versions of the books for the same MSRP as the physical books
I would like to highlight that this is inaccurate
The MSRP of the physical books is $49.99, which you can verify independently on the Wizards of the Coast website. D&D Beyond charges $29.99 for all full books
The 5th Edition Player's Handbook is currently on sale from Amazon for 31 dollars and 33 cents. On D&D Beyond, it's 29 dollars and 99 cents. While not by much, it's still cheaper to buy from D&D Beyond, and theirs has added value because it will remain updated when any errata is published, and contains cross-links to any other books you buy from them. It's not the same or higher. It's cheaper, and it's better when you purchase from D&D Beyond. In addition, if there is a specific piece of another book you want, the Marketplace allows for Ala-carte purchases. Try getting that from Amazon.
The only two things that a Master Tier subscription do is:
You have infinite character slots
You can share everything you have bought in the marketplace in the campaigns you are in
Other than the above, you do not get any functional change, meaning that everything else you see and can do without a subscription will remain the same. Now, the Master tier subscription is extremely interesting for the sharing function, especially for stable groups, but in general it is a nice thing to have. With it, you can share every bit of content you have unlocked via purchase in the marketplace with anyone that is in up to 3 campaign you are part of, either created by you or that you join as player.
Hope this helps in any way.
You have missed that the encounter builder only allows 8 encounters to be built at base level, this alone is worth the money to me. I currently have 20 encounters all lined up ready to go with monsters set etc all linked up to the areas on my homebrew map. Or the rooms in a dungeon.
The 5th Edition Player's Handbook is currently on sale from Amazon for 31 dollars and 33 cents. On D&D Beyond, it's 29 dollars and 99 cents. While not by much, it's still cheaper to buy from D&D Beyond, and theirs has added value because it will remain updated when any errata is published, and contains cross-links to any other books you buy from them. It's not the same or higher. It's cheaper, and it's better when you purchase from D&D Beyond. In addition, if there is a specific piece of another book you want, the Marketplace allows for Ala-carte purchases. Try getting that from Amazon.
Some of us prefer to own the physical version. I can’t read a whole book on a screen so an electronic only version would be a big barrier to entry. What I do is pay for the content in the books I need, so the magic items, spells, races and classes my characters want to play etc.
"Some of us prefer to own the physical version. I can’t read a whole book on a screen so an electronic only version would be a big barrier to entry. What I do is pay for the content in the books I need, so the magic items, spells, races and classes my characters want to play etc."
I couldn't agree more. It takes a high initial investment, but it's still cheaper than buying from Amazon. With D&D Beyond, you get the most recent version of the books without having to pay a dime more, you can buy each and every magic item, spell, race, or class you want, but only the specific ones you want, and use the various tools they offer. You can create all kinds of magic items, spells, feats and sub-classes with the Homebrew editor, there's an Encounter Builder, a Combat Tracker, a Character Sheet Builder, and the forums give you online support. 55 bucks a month gets you a subscription, and you can pay month-by-month so you can stop anytime you like.
There is another virtue that D&D Beyond offers. You don't have to pay a cent. You get the Basic Rules, the Sage Advice Compendium helps you interpret them, the New Player's Guild is equally useful to players and DM's, and they offer the Frozen Sick adventure. That's all free.
Not all of us have the luxury of playing directly, face to face, with our friends. Especially with Covid around. I have to play online if I want to play my favorite game in the world with my friends, and that's D&D. I've been playing it since High School, and that was quite a while ago.
"Some of us prefer to own the physical version. I can’t read a whole book on a screen so an electronic only version would be a big barrier to entry. What I do is pay for the content in the books I need, so the magic items, spells, races and classes my characters want to play etc."
I couldn't agree more. It takes a high initial investment, but it's still cheaper than buying from Amazon. With D&D Beyond, you get the most recent version of the books without having to pay a dime more, you can buy each and every magic item, spell, race, or class you want, but only the specific ones you want, and use the various tools they offer. You can create all kinds of magic items, spells, feats and sub-classes with the Homebrew editor, there's an Encounter Builder, a Combat Tracker, a Character Sheet Builder, and the forums give you online support. 55 bucks a month gets you a subscription, and you can pay month-by-month so you can stop anytime you like.
There is another virtue that D&D Beyond offers. You don't have to pay a cent. You get the Basic Rules, the Sage Advice Compendium helps you interpret them, the New Player's Guild is equally useful to players and DM's, and they offer the Frozen Sick adventure. That's all free.
Not all of us have the luxury of playing directly, face to face, with our friends. Especially with Covid around. I have to play online if I want to play my favorite game in the world with my friends, and that's D&D. I've been playing it since High School, and that was quite a while ago.
I play remotely as well but as a dm I still prefer having the books to hand at my finger tips but the fact that I can just buy the bits I need for my players to play online, and that as a group we can buy individual pieces is great. The one thing I will note is that as a DM you have to own the monsters, one of my players has the monster manual bought but because I am not accessing the encounter builder from inside the campaign I can’t use that content myself.
That's perfectly reasonable. Might I suggest having all the players chip in and buy you a Monster Manual? That's something Amazon is good for. :-)
I already have a physical copy lol, don't need my players to buy me that, it was more the online monsters for the encounter builder, My TTRPG collection is currently at about 180 books, wife did ask the other day if I need all of them lol.
Yes, if you share the content with them. I think their character have to be imported to one of your campaigns?
They do have to have a character imported, I currently have "dumb" characters sat in 2 friends campaigns so they can access all the material I have purchased.
I am wanting to run a campaign completely online with a group of friends separated by distance physically. What are the best online tools for the following:
3. Content of source books, Rules tables and lookup?
4. Virtual table top maps and miniatures?
5. Ease of communication using audio, video, and chat?
Is there any one set from the same source that does it all or is it a Mish mash of different pieces of software that combines together to accomplish it?
As far as virtual platforms which is better? Twitch? Discord? Something else?
Also, how do you accomplish it without needing subscriptions to a dozen different places for each of the players and DM?
If someone could please help out with some info, I would be highly appreciative. It seems to me that this is very confusing to try to figure out from scratch.
You can create campaigns without spending a dime, but in order to share any official content, you need a Master Tier subscription, and then you can have 5 campaigns. There is an Encounter Builder Tool in Beta at the moment, and it is mildly useful.
There is a Combat Tracker tool, in Alpha and it currently doesn't do automated rolling of anything.
All of those are included, but you have to buy anything you wish to share. You can buy any specific spell, race, or magic item for about 2 bucks, and the price of the full source-book will be discounted based on previous purchases. Anything you owned before will be of limited use.
D&D does not provide any of that.
I believe there is an official Discord server, though I am not certain what it is used for, and they have a bargain of some sort with Twitch.
On the whole, you get what you pay for. It's hard to know how useful D&D Beyond would be without knowing what your monthly budget allowance for luxuries looks like. The books run at about 30 bucks each, and a Master Tier subscription is 55 bucks a year. You get the books updated with the latest errata automatically, and they usually contain cross-links so you can look up things easily. The forums are free and contain a lot of helpful people. There are the Basic Rules, the Sage Advice Compendium, a New Player's Guide, and the "Frozen Sick" adventure is free. There may be others, I don't really know. Third party content is not supported at all, but not difficult to modify and use in your own games.
I hear good things about Pathfinder, but know very little about it, so you might check into that.
I have the Master Tier Subscription, but I have yet to get anything to work without purchasing any source books yet. Not even the encounter builder. Nothing but the Character app seem to work, and even that interface is very unwieldy. Having to go thru four screens just to change a avatar.
You are correct. None of the tools aside from the Character Builder work yet, and they only just put in the system for Containers. Magical containers still don't reduce the weight of things inside them, and you can't put a container inside of another one. I like custom avatar pictures, so I have to click the current one, the side bar comes open, I have to click the character portrait option, then the upload button, find the one I want to use on my system, upload it, and click yet again to use it.
If that's too much trouble for you, D&D Beyond isn't worth the investment. If you find something better, do feel free to let us all know.
I would like to highlight that this is inaccurate
The MSRP of the physical books is $49.99, which you can verify independently on the Wizards of the Coast website. D&D Beyond charges $29.99 for all full books
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Then edit: They charge the same or higher price than you can get them for on Amazon, etc.
The 5th Edition Player's Handbook is currently on sale from Amazon for 31 dollars and 33 cents. On D&D Beyond, it's 29 dollars and 99 cents. While not by much, it's still cheaper to buy from D&D Beyond, and theirs has added value because it will remain updated when any errata is published, and contains cross-links to any other books you buy from them. It's not the same or higher. It's cheaper, and it's better when you purchase from D&D Beyond. In addition, if there is a specific piece of another book you want, the Marketplace allows for Ala-carte purchases. Try getting that from Amazon.
<Insert clever signature here>
You have missed that the encounter builder only allows 8 encounters to be built at base level, this alone is worth the money to me. I currently have 20 encounters all lined up ready to go with monsters set etc all linked up to the areas on my homebrew map. Or the rooms in a dungeon.
Some of us prefer to own the physical version. I can’t read a whole book on a screen so an electronic only version would be a big barrier to entry. What I do is pay for the content in the books I need, so the magic items, spells, races and classes my characters want to play etc.
"Some of us prefer to own the physical version. I can’t read a whole book on a screen so an electronic only version would be a big barrier to entry. What I do is pay for the content in the books I need, so the magic items, spells, races and classes my characters want to play etc."
I couldn't agree more. It takes a high initial investment, but it's still cheaper than buying from Amazon. With D&D Beyond, you get the most recent version of the books without having to pay a dime more, you can buy each and every magic item, spell, race, or class you want, but only the specific ones you want, and use the various tools they offer. You can create all kinds of magic items, spells, feats and sub-classes with the Homebrew editor, there's an Encounter Builder, a Combat Tracker, a Character Sheet Builder, and the forums give you online support. 55 bucks a month gets you a subscription, and you can pay month-by-month so you can stop anytime you like.
There is another virtue that D&D Beyond offers. You don't have to pay a cent. You get the Basic Rules, the Sage Advice Compendium helps you interpret them, the New Player's Guild is equally useful to players and DM's, and they offer the Frozen Sick adventure. That's all free.
Not all of us have the luxury of playing directly, face to face, with our friends. Especially with Covid around. I have to play online if I want to play my favorite game in the world with my friends, and that's D&D. I've been playing it since High School, and that was quite a while ago.
<Insert clever signature here>
I play remotely as well but as a dm I still prefer having the books to hand at my finger tips but the fact that I can just buy the bits I need for my players to play online, and that as a group we can buy individual pieces is great. The one thing I will note is that as a DM you have to own the monsters, one of my players has the monster manual bought but because I am not accessing the encounter builder from inside the campaign I can’t use that content myself.
That's perfectly reasonable. Might I suggest having all the players chip in and buy you a Monster Manual? That's something Amazon is good for. :-)
<Insert clever signature here>
Yes, if you share the content with them. I think their character have to be imported to one of your campaigns?
I already have a physical copy lol, don't need my players to buy me that, it was more the online monsters for the encounter builder, My TTRPG collection is currently at about 180 books, wife did ask the other day if I need all of them lol.
They do have to have a character imported, I currently have "dumb" characters sat in 2 friends campaigns so they can access all the material I have purchased.
I guess you got 2 things u wanted
Need help!!!!!
New to online gaming , not DMing
I am wanting to run a campaign completely online with a group of friends separated by distance physically. What are the best online tools for the following:
1. Campaign management and encounter building?
2. Combat Tracking ( initiative, player stats, monster stats ) Automated dice rolling?
3. Content of source books, Rules tables and lookup?
4. Virtual table top maps and miniatures?
5. Ease of communication using audio, video, and chat?
Is there any one set from the same source that does it all or is it a Mish mash of different pieces of software that combines together to accomplish it?
As far as virtual platforms which is better? Twitch? Discord? Something else?
Also, how do you accomplish it without needing subscriptions to a dozen different places for each of the players and DM?
If someone could please help out with some info, I would be highly appreciative. It seems to me that this is very confusing to try to figure out from scratch.
On the whole, you get what you pay for. It's hard to know how useful D&D Beyond would be without knowing what your monthly budget allowance for luxuries looks like. The books run at about 30 bucks each, and a Master Tier subscription is 55 bucks a year. You get the books updated with the latest errata automatically, and they usually contain cross-links so you can look up things easily. The forums are free and contain a lot of helpful people. There are the Basic Rules, the Sage Advice Compendium, a New Player's Guide, and the "Frozen Sick" adventure is free. There may be others, I don't really know. Third party content is not supported at all, but not difficult to modify and use in your own games.
I hear good things about Pathfinder, but know very little about it, so you might check into that.
<Insert clever signature here>
I have the Master Tier Subscription, but I have yet to get anything to work without purchasing any source books yet. Not even the encounter builder. Nothing but the Character app seem to work, and even that interface is very unwieldy. Having to go thru four screens just to change a avatar.
You are correct. None of the tools aside from the Character Builder work yet, and they only just put in the system for Containers. Magical containers still don't reduce the weight of things inside them, and you can't put a container inside of another one. I like custom avatar pictures, so I have to click the current one, the side bar comes open, I have to click the character portrait option, then the upload button, find the one I want to use on my system, upload it, and click yet again to use it.
If that's too much trouble for you, D&D Beyond isn't worth the investment. If you find something better, do feel free to let us all know.
<Insert clever signature here>
I have players that simply wouldn't play if they couldn't access my books for free, so for my group DnD Beyond is a critical Asset.
Only way you can share books is to use the Master Tier sub.