tutorial type playing.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I chose to be disruptive but only because using this site for actual play is frustratingly difficult when compared to just using pen-and-paper and I can't understand why anyone would choose to use it for anything other than reference.
I sorta see it as "training wheels" for character creation. You may not be able to do everything within the possibility of the game, but what you build won't be broken due to an arithmetic fail or rules interpretation error. It's a good set up for players still learning the game. I wish the barrier the structure imposes to homebrewing third party could be lifted but it's been great for tutorial type playing.
I can see that. We just have a tendency to have weird little unique things that pop up in play and the inflexible nature of the builder just doesn't work for us.
BUT
Being able to sort through spells, monsters and such using filters and the like really helps me with my game prep.
Epic Boons, Piety, etc. are not far behind, but it can be implemented via the feat system, so it is more of a convenience thing.
And I want everything else on the list too. Spell points is my personal top priority because my group and I could use it the most, but I want other features implemented too in case we want them.
I chose to be disruptive but only because using this site for actual play is frustratingly difficult when compared to just using pen-and-paper and I can't understand why anyone would choose to use it for anything other than reference.
The 'disruptive' option was meant as a...warning? Caution? Closer to caution, methinks...as much as anything else. I know there's plenty of folks out there who consider all of these side options to just be pointless overly-mechanical drivel that gets in the way of Proper D&D, and if I didn't give them a chance to weigh in with that opinion (as well as a warning on exactly how I'm gonna take anyone who posts that crap in here), we'd get a bunch of people coming in thinking they're smart for Not Needing No Stinkin' Rules(C).
Heh. Any rule one does - or deliberately does not - choose to use influences the feel of one's game. The fact that we can't use any of these rules means we can't as readily play the sorts of games these rules would help us play. And yeah, pen-and-paper is more flexible, but my play group is scattered across the continental U.S. Pen-and-paper sheets aren't an option for me, and frankly I prefer the cleaner interface of a digital sheet even if I did have an in-person group. Better than erasing and rewriting an HP number ten thousand times a night X_X
I chose to be disruptive but only because using this site for actual play is frustratingly difficult when compared to just using pen-and-paper and I can't understand why anyone would choose to use it for anything other than reference.
The 'disruptive' option was meant as a...warning? Caution? Closer to caution, methinks...as much as anything else. I know there's plenty of folks out there who consider all of these side options to just be pointless overly-mechanical drivel that gets in the way of Proper D&D, and if I didn't give them a chance to weigh in with that opinion (as well as a warning on exactly how I'm gonna take anyone who posts that crap in here), we'd get a bunch of people coming in thinking they're smart for Not Needing No Stinkin' Rules(C).
Heh. Any rule one does - or deliberately does not - choose to use influences the feel of one's game. The fact that we can't use any of these rules means we can't as readily play the sorts of games these rules would help us play. And yeah, pen-and-paper is more flexible, but my play group is scattered across the continental U.S. Pen-and-paper sheets aren't an option for me, and frankly I prefer the cleaner interface of a digital sheet even if I did have an in-person group. Better than erasing and rewriting an HP number ten thousand times a night X_X
I am all for DnDBeyond implementing all the options. I really am. I just think the task is so monumental that it is likely to never happen. And with 2024 looming ever closer, DnDBeyond is only going to fall further and further behind unless they have a something big secretly in the works. I don't completely fault them, after all the DC set by WotC and the Player Base for the challenge is really high.
Heh. Any rule one does - or deliberately does not - choose to use influences the feel of one's game. The fact that we can't use any of these rules means we can't as readily play the sorts of games these rules would help us play. And yeah, pen-and-paper is more flexible, but my play group is scattered across the continental U.S. Pen-and-paper sheets aren't an option for me, and frankly I prefer the cleaner interface of a digital sheet even if I did have an in-person group. Better than erasing and rewriting an HP number ten thousand times a night X_X
Putting your starting HP on a scrap sheet, and similar number for spell slots, and tallying them down or up is as fast if not a little faster than typing in the digits and clicking "damage" or "heal". Put your ammo count on there too or any other consumable as the game goes. Then make your sheet look pretty end of session. AND you can be a Pugilist (I mean, I wouldn't but that's an oddly popular 3rd party class for some reason). Some folks even treat those tally sheets as game logs.
I'll also never understand the "I can't do pencil and paper, we're on a video screen" thing. I mean some folks like rolling virtually, but even when I'm sitting down at a table, I don't require anyone to witness die rolls.
But I guess it would be cool to be able to customize that short long rest space with whatever option you choose from the DMG, and maybe even open up that interface that allows those options so DMs can introduce their own rules. I think that would be cool, but part of me wonders if that would also leading more folks needing help / customer support with what a lot of folks treat as a sort of background task to the game. I think part of DDB's impetus was likely a "headache free" building and playing experience (I mean everyone looks like they're having fun in their recent browser ads) and headache free may mean "don't look at those lights over there" when it comes to giving options ... I do note that spell points and the rest of the survey ... I don't anyone from the design studio ever discusses them. Given that there could be some unspoken D&D style guide where DMG variants (except the Death Cleric and Oathbreaker) aren't supposed to be talked about as "official D&D" which leaves us to where we are.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
And yeah, pen-and-paper is more flexible, but my play group is scattered across the continental U.S. Pen-and-paper sheets aren't an option for me, and frankly I prefer the cleaner interface of a digital sheet even if I did have an in-person group. Better than erasing and rewriting an HP number ten thousand times a night X_X
Personally, I use my Microsoft Surface and "print" a PDF of the character sheet into OneNote. It gives me the flexibility of pen and paper, beingnablemto freehand what I want, while not having my HP get progressively more illegible as erase and scrawl over previous figures. I just change the character sheet each time I level up.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Before my previous table imploded spectacularly, I'd been planning on running a campaign using Healer's Kit Dependency and Stress rules from the recent Ravenloft book. Never got the chance, since a former player/ex-friend and her ******* wife blew their ******* lids when the other DM in that group ran Dragon of Icespire Peak. Hopefully, when the new table has a chance to gel together and if DDB is able to knock out progress on their General Feature System, I might be able to visit the idea again.
I chose to be disruptive but only because using this site for actual play is frustratingly difficult when compared to just using pen-and-paper and I can't understand why anyone would choose to use it for anything other than reference.
One of my best friends is not the fondest of D&D and never has been. To paraphrase her:
“It’s called a ‘character sheet'.’ It’s not a ‘character dossier,’ or a ‘character pamphlet.’ There’s only supposed to be one piece of paper, that’s why it’s singular. And the back of it should be blank for notes and inventory. If playing D&D takes three times as many pages than it should, then step one in solving that problem is figuring out why. Oh, wouldj’a look at that. There’s probably the issue right there, the 'core rulebook’ for D&D has three times as many volumes than it should. That makes sense, if they got rid of two thirds of the rules I would probably only hate it one third as much.”
‘Rei my friend:
You know how I keep insisting that most friction that occurs at the table is because people are just at the wrong tables? She and you should never play D&D together. You think D&D should be more like Pathfinder, and she thinks it should be more like Werewolf: The Apocalypse 2e, because any TTRPG more complicated than that “has done it wrong.”
Imagine if WotC took about ⅓ of the rules from each of the PHB, the DMG, and Xanathar’s Guide, handed it to an executive who defined a TTRPG as: When a handful of people get to hang out and tell a story together. Then, everyone once in a while you might have to fight something, or do something supernatural. that’s when the players get to have fun with, like, a little mini game for each of those.”
The game was so “narrative/story > rules/mechanics” that the whole first third of the book was for Storytellers (GMs) and was really all about telling a story. It didn’t explain how to make a character until the section for players after that. And then imagine if they said that was pretty much the whole game right there. -Le Fin-
She tried and couldn’t with 2e and 3/ 3.5es. She consented to try it again this edition and hated it the least of all, in fact she actually kinda liked it, but was still frustrated with the character sheet and how poorly organized it is. She has point blank stated that the only reason she has continued with 5e for as long as she has (a li’l over a year) is because of DDB’s character builder/sheet and how much less unbearable it makes D&D for her.
So anyone who's listened to me rant for five minutes knows I desperately want Slow Natural Healing for my games. It's a whole-table want - we hate the default "Injuries Don't Matter" PHB Wolverine Superhero Regeneration long rest rules, in which a long rest is equivalent to a ninth-level spell and no amount of combat damage matters or has any impact whatsoever on a character. It ruins immersion for us and the only reason combat retains any weight is because we've all kinda mutually agreed to pretend like it does - and because the DM of our longest-running game has introduced enemies with weapons/abilities that no amount of long-resting will fix. Alas, it's far more hassle than it's worth to try and use Slow Natural Healing on DDB. Oh sure, we could all constantly write down our current HP totals prior to pushing the 'Long Rest' button and then reset our HP after the long rest cures us up - and we did, in fact, try that. But one person forgetting even once turns it into a whole thing, and after a few weeks of trying to finagle DDB into letting us do the thing, we gave it up as a bad job and just accepted the terrible PHB rest rules.
'Course, Slow Natural Healing is far from the only PHB/DMG rule that DDB never has and never will implement. While everyone carps and craps on the DDB team for not getting whatever random flavor of "Feats except stronker and for free" the latest book has introduced implemented right away, rules that have existed since before DDB did that allow a DM to tune their game or give players interesting alternatives to conventional systems go lamentably, eternally undone. A few of them can be half-ass jiggered into working with clever homebrew hacks - IamSposta added useful tips in my previous thread touching on this subject for getting Hero Points and the Hollow One Supernatural Gift working via homebrew feats - but there's a goodly few rules from the DMG that DDB's current set-up actively blocks. There's no good way to use any of the variant skill proficiency rules, there's no way to run multi-DM games, and the Honor/Sanity/Other 'seventh ability score' rules are all hard-blocked from the start, among other things. Some of these rules are well known to improve the game quite a bit when used effectively by clever DMs - I've seen many, many DMs sing the praises of Honor/Sanity/Seventh-Score as one example, often giving each player in a campaign a seventh ability score specific to their background/culture and deeply enriching their game by doing so. But...well. Ya can't slap Honor on your sheet and be stronker in fyte, so nobody ever complains about not having access to those rules.
Here's your thread for complaining about not having access to those rules.
That diatribe you've always wanted to go on about how DDB makes it impossible to use Proficiency Dice? Post it up here!
Your virulent hatred of the fact that you can't let sorcerers work off spell points instead of spell slots so sorcerers make bloody sense again? Here's your stage for venting it!
Wanna tell people how much better D&D is with Lingering Injuries and combat that actually feels visceral, dangerous, and tense? Please do, we're listening even if DDB isn't!
Whatever system is in the books but not in DDB (that ISN'T Boons/Gifts/Marks/Pizza; see the thread in my signature and linked above for why I'm specifically not caring about you in this thread) that's holding you back from running the D&D game you've always wanted to? Let us know here. Maybe if we all band together, all show support for each other's favorite pet rules DDB has no interest in giving us, we can drum up enough of a disgruntled mob to help push at least one through.
And if not? Well, hell. At least we all get a chance to vent some gas and feel a little better, eh?
Please do not contact or message me.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/dungeon-masters-workshop#ModifyingaClass. Or, you know, homebrewing new classes period.
Honestly, I use DDB because of covid. That is absolutely the only reason. If the stuff you want to use is available in the tools then it's a very convenient environment, sure, but it will never be as flexible as good old pen and paper. I very much like that DDB has this entire community, since WotC threw all that social stuff out ages ago, but without "all play will be online only for the foreseeable future so we might as well use online tools" the forum would be all I'd be here for. And even then the use of online tools isn't my choice.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Literally all of the above, in the sense that D&D Beyond’s complete lack of flexibility is the absolute most frustrating thing about it. I will never pass up a chance to complain about the frankly embarrassing lack of tools and options the platform offers DMs.
If I want to give a particular spell to a character (just as an example, the Dynamancy spells in the Wildemount book, which the book says DMs are free to add to characters’ spell lists as appropriate), I should be able to just do that. I shouldn’t have to homebrew a copy of the spell, I shouldn’t have to homebrew a background or subclass for the character to get it added, I should just be able to press one damn button on the character sheet like for feats. But for some reason I can’t even do that (the reason is an inexcusable failure of planning when the platform was first being architected).
That’s just one example of the incredible friction DDB’s current system forces upon users.
I'm just wondering are the DMG options viable on the other online purveyors of D&D, Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds?
I think I'm in agreement with Pang. I don't find DDB essential to playing D&D, it facilitates character building within a narrower or stricter set of rules than the DMG allows. I actually did a head to head DDB Encounter Builder vs just using the steps in the DMG, and preferred the latter. Of course, I'm old school when TTRPG was called pencil and paper RPG (if you needed to make the distinction between LARP or something on your PC or a MUSH/MUD/etc) and as with many things, pencil and paper character sheets are just much more flexible than what DDB can presently do, both with DMG content and 3rd party materials. I actually have players on the younger side who prefer working off paper and using books more than DDB, because they're tired of being on screens all day these days (work and school, even in "reopened" environments). I think in this regard DDB is really like TurboTax (for U.S. filers). It's great for your garden variety 1040, but it's not going to accommodate the most "enterprising" filer, so to speak.
The alt hp healing mechanics are most easily implemented by saying no one use the rest button, and when rests occur the DM and party figure out hp recovered or whatever based on whatever system the DM was using, like it used to be. I agree it's unfortunate that the rest is "locked" out of the present DDB character sheet.
Not to derail the thread, but did anyone take the DDB survey last week? There was a particular question about how often you use third party content. I've seen that question in WotC surveys, but to my memory it was a new question for DDB.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I did take the survey last week, and when that question was given me I answered "Always". I have a great many third-party sources I'd love to use, even through simply homebrewing bits in when I need them, but it's often prohibitively difficult to do so. I understand that the ditigal tool will never be as flexible as pen-and-paper - outside of just using form-fillable PDFs and telling everyone to do their own math, which is what sites like Myth-Weavers do. But man, some of the restrictions that're in place really cramp, especially when nobody ever talks about them in between complaining that Boons/Gifts aren't available yet.
Heh, just figured I'd open up one brief little space for people to speak up in favor of things we want but will never get, just because.
Please do not contact or message me.
I thought it was interesting they asked the question, maybe seeing how much of their understanding of the D&D market branches outside WotC (or the DDB market, not sure if there's much of a difference or if DDB doesn't have access to WotC's data when they ask ... it does seem they keep DDB arms length until marketing new book time comes around) possibly with thoughts toward accommodating that. My thought, we'll see custom classes and broader latitude with homebrew to accomodate 3rd party material (likely as homebrew unless they open "that" door post 2024) before we see the DMG options implemented. I'd like to see the full DMG represented in DDB too, but I think we're just more likely to see it the other way.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Spell Points. It’s the easiest, fastest way to make Sorcerers sorcel.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I would say Piety, but I guess that falls under your whole Boons/Gifts dealio.
I've never used these optional/variant rules but recently I got an urge to turn on the Honor ability score and just rename it "luck" because I was learning about how the Norse saw luck n such. Then I saw that DDB didn't have that option and I juts imagined they did, and that I was thinking of the roll20 game settings because they actually have that option.
Looking through all the optional/variant rules, the Epic Heroism rest variant seems great. Purely because I would only turn it on so I didn't have to do the math to make its rules for regaining spells slots a thing in my games. For the curious:
"......Consider allowing spellcasters to restore expended spell slots equal to only half their maximum spell slots (rounded down) at the end of a long rest, and to limit spell slots restored to 5th level or lower. Only a full 8-hour rest will allow a spellcaster to restore all spell slots and to regain spell slots of 6th level or higher."
I think this could help in the whole martials vs caster debacle a bit.
Er ek geng, þat er í þeim skóm er ek valda.
UwU









I chose to be disruptive but only because using this site for actual play is frustratingly difficult when compared to just using pen-and-paper and I can't understand why anyone would choose to use it for anything other than reference.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Begs the question as to why you're on it then. I use it to hold all my characters in it and to not have to do any math and write stuff down. I use roll20 and Beyond20 to roll off my DDB sheet into the R20 chat. DDB just makes everything simple and easy to use, save for these specific variant rules and such.
Back on topic however, have any of you actually used the variant skill prof rules before? How did it go?
Er ek geng, þat er í þeim skóm er ek valda.
UwU









She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
I sorta see it as "training wheels" for character creation. You may not be able to do everything within the possibility of the game, but what you build won't be broken due to an arithmetic fail or rules interpretation error. It's a good set up for players still learning the game. I wish the barrier the structure imposes to homebrewing third party could be lifted but it's been great for tutorial type playing.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I can see that. We just have a tendency to have weird little unique things that pop up in play and the inflexible nature of the builder just doesn't work for us.
BUT
Being able to sort through spells, monsters and such using filters and the like really helps me with my game prep.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
For me, it is spell points.
Epic Boons, Piety, etc. are not far behind, but it can be implemented via the feat system, so it is more of a convenience thing.
And I want everything else on the list too. Spell points is my personal top priority because my group and I could use it the most, but I want other features implemented too in case we want them.
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The 'disruptive' option was meant as a...warning? Caution? Closer to caution, methinks...as much as anything else. I know there's plenty of folks out there who consider all of these side options to just be pointless overly-mechanical drivel that gets in the way of Proper D&D, and if I didn't give them a chance to weigh in with that opinion (as well as a warning on exactly how I'm gonna take anyone who posts that crap in here), we'd get a bunch of people coming in thinking they're smart for Not Needing No Stinkin' Rules(C).
Heh. Any rule one does - or deliberately does not - choose to use influences the feel of one's game. The fact that we can't use any of these rules means we can't as readily play the sorts of games these rules would help us play. And yeah, pen-and-paper is more flexible, but my play group is scattered across the continental U.S. Pen-and-paper sheets aren't an option for me, and frankly I prefer the cleaner interface of a digital sheet even if I did have an in-person group. Better than erasing and rewriting an HP number ten thousand times a night X_X
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I am all for DnDBeyond implementing all the options. I really am. I just think the task is so monumental that it is likely to never happen. And with 2024 looming ever closer, DnDBeyond is only going to fall further and further behind unless they have a something big secretly in the works. I don't completely fault them, after all the DC set by WotC and the Player Base for the challenge is really high.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Putting your starting HP on a scrap sheet, and similar number for spell slots, and tallying them down or up is as fast if not a little faster than typing in the digits and clicking "damage" or "heal". Put your ammo count on there too or any other consumable as the game goes. Then make your sheet look pretty end of session. AND you can be a Pugilist (I mean, I wouldn't but that's an oddly popular 3rd party class for some reason). Some folks even treat those tally sheets as game logs.
I'll also never understand the "I can't do pencil and paper, we're on a video screen" thing. I mean some folks like rolling virtually, but even when I'm sitting down at a table, I don't require anyone to witness die rolls.
But I guess it would be cool to be able to customize that short long rest space with whatever option you choose from the DMG, and maybe even open up that interface that allows those options so DMs can introduce their own rules. I think that would be cool, but part of me wonders if that would also leading more folks needing help / customer support with what a lot of folks treat as a sort of background task to the game. I think part of DDB's impetus was likely a "headache free" building and playing experience (I mean everyone looks like they're having fun in their recent browser ads) and headache free may mean "don't look at those lights over there" when it comes to giving options ... I do note that spell points and the rest of the survey ... I don't anyone from the design studio ever discusses them. Given that there could be some unspoken D&D style guide where DMG variants (except the Death Cleric and Oathbreaker) aren't supposed to be talked about as "official D&D" which leaves us to where we are.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Personally, I use my Microsoft Surface and "print" a PDF of the character sheet into OneNote. It gives me the flexibility of pen and paper, beingnablemto freehand what I want, while not having my HP get progressively more illegible as erase and scrawl over previous figures. I just change the character sheet each time I level up.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Before my previous table imploded spectacularly, I'd been planning on running a campaign using Healer's Kit Dependency and Stress rules from the recent Ravenloft book. Never got the chance, since a former player/ex-friend and her ******* wife blew their ******* lids when the other DM in that group ran Dragon of Icespire Peak. Hopefully, when the new table has a chance to gel together and if DDB is able to knock out progress on their General Feature System, I might be able to visit the idea again.
One of my best friends is not the fondest of D&D and never has been. To paraphrase her:
‘Rei my friend:
You know how I keep insisting that most friction that occurs at the table is because people are just at the wrong tables? She and you should never play D&D together. You think D&D should be more like Pathfinder, and she thinks it should be more like Werewolf: The Apocalypse 2e, because any TTRPG more complicated than that “has done it wrong.”
Imagine if WotC took about ⅓ of the rules from each of the PHB, the DMG, and Xanathar’s Guide, handed it to an executive who defined a TTRPG as: When a handful of people get to hang out and tell a story together. Then, everyone once in a while you might have to fight something, or do something supernatural. that’s when the players get to have fun with, like, a little mini game for each of those.”
The game was so “narrative/story > rules/mechanics” that the whole first third of the book was for Storytellers (GMs) and was really all about telling a story. It didn’t explain how to make a character until the section for players after that. And then imagine if they said that was pretty much the whole game right there. -Le Fin-
She tried and couldn’t with 2e and 3/ 3.5es. She consented to try it again this edition and hated it the least of all, in fact she actually kinda liked it, but was still frustrated with the character sheet and how poorly organized it is. She has point blank stated that the only reason she has continued with 5e for as long as she has (a li’l over a year) is because of DDB’s character builder/sheet and how much less unbearable it makes D&D for her.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting