Hello, I have been using D&D Beyond for character sheets (which I love) and recently been messing around with the Encounter Builder. I also saw they are working on a Combat Tacker. I personally, love playing D&D in person with maps and miniatures, but after becoming a father my free time for setting up games are limited. I looked into virtual tabletops to help cut down on my work and a checked out Roll20. I liked Roll20, however I don't like the idea of repurchasing story books, or copying their context on Roll20. With the features they are adding to Beyond, I was wondering if anyone knows if Beyond is planning to expand into virtual tabletop? What are people's thoughts?
Yes, they are hoping to eventually develop a VTT. There is no ETA.
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
If it ever actually happens, it's going to be at least a couple of years, I would think. Personally, i don't believe they will ever have a working VTT, at least not during the lifespan of 5th edition.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
To make it so late in the game and with so many other things they could be working on, I'd rather they just made a partnership with an already existing VTT. They're working on public API as a future possibility so, perhaps that might open up routes.
Frankly, there are too many broken things and improvements they can make for existing features - I'd rather that be their focus. VTTs are complicated, something you need to focus right from the get-go. Doing one later as a "oh this might be nice" is going to be much more difficult. Considering how much difficulty D&D Beyond have had with homebrew, Spells of the Mark, Class Variants and such - things that are, if we were to compare to a VTT is like comparing basic 1+2=3 arithmetic to algebraic equations several pages long. We still don't have the ability to homebrew classes - years later and TWO revamps later and still we don't have it.
D&D Beyond just don't seem to have the developmental and organisational capacity needed for such a project as a VTT that could compete with stuff already out there. Realistically they should focus on public API and partner up with an already existing one, like TaleSpire (who have already expressed interest).
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
D&D Beyond just don't seem to have the developmental and organisational capacity needed for such a project as a VTT that could compete with stuff already out there.
I completely agree.
Just last night we were playing online via VTT (Foundry) and although I had DDB open as usual, all I used it for was to check spell descriptions, and look up something about the UA beastmaster. I spent the entire night, otherwise, fully in the VTT, using it for quite literally everything -- DM notes, maps, combat tracking, monster stats, hit points, all of it. At one point one of the players asked how to do something in DDB and I had to say, I don't know, because I do everything in Foundry now. Why? Because literally everything you can do in DDB other than leveling up or character creation, is at least an order of magnitude easier, and more intuitive, in Foundry.
And the only reasons those two things are easier in DDB are (1) DDB does (mostly correct) error checking, so you can't (usually accidentally add in something your character shouldn't have (which only matters during character creation/level-up), and (2) DDB has all the content (mostly) pre-configured, and Foundry doesn't have a 5e license, so it only has SRD content.
Realistically they should focus on public API and partner up with an already existing one, like TaleSpire (who have already expressed interest).
Although for obvious reasons I'm not all that interested in them partnering specifically with TaleSpire, I think almost any partnership would be better than them doing it. They take forever to add features here... those features are often badly implemented and user-unfriendly... and then it takes them forever-squared to fix those figures and make them usable. Homebrew, as you say, being a prime example.
I would prefer an open API to a partnership with a specific VTT. With an open and at least semi-stable API you can develop your own tools / Browser extensions to link to the VTT of your choice.
It's also a lot less development effort, since they obviously already have some kind of API, otherwise the site wouldn't work at all. A couple of weeks should be enough to define a public API and map it to the internal functions.
It would be fantastic if they partner with or purchased Roll 20. Their website directs you Roll 20 already. I worry about buying modules on Roll 20, cause if Beyond creates their own VTT I am sure they’ll pull their online content for Roll 20 and Fantasy Grounds.
It would be fantastic if they partner with or purchased Roll 20. Their website directs you Roll 20 already. I worry about buying modules on Roll 20, cause if Beyond creates their own VTT I am sure they’ll pull their online content for Roll 20 and Fantasy Grounds.
I think you're confusing D&D Beyond with Wizards of the Coast (WotC). They're two separate companies. WotC makes the books/games, D&D beyond offers to access to those books plus offering online tools.
Roll20 is a digital VTT and an official place to get books much like D&D Beyond is. If D&D Beyond make their own VTT, they'll be a complete alternative to Roll20 but Roll20 will continue as they are.
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
It would be fantastic if they partner with or purchased Roll 20. Their website directs you Roll 20 already. I worry about buying modules on Roll 20, cause if Beyond creates their own VTT I am sure they’ll pull their online content for Roll 20 and Fantasy Grounds.
I think you're confusing D&D Beyond with Wizards of the Coast (WotC). They're two separate companies. WotC makes the books/games, D&D beyond offers to access to those books plus offering online tools.
Roll20 is a digital VTT and an official place to get books much like D&D Beyond is. If D&D Beyond make their own VTT, they'll be a complete alternative to Roll20 but Roll20 will continue as they are.
Sorry about the mixed up. I thought Beyond was own by WotC.
Sorry about the mixed up. I thought Beyond was own by WotC.
It's a common misconception because they are licensed to use the name and logo, which other companies like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds and Foundry and the like are not. They also have nothing here but D&D, vs. those other platforms which make very clear and obvious on their home page support multiple games.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Honestly, at this stage, Beyond20 is absolutely fantastic to couple Beyond with existing VTTs. We are using Roll20, have been using it for years, and we don't even create Roll20 characters, everything stays on beyond, you can roll dice, do almost everything from there, whether for published or homebrew adventures.
You can very easily just export the maps from Beyond, create them in Roll20, create a few tokens or use the basic ones and here you go.
I have gone to this as well. I have a basic character sheet in Roll20 but roll everything straight out of DNDBeyond. Also, I run a lot of encounters straight from there too... so easy to just click on abilities and it rolls on Roll20...
Regarding Foundry's cost... You can try searching YouTube to see what it can do, there are lots of tutorials and examples. So you could use those to see if it has what you need.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Frankly, there are too many broken things and improvements they can make for existing features - I'd rather that be their focus.
This - I'm absolutely loving DnDBeyond and, although it would be awesome to have their own VTT, I would still rather their efforts were put into fixing some of the features that still haven't been fixed.
The character sheet is extremely useful, but I can't help but sigh when I think of the base features that STILL haven't been fixed since the start e.g. Life Domain healing spells, Favoured Enemy, Devotion Paladin's Sacred Weapon selector. Not to mention the Combat Tracker that, whilst also really good, needs so many more features to be the truly excellent. Personally, I'd feel that it's own current tools should be the focus of Beyond's efforts.
I agree that partnering with an existing VTT would be great, one that doesn't sell the DnD content.
This will give them more sales, I use Beyond20 for all the rolls and stats (characters, NPCs, monsters) and I already bought some character and monsters separately here to be able to use them in the campaigns I'm running.
Joking aside and much as I too want to see the Combat Tracker given updates, I definitely agree that the character sheet fixes should be the priority and everything else should be secondary. Tertiary if it's the Digital Dice - no hate here, just would also like Life Cleric, which is a free default class, to at least be completed first as Dnd Beyond was a Character Sheet maker primarily amongst a couple of other things. Just want to see it completed before adding the next set of 'pretty dice' ;)
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#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
Frankly, there are too many broken things and improvements they can make for existing features - I'd rather that be their focus.
This - I'm absolutely loving DnDBeyond and, although it would be awesome to have their own VTT, I would still rather their efforts were put into fixing some of the features that still haven't been fixed.
The character sheet is extremely useful, but I can't help but sigh when I think of the base features that STILL haven't been fixed since the start e.g. Life Domain healing spells, Favoured Enemy, Devotion Paladin's Sacred Weapon selector. Not to mention the Combat Tracker that, whilst also really good, needs so many more features to be the truly excellent. Personally, I'd feel that it's own current tools should be the focus of Beyond's efforts.
Hmmm... when I am using Beyond20 to roll my dice in Roll20 as a Life Cleric, I am getting my bonus on healing spells. And it does list it on the character sheet (though it is buried a bit). Is there somewhere else I am missing the bonus healing?
EDIT: Nevermind... you said Healing Spells and I interpreted it wrongly. The list of spells... I actually would have to go and check that...
Hmmm... when I am using Beyond20 to roll my dice in Roll20 as a Life Cleric, I am getting my bonus on healing spells. And it does list it on the character sheet (though it is buried a bit). Is there somewhere else I am missing the bonus healing?
EDIT: Nevermind... you said Healing Spells and I interpreted it wrongly. The list of spells... I actually would have to go and check that...
That's interesting - assuming we're thinking of the same issue, I wasn't aware that the Life Cleric had been fixed in the Beyond20 App? (not using it to be fair)
In case anyone's wondering what I'm rambling about, one of the long time issues that has been reported is that the 'Disciple of Life' feature isn't calculated in Healing Spells performed by the Cleric (Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature, the creature regains additional hit points equal to 2 + the spell’s level.)
Just made a custom Life Cleric in DnDBeyond to check the issue. A normal Cleric with 16 in Wisdom casting Healing Word at 1st Level does d4+3 healing.
For a Life Cleric casting the same spell at 1st Level, it should be d4+6 if I'm correct in the maths (d4 + 3 for wisdom + 3 for disciple of life)
I checked the custom Cleric and..... no Disciple of Life bonus still :(
Same issue when raised to 6th Level when the Cleric themselves benefits from their healing via the 'Blessed Healer' feature. Raised my test character to level 6 to see if would affect the spell and still no joy.
I should note that I am aware the character sheet is undergoing refurbishment and these things take time and effort to solve. I personally believe this 'starter' feature should be fixed before adding more Digital Dice :)
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#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
by the looks of it, 5th edition is gonna be around a loooooong time. they have lots of content opportunities to draw from before the 5e well runs dry. its been 6 years since 5e started and i would say its still in its early life. so a vtt within 5e's lifetime is pretty likely I'd say.
It would be fantastic if they partner with or purchased Roll 20. Their website directs you Roll 20 already. I worry about buying modules on Roll 20, cause if Beyond creates their own VTT I am sure they’ll pull their online content for Roll 20 and Fantasy Grounds.
Personally would like if they acquired roll20. They could make everything I've bought on D&D beyond available for me in roll20 vs now where I'd essentially have to re-buy everything at full msrp price a third time. they could also do away with the roll20 marketplace as it is a travesty of website design.
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Hello, I have been using D&D Beyond for character sheets (which I love) and recently been messing around with the Encounter Builder. I also saw they are working on a Combat Tacker. I personally, love playing D&D in person with maps and miniatures, but after becoming a father my free time for setting up games are limited. I looked into virtual tabletops to help cut down on my work and a checked out Roll20. I liked Roll20, however I don't like the idea of repurchasing story books, or copying their context on Roll20. With the features they are adding to Beyond, I was wondering if anyone knows if Beyond is planning to expand into virtual tabletop? What are people's thoughts?
Yes, they are hoping to eventually develop a VTT. There is no ETA.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
If it ever actually happens, it's going to be at least a couple of years, I would think. Personally, i don't believe they will ever have a working VTT, at least not during the lifespan of 5th edition.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
To make it so late in the game and with so many other things they could be working on, I'd rather they just made a partnership with an already existing VTT. They're working on public API as a future possibility so, perhaps that might open up routes.
Frankly, there are too many broken things and improvements they can make for existing features - I'd rather that be their focus. VTTs are complicated, something you need to focus right from the get-go. Doing one later as a "oh this might be nice" is going to be much more difficult. Considering how much difficulty D&D Beyond have had with homebrew, Spells of the Mark, Class Variants and such - things that are, if we were to compare to a VTT is like comparing basic 1+2=3 arithmetic to algebraic equations several pages long. We still don't have the ability to homebrew classes - years later and TWO revamps later and still we don't have it.
D&D Beyond just don't seem to have the developmental and organisational capacity needed for such a project as a VTT that could compete with stuff already out there. Realistically they should focus on public API and partner up with an already existing one, like TaleSpire (who have already expressed interest).
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
I completely agree.
Just last night we were playing online via VTT (Foundry) and although I had DDB open as usual, all I used it for was to check spell descriptions, and look up something about the UA beastmaster. I spent the entire night, otherwise, fully in the VTT, using it for quite literally everything -- DM notes, maps, combat tracking, monster stats, hit points, all of it. At one point one of the players asked how to do something in DDB and I had to say, I don't know, because I do everything in Foundry now. Why? Because literally everything you can do in DDB other than leveling up or character creation, is at least an order of magnitude easier, and more intuitive, in Foundry.
And the only reasons those two things are easier in DDB are (1) DDB does (mostly correct) error checking, so you can't (usually accidentally add in something your character shouldn't have (which only matters during character creation/level-up), and (2) DDB has all the content (mostly) pre-configured, and Foundry doesn't have a 5e license, so it only has SRD content.
Realistically they should focus on public API and partner up with an already existing one, like TaleSpire (who have already expressed interest).
Although for obvious reasons I'm not all that interested in them partnering specifically with TaleSpire, I think almost any partnership would be better than them doing it. They take forever to add features here... those features are often badly implemented and user-unfriendly... and then it takes them forever-squared to fix those figures and make them usable. Homebrew, as you say, being a prime example.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I would prefer an open API to a partnership with a specific VTT. With an open and at least semi-stable API you can develop your own tools / Browser extensions to link to the VTT of your choice.
It's also a lot less development effort, since they obviously already have some kind of API, otherwise the site wouldn't work at all. A couple of weeks should be enough to define a public API and map it to the internal functions.
It would be fantastic if they partner with or purchased Roll 20. Their website directs you Roll 20 already. I worry about buying modules on Roll 20, cause if Beyond creates their own VTT I am sure they’ll pull their online content for Roll 20 and Fantasy Grounds.
I think you're confusing D&D Beyond with Wizards of the Coast (WotC). They're two separate companies. WotC makes the books/games, D&D beyond offers to access to those books plus offering online tools.
Roll20 is a digital VTT and an official place to get books much like D&D Beyond is. If D&D Beyond make their own VTT, they'll be a complete alternative to Roll20 but Roll20 will continue as they are.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Sorry about the mixed up. I thought Beyond was own by WotC.
It's a common misconception because they are licensed to use the name and logo, which other companies like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds and Foundry and the like are not. They also have nothing here but D&D, vs. those other platforms which make very clear and obvious on their home page support multiple games.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I have gone to this as well. I have a basic character sheet in Roll20 but roll everything straight out of DNDBeyond. Also, I run a lot of encounters straight from there too... so easy to just click on abilities and it rolls on Roll20...
And I guess I never tried out Foundry because the Price of Admission is high to even try it out before you really know what you are getting.
Regarding Foundry's cost... You can try searching YouTube to see what it can do, there are lots of tutorials and examples. So you could use those to see if it has what you need.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
This - I'm absolutely loving DnDBeyond and, although it would be awesome to have their own VTT, I would still rather their efforts were put into fixing some of the features that still haven't been fixed.
The character sheet is extremely useful, but I can't help but sigh when I think of the base features that STILL haven't been fixed since the start e.g. Life Domain healing spells, Favoured Enemy, Devotion Paladin's Sacred Weapon selector. Not to mention the Combat Tracker that, whilst also really good, needs so many more features to be the truly excellent. Personally, I'd feel that it's own current tools should be the focus of Beyond's efforts.
I agree that partnering with an existing VTT would be great, one that doesn't sell the DnD content.
This will give them more sales, I use Beyond20 for all the rolls and stats (characters, NPCs, monsters) and I already bought some character and monsters separately here to be able to use them in the campaigns I'm running.
B-b-b-b-but the Combat Tracker!!!!
Joking aside and much as I too want to see the Combat Tracker given updates, I definitely agree that the character sheet fixes should be the priority and everything else should be secondary. Tertiary if it's the Digital Dice - no hate here, just would also like Life Cleric, which is a free default class, to at least be completed first as Dnd Beyond was a Character Sheet maker primarily amongst a couple of other things. Just want to see it completed before adding the next set of 'pretty dice' ;)
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
Hmmm... when I am using Beyond20 to roll my dice in Roll20 as a Life Cleric, I am getting my bonus on healing spells. And it does list it on the character sheet (though it is buried a bit). Is there somewhere else I am missing the bonus healing?
EDIT: Nevermind... you said Healing Spells and I interpreted it wrongly. The list of spells... I actually would have to go and check that...
That's interesting - assuming we're thinking of the same issue, I wasn't aware that the Life Cleric had been fixed in the Beyond20 App? (not using it to be fair)
In case anyone's wondering what I'm rambling about, one of the long time issues that has been reported is that the 'Disciple of Life' feature isn't calculated in Healing Spells performed by the Cleric (Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature, the creature regains additional hit points equal to 2 + the spell’s level.)
Just made a custom Life Cleric in DnDBeyond to check the issue. A normal Cleric with 16 in Wisdom casting Healing Word at 1st Level does d4+3 healing.
For a Life Cleric casting the same spell at 1st Level, it should be d4+6 if I'm correct in the maths (d4 + 3 for wisdom + 3 for disciple of life)
I checked the custom Cleric and..... no Disciple of Life bonus still :(
Same issue when raised to 6th Level when the Cleric themselves benefits from their healing via the 'Blessed Healer' feature. Raised my test character to level 6 to see if would affect the spell and still no joy.
I should note that I am aware the character sheet is undergoing refurbishment and these things take time and effort to solve. I personally believe this 'starter' feature should be fixed before adding more Digital Dice :)
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
by the looks of it, 5th edition is gonna be around a loooooong time. they have lots of content opportunities to draw from before the 5e well runs dry. its been 6 years since 5e started and i would say its still in its early life. so a vtt within 5e's lifetime is pretty likely I'd say.
Personally would like if they acquired roll20. They could make everything I've bought on D&D beyond available for me in roll20 vs now where I'd essentially have to re-buy everything at full msrp price a third time. they could also do away with the roll20 marketplace as it is a travesty of website design.