I'm starting a new campaign tonight with a bunch of new players. One thing I noticed is that brand new users of DnD Beyond don't get that many background options when creating a character. Is there some way that I can share the PHB with them before they create their character so they can choose the PHB backgrounds?
Yes, sorry this is late, but I feel at least new players should not even make characters on D&D beyond. It's a LOT easier with the players handbooks, and you need to like "unlock" backgrounds and races and feats and...etc. I just wouldn't have a new player make one on D&D beyond yet.
Yes, sorry this is late, but I feel at least new players should not even make characters on D&D beyond. It's a LOT easier with the players handbooks, and you need to like "unlock" backgrounds and races and feats and...etc. I just wouldn't have a new player make one on D&D beyond yet.
What? It is MUCH easier for someone with zero experience at creating characters to follow the steps in DND Beyond.
As for giving them access to content, have them join a campaign that has content sharing enabled, then those new players will have all the content that is shared.
Actually, creating a character on D&D Beyond is much harder, there are more races then in the PHB, and more new players, less is good, LACK of backgrounds, making lore a lot harder, and no new player should homebrew, and 1 FEAT, 1.
There is only as much content as the DM selects. If the DM selects PHB only, then there is only PHB content.
Also, when ALL the content is offered, the choices of races, classes, sub-classes, backgrounds, feats, spells, equipment, etc... are all in ONE place in a nice list, and it's easy to compare them. Doing the same on paper would require 4-5 source books, flipping back and forth between them and prior knowledge of the mechanics/rules, which DnDBeyond automates to a large extent.
DnDBeyond also allows you to manage conditions, spell slots, HP, abilities and reset everything with a couple clicks.
I'm another in the boat of preferring DDB for character creation. Especially for new players, it holds your hannd through the whole process - now select this, now choose this, the site calculates all your skill proficiencies and saving throws for you, it tells you what starting equipment you should have, how many spells you know, and so on. WAY faster than a noob trying to figure it out with a stack of books and a character sheet.
The difference is they may not go back and read enough to understand what all those numbers mean and how the game runs, but a good DM should guide new players through that anyway, rather than making a new player read several hundred pages before they can even do anything.
I used DDB to help my sons aged 13 and 11 to create characters. I like how it moves systematically through each stage of character creation. I gave an explanation of each race, class, uses of ability scores, etc. as we worked through it. We had fun using point buy and seeing how all the figures change as you move an ability score up or down. My 13yo is now using DDB to manage his character as we play, so he's actually more familiar with the tools than I am.
Character management during play is much easier on DDB. It does an excellent job of tracking modifiers and other fiddly bits that you might forget about.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
It also allows semi-real-time monitoring of Character sheets by the DM. It allows for a single canonical record of the Character sheet - none of this "my copy is different from your copy" nonsense.
Plus, you can easily export/snapshot a PDF version of the Character sheets when they level changed.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
To answer the question, you can share content on the site only for content you have purchased - you have to buy the digital book on DDB - and if you have a Master tier subscription.
You could have 1 person purchase the digital book, and another person buy the subscription. Then someone makes a campaign on the site, and the person with the subscription enables content sharing, then all content purchased by all the players in the campaign is shared with all other players.
I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well. There are many threads here describing this that probably do a better job of it.
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I'm starting a new campaign tonight with a bunch of new players. One thing I noticed is that brand new users of DnD Beyond don't get that many background options when creating a character. Is there some way that I can share the PHB with them before they create their character so they can choose the PHB backgrounds?
Yes, sorry this is late, but I feel at least new players should not even make characters on D&D beyond. It's a LOT easier with the players handbooks, and you need to like "unlock" backgrounds and races and feats and...etc. I just wouldn't have a new player make one on D&D beyond yet.
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
What? It is MUCH easier for someone with zero experience at creating characters to follow the steps in DND Beyond.
As for giving them access to content, have them join a campaign that has content sharing enabled, then those new players will have all the content that is shared.
Actually, creating a character on D&D Beyond is much harder, there are more races then in the PHB, and more new players, less is good, LACK of backgrounds, making lore a lot harder, and no new player should homebrew, and 1 FEAT, 1.
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
Agree to disagree then.
There is only as much content as the DM selects. If the DM selects PHB only, then there is only PHB content.
Also, when ALL the content is offered, the choices of races, classes, sub-classes, backgrounds, feats, spells, equipment, etc... are all in ONE place in a nice list, and it's easy to compare them. Doing the same on paper would require 4-5 source books, flipping back and forth between them and prior knowledge of the mechanics/rules, which DnDBeyond automates to a large extent.
DnDBeyond also allows you to manage conditions, spell slots, HP, abilities and reset everything with a couple clicks.
Good point, I like D&D beyond, but not for creating characters on the site.
I'll agree to disagree.
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
I'm another in the boat of preferring DDB for character creation. Especially for new players, it holds your hannd through the whole process - now select this, now choose this, the site calculates all your skill proficiencies and saving throws for you, it tells you what starting equipment you should have, how many spells you know, and so on. WAY faster than a noob trying to figure it out with a stack of books and a character sheet.
The difference is they may not go back and read enough to understand what all those numbers mean and how the game runs, but a good DM should guide new players through that anyway, rather than making a new player read several hundred pages before they can even do anything.
I used DDB to help my sons aged 13 and 11 to create characters. I like how it moves systematically through each stage of character creation. I gave an explanation of each race, class, uses of ability scores, etc. as we worked through it. We had fun using point buy and seeing how all the figures change as you move an ability score up or down. My 13yo is now using DDB to manage his character as we play, so he's actually more familiar with the tools than I am.
Character management during play is much easier on DDB. It does an excellent job of tracking modifiers and other fiddly bits that you might forget about.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
It also allows semi-real-time monitoring of Character sheets by the DM. It allows for a single canonical record of the Character sheet - none of this "my copy is different from your copy" nonsense.
Plus, you can easily export/snapshot a PDF version of the Character sheets when they level changed.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
To answer the question, you can share content on the site only for content you have purchased - you have to buy the digital book on DDB - and if you have a Master tier subscription.
You could have 1 person purchase the digital book, and another person buy the subscription. Then someone makes a campaign on the site, and the person with the subscription enables content sharing, then all content purchased by all the players in the campaign is shared with all other players.
I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well. There are many threads here describing this that probably do a better job of it.