I was very very glad to see the combat tracker combined with encounter builder and available for non-subscribers! Thank you, dndbeyond!
I had a question about how to use this new feature.
Is there a way to name the player characters you calculated the encounter for without having a dnd beyond campaign? When I go in, it says player character (A) (B) (C) and (D). Can you give these characters names to better keep track of who they are in the tool?
Is there a way to name the player characters you calculated the encounter for without having a dnd beyond campaign? When I go in, it says player character (A) (B) (C) and (D). Can you give these characters names to better keep track of who they are in the tool?
Not simply. No. Just create a campaign and some PCs to put in it with the names you want to track.
And while it sounds like you're not using DnDBeyond for character sheets, I will say that requiring DnDBeyond character sheets has made my life MUCH easier. That may not be feasible for you, but it's something you might look at.
Agreed, using the character builder and sheets has made my life as both DM and Player MUCH simpler and more enjoyable. A quick glance to ensure bonuses and such are in place as a Player and hit the roll button (or toss a genuine plastic shiny!) and it's all taken care of, neat and tidy. On the encounter bit, however, you still need to manually set and adjust player HP, even if they're in a campaign (in the works to auto-populate they say) I also noticed if I wanted 3 Orcs and all with their own initiative, I had to add 3 separate orcs into the encounter. Adding to the count gave them a single initiative. That's good for bigger fights where you might want your monsters to take their turn as a group, but a 4-5 enemy encounter, I prefer to shake up the turn order a bit.
All told, I've been using it for a while (subscriber) and it's good, but not yet great. It has the potential and I am pretty confident they will hash out the missing bits and not-yet-working plans to provide a great tool for DM's.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
The main reason I don't use this for character sheets is that my players use options from physical books that I own, not dndbeyond books. If I win the sweepstakes that could change, but I don't have plans to buy the books again otherwise. My priority for purchase on dndbeyond is books that provide monster statblocks for the encounter builder.
I was very very glad to see the combat tracker combined with encounter builder and available for non-subscribers! Thank you, dndbeyond!
I had a question about how to use this new feature.
Is there a way to name the player characters you calculated the encounter for without having a dnd beyond campaign? When I go in, it says player character (A) (B) (C) and (D). Can you give these characters names to better keep track of who they are in the tool?
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
Not simply. No. Just create a campaign and some PCs to put in it with the names you want to track.
And while it sounds like you're not using DnDBeyond for character sheets, I will say that requiring DnDBeyond character sheets has made my life MUCH easier. That may not be feasible for you, but it's something you might look at.
Good luck!
Agreed, using the character builder and sheets has made my life as both DM and Player MUCH simpler and more enjoyable. A quick glance to ensure bonuses and such are in place as a Player and hit the roll button (or toss a genuine plastic shiny!) and it's all taken care of, neat and tidy. On the encounter bit, however, you still need to manually set and adjust player HP, even if they're in a campaign (in the works to auto-populate they say) I also noticed if I wanted 3 Orcs and all with their own initiative, I had to add 3 separate orcs into the encounter. Adding to the count gave them a single initiative. That's good for bigger fights where you might want your monsters to take their turn as a group, but a 4-5 enemy encounter, I prefer to shake up the turn order a bit.
All told, I've been using it for a while (subscriber) and it's good, but not yet great. It has the potential and I am pretty confident they will hash out the missing bits and not-yet-working plans to provide a great tool for DM's.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Thanks!
The main reason I don't use this for character sheets is that my players use options from physical books that I own, not dndbeyond books. If I win the sweepstakes that could change, but I don't have plans to buy the books again otherwise. My priority for purchase on dndbeyond is books that provide monster statblocks for the encounter builder.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep