After having to go through the arduous process of trying to import a character I had created in D&D Beyond to a Roll20 game, it only took once to realize this is ridiculously overcomplicated and hard. It would be wonderful if we could get a built-in process that would export from D&D Beyond and import into Roll20 without a lot of rigamarole.

A lot of people create their characters here with the convenient tools (especially to have characters ready to go for pickup games), but then end up having to manually type it all over to the Roll20 sheet before they can play.

That would probably require more work on Roll20's end than on DDB's end to be honest. I'm sure they'd need some information from DDB in order to pull the data, however I feel like the actual development of the importer from there would have to be built by the Roll20 team

also this may get a better response in the bugs and support forum? idk just a thought

My group has gone with the Beyond 20 browser extension and it works great!

If you aren't already familiar with it, it doesn't import the actual sheet (which would have to be re-imported every time you level or change something), but what it does is it adds icons to your DDB character sheet (and monster pages), so that if you have your DDB character sheet open in one tab and Roll20 open in another, you can click the icon on your DDB sheet and it does the action in Roll20. 

So casting spells, making attacks, etc. - you just do it all in DDB, and it appears in the Roll20 chat like it was from a Roll20 sheet. Even has toggles for Advantage/Disadvantage and GM Whispers. It has worked reliably for our weekly game for months now, and, honestly, I find DDB's character sheet much better than Roll20's anyway.

Not sure if that would make your life easier, but everyone in my group loves it.

I also use Beyond 20. Works pretty well. It adds clickable buttons in D&D Beyond that send the thing to an open Roll20 tab.

Beyond 20 rules

Just echoing what other's have said Beyond 20 is great.  In several of my campaigns now we just use the Roll20 character sheet as a placeholder and do everything from DnD beyond. 

Quote from ceannric >>

After having to go through the arduous process of trying to import a character I had created in D&D Beyond to a Roll20 game, it only took once to realize this is ridiculously overcomplicated and hard. It would be wonderful if we could get a built-in process that would export from D&D Beyond and import into Roll20 without a lot of rigamarole.

A lot of people create their characters here with the convenient tools (especially to have characters ready to go for pickup games), but then end up having to manually type it all over to the Roll20 sheet before they can play.

 The important thing to remember is that DDB and roll20 are two different companies that, to some degree, compete within the same sphere. They're both providers of digital versions of D&D 5e content and both offer character creation tools. What you're asking for is likely outside of the goals or remit of either company.

The "ridiculously overcomplicated and hard" process is actually something made by someone unaffiliated with either company, using what meagre tools are at their disposal with regards to the roll20 API. Also, the few times I've used it, I've not found it that hard, you load the script in roll20 and link to the character sheet json URL

But I will recommend Beyond20 over that option, the DDB sheets are (IMO) superior to the roll20 sheets and beyond20 is such a good extension.

I use roll20 for my chatacters.  The only thing I do is add hp and ac in roll20.  So my tokens can shows these 2 things.

Another vote for beyond 20. You don't need any character sheets in roll20 if you do this. You can just save your Hp and ac in the token.

Quote from KenMarable >>

My group has gone with the Beyond 20 browser extension and it works great!

If you aren't already familiar with it, it doesn't import the actual sheet (which would have to be re-imported every time you level or change something), but what it does is it adds icons to your DDB character sheet (and monster pages), so that if you have your DDB character sheet open in one tab and Roll20 open in another, you can click the icon on your DDB sheet and it does the action in Roll20. 

So casting spells, making attacks, etc. - you just do it all in DDB, and it appears in the Roll20 chat like it was from a Roll20 sheet. Even has toggles for Advantage/Disadvantage and GM Whispers. It has worked reliably for our weekly game for months now, and, honestly, I find DDB's character sheet much better than Roll20's anyway.

Not sure if that would make your life easier, but everyone in my group loves it.

 Came here to suggest this extension. Game changer, in a great way!

trying to play DND online has become a joke of a process. I can't believe that Wizards of the Coast has allowed it to exist in the current state. There's no good answer to playing DND online with friends, it's mediocre at best, and horribly frustrating at worst. You would think that charging hundreds of dollars for digital books would have paved the way for an online experience, but no. Hungry hungry hippos reaching for money with minimal effort invested in the community. 

Quote from DanielGilliland >>

trying to play DND online has become a joke of a process. I can't believe that Wizards of the Coast has allowed it to exist in the current state. There's no good answer to playing DND online with friends, it's mediocre at best, and horribly frustrating at worst. You would think that charging hundreds of dollars for digital books would have paved the way for an online experience, but no. Hungry hungry hippos reaching for money with minimal effort invested in the community. 

Have you not read this thread?

Playing online is simple and easy.

I use Roll20 for the VTT. You can make all sorts of maps, you can buy maps and assets, there's a lot of free ones and you can make your own or import from digital content bought elsewhere. It supports Voice, Camera and Text with a dice roller. You can even change the display name and avatar to the name and picture of the character you're playing. For the more tech savvy it supports macros and other time-saving things. The maps comes with features like highlighting, drawing, notes, lighting, fog of war, and other mechanics. You can preset many maps, or just have a grid and draw as you need - whatever works for your game. The map window and chat window can be separated if your want them to be. You could buy the sourcebooks on there directly. Personally I prefer buying contact on D&D Beyond because it's cheaper and the character sheet is the best I've come across. With the Beyond20 extension that takes all of 10 seconds to install at most, you can click and use stuff from the sheet and have it display/roll in the VTT. Works great.

With these you can go from owning and having nothing but your computer to up and running, to playing D&D, in less than 5 minutes.

And, if you just want basic rules, all of this is entirely, completely, 100% FREE.

Yet you're complaining that this simple, easy, quick FREE thing is too much for you? That's on you, I'm sorry to say.

Or maybe it's not and you know best, so please do tell us how you would achieve it in a way that isn't a joke. How would you achieve a setup time of less than 5 minutes - maybe 10 for the less tech-inclined, that has been used by children and the elderly without difficulty, and for free?

Quote from ceannric >>

After having to go through the arduous process of trying to import a character I had created in D&D Beyond to a Roll20 game, it only took once to realize this is ridiculously overcomplicated and hard. It would be wonderful if we could get a built-in process that would export from D&D Beyond and import into Roll20 without a lot of rigamarole.

A lot of people create their characters here with the convenient tools (especially to have characters ready to go for pickup games), but then end up having to manually type it all over to the Roll20 sheet before they can play.

 DDB is creating their own VTT, so it will probably only get worse instead of better.

Why would you not just use Beyond20 and call it good.  You don't need to import anything at all. Make your character on DnD Beyond, assign a character sheet in Roll20 with the same name and you're done.

Quote from Dos246 >>

Why would you not just use Beyond20 and call it good.  You don't need to import anything at all. Make your character on DnD Beyond, assign a character sheet in Roll20 with the same name and you're done.

 Why would you need a character sheet in Roll20 with the same name? Does that allow for rolling initiative in Beyond 20 and having it actually appear in the Initiative counter in Roll20? I was wondering how you make Roll20 recognize the token for purposes of initiative unless you actually had a sheet in Roll20 and not just in D&D Beyond.

So you're saying you just need to have an otherwise blank character sheet in Roll20, populated only with the character name and token pic?

You don't actually need a sheet. You can just create a character in Roll20 without a sheet and associate the character with the token. The names should match between roll20 and dndbeyond.

Quote from Oshcakes >>

You don't actually need a sheet. You can just create a character in Roll20 without a sheet and associate the character with the token. The names should match between roll20 and dndbeyond.

 How do you "associate the character with the token" if you don't have a sheet in Roll20?

For that matter, how do you create a character in Roll20 without a sheet?

Quote from ceannric >>

For that matter, how do you create a character in Roll20 without a sheet?

 Go to journal click the Add button > Character. You just made a character without a sheet. 

Quote from ceannric >>

How do you "associate the character with the token" if you don't have a sheet in Roll20?

 Select the token you want to use on your map, Edit Character, Under default token select use selected token.

Quote from Dos246 >>

Why would you not just use Beyond20 and call it good.  You don't need to import anything at all. Make your character on DnD Beyond, assign a character sheet in Roll20 with the same name and you're done.

 Serious answer in my case, the DM is invested in roll 20 and wants all char sheets in that program for their tracking needs.

Quote from ceannric >>

Quote from Oshcakes >>

You don't actually need a sheet. You can just create a character in Roll20 without a sheet and associate the character with the token. The names should match between roll20 and dndbeyond.

 How do you "associate the character with the token" if you don't have a sheet in Roll20?

For that matter, how do you create a character in Roll20 without a sheet?

 
Create a sheet in Roll20, give it the name and image of your character. Don't bother with filling in anything else. Assign control to the right player.

The player will have two tabs open: one for D&D Beyond and another for Roll20. For initiative, the player can bring the token to the map and click on it, then click on Initiative on the D&D Beyond Character sheet. This will roll initiative and assign that result into the Roll20 initative tracker. You can also put the HP into the token - you can have the token HP automatically adjust when you edit the HP on the D&D Beyond character sheet when you take damage or heal.

If you don't want to bother with initative and HP for a token, then a character sheet isn't needed on Roll20 at all. Just click stuff in the D&D Beyond character sheet will make rolls into Roll20 and the character name will show in the roll template.