THIS IS A PERSONAL ENDEAVOUR. IT IS NOT SPONSORED BY DNDBEYOND STAFF OR MANAGEMENT. I DID THIS ON MY OWN. THIS IS MY PRISM THROUGH WHICH I FILTER THE VIDEO AND NO ONE ELSE IS TO BLAME. THIS IS A SUMMARY WITH NOTES AND NOT A DIRECT TRANSCRIPTION. NOT EVERYTHING HERE WAS ACTUALLY SAID BY ADAM.

Basically, a lot of people asked for text summaries of the dev stream but DNDBeyond is currently not doing it. So, I thought I'll try.

Another important note: DNDBeyond is a PIECE OF SOFTWARE and as such, it goes through SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT. And, as such, everything is fungible, liquid and THERE IS NO SILVER BULLET, until a product is officially out the door. The Dev Update Stream and this here post constitute no guarantee whatsoever of timelines or even plans. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. And it usually does.

The video is available here.

Here we go...

You can't talk about Feats without talking about Hands (DNDBeyond Team In-joke)

Latest Updates

• Mega Menus are almost here. Very close.
• Encounter Builder in Pre-Alpha
  • Sprint Goal: real math and real monsters.
  • We've seen the mock run and now they're working on pulling actual monsters and have that work.
  • Alpha for Subscribers coming soon.
• Mobile Beta Character Sheet
  • Sprint Goal: an internal build.
  • Offline Access is difficult. That's why it's taking time.
  • It will still require online access for a while.
  • No, you don't have it in the app yet. The App is in Beta and the Sheet is in Beta. But they are different Betas.
  • There will be opt-in alpha access.

Mega Menus

• Adam showed an early version of it starting at 12 minutes.
• Will support scroll wheels.
• Designed to be as accessible as possible. Still in progress.
• Current system is not final as yet.
  • Sources will show you the books.
  • Game Rules will be individual info pages.
  • Creations will hold your characters, campaigns and homebrews.
  • Tools are the Character Builder, the Extension, and the upcoming Encounter Builder
  • Marketplace will be the Store, Subscription management, keys and history.
  • Media is about the articles, the shows and the FAQ.
• It's definitely an improvement on the disappearing menus.

Upcoming

• These are the upcoming major features.
• There will be other small things in the middle like maintenance and bug fixes.
• These are still in the planning phase and are not currently in active development.

Content Management

• White and Blacklisting of content for campaign sharing and character building.

My Characters Page Updates

• Sort
• Filter
• Organisation

AL Validation

• AL Rules integration
• Logsheets.

Interactive Maps

• Map key linking to text or section on page.

Data Update: Feats

• Characters with Feats by level
  • 1-3 (Only Variant Human can have feats): 4%
  • 4-7: 34%
  • 8-11: 49%
  • 12-16: 58%
  • 17-20: 57%
• Apparently, a lot of people prefer feats to maxing abilities.
  • Some feats increase abilities.
• Definitely seeing more feats used since last year.
  • There's also more characters and more data.
• Top Feats
  • War Caster (A whole heck of a lot)
  • Tough
  • Lucky (Broken!)
  • Sharpshooter
  • Observant
  • Alert
  • Dual Wielder
  • Great Weapon Master
  • Sentinel
  • Mobile
  • Firearm Specialist
  • Shield Master (big drop)
  • Prodigy
  • Actor
  • Polearm Master
  • Crossbow Expert
  • Keen Mind
  • Resilient (Constitution)
  • Heavy Armour Master
  • Spell Sniper (Bard)
• Top Feats by Class
  • Barbarian
    • Great Weapon Master
    • Tough
    • Dual Wielder
  • Bard
    • Actor
    • Lucky
    • War Caster
  • Cleric
    • War Caster (A lot)
    • Healer
    • Observant
  • Druid
    • Observant
    • War Caster
    • Lucky
  • Fighter
    • Great Weapon Master
    • Dual Wielder
    • Tough
  • Monk
    • Mobile
    • Observant
    • Alert
  • Paladin
    • War Caster
    • Heavy Armour Master
    • Polearm Master
  • Ranger
    • Sharpshooter
    • Dual Wielder
    • Alert
  • Rogue
    • Sharpshooter (A lot)
    • Observant
    • Lucky
  • Sorcerer
    • War Caster (A lot)
    • Spell Sniper
    • Tough
  • Warlock
    • War Caster
    • Lucky
    • Spell Sniper
  • Wizard
    • War Caster
    • Keen Mind
    • Observant
• It seems War Caster for casters, GWM for melee and Sharpshooter for ranged combatants are very popular.
  • Some might consider them mandatory.

Q&A

Don't ask timelines because you won't get any. You can see the available information on the Roadmap.

Ask your fellow Beyonders, moderators and community managers in the forums and on Discord. They can help a lot before asking Adam.

Site Functionality

• Club & Store Support?
  • Program is experimental.
  • DNDBeyond wants to help but don't want the system abused.
  • This upgrades a Master tier to 10 campaign sharing.
  • This requires validation to avoid abuse.
  • Form is available at the Zendesk site.
• Desktop App?
  • Not a priority.
  • Not in the plan.
  • No great interest on the feedback channels.
• Changing Campaign Sharing to Player-limited?
  • In discussion.
  • There is demand and feedback.
  • Planned but no ETA.
• Touch navigation on mobile is difficult.
  • You can tap any category and see everything that is on a menu in the page.
  • Revamping the experience on mobile is in the plan.

Character Sheet

• Dark mode for character sheets?
  • Probably yes.
  • No ETA.
• Custom Background for character sheets?
  • There is a plan.
  • Nothing to share yet.
• Level up tool in the character sheet?
  • Yes, in a future sheet update.
• Different values for point buy abilities?
  • In discussion, at the moment.
• Feats outside of ASIs?
  • You can do that in the sheet at the bottom of Features and Traits.
  • You can also disable prerequisites at your character's settings page.
• The Abyss theme is confusing.
  • Then it's working as intended.

Encounter Builder 

• Monster Scaling?
  • WotC has secret math to calculate that.
  • DNDBeyond will use it.
  • No, you can't have it. It's proprietary.
• Running the Encounter?
  
  • Yes, that feature will be included.
• How are encounters calculated?
  • By CR.
  • Your monster should have some.
  • If not, it might be determined automatically.
• How many monsters can it handle?
  
  • Currently, a lot.
  • Cap on number of monsters? Unsure.

Homebrew

• Classes?
  • It's in the plan.
  • It's very complicated.
  • Too open ended.
  • When available, will still be a closed system with specific mechanics available.
  • You will probably not be able to do everything you want.
  • If a mechanic is requested a lot, it will be considered.
• Resources and help?
  • Forums can help.
  • And so can the Discord's Homebrew channel.
  • Stormknight is good at it.
  • System will be overhauled later in the year.
    • Then it will have a better experience.
    • Planned to have better help during creation.
  • If you're having an issue getting an effect, try to see how an official thing did it and copy off of it.
    • If you can't find one, then it might not even be included in the system.
• Subclasses for Artificer? What if it's removed?
  
  • Problem is understood.
  • Solutions being discussed.
  • An answer will be shared in the future.

Content

• Stranger Things Starter Set?
  • Unknown.
• Some Backgrounds are free and some aren't.
  • Yes. Others may be added.
  • Nothing solid yet.
  • No plan for Planeshift content.
• Third Party Content?
  • The Acq Inc. Dungeon Manual will be coming.
  • No further updates at the moment.
  • Third party content is a process.
  • You can use the Homebrew system to add specific things as long as you do not make copyrighted material public.
• The Lingering Soul class?
  
  • Matt Mercer said it wasn't ready for public consumption yet.
  • When it is, it is likely to show up on the site.
• Bloodhunter in the mobile app?
  • At some point, yes.
• What's the next adventure?
  • No freaking way.

VTTs

• What's up?
  • Too early in development to share details and plans.
• Integration?
  • No integration.
  • Taking a different route.

Other

• DNDBeyond presence at TwitchCon?
  • No.
  • Maybe partner with someone there like with Dice Camera Action.
• Any data on homebrew creations, uses, collections, up votes, stats?
  • We'll see about next week.
• Sam Regal for President of DNDBeyond?
  • Sam Regal for President of DNDBeyond's Party Planning Committee.
• Data on feats and classes?
  • See earlier slides.
  • See earlier VODs.
• Why is the data on feats full of PHB feats?
  • Everything was included in the data set.
  • PHB feats rule the data.
  • Most players probably own only or are more familiar with the PHB.
• Job openings?
  • There was the Fandom transition.
  • There will be job openings soon.
  • Specifically, product designers.
• Is underwater combat underrated?
  • It's adequately rated as it is.
• What was Adam wearing?
  • This.

Can you get a summary of the dev update stream?

You can for this one. :)

Thank you for the sentiment. I always prefer watching. I even try to catch it live. But some people can't. And some people process text better.