New Player’s Guide is going on hiatus, giving us some space to return to beloved series like Class 101, Spell Spotlight, How to Play Monsters, and to explore new ideas. In the meantime, however, we want to know what D&D questions are burning in your mind, so that we can answer them once we come back. Reply to the comments of this post with ONE question for D&D Beyond’s Lead Writer James Haeck.
We’re looking for questions about Dungeon Master skills, player tips, dungeon design, encounter design, magic item design, monster design, and anything else that will help you be the best DM or player you can be!
When New Player’s Guide returns from hiatus, we’ll have combed through your questions with a particular eye for ones that will benefit the entire D&D Beyond community. We can’t wait to read your questions!
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James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, and the Critical Role Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, a member of the Guild Adepts, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and other RPG companies. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his fiancée Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.







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Posted Jul 26, 2020Oh and I also have an account named Dramur Brisingr.
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Posted Jul 26, 2020Will you be introducing any new classes' or races?
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Posted Jul 26, 2020I'm designing a campaign, and I'd like some additional advice or input on how to actually, concretely, use the tools in DnD Beyond to do that. Like, plan out encounters per level, how much treasure to provide at each and how hard they should be.
I really wish I could set up parent/child relationships between encounters, so that I can have a starting encounter and put followup encounters with it as children, down to as many layers as I need. It could also be used to set them up by tier or by what level they should be done at in the case of one-shot or single encounters that are not part of a plotline.
Basically, DDB needs a LOT more meta-management of encounters, creatures, and characters, as well as linking of encounters directly to campaigns (NOT just through characters!)
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Posted Jul 26, 2020@77swampshrew77
D&D Beyond doesn't create content. That would be the Wizards of the Coast Dungeons and Dragons team. D&D Beyond is its own company, not a part of Wizards of the Coast. They add Races and Classes only when Wizards creates them.
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Posted Jul 27, 2020I like to describe D&D by saying it's like playing make-believe, but with a set of rules so everyone has an agreed-upon framework, and the games are usually set in a magical medieval setting. You get to create characters with cool abilities and interesting personalities, and then play them with others. The Dungeon Master creates the world and the challenges that you and the other players will work together to confront.
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Posted Jul 27, 2020i would like some more information on the outer planes and more specific then the dms guide
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Posted Jul 27, 2020Is an updated player's handbook or supplement in the works that will incorporate the new rules and changes taking place? If so, when is expected release?
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Posted Jul 27, 2020This may vary, and I think it would be good for other, more experienced DMs to chime in. However, in my experience, regardless of the terrain, if you roll initiative when the party and its enemy are more than two rounds apart, it's generally not a great experience. A round takes time to play out, and so for people who don't have adequate ranged attack options, it is very dull if they're too far from the enemy at the beginning. Besides that, even if someone does have ranged attacks, if they're starting too far apart even they can't reach, and then you end up with multiple rounds where nobody can do anything except move closer together. So if they see an enemy far away, it may be best to not require initiative until the belligerents are within a reasonable distance of each other in order to save time, and where possible, I'd recommend having the belligerents start fairly close together (say, 60-120 feet).
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Posted Jul 27, 2020I think that I guide on how to fairly hand out magic items, clues and level ups in the context of an open world adventure in which players might chose to ignore every encounter or look for encounters would be useful for new DM’s and players alike as it could both teach them how to look at their play style at another angle and hopefully improve it.
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Posted Jul 27, 2020Me too
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Posted Jul 27, 2020You could try having some sort of powerful wizard go over to the other universes (as one o so casually does) and find and bring back all sorts of magical or not wonders.
I am aware that this is a bit basic but if all you need is a reason this as a building block should work quite well.
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Posted Jul 27, 2020Thanks, it was really helpful. But could you expand the article a little more on the specific tabs when you create a class feature on subclass?(options, spells, actions, modifiers, etc.)
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Posted Jul 27, 2020How to introduce homebrew rules into the game
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Posted Jul 27, 2020Are there any tips and tricks for making character voices to bring the world to life so that all my characters don't sound the same or have the same three voices?
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Posted Jul 27, 2020How about some tavern building advice? There's a lack of good taverns in D&D and we all need a place to get a drink from every now and again.
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Posted Jul 27, 2020How do I stop the most chaotic individual in the group and make him do what he's supposed to without railing them? I would also like to know if there are any special rules to transformation for some homebrew items I'm making.
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Posted Jul 27, 2020When are we going to see more quarantine resources? I really enjoyed those adventures.
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Posted Jul 27, 2020Hi Playing A Warlock and Have a few questions regarding Darkness/Devil's Sight Combo.
1) if an opponent is moving out of darkness radius spell range, are there any penalties for moving while being effectively blinded? or do they just move out and attack as normal on their turn?
2) If My character is shrouded in darkness, are other characters at disadvantage to hit him only, or are there also miss percentage chances as Well? (the DM often has character target me at range while in Darkness. They just are at disadvantage- which often still hit. Mechanically this doesn't make sense to me as how can they target me if they don't know what square in in?
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Posted Jul 27, 2020I would like to learn tips on how to make homebrew money systems.
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Posted Jul 27, 20201.) How to develop a BBEG that hurts players emotionally, without running them off from the game?
2.) How to deal with players with ego?
3.) When to bend rules for the sake of story-telling?
I'm excited to for this to come out!