People can still private homebrew the UA subclasses into D&D Beyond with the free toolset if they do not want to spend a dime on it.
Hammer, hit nail. This right here is why it isn't worth $30, this isn't entitlement it's a value proposition. If the value is tied to the content and the content is free, then spending money on it is foolish. If the value is tied to the toolset and the toolset is free, then spending money on it is foolish.
You can argue that the value is tied to convenience and that would be a valid argument. Yet the paid content is currently heavily broken within the toolset making the value proposition for purchase based on convenience dubious at best.
An argument could also be made that buying the book is an act of charity to keep D&DBeyond alive, which is also valid, but has nothing to do with the value of the purchase.
Hammer, hit nail. This right here is why it isn't worth $30, this isn't entitlement it's a value proposition. If the value is tied to the content and the content is free, then spending money on it is foolish. If the value is tied to the toolset and the toolset is free, then spending money on it is foolish.
The content isn't free; pre-release versions of some of the content were released for play-testing, but most of this has changed dramatically (Favoured Foe from the Ranger changes for example has been greatly toned down).
If you reconstruct the content yourself, through your own effort, then you must do using unofficial sources of information that may or may not give you a complete picture; this is no different from gaining an understanding of a biography based upon excerpts and reviews, or word of mouth, rather than the book itself. There's also a big difference between "click one button and you've added the feat" versus "find out from some other source exactly what the feat does then recreate it exactly by yourself". I could probably have repaired my own roof if I had the time to learn how, but that doesn't mean that paying someone to do it for me has no value.
As for the content on D&D Beyond; if you purchase Tasha's Cauldron, you get a full copy of Tasha's cauldron. It's all there, the only things that are "missing" are additional features that need to be added to the character sheet/homebrew system and are being actively worked on and released, but that's all additional content that goes beyond what the book itself contains. If you buy a physical copy of the book you don't get automatic dice rolling with the correct bonus(es) etc., you just gets the words on the pages; you get all of those with your digital copy as well, but you also get much easier integration of new features, spells, feats etc. with just a few clicks, easier building of characters using the new features and an automatically maintained character sheet etc. While there are a few minor bugs, none of these prevent you accessing the text of the book that you paid for, and as they're fixed they will make it even easier to use without consulting that text at all; these are generally minor issues like some magic items applying to all spellcasting, rather than only certain schools of magic etc.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Not even that, but the ua is not the same as the released material.
Yes, you can homebrew the UA for free (or you could have copied it before TCOE was released). The material is still freely available. It won't be the same as the material in the book, though: almost everything was changed in one way or another.
I have just finished reading through Tasha's and I think it will be worth the 30 bucks i will probably buy it. thanks to all you guys to the helpful feedback and thank you to Naresea for content sharing that with me.
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I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
I have just finished reading through Tasha's and I think it will be worth the 30 bucks i will probably buy it. thanks to all you guys to the helpful feedback and thank you to Naresea for content sharing that with me.
Hopefully not belaboring the discussion, but it seemed apt to put the below in this thread rather than start yet another Tasha's feedback thread.
I have the game store edition because the players that matter to me most see our game as a valued break from screens/tech, I like the alt cover, and I like supporting my FNLGS. I'm waiting on the digital edition at least until its fully online, but may just homebrew what I like from it and use the funds from my hobby budget for something else (DungeonFog, HeroForge subscription to support the toolkit, or some 3rd Party Hardbacks or Kickstarters). Though I guess the thing I'd want most online are the class variant features, and it doesn't look like there's a good way to do that yet or maybe ever.
The one thing that struck me in a :-\ way was the books thinness on first look; but looking at my other physical non-core books I see Volo's is 223 pages, Xanthar's 192, Avernus is 252 with a pull out map ... so I guess Tasha's 192 is fair. I guess I thought I had seen advertising content somewhere claiming it would be in the ~250 page range, so I guess that's where my mild disappointment is. Did anyone else have this mistaken expectation?
As for the book itself, I generally dig it. I see it as some useful options and don't really have any objections to incorporating any of it into the game. I think it didn't go far enough with class variant features or race/legacy options, but I get the sense that over all sense of the book was to go for accessible and light rather than complicate with crunch and I understand if I want a deeper dive my options are the world of 3rd party publishers.
The tattoos I liked, though I realize we're really just talking about scrolls that can be transferred onto the body rather than carried. It did push my thinking on magical writing in my game. While in that game there are wizards who use the traditional spell book system, a lot of wizards instead use a type of writing that is both visually and tactilely "read" and inscribed into the wizards staff or a more compact cylinder with sections to rotate to unlock the reading of particular spells. With the tattoos, my thinking was pushed to consider, why not just write the whole spell book on the body. I can see cantrips placed on the fingers as a Wizards primer to the elements of magic and then grow from there (the presumption is that spell books, or staves or skin, aren't so much discreet organizations of spells but more hyper textual, the magic language broadening the capabilities of the magic user as the wizards' understanding increases through study and the act of writing). Anyway, could lead to a whole new interpretation of the term "navel gazing" when taking a long rest for spell prep. And yes dismemberment or significant scarring could pose a problem, though I'm thinking some sort of "phantom limb" magic may be available to assist, but magical crippling is a possibity. (I need to write this down more fully).
As for some of the digressions on this thread into WotC UA and market success. It's abundantly clear to players what UA is, playtest and research pursuant to products players would eventually have to pay for. It's been abundantly clear if you really like a UA, you need to copy that down in your homebrew less it go away forever or be altered in paid content. I did this for the Phantom and Drakewarden (the latter moreso as a tinkering project for something better I think is frustrated in the current build).
On the "reprint" matter. I think it's fair to produce a compilation consisting of some relatively original content but also things like the Artificer for players who really aren't interested in buying a campaign setting book or an adventure to access classes and other spells. Sure in D&D Beyond that leads to diminishing returns among the Legendary and "completist" crowd, but it's bound to happen.
I see WotC as the producers of the biggest game in town, and while I think some of its critics really ought to learn how to modulate language to persuade a more ambivalent or content audience of their criticism rather than rave in hyperbole, I don't think it's necessarily the best game in town, there's always room for improvement, and WotC is aware of that too. I basically see WotC as a Ford/Honda big car company. The vehicle they produce work for a mass audience, and "gets them there," and is also much more available than other products. The most active users of this D&D Beyond Forum are either hotrodders (homebrew community) or precision drivers where of course the stock models are going to fail in some way or another. Fortunately there's an active hotrod and aftermarket accessory community to help you get what you want out of your ride. (With one exception to troll Iamsposta again, you can't drive a car with your mind, so no). So after I got past the new car smell of the cover and the art, and started reading through I did have a bit of a "that's it?" moment, but ultimately it does what it's supposed to do. On DDB, I don't need to be an early adopter so I'll wait and see until a fully integrated edition of the work is live.
Speaking of the art, I did notice a lot of people complaining about the artwork quality in other threads (I'm not talking about the Drow criticism, though I think the renderings are in line with the other renderings ... and on that note let's remember that illustrations in one book need not be thought of as a universal illustration, especially regarding a D&D race). There's some great pieces in it, but I'll admit the overall quality is a bit mixed. I think some high quality color images mixed with some pencils would have been my preference, but I don't think the art really detracts from the game, and I see the captioning actually being effective notes to literal illustrations of what goes on in some theaters of the mind. Also wondering if a lot of the art, which seems almost rendered as tattoo parlor "flash" work is intended for some DMsGuild art packet.
Speaking of the art, I did notice a lot of people complaining about the artwork quality in other threads (I'm not talking about the Drow criticism, though I think the renderings are in line with the other renderings (as for that let's remember that illustrations in one book need not be thought of as a universal illustration, especially regarding a D&D race). There's some great pieces in it, but I'll admit the overall quality is a bit mixed. I think some high quality color images mixed with some pencils would have been my preference, but I don't think the art really detracts from the game, and I see the captioning actually being effective notes to literal illustrations of what goes on in some theaters of the mind.
Art's always hit or miss because it's subjective. The pieces are all submitted by different artists, so you're going to get different looks, and people have different tastes. Frankly though, I never got the obsession with the artwork; that's not what my nose is in the book for. As far as I am concerned, it's all filler.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
People can still private homebrew the UA subclasses into D&D Beyond with the free toolset if they do not want to spend a dime on it.
Hammer, hit nail. This right here is why it isn't worth $30, this isn't entitlement it's a value proposition. If the value is tied to the content and the content is free, then spending money on it is foolish. If the value is tied to the toolset and the toolset is free, then spending money on it is foolish.
You can argue that the value is tied to convenience and that would be a valid argument. Yet the paid content is currently heavily broken within the toolset making the value proposition for purchase based on convenience dubious at best.
An argument could also be made that buying the book is an act of charity to keep D&DBeyond alive, which is also valid, but has nothing to do with the value of the purchase.
A large portion of subclasses are from UA. If you are making that argument, then that makes purchasing sourcebooks pointless too, and the only stuff that people need are just the SRD, UA, and anything else Wizards have offered for free. While official subclasses are generally pretty similar to its UA predecessors, they are not exactly the same. Official subclasses are usually more toned down and balanced, and those versions are definitely not free.
TCOE also is not only about subclasses. There are magic items, sidekicks, patrons, and other features that are either completely new or gets more fleshed out here.
And again, no understanding of copyright whatsoever.....
I understand copyright just fine, I have a feeling you don't understand what it means though. No one here is suggesting that anyone violate any copyright laws. But if you feel the need to mansplain yourself, feel free.
It wasn't just test drive as they're still giving it away for free. Plus in almost every circumstance the UA versions are better than what ended up in Tasha's since arbitrary nerfs had yet to be applied.
And again, no understanding of copyright whatsoever.....
I understand copyright just fine, I have a feeling you don't understand what it means though. No one here is suggesting that anyone violate any copyright laws. But if you feel the need to mansplain yourself, feel free.
It wasn't just test drive as they're still giving it away for free. Plus in almost every circumstance the UA versions are better than what ended up in Tasha's since arbitrary nerfs had yet to be applied.
But digging far back into the UA, there's lots of stuff from Theros, Eberron, Ravinica, MToF, etc available there as well. Sure, you can take the PDF and homebrew it out. Or you can pay for it in a bound edition and homebrew it into your account, or just homebrew it into the account. Some people would rather have a bound finished product or tools paid for and built into their D&D Beyond account. Others prefer a less costly way to play. I think we can have folks hold both positions in this universe.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
And again, no understanding of copyright whatsoever.....
I understand copyright just fine, I have a feeling you don't understand what it means though. No one here is suggesting that anyone violate any copyright laws. But if you feel the need to mansplain yourself, feel free.
It wasn't just test drive as they're still giving it away for free. Plus in almost every circumstance the UA versions are better than what ended up in Tasha's since arbitrary nerfs had yet to be applied.
You do not seem to understand that the purpose of a copyright is to protect the ownership of the property of the writers. If you borrow a book, or even if you buy said book it is not the same as owning it. They temporarily make content available for product testing purposes. They extend the availability so as not to mess over people who have made characters already with said information.
None of that is equivalent legally or morally to giving away their products for free.
Once archived, they are allowing you to use that material for existing characters but not to make new characters with it or share it. Even if you homebrew it, sharing it would be a breach of copyright.
Furthermore, you are essentially arguing that either they should stop engaging in such open product testing or they should simply shut down, since you are arguing that doing so renders their products value-less.
I think Azrhi is taking an issue more with WotC. You can pull UA from them going back to it looks like maybe Xanthar's. Like I said, it looks like if you wanted to put the effort you could port a lot of Tasha's content into D&D Beyond manually. Or you can buy the tools (and I'm presuming the CFVs are not something you'll be able to homebrew, unless you did some sort of feat end-run, but I don't know if that would work well).
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
It wasn't just test drive as they're still giving it away for free. Plus in almost every circumstance the UA versions are better than what ended up in Tasha's since arbitrary nerfs had yet to be applied.
These two paragraphs are mutually exclusive; what's available in UA are not the subclasses available in Tasha's Cauldron, they're playtest versions that eventually led to a more balanced official release. UA sub-classes are usually toned down for good reason; while WotC doesn't always get it exactly right, they generally don't change UA without having some reason for doing so. For example Rune Knight was overly strong at early levels, and while some people will be disappointed by the changes to Tasha's the sub-class is in a much better place balance wise in the official rules (and still technically stacks with Enlarge/Reduce which I didn't expect).
While you can absolutely use the UA versions if you're determined to so-so, your group needs to be okay with you using potentially overpowered or even fundamentally broken rules in regular play; there's a reason UA content comes with a warning.
It's not a "free" version of official content, it's content you can choose to try to see what WotC is working on so you can give feedback. If you choose to keep using it knowing that WotC chose to nerf it, then you're using it knowing it may be OP, if you're group's fine with that then great, but you're not using official content for "free" when you do.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I have absolutely no problem with UA becoming archived and having to purchase the content to use after it has been published. I absolutely hate the fact that they put the UA content out and then when it finally gets published it was like a bait-and-switch. Most of those subclasses were of little interest to me at all. But they went from 70% me not caring and 30% me being interested to me banning 100% of them because of that abysmally short-sighted Proficiency bonus scaling that they all have. The abusable nature of that design is prime for power gamers, and I want absolutely nothing to do with it at my table.
I mean, to be fair, you don't have to play everything by RAW. If everyone agrees at the table that a Druid Circle of the Stars should just get guiding bolt as an auto-attune, but not get extra casts of it, then that's fine because that's what you agree upon and extra spell slots are decently powerful (though it isn't particularly notable, considering not only does circle of land get extra spellcasting slots, but it can do more than just level 1 slots, and a circle of the land druid will outrun the Circle of the Stars in extra spell slots starting at level 8, and aside from level 9, where they pull equal in extra spell slots, circle of land will have more extra spell slots and circle of stars will never recover starting level 10), but a college of creation's dancing item doing +2 damage at levels 1-4 isn't particularly overwhelming, nor is it doing +6 damage at 17th-20, or are the bonuses for that ability at any other point for that matter.
Is there a particular one you had in mind that screamed out to you as "broken"? Because a lot of the proficiency things in the subclasses are entirely reasonable, such as the examples above, and banning all of them is more than a bit knee jerk.
For me I paid about $23 for the book due to previous purchases....and it is just about worth it for that amount.
$30 is a bit of a stretch IMO....Beyond the subclasses the material is largely a reprint of several things (Group Patrons from Eberron, Creation changes that were published for free in the AL documents, Subclasses/Spells from Sword Coast Adventure Guide and Errata, etc...)
The CFV are the other interesting part but are largely ignorable for most classes beyond Ranger. I ran them by my player groups and they were disappointed in the options.
The biggest hyped part of the book, the racial changes and creating your own race, were extremely simple and felt underwhelming. They likely spent about 15 minutes coming up with these options.
The spells presented are viable and fun....but with only ~17 new spells in a book from one of the named wizards is fairly disappointing. 1 new cantrip.....
Overall the book feels a bit empty. Most of the content is on the "Okay" scale side of things with no real WOW options. I like it but don't love it.
I think Azrhi is taking an issue more with WotC. You can pull UA from them going back to it looks like maybe Xanthar's. Like I said, it looks like if you wanted to put the effort you could port a lot of Tasha's content into D&D Beyond manually. Or you can buy the tools (and I'm presuming the CFVs are not something you'll be able to homebrew, unless you did some sort of feat end-run, but I don't know if that would work well).
Right, but you cannot share your homebrewed copy legally. And if you try sharing it with DDB they will remove it if they catch you doing so. So that would mean the DM minimum must homebrew it and every player in that campaign using it must do so too.
You're right, and again, I'm not entirely clear what the fight is about. Homebrew made from preserved UA, like third party D&D products or homebrew based on other established IP, is for personal use and can't be published to the broader D&D Beyond community. Some may want to do that mental labor for the benefit of their own game. Others may want to plop down the 20-30 bucks. And others would want to pay 30-50 bucks for an edition they can hold.
It wasn't just test drive as they're still giving it away for free. Plus in almost every circumstance the UA versions are better than what ended up in Tasha's since arbitrary nerfs had yet to be applied.
These two paragraphs are mutually exclusive; what's available in UA are not the subclasses available in Tasha's Cauldron, they're playtest versions that eventually led to a more balanced official release. UA sub-classes are usually toned down for good reason; while WotC doesn't always get it exactly right, they generally don't change UA without having some reason for doing so. For example Rune Knight was overly strong at early levels, and while some people will be disappointed by the changes to Tasha's the sub-class is in a much better place balance wise in the official rules (and still technically stacks with Enlarge/Reduce which I didn't expect).
While you can absolutely use the UA versions if you're determined to so-so, your group needs to be okay with you using potentially overpowered or even fundamentally broken rules in regular play; there's a reason UA content comes with a warning.
It's not a "free" version of official content, it's content you can choose to try to see what WotC is working on so you can give feedback. If you choose to keep using it knowing that WotC chose to nerf it, then you're using it knowing it may be OP, if you're group's fine with that then great, but you're not using official content for "free" when you do.
I haven't done a comprehensive review of every subclass, really the Phantom was the only one I was curious with because honestly I wanted a bit "more" from it though an happy with what it is for my own game world purposes. That said, the published Phantom is literally a word for word match with the UA ... and rifling back further through the archive, there's stuff from 2017 and 2018 that while maybe not word for word definitely sync up. That said, there are things in the book that I don't believe were ever UA published, plus the consolidation of setting specific or adventure published content. The book has value, maybe less or a diminishing return for someone who collects prior UA and has all the other books.
I'm not sure whether Azhri's beef is with WotC or DnDBeyond, my eyes sort of glaze when things start getting vitriolic. What I put above I guess is my response to whatever WotC complaint he may launching into. If it's about DnD Beyond not maintaining the UA (aside from legacy usage, which I think they'd still do for Tasha's content) so UA preservers won't have to do the work themselves, they can't. Without saying this person or that person doesn't understand copyright, it comes down to this: The UA is owned by WotC. They control how anyone, especially other commercial entities may make use of UA. They archive they're own UA and allow players to make use of it in their own games. When they publish it, they license DnD Beyond to enable its community to playtest the content for a limited window. One may get mad at DnD Beyond for taking down UA, but they're just complying with their license from WotC. I'm actually fascinated that WotC keeps the UA archive open, and since I like doing archival deep dives, see myself entertained by reviewing UA from before I started playing again, comparing them to official content and debating what could have been if designers had gone in different directions. "What could be" has always been, to me, what D&D has been about, and "to go there" in this time of year in the U.S., I can say that the community here and its intent on pushing and discussing the possibilities of the game is one of the things I'm thankful for.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
IMO yes it is worth the purchase.
Is the book underwhelming? only due to the over hype of the book prior to launch if you ask me.
Hammer, hit nail. This right here is why it isn't worth $30, this isn't entitlement it's a value proposition. If the value is tied to the content and the content is free, then spending money on it is foolish. If the value is tied to the toolset and the toolset is free, then spending money on it is foolish.
You can argue that the value is tied to convenience and that would be a valid argument. Yet the paid content is currently heavily broken within the toolset making the value proposition for purchase based on convenience dubious at best.
An argument could also be made that buying the book is an act of charity to keep D&DBeyond alive, which is also valid, but has nothing to do with the value of the purchase.
The content isn't free; pre-release versions of some of the content were released for play-testing, but most of this has changed dramatically (Favoured Foe from the Ranger changes for example has been greatly toned down).
If you reconstruct the content yourself, through your own effort, then you must do using unofficial sources of information that may or may not give you a complete picture; this is no different from gaining an understanding of a biography based upon excerpts and reviews, or word of mouth, rather than the book itself. There's also a big difference between "click one button and you've added the feat" versus "find out from some other source exactly what the feat does then recreate it exactly by yourself". I could probably have repaired my own roof if I had the time to learn how, but that doesn't mean that paying someone to do it for me has no value.
As for the content on D&D Beyond; if you purchase Tasha's Cauldron, you get a full copy of Tasha's cauldron. It's all there, the only things that are "missing" are additional features that need to be added to the character sheet/homebrew system and are being actively worked on and released, but that's all additional content that goes beyond what the book itself contains. If you buy a physical copy of the book you don't get automatic dice rolling with the correct bonus(es) etc., you just gets the words on the pages; you get all of those with your digital copy as well, but you also get much easier integration of new features, spells, feats etc. with just a few clicks, easier building of characters using the new features and an automatically maintained character sheet etc. While there are a few minor bugs, none of these prevent you accessing the text of the book that you paid for, and as they're fixed they will make it even easier to use without consulting that text at all; these are generally minor issues like some magic items applying to all spellcasting, rather than only certain schools of magic etc.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Not even that, but the ua is not the same as the released material.
Yes, you can homebrew the UA for free (or you could have copied it before TCOE was released). The material is still freely available. It won't be the same as the material in the book, though: almost everything was changed in one way or another.
This also doesn't cover the whole book.
I have just finished reading through Tasha's and I think it will be worth the 30 bucks i will probably buy it. thanks to all you guys to the helpful feedback and thank you to Naresea for content sharing that with me.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
- Litany Against Fear, Frank Herbert
You're welcome. :)
Hopefully not belaboring the discussion, but it seemed apt to put the below in this thread rather than start yet another Tasha's feedback thread.
I have the game store edition because the players that matter to me most see our game as a valued break from screens/tech, I like the alt cover, and I like supporting my FNLGS. I'm waiting on the digital edition at least until its fully online, but may just homebrew what I like from it and use the funds from my hobby budget for something else (DungeonFog, HeroForge subscription to support the toolkit, or some 3rd Party Hardbacks or Kickstarters). Though I guess the thing I'd want most online are the class variant features, and it doesn't look like there's a good way to do that yet or maybe ever.
The one thing that struck me in a :-\ way was the books thinness on first look; but looking at my other physical non-core books I see Volo's is 223 pages, Xanthar's 192, Avernus is 252 with a pull out map ... so I guess Tasha's 192 is fair. I guess I thought I had seen advertising content somewhere claiming it would be in the ~250 page range, so I guess that's where my mild disappointment is. Did anyone else have this mistaken expectation?
As for the book itself, I generally dig it. I see it as some useful options and don't really have any objections to incorporating any of it into the game. I think it didn't go far enough with class variant features or race/legacy options, but I get the sense that over all sense of the book was to go for accessible and light rather than complicate with crunch and I understand if I want a deeper dive my options are the world of 3rd party publishers.
The tattoos I liked, though I realize we're really just talking about scrolls that can be transferred onto the body rather than carried. It did push my thinking on magical writing in my game. While in that game there are wizards who use the traditional spell book system, a lot of wizards instead use a type of writing that is both visually and tactilely "read" and inscribed into the wizards staff or a more compact cylinder with sections to rotate to unlock the reading of particular spells. With the tattoos, my thinking was pushed to consider, why not just write the whole spell book on the body. I can see cantrips placed on the fingers as a Wizards primer to the elements of magic and then grow from there (the presumption is that spell books, or staves or skin, aren't so much discreet organizations of spells but more hyper textual, the magic language broadening the capabilities of the magic user as the wizards' understanding increases through study and the act of writing). Anyway, could lead to a whole new interpretation of the term "navel gazing" when taking a long rest for spell prep. And yes dismemberment or significant scarring could pose a problem, though I'm thinking some sort of "phantom limb" magic may be available to assist, but magical crippling is a possibity. (I need to write this down more fully).
As for some of the digressions on this thread into WotC UA and market success. It's abundantly clear to players what UA is, playtest and research pursuant to products players would eventually have to pay for. It's been abundantly clear if you really like a UA, you need to copy that down in your homebrew less it go away forever or be altered in paid content. I did this for the Phantom and Drakewarden (the latter moreso as a tinkering project for something better I think is frustrated in the current build).
On the "reprint" matter. I think it's fair to produce a compilation consisting of some relatively original content but also things like the Artificer for players who really aren't interested in buying a campaign setting book or an adventure to access classes and other spells. Sure in D&D Beyond that leads to diminishing returns among the Legendary and "completist" crowd, but it's bound to happen.
I see WotC as the producers of the biggest game in town, and while I think some of its critics really ought to learn how to modulate language to persuade a more ambivalent or content audience of their criticism rather than rave in hyperbole, I don't think it's necessarily the best game in town, there's always room for improvement, and WotC is aware of that too. I basically see WotC as a Ford/Honda big car company. The vehicle they produce work for a mass audience, and "gets them there," and is also much more available than other products. The most active users of this D&D Beyond Forum are either hotrodders (homebrew community) or precision drivers where of course the stock models are going to fail in some way or another. Fortunately there's an active hotrod and aftermarket accessory community to help you get what you want out of your ride. (With one exception to troll Iamsposta again, you can't drive a car with your mind, so no). So after I got past the new car smell of the cover and the art, and started reading through I did have a bit of a "that's it?" moment, but ultimately it does what it's supposed to do. On DDB, I don't need to be an early adopter so I'll wait and see until a fully integrated edition of the work is live.
Speaking of the art, I did notice a lot of people complaining about the artwork quality in other threads (I'm not talking about the Drow criticism, though I think the renderings are in line with the other renderings ... and on that note let's remember that illustrations in one book need not be thought of as a universal illustration, especially regarding a D&D race). There's some great pieces in it, but I'll admit the overall quality is a bit mixed. I think some high quality color images mixed with some pencils would have been my preference, but I don't think the art really detracts from the game, and I see the captioning actually being effective notes to literal illustrations of what goes on in some theaters of the mind. Also wondering if a lot of the art, which seems almost rendered as tattoo parlor "flash" work is intended for some DMsGuild art packet.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Art's always hit or miss because it's subjective. The pieces are all submitted by different artists, so you're going to get different looks, and people have different tastes. Frankly though, I never got the obsession with the artwork; that's not what my nose is in the book for. As far as I am concerned, it's all filler.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
A large portion of subclasses are from UA. If you are making that argument, then that makes purchasing sourcebooks pointless too, and the only stuff that people need are just the SRD, UA, and anything else Wizards have offered for free. While official subclasses are generally pretty similar to its UA predecessors, they are not exactly the same. Official subclasses are usually more toned down and balanced, and those versions are definitely not free.
TCOE also is not only about subclasses. There are magic items, sidekicks, patrons, and other features that are either completely new or gets more fleshed out here.
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I understand copyright just fine, I have a feeling you don't understand what it means though. No one here is suggesting that anyone violate any copyright laws. But if you feel the need to mansplain yourself, feel free.
All of the subclasses in Tasha's (minus the three normal Artificer ones) are freely available here: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana
It wasn't just test drive as they're still giving it away for free. Plus in almost every circumstance the UA versions are better than what ended up in Tasha's since arbitrary nerfs had yet to be applied.
But digging far back into the UA, there's lots of stuff from Theros, Eberron, Ravinica, MToF, etc available there as well. Sure, you can take the PDF and homebrew it out. Or you can pay for it in a bound edition and homebrew it into your account, or just homebrew it into the account. Some people would rather have a bound finished product or tools paid for and built into their D&D Beyond account. Others prefer a less costly way to play. I think we can have folks hold both positions in this universe.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I think Azrhi is taking an issue more with WotC. You can pull UA from them going back to it looks like maybe Xanthar's. Like I said, it looks like if you wanted to put the effort you could port a lot of Tasha's content into D&D Beyond manually. Or you can buy the tools (and I'm presuming the CFVs are not something you'll be able to homebrew, unless you did some sort of feat end-run, but I don't know if that would work well).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
These two paragraphs are mutually exclusive; what's available in UA are not the subclasses available in Tasha's Cauldron, they're playtest versions that eventually led to a more balanced official release. UA sub-classes are usually toned down for good reason; while WotC doesn't always get it exactly right, they generally don't change UA without having some reason for doing so. For example Rune Knight was overly strong at early levels, and while some people will be disappointed by the changes to Tasha's the sub-class is in a much better place balance wise in the official rules (and still technically stacks with Enlarge/Reduce which I didn't expect).
While you can absolutely use the UA versions if you're determined to so-so, your group needs to be okay with you using potentially overpowered or even fundamentally broken rules in regular play; there's a reason UA content comes with a warning.
It's not a "free" version of official content, it's content you can choose to try to see what WotC is working on so you can give feedback. If you choose to keep using it knowing that WotC chose to nerf it, then you're using it knowing it may be OP, if you're group's fine with that then great, but you're not using official content for "free" when you do.
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I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I mean, to be fair, you don't have to play everything by RAW. If everyone agrees at the table that a Druid Circle of the Stars should just get guiding bolt as an auto-attune, but not get extra casts of it, then that's fine because that's what you agree upon and extra spell slots are decently powerful (though it isn't particularly notable, considering not only does circle of land get extra spellcasting slots, but it can do more than just level 1 slots, and a circle of the land druid will outrun the Circle of the Stars in extra spell slots starting at level 8, and aside from level 9, where they pull equal in extra spell slots, circle of land will have more extra spell slots and circle of stars will never recover starting level 10), but a college of creation's dancing item doing +2 damage at levels 1-4 isn't particularly overwhelming, nor is it doing +6 damage at 17th-20, or are the bonuses for that ability at any other point for that matter.
Is there a particular one you had in mind that screamed out to you as "broken"? Because a lot of the proficiency things in the subclasses are entirely reasonable, such as the examples above, and banning all of them is more than a bit knee jerk.
For me I paid about $23 for the book due to previous purchases....and it is just about worth it for that amount.
$30 is a bit of a stretch IMO....Beyond the subclasses the material is largely a reprint of several things (Group Patrons from Eberron, Creation changes that were published for free in the AL documents, Subclasses/Spells from Sword Coast Adventure Guide and Errata, etc...)
The CFV are the other interesting part but are largely ignorable for most classes beyond Ranger. I ran them by my player groups and they were disappointed in the options.
The biggest hyped part of the book, the racial changes and creating your own race, were extremely simple and felt underwhelming. They likely spent about 15 minutes coming up with these options.
The spells presented are viable and fun....but with only ~17 new spells in a book from one of the named wizards is fairly disappointing. 1 new cantrip.....
Overall the book feels a bit empty. Most of the content is on the "Okay" scale side of things with no real WOW options. I like it but don't love it.
You're right, and again, I'm not entirely clear what the fight is about. Homebrew made from preserved UA, like third party D&D products or homebrew based on other established IP, is for personal use and can't be published to the broader D&D Beyond community. Some may want to do that mental labor for the benefit of their own game. Others may want to plop down the 20-30 bucks. And others would want to pay 30-50 bucks for an edition they can hold.
I haven't done a comprehensive review of every subclass, really the Phantom was the only one I was curious with because honestly I wanted a bit "more" from it though an happy with what it is for my own game world purposes. That said, the published Phantom is literally a word for word match with the UA ... and rifling back further through the archive, there's stuff from 2017 and 2018 that while maybe not word for word definitely sync up. That said, there are things in the book that I don't believe were ever UA published, plus the consolidation of setting specific or adventure published content. The book has value, maybe less or a diminishing return for someone who collects prior UA and has all the other books.
I'm not sure whether Azhri's beef is with WotC or DnDBeyond, my eyes sort of glaze when things start getting vitriolic. What I put above I guess is my response to whatever WotC complaint he may launching into. If it's about DnD Beyond not maintaining the UA (aside from legacy usage, which I think they'd still do for Tasha's content) so UA preservers won't have to do the work themselves, they can't. Without saying this person or that person doesn't understand copyright, it comes down to this: The UA is owned by WotC. They control how anyone, especially other commercial entities may make use of UA. They archive they're own UA and allow players to make use of it in their own games. When they publish it, they license DnD Beyond to enable its community to playtest the content for a limited window. One may get mad at DnD Beyond for taking down UA, but they're just complying with their license from WotC. I'm actually fascinated that WotC keeps the UA archive open, and since I like doing archival deep dives, see myself entertained by reviewing UA from before I started playing again, comparing them to official content and debating what could have been if designers had gone in different directions. "What could be" has always been, to me, what D&D has been about, and "to go there" in this time of year in the U.S., I can say that the community here and its intent on pushing and discussing the possibilities of the game is one of the things I'm thankful for.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
No.