No one knows what will happen--likely not even D&D Beyond's staff as the books are not finished.
I would make the two following predictions based on past actions--but could be wrong about this: (1) The old DMG, PHB, and MM will be delisted and given the legacy tag, much as has happened with other books we have seen released. (2) They will continue to sell the other books--in particular the Adventures--which will be compatible with One D&D--if those books are still relevant, it makes sense to keep them for sale because that is easy money you have already paid to create and paid to place onto this site.
My read, based on investor material and interviews, is that they will be doing the Legacy thing as well -- if you own the digital format ahead of time you will still have access and be able to use it, but no one else will be able to get it. This will apply to PHB, DMG, TCE, XGE, MotM, and MM.
New books will be made available: PHB, DMG, MM.
Bigby's Giants, Fizban's Dragons, Wildemount, Planescape, Spelljammer, Eberron will all be untouched.
No changes to existing Adventures.
I am unsure about the Monstrous Compendiums.
As they prep the new books, they will put all the new rules in place within DDB's normal system as a whole, just like they have the new ones, and they will tie it into the Maps, Encounter builder, and the upcoming VTT stuff as a whole (the unreal engine thing will be strictly a one d&d tool).
I am expecting a new version of the Basic Rules with the existing one being swapped out for it, not legacy tagged.
Homebrew will remain unaffected, though they might introduce a tag for existing content to mark it as separate from content based on new rules. On release of the new stuff officially, the "game rules" tab will switch over to the new stuff entirely, and all existing content only available if you already own it -- basically, if you haven't bought yet, you can only use the new stuff.
Updated New Player Guide. Brand new introductory adventure (and something meatier than a fresh bit and the single encounter they are going to have as filler).
They *might* introduce a new version of a legacy adventure at the same time. Such things historically drive sales, but they could also just do a new adventure.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
It depends on their sales estimates. Maybe the 2014 PH, MM, and DMG will become legacy and unavailable for purchase. Maybe the 2024 books will be called "5e Revised" or have "2" tacked on the title and the 2014 books will still be available. No one outside of WotC and Hasbro knows.
My read, based on investor material and interviews, is that they will be doing the Legacy thing as well -- if you own the digital format ahead of time you will still have access and be able to use it, but no one else will be able to get it. This will apply to PHB, DMG, TCE, XGE, MotM, and MM.
New books will be made available: PHB, DMG, MM.
Bigby's Giants, Fizban's Dragons, Wildemount, Planescape, Spelljammer, Eberron will all be untouched.
No changes to existing Adventures.
I am unsure about the Monstrous Compendiums.
As they prep the new books, they will put all the new rules in place within DDB's normal system as a whole, just like they have the new ones, and they will tie it into the Maps, Encounter builder, and the upcoming VTT stuff as a whole (the unreal engine thing will be strictly a one d&d tool).
I am expecting a new version of the Basic Rules with the existing one being swapped out for it, not legacy tagged.
Homebrew will remain unaffected, though they might introduce a tag for existing content to mark it as separate from content based on new rules. On release of the new stuff officially, the "game rules" tab will switch over to the new stuff entirely, and all existing content only available if you already own it -- basically, if you haven't bought yet, you can only use the new stuff.
Updated New Player Guide. Brand new introductory adventure (and something meatier than a fresh bit and the single encounter they are going to have as filler).
They *might* introduce a new version of a legacy adventure at the same time. Such things historically drive sales, but they could also just do a new adventure.
I doubt they'll pull Monsters of the Multiverse; it's still fairly new and is primarily separate content; unless they intend to move all the blocks already in it to the new Monster Manual, that's outright leaving money on the table, and roughly doubling the size of the Monster Manual isn't much better, given that I doubt they'd try to pull or get away with anything like a "twice the size, twice the price" bit on us. And that ignores all the additional races; it's hard to believe they'd axe access to that much player facing content; particularly when selling access to the races piecemeal is one of the ways they're getting a little extra monetization from players.
TCoE and XGtE are harder to call; there's still a lot of subclasses in them that aren't making the jump, and they didn't delist the sourcebooks that several of the subclasses in those two books first came from with their release (granted, that was also pre-WotC, but past action are all we have to work from). Ultimately I'd say it depends how much of the other content they're consolidating into the new main 3 books; if they're not planning to consolidate all the spells, magic items, and additional rules, then I'd say it makes more sense to leave those up as more products for future players to buy, rather than pass up any potential future revenues from them.
All this said, I'm by no means certain they won't go wide, which is why I'm glad I already have TCoE and XGtE; just need to pick up DMG and MM sometime before the new books launch and unless they come down with a possibly terminal case of stupid and try to outright pull books- which I am fairly confident they won't do- I shouldn't have to worry about losing any major sources of content.
I doubt they'll pull Monsters of the Multiverse; it's still fairly new and is primarily separate content; unless they intend to move all the blocks already in it to the new Monster Manual, that's outright leaving money on the table, and roughly doubling the size of the Monster Manual isn't much better, given that I doubt they'd try to pull or get away with anything like a "twice the size, twice the price" bit on us. And that ignores all the additional races; it's hard to believe they'd axe access to that much player facing content; particularly when selling access to the races piecemeal is one of the ways they're getting a little extra monetization from players.
TCoE and XGtE are harder to call; there's still a lot of subclasses in them that aren't making the jump, and they didn't delist the sourcebooks that several of the subclasses in those two books first came from with their release (granted, that was also pre-WotC, but past action are all we have to work from). Ultimately I'd say it depends how much of the other content they're consolidating into the new main 3 books; if they're not planning to consolidate all the spells, magic items, and additional rules, then I'd say it makes more sense to leave those up as more products for future players to buy, rather than pass up any potential future revenues from them.
All this said, I'm by no means certain they won't go wide, which is why I'm glad I already have TCoE and XGtE; just need to pick up DMG and MM sometime before the new books launch and unless they come down with a possibly terminal case of stupid and try to outright pull books- which I am fairly confident they won't do- I shouldn't have to worry about losing any major sources of content.
I agree, I feel a move like that would blow up in their face.
While I am not very happy with the legacy model I am ok with it as long as the character builder, legacy content and sharing are available and continue to work as they do now. If the subscriptions need to be increased so be it with the caveat only one subscription is needed per campaign.
That said buy the physical books near and dear to you as they will always work.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
I speculate that we may see a MotM-style new book that incorporates most of the options from Xanathar and Tasha and updates them to be more compatible with the 2024 revision and balances them the newer subclasses. It might also pull in subclasses and feats from some of the other sourcebooks. I would imagine that would appear relatively early in the lifespan of the 2024 edition (first year or two?). In the meantime, hopefully, we might get a PDF of get-you-by rules to adapt the pre-2024 options to the 2024 rules. (E.g. 1st and 2nd level subclass features moving to 3rd level, updating terminology like “armour training”, adding feat prerequisites (e.g. which can be taken at character creation, which are level 4+).)
I wonder if the artificer class will get moved into legacy. I guess it depends on whether Tasha's is before or after the 'cutoff'.
I think it’s likely to remain available in Tasha’s. Moving it to legacy would seem unnecessarily unpopular.
The hypothetical “Character Options of the Multiverse” book I postulated above might then present an updated version of the Artificer (at which point the Tasha version would probably move to legacy).
This edition not having a PDF is dumb. i wish i knew that before i bought it digitally on my dads account. Id honestly rather printer copy my dad's entire hard book copy then actually deal with your website (i cant actually, that would take forever). its not even the actual book pages its just the info so where is my art? i bought a whole book for $30 dollars and have a dumpy little scrolling page to show for it. It makes me WANT to be a pirate. ITS STUPID. NOT CONSUMER FREINDLY. DO NOT PURCHASE THE DIGITAL COPY ITS NOT A PDF. might as well just kiss your money goodbye and just get a hard copy. NOT FROM HERE. Get it somewhere else where they actually care about the customers over their bottom line. This has thoroughly miffed me. I'm genuinely upset and feel scammed almost. Clearly you have the ability to take down illegal online copies on websites, just do that and let us HAVE the book. I bought it i want it to HAVE, to HAVE. its mine after i buy it. let me HAVE it. Stop being weird.
This edition not having a PDF is dumb. i wish i knew that before i bought it digitally on my dads account. Id honestly rather printer copy my dad's entire hard book copy then actually deal with your website (i cant actually, that would take forever). its not even the actual book pages its just the info so where is my art? i bought a whole book for $30 dollars and have a dumpy little scrolling page to show for it. It makes me WANT to be a pirate. ITS STUPID. NOT CONSUMER FREINDLY. DO NOT PURCHASE THE DIGITAL COPY ITS NOT A PDF. might as well just kiss your money goodbye and just get a hard copy. NOT FROM HERE. Get it somewhere else where they actually care about the customers over their bottom line. This has thoroughly miffed me. I'm genuinely upset and feel scammed almost. Clearly you have the ability to take down illegal online copies on websites, just do that and let us HAVE the book. I bought it i want it to HAVE, to HAVE. its mine after i buy it. let me HAVE it. Stop being weird.
You know can just print to PDF via browser. It is not going to look as clean as a PDF in actual book format, but it works well enough. The art and maps can also be downloaded separately in pretty high resolution.
I recommend you always do research before you buy something. Currently, there are no PDFs of official 5e books. D&D Beyond, Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and Foundry are the four separate official platforms that provide digital tools, and none of them offer PDFs. The closest things to official PDFs would be BR/SRD, and they are free. UA is playtest content, so it is not official like published content, but it is made by Wizards and the PDFs are free too. WGTE is the only official product I can think of that is not available in physical book format, but it is available in PDF format if you get it on DMsGuild. There are also various small official charity-supporting content in PDF format on DMsGuild as well.
You can also submit a ticket and contact customer report and see if you can get a refund. Keep in mind they are overwhelmed with tickets right now, and it is holiday season right now, so do not expect them to respond any time soon.
There hasn't been an active, current edition with a PDF that's legal during the period that edition is current.
If you want the PDF of the SRD, that's coming next year.
But there is no PDF of the books -- and there wasn't for the 2014 edition, either.
it isn't their fault you didn't read and understand what you were paying for.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
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Curious... once One D&D becomes active will D&D beyond still provide access to 5E material?
No one knows what will happen--likely not even D&D Beyond's staff as the books are not finished.
I would make the two following predictions based on past actions--but could be wrong about this: (1) The old DMG, PHB, and MM will be delisted and given the legacy tag, much as has happened with other books we have seen released. (2) They will continue to sell the other books--in particular the Adventures--which will be compatible with One D&D--if those books are still relevant, it makes sense to keep them for sale because that is easy money you have already paid to create and paid to place onto this site.
As noted, fina decision hasn't been made.
My read, based on investor material and interviews, is that they will be doing the Legacy thing as well -- if you own the digital format ahead of time you will still have access and be able to use it, but no one else will be able to get it. This will apply to PHB, DMG, TCE, XGE, MotM, and MM.
New books will be made available: PHB, DMG, MM.
Bigby's Giants, Fizban's Dragons, Wildemount, Planescape, Spelljammer, Eberron will all be untouched.
No changes to existing Adventures.
I am unsure about the Monstrous Compendiums.
As they prep the new books, they will put all the new rules in place within DDB's normal system as a whole, just like they have the new ones, and they will tie it into the Maps, Encounter builder, and the upcoming VTT stuff as a whole (the unreal engine thing will be strictly a one d&d tool).
I am expecting a new version of the Basic Rules with the existing one being swapped out for it, not legacy tagged.
Homebrew will remain unaffected, though they might introduce a tag for existing content to mark it as separate from content based on new rules. On release of the new stuff officially, the "game rules" tab will switch over to the new stuff entirely, and all existing content only available if you already own it -- basically, if you haven't bought yet, you can only use the new stuff.
Updated New Player Guide. Brand new introductory adventure (and something meatier than a fresh bit and the single encounter they are going to have as filler).
They *might* introduce a new version of a legacy adventure at the same time. Such things historically drive sales, but they could also just do a new adventure.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
It depends on their sales estimates. Maybe the 2014 PH, MM, and DMG will become legacy and unavailable for purchase. Maybe the 2024 books will be called "5e Revised" or have "2" tacked on the title and the 2014 books will still be available. No one outside of WotC and Hasbro knows.
I doubt they'll pull Monsters of the Multiverse; it's still fairly new and is primarily separate content; unless they intend to move all the blocks already in it to the new Monster Manual, that's outright leaving money on the table, and roughly doubling the size of the Monster Manual isn't much better, given that I doubt they'd try to pull or get away with anything like a "twice the size, twice the price" bit on us. And that ignores all the additional races; it's hard to believe they'd axe access to that much player facing content; particularly when selling access to the races piecemeal is one of the ways they're getting a little extra monetization from players.
TCoE and XGtE are harder to call; there's still a lot of subclasses in them that aren't making the jump, and they didn't delist the sourcebooks that several of the subclasses in those two books first came from with their release (granted, that was also pre-WotC, but past action are all we have to work from). Ultimately I'd say it depends how much of the other content they're consolidating into the new main 3 books; if they're not planning to consolidate all the spells, magic items, and additional rules, then I'd say it makes more sense to leave those up as more products for future players to buy, rather than pass up any potential future revenues from them.
All this said, I'm by no means certain they won't go wide, which is why I'm glad I already have TCoE and XGtE; just need to pick up DMG and MM sometime before the new books launch and unless they come down with a possibly terminal case of stupid and try to outright pull books- which I am fairly confident they won't do- I shouldn't have to worry about losing any major sources of content.
I agree, I feel a move like that would blow up in their face.
While I am not very happy with the legacy model I am ok with it as long as the character builder, legacy content and sharing are available and continue to work as they do now. If the subscriptions need to be increased so be it with the caveat only one subscription is needed per campaign.
That said buy the physical books near and dear to you as they will always work.
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
I speculate that we may see a MotM-style new book that incorporates most of the options from Xanathar and Tasha and updates them to be more compatible with the 2024 revision and balances them the newer subclasses. It might also pull in subclasses and feats from some of the other sourcebooks. I would imagine that would appear relatively early in the lifespan of the 2024 edition (first year or two?). In the meantime, hopefully, we might get a PDF of get-you-by rules to adapt the pre-2024 options to the 2024 rules. (E.g. 1st and 2nd level subclass features moving to 3rd level, updating terminology like “armour training”, adding feat prerequisites (e.g. which can be taken at character creation, which are level 4+).)
I wonder if the artificer class will get moved into legacy. I guess it depends on whether Tasha's is before or after the 'cutoff'.
I think it’s likely to remain available in Tasha’s. Moving it to legacy would seem unnecessarily unpopular.
The hypothetical “Character Options of the Multiverse” book I postulated above might then present an updated version of the Artificer (at which point the Tasha version would probably move to legacy).
This edition not having a PDF is dumb. i wish i knew that before i bought it digitally on my dads account. Id honestly rather printer copy my dad's entire hard book copy then actually deal with your website (i cant actually, that would take forever). its not even the actual book pages its just the info so where is my art? i bought a whole book for $30 dollars and have a dumpy little scrolling page to show for it. It makes me WANT to be a pirate. ITS STUPID. NOT CONSUMER FREINDLY. DO NOT PURCHASE THE DIGITAL COPY ITS NOT A PDF. might as well just kiss your money goodbye and just get a hard copy. NOT FROM HERE. Get it somewhere else where they actually care about the customers over their bottom line. This has thoroughly miffed me. I'm genuinely upset and feel scammed almost. Clearly you have the ability to take down illegal online copies on websites, just do that and let us HAVE the book. I bought it i want it to HAVE, to HAVE. its mine after i buy it. let me HAVE it. Stop being weird.
You know can just print to PDF via browser. It is not going to look as clean as a PDF in actual book format, but it works well enough. The art and maps can also be downloaded separately in pretty high resolution.
I recommend you always do research before you buy something. Currently, there are no PDFs of official 5e books. D&D Beyond, Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and Foundry are the four separate official platforms that provide digital tools, and none of them offer PDFs. The closest things to official PDFs would be BR/SRD, and they are free. UA is playtest content, so it is not official like published content, but it is made by Wizards and the PDFs are free too. WGTE is the only official product I can think of that is not available in physical book format, but it is available in PDF format if you get it on DMsGuild. There are also various small official charity-supporting content in PDF format on DMsGuild as well.
You can also submit a ticket and contact customer report and see if you can get a refund. Keep in mind they are overwhelmed with tickets right now, and it is holiday season right now, so do not expect them to respond any time soon.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
There hasn't been an active, current edition with a PDF that's legal during the period that edition is current.
If you want the PDF of the SRD, that's coming next year.
But there is no PDF of the books -- and there wasn't for the 2014 edition, either.
it isn't their fault you didn't read and understand what you were paying for.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds