Hello,

A bit of an issue I'm having but one I hope people here will help me resolve. I'm relatively new to D&D Beyond and so I'm really just learning how to work with creating homebrew content.

Anyhoo... I'm trying to add darkvision to my anthropomorphic skunk homebrew race and it shows up on newly created test characters but not on my "real" character. One thing, though, is my actual skunk is in a campaign and so I'm wondering if that might be why; maybe changes to the homebrew race won't show up on the character sheet if the character is in a campaign already (one that I'm not running). Do I need to remove it and then readd it to the campaign to fix this?

And the other issue I'm having is adding a natural attack to the skunk template. I'm trying to give them a natural weapon; a bite attack (as everyone knows skunks can bite). The thing is, the bite attack does show up in the character traits section of the character sheet but not on the melee attack section (where all the attacks are listed. Unarmed attack shows up as does the skunk spray, but the bite doesn't. Obviously, I'm missing something, but I don't know what. And, this attack has not updated on my current skunk character who is in a campaign.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks much!

Homebrew races can be among the most tricky to test as their data seems to remain cached for the longest in the system (it may even be copied onto the character, it's hard to tell), and it's difficult to force it to update; sometimes switching to another race and then back to your homebrew race will do it, but sometimes it won't, sometimes levelling down and then back up can sort it, but also sometimes not.

In general when you update homebrew and swapping it in and out doesn't work, you should wait at least 20 minutes before trying again; don't keep refreshing your character sheet, and it may even be better to keep it closed. Hopefully it catches up at some point!

As Haravikk pointed out, it’s a caching issue. You may be able to find more useful information in the General FAQ #s 6 & 6-B: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/131411-a-homebrewers-how-to-faq).

As for your Bite attack, you must make sure to designate an “Activation Type” for it to display under Actions.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for the help so far. I just changed the activation type to "action" and am waiting for it to update the characters.

I do know about the cache delay for updating the characters from the homebrew race; it is annoying, but I can certainly live with it. The thing is, the skunk character who is in my friend's campaign has never updated (well over a week). This is why I'm wondering if homebrew traits won't update on a character who is in a campaign for some reason. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks again -- I really do appreciate it.

Quote from pnthielen >>

I do know about the cache delay for updating the characters from the homebrew race; it is annoying, but I can certainly live with it. The thing is, the skunk character who is in my friend's campaign has never updated (well over a week). This is why I'm wondering if homebrew traits won't update on a character who is in a campaign for some reason. Any thoughts on this?

I'm not sure if being in a campaign matters but I've noticed some racial traits getting "stuck" on existing characters; usually switching to another race, waiting 20+ minutes then switching back will be enough to fully clear it.

That said, I've had a homebrew race on one of my characters (using my brute minotaur race) which seemed to have an older version of a trait stuck to it, including an option that no longer existed at all in the updated race.

In my case the only way I found to resolve it was the "nuclear" option of copying the character. If you think you've encountered a similar case, and have a spare character slot to do it with you could try doing the same; you'll need to copy the character, verify this solved the homebrew issue, then very carefully check that nothing went missing on the copy (you can lose some customisation of actions, spell names etc.). Once you're satisfied the copy is good to go, you can grab the campaign link and join as the copy, then have the original character leave the campaign so you can delete it. My advice is keep the names different until you're done to avoid any confusion.

It sucks when this is the only option that seems to work, but I guess to be fair the system probably wasn't originally designed to be experimenting on existing characters, yet we all do it – after all, what's the point of homebrew if you don't use it? 😉

You could also try creating a brand new character and seeing if the updates work on the new character.

It's been over an hour since I updated the homebrew and set the bite attack to an action. So far nothing. I suppose this is a bug in the system, which is actually pretty bad. Because my character in my friend's campaign is only 1st level, I could just delete it and recreate it once I've worked the bugs out of my homebrew. Not a good option to be sure but it may be my only choice.

Incidentally, another homebrew race I created did update the character when I edited it a bit. I wonder if the homebrew content can be buggy and won't update an otherwise good character. I really don't know.

Again, thanks everyone for your help. I wonder if this is something D&D Beyond is working on fixing. Hopefully.

Try re-saving the entire homebrewed race using the main [SAVE CHANGES] button under Basic Information. Then wait 20 minutes and try removing the race and adding it back again.

Another question: I'm trying to set up a bite attack for the skunk, and it is working if I create a new character. The problem I'm having is I want it to be a melee attack that does 1-3hp of damage without any other bonuses. I can't see how to do that and so I'm using a d4 just for experimentation's sake. It insists I pick an ability to base it on (which I don't want to do). So, I pick Dex, and it then adds the dexterity bonus to the damage -- 1d4+4, for example. If I remove the weapon option, use general, and only put in damage as 1 d4, then nothing shows up on the character sheet for damage type (piercing), range, or damage.

So, I just need to know how to create this either with a fixed value of 1-3hp of damage, or 1d4 if 1-3 isn't possible.

Sorry for asking all these questions -- I just need to get this figured out before I start playing this character in a couple weeks. Thanks much!

PS: I am saving the Homebrew each time I modify it; in fact, I'm hitting that save button multiple times. No good.

Quote from pnthielen >>

Another question: I'm trying to set up a bite attack for the skunk, and it is working if I create a new character. The problem I'm having is I want it to be a melee attack that does 1-3hp of damage without any other bonuses. I can't see how to do that and so I'm using a d4 just for experimentation's sake. It insists I pick an ability to base it on (which I don't want to do). So, I pick Dex, and it then adds the dexterity bonus to the damage -- 1d4+4, for example. If I remove the weapon option, use general, and only put in damage as 1 d4, then nothing shows up on the character sheet for damage type (piercing), range, or damage.

So, I just need to know how to create this either with a fixed value of 1-3hp of damage, or 1d4 if 1-3 isn't possible.

Sorry for asking all these questions -- I just need to get this figured out before I start playing this character in a couple weeks. Thanks much!

PS: I am saving the Homebrew each time I modify it; in fact, I'm hitting that save button multiple times. No good.

 
What you want for the bite is impossible, the best you can do is 1d4+Str. It is the way it is and there’s no way to change it.

No need to apologize, ask as many questions as you like.

Well, the good news is I got the edits to the skunk homebrew to port over to the current character. I followed your advice; I changed the character's race to human, waited about 40 minutes, and then changed it back to skunk. And, like magic it worked. Yay! So, at least that part is fixed. It's too bad D&D Beyond has this rather nasty bug in the works, though.

And, the bad news is that yeah, it doesn't seem possible to make the bite what it really should be. This is really weird as there have always been cases of damage being 1-3, or just a single dice roll without modifiers. I wonder why this isn't possible in homebrew. I'll just not add the +4 dex bonus to the damage; no worries there. But I hate it when the character sheet isn't perfect! :)

And, I did think of one last thing and after that I should be able to leave you all alone for a bit (I really do appreciate all the help; seriously!): The skunk obviously has a spray attack. We've devised it with a saving throw and so it doesn't need a "to hit" roll. In other words, I spray and the target makes a saving throw -- Easy peasy. But, D&D Beyond seems to insist that the skunk spray attack be associated with an ability, which isn't right. Is it possible to create an attack, such as skunk spray, and not have a "to hit" number associated with it? If it were a spell I think I could do that but it seems all attacks are associated with an ability modifier. And, of course, this isn't a spell. Any ideas? Or is this, like the bite, just a limitation of D&D Beyond?

Again, thanks for all your help! You people rock!

It should be fine just to make it a general action as you can select basically all of the same options anyway; I highly recommend testing it using a custom action on the character sheet first.

There are a couple of options you can't set using a custom action versus a "proper" action, but most of the important ones are there, so you can see how it should look when you copy the settings into your homebrew.

One note for an area of effect "spray" is that if you set a cone area of effect it won't actually show on the sheet (this is another bug that's never really been fixed as far as I know); I usually set the range to be the same as the cone size so you get a reminder right there on the sheet, even though the "correct" range is actually Self. Just make sure your description is clear so players have a reminder if they need one.