This question has been asked several hundred thousand times by several hundred thousand people in every single UA discussion thread since the new class features doc dropped. it's been answered, increasingly angrily, by the same half a dozen or so people who're more and more sick of seeing it, but everybody says "Hey, don't get pissed, I didn't see those other answers!"
So. here's a big, highly visible public answer to get people to stop asking the stupid question.
No more shitty "I didn't see it" excuses.
The new Alternate/Enhanced Class Features UA document will take significant time and effort to implement in the DDB character editor. it is beyond the scope of any of the DDB team's current tools and programming, and will require them to at least partially dismantle the builder to implement. Adam Bradford's latest video indicates they're coordinating with Wizards before doing any design work to see which way the wind is blowing on these modifications, so they know how much kludge room they have.
DDB is committed to implementing this new UA as quickly as they can, but they want to do so correctly, not in a hurry-it-up slapdash manner that just makes everything worse down the line. Anyone who's ever fought with their homebrew editor knows this pain. It will take significant time to plan the modifications to their core code base required to implement this new document properly, and this is at a time when the company is also dealing with implementing two new official books, one of which is a huge rules supplement itself.
The new Class Features UA will go live when it is ready to. It will not be this week. It will probably not be this month. Yes, this is frustrating for everybody, but remember - the DDB team doesn't see these UA documents a single nanosecond before we-the-public do, this doc took them just as cold as it took us. Pen and paper has the advantage of being able to do whatever it likes; the cool handy digital toolset comes with the drawback of programming overhead.
It will come. Please give the programming team time to make it happen properly. And PLEASE...stop asking "when does this go live?"
UPDATE: 6/03/2020 So yeah. Clearly the timetable was long than I, or anyone else, expected when I first wrote this post. Since there's a lot of fresh confusion about it, and also a lot of extra information that came out elsewhere, I'm adding this addendum to this post to help catch people up.
First of all: THEY'RE DOING IT. Adam Bradford has explicitly stated that coee is being written and the CFV document is actively in the process of being implemented. It's still a big push, but they're writing it in as we speak.
Second of all: the reasoning behind the long delay is spelled out in several long, splendidly detailed and frank posts from Adam Bradford in this thread (CLICK HERE). I highly recommend reading the red posts in this thread, even if you ignore everything else. In summary though: I was entirely correct. Implementing CFVs required DDB to completely rebuild their entire character-handling system, a process which they had begun shortly before CFVs dropped and which they finished only a month or so ago. Now that this rebuild is in place, they're working on not only CFVs, but several other currently-nonfunctional features from paid books that they previously couldn't properly implement. So there's hope and it shouldn't be too gol durned much longer now.
Update: 8/24/2020 Whelp. It's been a long road, full of tentacles and disappointment. BUT. As announced today, Wizards of the Coast is releasing Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, a new Xanathar-style mishmash sourcebook full of new rules which is designed primarily to expand player options. One of the features of the book is Class Feature Variants, which means DDB now has a hard deadline on getting Class Feature Variants coded in. The new book releases on November 17th, 2020. By that point DDB NEEDS to have this shit figured out or there will be Hell To Pay. While a full year between UA release and UA implementation kinda royally sucks, in this case we'll take what we can get.
Remember the date, darlings - November 17th, 2020. That's when we get this stuff, come hell or high water.
I think it's time for you guys as a major partner to see these things long in advance of the public.
I don't think there is a "long in advance" between readying the playtest and releasing the UA.
DDB does get scheduled releases early enough to get it all coded in before release date, but UA doesn't go through the same amount of preparation time.
Replying, just because I think it'll be up here when it actually goes active. I understand it take time as this isn't just a new subclass, but a lot of new variant rules that can impact innumerable things.
I can see why people are asking. It's disappointing to want to try out new features and not be able to. Of course, DDB has to focus their coders on things that will make them money like new books. Maybe WOTC gives them some money for implementing UA, I don't know.
In the meantime, there are several fan-made character builders/sheets that already have working scripts for the Class Variants UA.
It's not about "focusing on things that make them money."
This is a fundamental revision to how characters are built in DDB. Class features, other than subclass features, are not at any point 'Optional'. Their entire justification for "no homebrew classes" is that they used the unchanging skeletons of the existing classes as the bedrock from which they built their entire character sheet tool. Wizards has upended the table on them and introduced content that requires them to rebuild their tool, potentially nigh-completely.
It. Will. Take. A. While.
In the meantime, you can kibitz it with homebrew feats, an open copy of the Class Features UA on your device, and the Honor System at your table. Yes, it'd be awesome if the builder reflected it, but this whole thing is basically Wizards saying to DDB "Yeah, you remember that whole "Homebrew overhaul" thing you've been putting off and putting off because it's a coding nightmare and you have no idea how to implement it without alienating your entire user base? Guess what - you get to figure out how to do it now, without any warning or extra help, because you'll need it in order to implement this new UA document. Good luck! Toodles!"
Maybe cut the poor bastards some slack on this one.
I for one want to thank the entire DDB team for the hard work they do. If it wasn’t for this website, I would have never gotten into D&D earlier this year. Since then I have given my support to this site. Without D&D a lot of people I’m deployed with would be a lot more worse for wear in terms of our morale out here. So thank you guys (In this context, “guys” being genderless) so much for everything you do. People may get impatient but that is human nature when something exciting happens and they want to be involved with the excitement.
According to the dev update, they have begun working on it, but today (Friday Dec 20) is their last day before winter vacation. They will return to work on January 6th.
According to the dev update, they have begun working on it, but today (Friday Dec 20) is their last day before winter vacation. They will return to work on January 6th.
So the waiting continues.
Awwwww My eyes jumped to Jan 6th and thought you were going to say that they were estimating a Jan 6th completion
Adam Bradford's new latest video (Jan 9th Dev Update) Indicates the Class Features implementation is in active development right now. No expected completion date, but it is in progress and being worked on as we e-speak.
This question has been asked several hundred thousand times by several hundred thousand people in every single UA discussion thread since the new class features doc dropped. it's been answered, increasingly angrily, by the same half a dozen or so people who're more and more sick of seeing it, but everybody says "Hey, don't get pissed, I didn't see those other answers!"
So. here's a big, highly visible public answer to get people to stop asking the stupid question.
No more shitty "I didn't see it" excuses.
The new Alternate/Enhanced Class Features UA document will take significant time and effort to implement in the DDB character editor. it is beyond the scope of any of the DDB team's current tools and programming, and will require them to at least partially dismantle the builder to implement. Adam Bradford's latest video indicates they're coordinating with Wizards before doing any design work to see which way the wind is blowing on these modifications, so they know how much kludge room they have.
DDB is committed to implementing this new UA as quickly as they can, but they want to do so correctly, not in a hurry-it-up slapdash manner that just makes everything worse down the line. Anyone who's ever fought with their homebrew editor knows this pain. It will take significant time to plan the modifications to their core code base required to implement this new document properly, and this is at a time when the company is also dealing with implementing two new official books, one of which is a huge rules supplement itself.
The new Class Features UA will go live when it is ready to. It will not be this week. It will probably not be this month. Yes, this is frustrating for everybody, but remember - the DDB team doesn't see these UA documents a single nanosecond before we-the-public do, this doc took them just as cold as it took us. Pen and paper has the advantage of being able to do whatever it likes; the cool handy digital toolset comes with the drawback of programming overhead.
It will come. Please give the programming team time to make it happen properly. And PLEASE...stop asking "when does this go live?"
UPDATE: 6/03/2020
So yeah. Clearly the timetable was long than I, or anyone else, expected when I first wrote this post. Since there's a lot of fresh confusion about it, and also a lot of extra information that came out elsewhere, I'm adding this addendum to this post to help catch people up.
First of all: THEY'RE DOING IT. Adam Bradford has explicitly stated that coee is being written and the CFV document is actively in the process of being implemented. It's still a big push, but they're writing it in as we speak.
Second of all: the reasoning behind the long delay is spelled out in several long, splendidly detailed and frank posts from Adam Bradford in this thread (CLICK HERE). I highly recommend reading the red posts in this thread, even if you ignore everything else. In summary though: I was entirely correct. Implementing CFVs required DDB to completely rebuild their entire character-handling system, a process which they had begun shortly before CFVs dropped and which they finished only a month or so ago. Now that this rebuild is in place, they're working on not only CFVs, but several other currently-nonfunctional features from paid books that they previously couldn't properly implement. So there's hope and it shouldn't be too gol durned much longer now.
Update: 8/24/2020
Whelp. It's been a long road, full of
tentacles anddisappointment. BUT. As announced today, Wizards of the Coast is releasing Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, a new Xanathar-style mishmash sourcebook full of new rules which is designed primarily to expand player options. One of the features of the book is Class Feature Variants, which means DDB now has a hard deadline on getting Class Feature Variants coded in. The new book releases on November 17th, 2020. By that point DDB NEEDS to have this shit figured out or there will be Hell To Pay. While a full year between UA release and UA implementation kinda royally sucks, in this case we'll take what we can get.Remember the date, darlings - November 17th, 2020. That's when we get this stuff, come hell or high water.
Please do not contact or message me.
Thank you for this.
Partway through the quest for absolute truth.
Well said, but this begs a very important question: when does it go live?
I'll see myself out.
I think a hundred thousand is a bit of an exaggeration. It couldn't have been much more than 50 times in the last 2 weeks.
I think it's time for you guys as a major partner to see these things long in advance of the public.
I don't think there is a "long in advance" between readying the playtest and releasing the UA.
DDB does get scheduled releases early enough to get it all coded in before release date, but UA doesn't go through the same amount of preparation time.
Thank you.
People are asking this question again. So back to the front page the answer goes.
Please do not contact or message me.
Replying, just because I think it'll be up here when it actually goes active. I understand it take time as this isn't just a new subclass, but a lot of new variant rules that can impact innumerable things.
I can see why people are asking. It's disappointing to want to try out new features and not be able to. Of course, DDB has to focus their coders on things that will make them money like new books. Maybe WOTC gives them some money for implementing UA, I don't know.
In the meantime, there are several fan-made character builders/sheets that already have working scripts for the Class Variants UA.
It's not about "focusing on things that make them money."
This is a fundamental revision to how characters are built in DDB. Class features, other than subclass features, are not at any point 'Optional'. Their entire justification for "no homebrew classes" is that they used the unchanging skeletons of the existing classes as the bedrock from which they built their entire character sheet tool. Wizards has upended the table on them and introduced content that requires them to rebuild their tool, potentially nigh-completely.
It. Will. Take. A. While.
In the meantime, you can kibitz it with homebrew feats, an open copy of the Class Features UA on your device, and the Honor System at your table. Yes, it'd be awesome if the builder reflected it, but this whole thing is basically Wizards saying to DDB "Yeah, you remember that whole "Homebrew overhaul" thing you've been putting off and putting off because it's a coding nightmare and you have no idea how to implement it without alienating your entire user base? Guess what - you get to figure out how to do it now, without any warning or extra help, because you'll need it in order to implement this new UA document. Good luck! Toodles!"
Maybe cut the poor bastards some slack on this one.
Please do not contact or message me.
I for one want to thank the entire DDB team for the hard work they do. If it wasn’t for this website, I would have never gotten into D&D earlier this year. Since then I have given my support to this site. Without D&D a lot of people I’m deployed with would be a lot more worse for wear in terms of our morale out here. So thank you guys (In this context, “guys” being genderless) so much for everything you do. People may get impatient but that is human nature when something exciting happens and they want to be involved with the excitement.
Will there be an announcement email once it is implemented?
I eagerly await the completion of the team's hard work.
"The Epic Level Handbook wasn't that bad, guys.
Guys, pls."
D&D is awesome. D&D Beyond is Beyond Awesome.
Looking forward to when this drops.
bless this thread. i've been curious but did not want to ask. So much fun stuff to try out
Gash - Lvl14 Goblin Wizard - The High Court of the Aasimar Queen
According to the dev update, they have begun working on it, but today (Friday Dec 20) is their last day before winter vacation. They will return to work on January 6th.
So the waiting continues.
Awwwww My eyes jumped to Jan 6th and thought you were going to say that they were estimating a Jan 6th completion
UPDATE:
Adam Bradford's new latest video (Jan 9th Dev Update) Indicates the Class Features implementation is in active development right now. No expected completion date, but it is in progress and being worked on as we e-speak.
Please do not contact or message me.
That's awesome news!