Hey folks,

this AMA thread is live - go ahead and ask away!

I'll officially start answering questions tomorrow (about 14 hours from now), but may get some time this evening too. 😊

Quote from Goliathguy >>

How are you?

 I'm good thanks! Just finishing up work for the day, as it's nearly 7pm here and I need to feed our cats, and make dinner, before playing D&D this evening.

Quote from Omegon_99 >>

the generic feature system is something you all have been working on for quite some time.

Could you tell us a few highlight on which features that couldnt be implemented in the years since dnd beyond started that will be once the system is online?

Sure! So, first up, the GFS (General Feature System) is being built by the Characters team, but as part of my role, I discuss with them what sort of things my team will need to build with the GFS.

The most obvious feature I am really looking forward to us being able to officially serve is all of those boons, blessings, dark gifts etc - I love those and think they're a great mechanic for a DM to grant characters more diverse abilities.

Further down the line - once we've proved that the basis of GFS works? I am hopeful we can use it to implement custom ability scores, like Honor, Piety etc and possibly even adding the action system to magic items.

There's a lot more to the GFS than this though, and I am not best placed to talk about it in detail. 

Quote from FourSuitsJ4ck >>

do you guys have a better work playlist than my current job?

Difficult to know for sure, but I expect so - I work from home and get to listen to whatever I like. 😊

Today I listened to a bunch of tracks from the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack (radio Vexelstorm ftw).

Quote from AstralObservatory >>

Are there plans for updates to the current forum homebrew guides that are out, if any changes need to be made?

Many of the current guides were written by the forum moderator team (I started at D&D Beyond as a forum moderator, which is when I wrote most of the first guides).

We've talked internally about producing better guides, including setting up proper documentation on the site (not just forum posts) or possibly a wiki-style documentation on how to use the system.

I mentioned above about the General Feature System, which has the potential to change some of how the homebrew system works, so hopefully we'll get something set-up and ready as part of the launch of that.

Quote from Jay_Lane >>

I've noticed some css theme variables for the site being used for backgrounds, border images etc. Is this an indication of dark mode for the whole site being worked on actively or just being kept in mind as you go/update older pages. If it's not something you can talk about yet that's cool just curious.

Updating our CSS standards for compendium pages was one of the first projects I put together! 💗

I wanted us to make the pages look more like the actual books, as well as be more accessible, so worked on making the blocks where the rules text goes, as well as others.

The CSS theme variables provide an easier mechanism for us to specify the themes for each book, so for example where something like Ghosts of Saltmarsh has blue themes, we can specify the colours for that book for the accent colours.

They could indeed be a useful route to providing alternative theming, such as darkmode for compendium pages. 😊

Quote from Omegon_99 >>

thank you for answering my first question! here are two more, if it is allowed.

Are there any plans to support Druid wildshapes beyond adding extras to the character sheet?

can you tell us anything about the work on statblocks for stuff like beastmaster companions steel defenders etc?

 

thank you again for taking the time for this AMA

In order!

1/ Yes, it is allowed.  😊

2/ Druid wildshape need some serious love. One of my favourite D&D characters I am currently playing is a Circle of the Shepherd druid, and I can say that we REALLY need to better support not just wildshape, but any of the extras section - any time I summon some bears, or an animal spirit, I'm relying on custom actions on my character sheet to make it work, and we can just do better. Same when I wildshape into a dire wolf - I want to be able to select that and have the relevant stats fully surfaced so I can roll attacks.

Here's the thing - the extras system was built out prior to us implementing dice rolling for the character sheet and we're very aware we need to improve it. You may have heard mention occasionally of the "sidekicks system"? That's the proposed system that will handle adding all of these things to the character sheet in an intuitive manner. Fundamentally, because this sits with the Characters team, it's going to be behind the General Feature system in terms of projects being undertaken, so I can't give you any real idea on when this might happen. Sorry. I do keep asking about druids in meetings though!

Oh, bonus pic of my character, River - the tabaxi druid raised by elves, as drawn by my wife.

As for taking the time for this AMA - it's something we should have done a while back.

I always try to take some time out of my week to chat on these forums, and our discord, here and there, because I'm part of this community too and love tabletop RPG.

Quote from Danger_Noodle >>

Any plans to implement a better version of Sidekicks from Tasha's? 

Yes, see my answer above! 😊

Quote from AtlanticRim >>

Hi! Long time forums lurker, first time poster here!

You said you worked on implementing races and subclasses. Aside from the obvious, which races/subclasses/feats/etc. were unexpectedly hard to get working in DDB?

Follow up question: What's your favorite class or subclass?

Thanks!

Unexpectedly hard is interesting.

The Artificer and the Bloodhunter were definitely the most challenging, but I knew they would be before starting work on planning out how to build them. They are super complex in places.

It's probably going to be the Tortle. It looked super simple, but that AC calculation caused all sorts of difficulties, especially around its interaction with DEX and bonuses to unarmored AC. Close second is probably Warforged.

My favourite? That's .... super tough. My ADHD brain likes new things, so I kinda struggle with having a favourite. If I have to though, I'll say it's either Rogue or Monk. I am having a lot of fun right now with a Way of the Sun Soul monk in a Descent into Avernus campaign a friend is running. This evening I got to drive the group's Tormentor, took the dash and drive it at 200ft per turn into an enemy vehicle for that sweet 20d6 damage to both vehicles and crew. The DM was nice and, as it was my plan, let me jump clear just before impact and use my Monk's slow fall feature to reduce the damage down to a survivable amount. I didn't know the group's bard had boarded the enemy vehicle though... oops.