Sorry if this is posted somewhere obvious and I overlooked it, but have the devs offer any kind of timeline on when the sidekick builder is expected to be available?

Quote from Kandoruus >>

Sorry if this is posted somewhere obvious and I overlooked it, but have the devs offer any kind of timeline on when the sidekick builder is expected to be available?

What he said! ;-)

@Kandoruus For what it's worth, what I've been doing is creating Homebrew Monsters by copying the statblock and then editing it to have the sidekick abilities. Not perfect but it works for now until Dev comes out with an actual Sidekick builder

Yeah, I’ve done the same, leveling up is a pain though, having to re-edit with the homebrew tools every time there is a new feature. But for now it will do. I hope they put a high priority on developing their system.

Its definitely a pain to homebrew the sidekicks. How are you supposed to handle designing a spellcaster sidekick with Stat blocks that already have spells in them? Even a projected date would be nice especially since it will be likely that plenty of people will want to use sidekicks in upcoming campaigns.

Quote from Skorchedearth >>

Its definitely a pain to homebrew the sidekicks. How are you supposed to handle designing a spellcaster sidekick with Stat blocks that already have spells in them? Even a projected date would be nice especially since it will be likely that plenty of people will want to use sidekicks in upcoming campaigns.

 Then never give ETAs or projected dates unless they are days from release, and often not even then.

Can you say more, though, about your problem with spellcaster sidekicks and homebrewing them?  If you are copying from an existing statblock (which is a great way to go), it's not that hard to change the spells listed.  Even if working from scratch, they provide a template for you to work with.  If you aren't sure how edit or list spells in a statblock, please ask and one of us can help you.  

As simple as a solution is it would be nice if they specify how to handle adding spellcaster sidekick levels to a creature that already has spells in its statblock.

Here's an example baed on the acolyte statblock.  If you create a hombrew using the acolyte as a template, you will see the following under "Special traits description"

Spellcasting. The acolyte is a 1st-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks). The acolyte has following cleric spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): [spell*]light[/spell*], [spell*]sacred flame[/spell*], [spell*] thaumaturgy[/spell*]

1st level (3 slots):  [spell*]bless[/spell*], [spell*]cure wounds[/spell*], [spell*]sanctuary[/spell*]

NOTE:  you need to remove all the * for this to work.  I added them so you could see the "code" for the links.

To change a cantrip, all you need to do is to replace the name of the cantrip within the tags for the spell, so for example, [spell*]toll the dead[/spell*]

If I want to "level up" the sidekick and give them 2nd level spells (both known and slots), I would add this line:

2nd level (2 slots): [spell*]Lesser Resoration[/spell*], [spell*]Spiritual Weapon[/spell*]

Oh that helps a lot, I thought all you had to do was go to the spell page on the site and link it like that. So that means that when you create a spellcaster sidekick you replace any spells that the statblock has originally? That is what I did for the sidekick I already made without the code part.

Yes, if they aren’t the spells you want. You can even start with a “monster” that doesn’t have spellcasting and add it by adding wording like that in the example above.