so i recently got all of the official handbooks for d&d 5e. I made up the character i was going to use for the group and our dm wanted us to use d&d beyond however i dont feel like spending anouther $30 to unlock the players handbook that i had just bought. Am i just out of luck or can i get it unlocked using my hardcopy of the book?
Can't redeem physical sales for digital ones unfortunately.
What you can do is use the free homebrew creation tools to recreate almost everything in the books. (*You don't need to publish them to use them privately, please don't publish copyrighted content.)
Wizards of the Coast does not put unique identifiers in their books to be able to do that. D&D Beyond is a separate company, selling the licensed materials at an already discounted rate in addition to the tools and database functions they produced themselves.
In order to use the Player's Handbook on D&D Beyond, you will need to pay D&D Beyond for their work. If there are only parts of the book you want, you can purchase those elements at an even cheaper rate.
There are, however, other options. Talk to your DM about splitting the costs of purchases, or about the Master subscription tier allowing content unlocked by the DM and any player to be shared with the entire campaign.
Alternatively, you can use the homebrew creation tools that D&D Beyond provides for free to recreate what you want from the Player's Handbook for your own personal use.
Unfortunately there is no way to redeem a physical book and unlock its contents in DDB. This is due to DDB not being property of WotC, but offering the D&D content under license, same as Roll20, Fantasy Grounds or any other licensed website offering D&D content.
There is also no unique code associated with every copy of the books that would allow a safe system for redeeming the books.
One option you have is to use the homebrew tools here in DDB (which are completely free) to re-create whatever not included in the Basic Rules (SRD, which are completely free here on DDB) for your personal use. These (Races, Spells, Subclasses, Items, Monsters, Feats, Backgrounds) will also be shared with all players in the same campaign as you (and without needing the Master Tier subscription to use the Content Share option, since homebrews do not require such a feature but are automatically shared).
Another option is to see with your friends if they'd be up for pitching in 5$ or so (depending how many you are) to purchase the books and a Master Tier subscription, which allows you to share purchased content with people in a campaign with you.
Yet another option, similar to the one above but less possible less expensive, is to buy only the bits an pieces you really need form the published materials. Since the Basic Rules already have quite a lot of stuff (all classes from level 1 to 20, one subclass per class, many spells etc.), what you might want to look at is only buy that one or two race or class option or monster or spell you really need. Furthermore, any purchase made this way will reduce the cost of the digital book they belong to by the same amount paid (so, if you pay a PHB subclass 1.99$, the PHB price will drop by 1.99$). These as well can be shared with a Master tier subscription, and the best part is that when content share is activated in a campaign by a Master Tier subscriber, the purchased content from ALL participants in the campaign is shared to everyone, so a group could even decide to have each player buy what they really need for their character and in the end everyone will benefit in having access to other classes' options.
Hope this can help in any way.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
so i recently got all of the official handbooks for d&d 5e. I made up the character i was going to use for the group and our dm wanted us to use d&d beyond however i dont feel like spending anouther $30 to unlock the players handbook that i had just bought. Am i just out of luck or can i get it unlocked using my hardcopy of the book?
Hang on, so your DM wants you to use DDB? That means he'll have all the relevant books. Just ask him to turn on campaign sharing and send you the link. You don't have to spend a dime. He'll need a master tier subscription.
As a DM, I have a Master Tier sub, and just share content with my players. I also didn't force them to use DndBeyond, though most they all like to use it.
As others have suggested, your DM should be able to provide content. Maybe your DM does not understand how DnDBeyond works. As a DM I asked my players to use it but I purchased the subscription to share all its content. Ask them if they are expecting everyone to shell out the money?
We've also had someone come in with a rough draft of their character and quickly create it on DM's laptop in DnDBeyond just before the session. Copied relevant info to a generic blank character sheet DM had on hand. Dm later printed out their sheet.
so i recently got all of the official handbooks for d&d 5e. I made up the character i was going to use for the group and our dm wanted us to use d&d beyond however i dont feel like spending anouther $30 to unlock the players handbook that i had just bought. Am i just out of luck or can i get it unlocked using my hardcopy of the book?
Rhett Smith
You can't unlock the DDB version of your hardcover book.
You can look at the homebrew toolset to replicate privately the character options you want, or find a way to share digital content with your group.
Can't redeem physical sales for digital ones unfortunately.
What you can do is use the free homebrew creation tools to recreate almost everything in the books. (*You don't need to publish them to use them privately, please don't publish copyrighted content.)
[Edit]Sniped by filcat.
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ModeratorWizards of the Coast does not put unique identifiers in their books to be able to do that. D&D Beyond is a separate company, selling the licensed materials at an already discounted rate in addition to the tools and database functions they produced themselves.
In order to use the Player's Handbook on D&D Beyond, you will need to pay D&D Beyond for their work. If there are only parts of the book you want, you can purchase those elements at an even cheaper rate.
There are, however, other options. Talk to your DM about splitting the costs of purchases, or about the Master subscription tier allowing content unlocked by the DM and any player to be shared with the entire campaign.
Alternatively, you can use the homebrew creation tools that D&D Beyond provides for free to recreate what you want from the Player's Handbook for your own personal use.
Hi Tezzerrhett
Unfortunately there is no way to redeem a physical book and unlock its contents in DDB.
This is due to DDB not being property of WotC, but offering the D&D content under license, same as Roll20, Fantasy Grounds or any other licensed website offering D&D content.
There is also no unique code associated with every copy of the books that would allow a safe system for redeeming the books.
One option you have is to use the homebrew tools here in DDB (which are completely free) to re-create whatever not included in the Basic Rules (SRD, which are completely free here on DDB) for your personal use. These (Races, Spells, Subclasses, Items, Monsters, Feats, Backgrounds) will also be shared with all players in the same campaign as you (and without needing the Master Tier subscription to use the Content Share option, since homebrews do not require such a feature but are automatically shared).
Another option is to see with your friends if they'd be up for pitching in 5$ or so (depending how many you are) to purchase the books and a Master Tier subscription, which allows you to share purchased content with people in a campaign with you.
Yet another option, similar to the one above but less possible less expensive, is to buy only the bits an pieces you really need form the published materials.
Since the Basic Rules already have quite a lot of stuff (all classes from level 1 to 20, one subclass per class, many spells etc.), what you might want to look at is only buy that one or two race or class option or monster or spell you really need. Furthermore, any purchase made this way will reduce the cost of the digital book they belong to by the same amount paid (so, if you pay a PHB subclass 1.99$, the PHB price will drop by 1.99$). These as well can be shared with a Master tier subscription, and the best part is that when content share is activated in a campaign by a Master Tier subscriber, the purchased content from ALL participants in the campaign is shared to everyone, so a group could even decide to have each player buy what they really need for their character and in the end everyone will benefit in having access to other classes' options.
Hope this can help in any way.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Hang on, so your DM wants you to use DDB? That means he'll have all the relevant books. Just ask him to turn on campaign sharing and send you the link. You don't have to spend a dime. He'll need a master tier subscription.
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D&D Beyond FoundersIt's worth noting that using a master tier subscription to enable content sharing can be done by anyone in the campaign, it doesn't have to be the DM.
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As a DM, I have a Master Tier sub, and just share content with my players. I also didn't force them to use DndBeyond, though most they all like to use it.
As others have suggested, your DM should be able to provide content. Maybe your DM does not understand how DnDBeyond works. As a DM I asked my players to use it but I purchased the subscription to share all its content. Ask them if they are expecting everyone to shell out the money?
DM can use content sharing.
We've also had someone come in with a rough draft of their character and quickly create it on DM's laptop in DnDBeyond just before the session. Copied relevant info to a generic blank character sheet DM had on hand. Dm later printed out their sheet.