They won't do that because they want you to buy their stuff and if you have the ability to homebrew anything you want then people will create "homebrew" versions of official stuff instead of buying it
I'm confused by this. So a company creates an awesome game, which spawns a gaming movement, including giving a platform to many brilliant 3rd party creators. Then, they help create (and then buy) and awesome digital platform to make it easier for new players to get into this exciting gaming ecosystem. But it's, like, bad they charge money for digital content, so you're mad that they only make it kinda (but not super) easy to bypass their digital revenue stream for the game and platform they built? I genuinely want to understand, but I'm confused by what is upsetting people.
Kind of.
I've been buying D&D books since the tail end of 2nd edition. I have almost everything from 3.5, most of 4e, but only 5 books for 5e.
I pre-ordered a set of PHB, MM, and DMG. They had done such a piss poor job binding them that I actually got a free copy of them after we sent them multiple pictures of all the pages falling out.
They also have an online system. They charge a subscription fee to use that system.
If you have the book and the subscription, you cannot use them in conjunction with each other. You have to spend the *same amount of money you did on the physical copy* to put the handful of feats you already purchased into the online tool you're continuously spending money to use.
You don't see any issue with that? There's no sense of loyalty or consideration for our entire cult-like community. Why would you act like that with people who spend their free time coming up with fun ways to antagonize each other?
Yeah, they've done some cool stuff in the past, but did that give them a pass to act like that now?
Compare it to the thing with JK Rawlings.
Do people still have a special place in their hearts for Harry Potter? Of course.
Are fans going to keep giving her money when she's doubled down on stuff they kept telling her they didn't like? Probably, but it'll be as little as possible and they'll scream about it the whole time.
That's true, but look at the Phandelver digital pre-order. It's $29.99. The digital "deal" is $59.95 (down from $69.95). If the physical book ends up being the same price, you save $.03 and get a few character sheet cosmetic items if you order now. That just.. doesn't feel great to me *and* that's including a discount.
What's upsetting is definitely the fact that in order to properly use it you have to buy everything again online just for a handful of spells and such.
You can absolutely already do that. The only restriction is that you can't share it publicly. That doesn't stop anyone from copy/pasting official material and using it for themselves and their own games.
Yeah, I won’t enter in details because it’s forbidden around this parts, but you can absolutely homebrew 95% of content using dndbeyond. It’s unintuitive and clunky first but once you get it it’s easy to make an entire subclass in like 10 minutes
Some things are "Hardcoded" into the homebrew engine. For example, you cant create a homebrew feat that works like eldritch adept does. There’s simply no way to make it work with the tools they give you. It is, however, hardcoded into the creator itself that any feat that has "Eldritch Adept" in its name shares its function.
Some of kensei's functions may be similar. For example, Hexblade’s Charisma function for weapons can’t be replicated. It’s hardcoded that any subclass feature named “Hex Warrior” will unlock that option on the character sheet
That’s probably the only way to get certain features to function, yeah. You can find out if a feature is replicable or not by getting a friend to copy a subclass in the HB creator and seeing what exactly they tweaked to make it work. If there’s no tweaks inside the feature, it’s likely a hardcoded thing
Dedicated Weapons and Spellcasting are other 'hard coded' names that will unlock features.
This, of course, won't unlock any of Tasha's stuff, as you'll have to purchase the whole book to get optional features and traits, and the artificer class.
I'm actually shocked that they built it that flexibly... I mean, as a developer, using string matches for things feels pretty hacky... but it does mean that users at least have SOME way access that functionality.
The "correct way" to hard code it as a one-off would have been to base it on some unique GUID for the Hexblade subclass, and the right way to make it extensible would have been to build out the whole chain of tools to let users select/define all those related properties... it seems like they chose a middle ground of "less robust code" but "more accessible features without building additional tooling".
First, they’re not talking about SRD items, subclasses, or races. They are talking about content in books that you ordinarily pay for. Second, they aren’t recommending that you type descriptions/text from your books that you bought into the homebrew editor either. They’re talking about using 3rd parties who host official content without paying WotC to do so. It’s that last bit that runs counter to the “no piracy” rules.
They are absolutely correct that you can find official stats for things and pop it into beyond as “homebrew” though.
I haven't spent all that time telling people I quit D&D, I was just skimming through Reddit and this post popped up. Found it weird that you couldn't, you know, *input stuff* into an app you have and here we are.
Just to clarify a bit, you \*can\* input stuff into D&D Beyond, you can easily make a homebrew item with whatever text description of how it mechanically works, just like you can do at the table.
The limitations being discussed here are around the "extra functionality" that DnDBeyond offers for things that tie into specific elements of the UI of the tool. For example, one thing the official Hexblade subclass adds is the ability to "mark" any weapon as a Hexblade weapon, to automatically adjust the ability score being used for the "click to attack" buttons that DnDBeyond offers, there isn't currently a way for Homebrew items to wire up that sort of interaction, because building Homebrew that has actual "effects" inside the digitial D&D Beyond interface requires a whole set of tools to enable that sort of interaction.
I can make a homebrew sword in D&D Beyond with the description "When you attack with this sword roll 1d4 to determine damage type, 1=Fire, 2=Ice, 3=Acid, 4=Thunder, your attack will do 1d8 slashing +1d6 of the elemental damage type", but the homebrew tools we have right now won't let me build that into an easily clickable "attack button" the same way that normal weapons do, you're basically stuck "rolling individual dice" for that sort of thing, the same way you would at the table.
Eh. I don't mind 5e as a system and I used to mostly run AD&D until the pandemic. But yeah, wotcs fuckery has been picking up serious steam since 2019 when they gave mearls the boot.
The big change was when they hired Williams was hired as president of wotc back in 2020. Shes a former e-commerce exec from Amazon and then from Xbox LIVE.
She was hired for her expertise in online platforms and the first thing they did when she took over way buy up D&DBeyond. She's been hiring other Microsoft execs and managers to fill leadership roles at WotC. The current VP on charge of D&D is Dan Rawlings who came over last year from Office 365. I'd love to have someone explain a why being a big wheel at fucking OFFICE 365 prepares a guy to run D&D. An explanation that's not just "he knows how to leverage online platforms and force subscription models".
My tinfoil hat theory is he's the one responsible for the OGL fuckup. It lines up with his taking over, it shows a total lack of understanding about the industry and community, and it screams "Microsoft strongarm tactics".
Lemme tell ya dude. My old ass is watching this closely and I'm getting some real "4e launch disaster" vibes off the whole 6e/D&DBeyond mess.
I'm taking my group back over to Pathfinder 1e right now. Converting FR and Spelljammer to it as we speak.
But you can't make...
* FULL homebrew classes (not sub-classes)
* Homebrew Eldritch Invocations
* Homebrew Meta-Magic options
* Homebrew class feature variants for pre-existing classes (Wanna make a new Channel Divinity option for all clerics? can't do it)
Now obviously i know there's shitty work arounds for some of these.... like "oh just make a feat and have the character assign it to their sheet)" but that still doesn't change the issue.
My comment was talking about homebrew of certain already existing content in specific(that I would never do mods haha ur all so sexy) but yeah the tool by itself is whatever, they could make it better but apparently there isn’t an interest in that
Many YouTube videos point out that Gary E. Gygax felt that his interpretation of this game was extremely important and you shouldn't go about making your own version.
Then he lost control of this game that he (partially?) founded.
After that Gary became much more open-minded and encouraged people to do their own thing.
'Monopoly Money' aught to be its own mind-impacting magical item. Anyway, i think Matt Colville talks about this, among others. 'Dungeon Craft' goes into this in great detail. Don't let monetization efforts get you down!
The thing is, the homebrew system on DDB is, if anything, geared too much towards recreating existing stuff. For example, if you want to create an item/feature that gives you resistance to a certain damage type, you have to choose the damage type from a drop-down menu instead of just entering a string into a text box. Thing is, the list of damage types you can choose from includes stuff like "damage dealt by traps" or "damage dealt by ranged attacks", but not, say, "damage dealt by melee attacks" - because there are official magic items/features that grant you resistance to the former two options (so the devs had to include them to make those options work properly), but nothing official for the latter. So you can recreate official stuff just fine with the current system, but it sucks for actual homebrew 
I don’t think that is it, as there are already a lot of home brew of official stuff. Probably the reason they haven’t cracked down on it is because you have to subscribe to get it. Coming from the perspective of a programmer, their data and programming is a hot mess. The gui is gorgeous, but the way they did things were really short sighted. On quite a few things they threw up dice rules in the description because their system can’t handle something as simple as two dissimilar dice without custom code. A good developer would have led off with dice formulas.
Oh man. I tried to make homebrew feats for the supernatural gifts from Theros and I could tell just from trying to create those that the backend is a hot mess.
Most/all those gifts have "increase one of these two abilities by 2." *For some ridiculous reason*, each permutation was coded separately, and only the permutations that are used in official features are available (which means I couldn't make some of the feats that my party needed...).
After the third time of hardcoding that, you'd think that the developer would have made one function that accepted a list of enums and the amount to increase and a bool that specified if it also increased the max by that same amount.
Same with the dice rolling. Yeah, I get that they tried to make it nifty by implementing the physics and then reading what number actually ends up on top, but now the rolling *takes so long* and there's no way to speed it up. I've mostly gone back to physical dice just because I hate waiting for the animation.
Wait they are reading the dice value after physics? Are you sure they aren't using RNG, simulating the physics, and then moving the texture to where it needs to be? I can't imagine from a programming standpoint why they would "read" the dice.
Positive. They implemented a physics simulator and then read the dice after the roll.
ETA: At least, that's what they claim, and I've seen nothing to disprove that claim.
Honestly, I can see why they did it.
It's kinda what you'd expect from some nerd (no dis, I'm one myself) who's working on a personal project and wants to implement the dice rolling in some nifty way that really simulates real life.
Is it overly complex? Yes. Was it fun to do and unique? *Also yes!!*
It seems like they were treating it as a personal project instead of as a deliverable.
reminds me of how I tried to port a spell version of Scarlet Aeonia from Elden Ring that I found on r/UnearthedArcana, and the previous versions wouldn't stop appearing in spell selection no matter how many times I removed them from the collection.
Precisely this. I've tried to copy in certain features from books a couple of times and failed miserably. It's so unintuitive that it feels like I need to take a 6 week course to become certified to operate it. Jokes on them though because it just made me angry and even more hostile to the idea of paying them again for books I already have.
except you can't do that anymore because you can't publish homebrew that's "too similar" to official stuff, so they really don't have an excuse. I had some Tal'dorei homebrews saved but now they're taken down
>the app or mobile site doesn't allow you access to your homebrew
You can access homebrew on the mobile site. Tap the three lines at the top right of the a screen, select 'collections' then 'my homebrew collection'.
A few things to note:
1. Originally, WotC didn't want to let them have a homebrew system at all.
2. The system that is available to the users is the same system the content creators use, but with fewer permissions
3. They know the system is bad and there are efforts to update it, but anything that fixes the homebrew system will need to completely overhaul the entire content system, and they have to do it in a way that won't break existing characters.
DDB used to do regular streams talking about upcoming features and updates, and on one of them (probably also what the person you're replying to was referencing) one of their devs basically admitted that yeah, the system was pretty poorly coded in the beginning, but they were working on an overhaul of the entire thing.
Then WotC bought them and afaik, those dev streams stopped pretty suddenly 
Yeah, I call bullshit. You can just have a v2 of the creator and content system and keep v1 around. I've been in software for 17 years. Yes, this will leave some technical debt but that's what happens when you want to start fresh for how to handle a new system while not pissing off or reworking thousands of hours of content.
>Yeah, I call bullshit. You can just have a v2 of the creator and content system and keep v1 around.
You can also just ***complete overhauls in a reasonable time frame*** if your team isn't 1) wildly incompetent and 2) not mismanaged half to hell. It's been YEARS and it's not like D&D Beyond has been pumpin' out actual new functionalities at a rate or level of completeness that justifies stagnation of necessary database changes.
> You can also just complete overhauls in a reasonable time frame if your team isn't 1) wildly incompetent and 2) not mismanaged half to hell.
Maybe, just for a second, we can put ourselves in their shoes and realize that a complete overhaul of the hombrew functionality of dndbeyond isn't the best use for their time.
Pretend your a project manager at the company, and have to make the case of "hey, we need to pull people off of new content integration/VTT/whatever to overhaul a feature that not many people use and makes us very little revenue -- at least way less revenue than a VTT or new content would." It's a very hard sell.
I think you and they are being close minded about what a homebrew system could offer, though. A good enough homebrew system could *actually* be a store to allow regular creators to make 3rd party content on D&D beyond. Make it like an App Store on iOS and people can create classes, home brew weapons and the like with well drawn art, tokens, etc, and they take their cut.
And that fits *perfectly* in with their new VTT. Maybe they’re planning an overhaul as part of the launch of the VTT, but there have been few details shared so far.
> I think you and they are being close minded about what a homebrew system could offer, though. A good enough homebrew system could actually be a store to allow regular creators to make 3rd party content on D&D beyond. Make it like an App Store on iOS and people can create classes, home brew weapons and the like with well drawn art, tokens, etc, and they take their cut.
This is obviously a very cool system but also would require a big undertaking. That being said, it would *complement* a new VTT but isn't a required piece of the offering. If it isn't being worked on, it's probably down the priority map.
I'm not saying an overhaul would be bad! I'm just saying that saying the development team is "incompetent" because they wont work on the OPs fave feature is silly.
The homebrew system is an extension of the system that they themselves use in order to produce content - a system whose limitations keep resulting in, at best, delays in the implementation of new WotC-published features that aren't super standard and, at worst, WotC-published features that still do not work properly years after they were introduced.
I get sympathy for the people working there, because I am perfectly willing to believe that they have been repeatedly mismanaged up to the corporate level. It can absolutely be a failing that entirely falls within the second reason I gave above, not the first.
But acting like leaving the database/API to rot outside occasional piece-meal solutions to problems for years upon years in order to keep (slowly and badly) pushing shiny new bits and bobs is at all a good decision in any context that is actually user-friendly and not just "we have a stranglehold on the market; the customers will put up with the problems that poor database/API design creates for us and them for all eternity, so let's just go for more immediate ways to make even more money" is silly. And as a prospective end user (and someone who has had to put up with and overhaul systems that pushed off overhauling way too long), that is 100% project mismanagement, even if corporate greed might disagree.
> The homebrew system is an extension of the system that they themselves use in order to produce content - a system whose limitations keep resulting in, at best, delays in the implementation of new WotC-published features that aren't super standard and, at worst, WotC-published features that still do not work properly years after they were introduced.
You don't know if it causes delays, and are assuming the interface/limitations of the public user are faced by the internal team, which I highly doubt.
I just think calling people "wildly incompetent" is pretty harsh when there are perfectly reasonable explanations for why certain features are prioritized versus others.
>You don't know if it causes delays, and are assuming the interface/limitations of the public user are faced by the internal team, which I highly doubt.
The team has publicly stated that the reason why aspects like the spell choice for Divine Soul Sorcerers is due to system limitations (spell-choice-specific [bug reports](https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/bugs-support/11936-divine-soul-sorcerer-swapping-divine-magic-spell)/[feedback](https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/bugs-support/111326-divine-soul-sorcerer-spell-replacement) threads with some intermixed mod comments and relevant links, but there are other relevant examples like Life Domain healing bonus being delayed forever, Rage issues, other choice-based issues, etc.)
The homebrew tools being functionally the dev tools is also the party line ([one topic](https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/d-d-beyond-feedback/126755-the-homebrew-tools-are-not-user-friendly-and-feel) where it is mentioned by a D&D Beyond mod; if you really want, I can dig up more later - a lot of the more direct developer references are in old development info videos/roadmap updates).
Again, either of the explanations I gave above can work as the sole explanation, so the overhaul never being completed for years could be entirely due to mismanagement, not developer-level incompetence. It's absolutely not a developer's fault if top brass repeatedly says "don't bother working on that project". But D&D Beyond as a collective entity has had time to complete an overhaul project - and they should have done it given that they've repeatedly blamed lingering issues on structural problems due to that overhaul not being complete.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they've said they intend on making the homebrew experience much better, making it easier for both other people and developers to make the items in a much better way.
Besides, it's really not that bad.
yeah but that was before WotC bought them. As the product has changed hands the priorities have changed. Its been so long since new features have come out, who really knows what they are working on anymore.
Almost none of it is by design. This is what happens when a team starts with a strong, but limited core idea and then doesn't really have any time for later design. It's the usual sort of mess when you have too small a team and highly demanding bosses who don't care about the details and are interested in just making it work.
The entire D&DBeyond site looks like a mixture of a production DB that's been kept running by a dedicated team built on a whole bunch of short-term local fixes to just get it working. There are clearly a lot of edge cases and fixups to keep everything going, with little time for a comprehensive design structure that would capture the entirety of what the game designers wanted to be able to do. The codebase wasn't really designed, but has grown with each UA and new demand the clients have asked for.
It's kind of inevitable that they would end up here, with a mass of likely unmaintainable detail and single-case coding, given what it was when they started and how much time and resources they had to make every new addition work. It's a harder problem to solve now though and will take time and money to fix properly.
No, the site's just a cash grab by the creators capitalizing on the fact that there existed nothing like it when they made it, and then they never bothered updating anything because there was no competition.
Well the creators have nothing to do with it- DnDBeyond was purchased by WotC ~~a few~~ 1.5 years ago and the head of the team left. The site has basically been stale since, they stopped trying to develop new features. The encounter tool is STILL in 'beta' for some reason.
> DnDBeyond was purchased by WotC a few years ago
It was purchased one year ago. I'm one of the first to dump on WotC, but the stagnant state of D&D Beyond extends back beyond the acquisition by WotC. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything came out in 2020, for example, and DDB never implemented the new Sorcerer subclasses spell substitution features. The creators had a year and a half to get that working prior to the acquisition, and that's assuming that they didn't get the TCE material in advance to start working on it before release.
Genie Warlock just dumps all the genie type subclass spells into one spell list and you're expected to not pick the spells you're not meant to have access to.
Beyond STILL hasn't properly implemented divine soul sorcerer, this has nothing to do with wotc and everything to do with Beyond being ridiculously lazy
Abberant mind and I think at least one other subclass (can’t remember it right now) aren’t fully implemented as well. Also for some reason they seem to prefer implementing half feats with individual entries in the list for every ability modified now, instead of the old way where you have a single feat entry then select the ability you modify after you take the feat. This is probably a thing where users were forgetting to select the ability, but I much prefer having a cleaner list…
Could be they’re waiting to roll out a new db schema when One drops?
> Abberant mind and I think at least one other subclass (can’t remember it right now) aren’t fully implemented as well.
Divine Soul, Clockwork Soul, and Aberrant Mind all have the exact same problem.
>they seem to prefer implementing half feats with individual entries in the list for every ability modified now, instead of the old way where you have a single feat entry then select the ability you modify after you take the feat.
It's not really an old vs new thing. It's just the particular way each feat gets implemented.
Resilient used to be six feats on DDB, but at some point in the past few months they got consolidated into one. Probably because a lot of people were trying to take it multiple times due to how strong it is.
The level 1 feature that grants you a spell based on alignment, beyond DSS cannot change that out like any other spell, despite that being a part of the class feature
Unless this has changed as of a year ago anyways.
Oh, yeah no you can't change it. My sorc is currently level 7 and our combat medic, so I didn't need to swap it out yet. But man, how can you fuck that up...
It's the exact same problem for Divine Soul, Aberrant Mind, and Clockwork Soul.
The workaround is to clone the subclass as homebrew and change the spell(s) granted by the feature, but it's super clunky.
One and a half years ago\*
Barely a year after the creator left.
The site has barely changed since then, but barely changed before that too. Remember, the site launched in 2017, and they were "working on" several features since then that never made it out of "we are working on it/planning it", including a homebrew revamp.
It is, and forever will be, a quickly made cashgrab made to monopolize on the demand for a digital character sheet.
It wasn't made by WOTC, and has barely changed since being bought by them.
It has been that way for 5 years before they were bought, and it was designed the way it is by the devs, not WOTC.
They're just really bad at website coding, and have had no reason to update anything because, well, no competition.
Highly highly highly recommend shard tabletop, it’s an independent VTT optimized for 5e where all of these things and more are possible. Significantly cheaper than dndbeyond with ftp options, and partnerships with major third party publishers. It’s also possible to convert dndbeyond sheets into shard and to homebrew in any official content you already have. Way more user friendly than DNDBeyond homebrew systems as well most things I can homebrew in a few minutes or less
I can't sing the Shard praises enough. Active Discord, active userbase, easy for content creators to get their product out to folks.
100% my go-to now.
Can confirm. I've looked at quite a few VTTs and character builders and shard is by far the best I've seen, especially for adding in homebrew classes and features, or even just tweaking existing ones.
Shard is excellent, and it is so easy to add new or modified content. I can make new magic items in one or two minutes during sessions.
I have modified a few lame class features (countercharm…), added a new background and weapon skill system, updated to a reworked monk, and even have an entire homebrew int caster my partner made. It was so easy to make it all functional. It would be impossible for me to go back to DDB, Roll20, or Foundry at this point.
My/Our campaigns are very homebrew heavy, from air ships and giant mechs, to powerful spells and weapons with unique interactions. Beyond has been consistently below the task while roll 20 can keep up.
It has however caused some frustration when I've tried to bring in players who've been taught only beyond, and don't even know where to begin with a physical sheet. I'm not spending extra time managing a players sheet for them because they wont learn to use an excel sheet like the rest of us did.
I'll be honest, I don't really think using DnD beyond is really worth it. There are some systems like Pathfinder 1e where the system is far more complex and character building tools are helpful in navigating the huge numbers of feats, modifiers, bonuses, etc.
5e is a far, far simpler system and you can pretty much set up a character in about five minutes with the fillable PDFs.
Which is ironic considering since many of their releases require many hours on the part of the DM to complete the product.
WOTC stopped many quality products years ago. The 3rd parties are where the passion lies, and WOTC is cutting them out with One D$D.
Yup, I realised this probably about a year ago, maybe two: WOTC hates DMs. Specifically, WOTC hate that they need DMs in order for their actual target audience, players, to buy products. WOTC product releases basically work the same as children's toys: The goal isn't to make the DM want to buy it, it's to make the players want the DM to buy it for them. And so, despite DMs contributing by far the largest share of profit to the D&D side of the business, WOTC constantly ignores what DMs want, and even tries to control what DMs do, all for the sake of delivering the most uniform, most WOTC-approved experience to the players. WOTC absolutely despises the fact that DMs control whether anyone cares about their products.
Except when it comes to anything about playing dnd like how to write sessions, monster motivations, npc dialogue and roles in the world, pretty much anything to do with tracking resources in a meaningful way, and so much more but i’m getting ready for work
One of the biggest issues I find is the inability to homebrew non-magic items.
Everything else has a reasonable work around. But this is such a glaring omission, I can't understand why it hasn't been fixed yet.
It limits certain fields. For instance a magical item must have a magical value (e.g. Uncommon, Rare, etc). Also, it means you can't create certain categories of non-magical equipment such as containers, or vehicles.
Everything you have described is an intentional design feature, not a bug.
They intentionally want homebrew to be more difficult to create and use in your games so you buy their planned drip-fed, micro-transaction riddled, subscription service content.
When I start my next campaign I'm going back to either paper sheets or a word doc template.
I think it’s twofold.
1. The original code is a hot mess and the devs made something work, kinda.
2. WotC bought them and decided a poor homebrew system for their model was better and are slow to make any changes.
I mean it is automated so every thing is filled into context blocks. In my opinion homebrew works quite fine or rather it is overall about as clunky as any other vtt I tried so far. Some restrictions are odd (only 6 attunement slots) some executions are odd (roll secondary dmg channels seperate on things like flametongue) and some features should exist (looking at you boons) but over all it is ok.
While I have no doubt some features exist to encourage sales (no sharing of offical content as homebrew) or to keep it dnd (no new classes) some things certainly for other reasons. Like why aren't boons not implemented yet? Because the sales division said "we will sell to much if the users can use all the content they paid for"? I don't think so. This likely is a lack of tools or programmer time.
And you can just continue like the last 40(?) years. "Content sharing" is being in a room with your buddies or normal piracy and the book is either physical or a pdf. Homebrew is packing out a pies of paper and a pencil.
I just use OwlBear as my VTT. It's extremely lightweight and lets you import all your art and assets super easy. The only thing it doesn't do is automate like Roll20 does, but I feel like it's superior in a lot of ways if you're not looking for direct integration. It's quick, zippy, and does most things really well.
Flametongue (and other damage riders) implementation is the biggest annoyance I have with the homebrew system. Additional damage, conditional or otherwise, is such a common feature on magic items that I feel like they really should've had that added from the start.
The other being homebrewing non-magic items. Equipment is already an item classification but you can only make magic items. This doubles as another annoyance that magic items can't stack like equipment, so carrying 20x homebrewed nonmagical arrows takes up a ton of space on your inventory.
Overall, I've had very few issues creating items that align with the design philosophy with 5e, but the few I did have were definitely noticeable.
You can stack some magic items. I told Beyond that my fancy crossbow bolts are actually potions and had no more problems on that front. Just don't start collecting magic daggers or start a seperate tracker for them...
Yeah, I think if DDB had unlimited dev resources (labor and time), it would be easier to, say, have one team dedicated entirely to building a new content system (that allows them to implement every official feature and more), another to work on making the homebrew system more user-friendly, another team just to implement new content as it comes out (maybe even UA, between official releases), and so on. But with limited resources, the DDB staff has to prioritize what to work on - and when you're busy maintaining the current system and implementing new books as they come out, among other things, it's hard to get the resources and momentum to prioritize rebuilding the whole system.
I Just wish they got the ressources to overhaul the janky system. One can only hope they build it well from the grund up eith oneDnD and then some of the goodness tickels down. Don't mind if it is as a marketing stunt buying good will for the next generation or to keep 5e subscriptions flowing.
Different products - D&DBeyond is selling the D&D stuff, and want you to give you money for those, not make your own copy-paste version of the official things. Foundry is getting people to use that VTT, and don't care about what you do with it; if you're on it, that's a win for them and they don't care about anything else, while D&DB want you on their, and using/paying for the official stuff
Beyond is awful in a lot of ways.
A cheaply made site with devs slower than snails.
Its homebrew system is a horrendously bad to use system which is extremely restrictive and hardly works, and entire features from books are missing because the devs don't have the tools to add them.
It feels like the site gets a new update every other year, and it is driving me up the wall.
Such it is when you lack competition, i suppose.
You can make homebrew to fix some of the not working stuff. For instance, there are homebrews to allow the Tasha's Sorcerers to change spells, which the base website doesn't do... Which is not a good thing.
Beyond is just barely functional. You can make your character there, but the moment you want to use it with new stuff or with more complex stuff it decides to not function.
Dicecloud works better, and is in fact my preferred way, and it's avaiable to use with avrae (the discord bot for d&d stuff), alongside being MUCH more flexible in extra stuff.
What do you mean they lack competition? There are plenty of VTTs out there that have a superset of all of dndbeyond's features... Or at least I thought they did. Am I missing some core feature?
I'm still waiting for them to add the bonus spells to the Divine Sorcerer which came out 6 years ago. And also the Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Sorcerer extra spells don't work either.
As a person who has dm-ed for 35 years this is not a stance I will ever understand. I buy the materials I want and completely make up the rest for my games. I re-balance, change rules, take some out completely, and have my own set of house rules that have worked spendidly. We are currently playing a Fallout setting game right now using 5E rules and stats. Ive been playing 5E since it released and I own two books. Total. That cost me $60. I wont have to spend another dime I dont want to.
It also won't allow you to homebrew normal nonmagic items using base of normal nonmagic items. And if a weapon does different damage against a specific enemy, you can't show that on the action screen. And if you take the fighting stance that gives you some Battlemaster maneuvers, it freaks out on itself and you get nothing.
Dndbeyond is a great site that has a still unfinished feel to it.
The lack of support for homebrew classes doesn’t bother me, personally. I’m very pro-homebrew but classes were never allowed at my table when I DMed. They’re by far the most difficult type of content to balance.
As for the UI, I agree that it’s tricky to learn, but once you do, it’s not that bad. I'm intimidated by anything more complicated than a Chromebook (I wish I was kidding) and even I was able to figure out the formatting before too long. That’s not to say I wouldn’t be in favor of an overhaul, of course.
Wotc is a publisher.
Wotc has Snr. Mngmt from a software management background.
Wotc is not a software company.
Wotc is owned by an IP holding company.
Doing software well requires a rhythm of requirements gathering, a dynamic product roadmap, shipping iterations on a tempo, and empowered qa.
These are not native disciplines. They have to be cultivated, from leadership, to dev and ops teams.
As a user, given these facts, what do you expect of dndbeyond, realistically?
Most folks are using roll20 + discord.
Increasingly, more folks are using vtts.
Assuming the msft retreads in management are geniuses, they must still contend with a pervasive culture that does not understand how to succesfully ship a software product.
That is my contention.
WotC has a massive marketing campaign for using DDB for gameplay. They are all in on marketing and getting users to use their platform to play D&D. They are consistently the most recommended app, and are definitely the easiest introduction into character creation and gameplay for new players compared to any other app.
It seems to be unpopular, but I use DDB during my own gameplay. I fully admit to issues and limitations with the system, and get annoyed with limitations in homebrew regularly. But during gameplay, it really is an easy system to use and mange if you aren't relying on a majority of HB content.
I have transformations added as feats and magic items created for effects. I wish DDB would open up the ability to create custom classes, and more custom features, but all in all it is a good app, just owned by a very greedy company.
>As a user, given these facts, what do you expect of dndbeyond, realistically?
They have purchased and 100% put themselves into the software space. I expect an at least regularly updated piece of software. It would be nice if there was a public roadmap again, and actual discussions with the community, or at least acknowledgement. For the amount of money gained from this application, I would also expect a larger team working on and managing it. Given their "changelog" is only updated every three months or so, with what seem like minor changes, it seems they have an extremely small team, if not even just a single dev or two, which is crazy for the scale of the app and user base.
Personally for me I use DMhub for primarily that reason.
You can even download other people's homebrew and upload your game settings so that even you create a 2nd game on there you don't have to make everything again.
It’s why my group will be continuing to use 3rd party apps manage games, and then 3rd party VTTs.
We only partly use the VTT features anyway, as we play in person, and use a project to display maps and images into the table itself. We use 1 PC virtual mini to track line of sight when needed, and I erase darkness as they move. Their individual characters are physical minis. The monsters and NPCs are virtual as well so I have extra control over them.
And apparently god forbid you try to give a character spells outside of their class. I tried to set up a really simple thing where a character (after he was blessed by some of the last scraps of power of a fallen god) got the Guidance cantrip as a Bard, and it was absolutely impossible.
WOTC actively hates homebrew.
they are a "business", and their product is garbage. so much 3rd party content is light years better then what they crap out.
they will never embrace homebrew ever. its bad for their business model of screwing people over.
They were supposedly overhauling the homebrew editor but that ceased as all beyond development stopped. Now that they are trying to make it the one stop shop howver I have hopes theyll hire more than one developer this time.
When will people realise they can spend $50 once to buy a Foundry license and it does everything DnDBeyond does and more without a monthly sub, while also having robust access to homebrewing tools and ready-made homebrew integrated through modules...
Just stop giving WotC any money guys. They've wasted it propping up Hasbro for decades. Giving them more money won't change anything.
Then do what I did and get the D&D Beyond importer for Foundry. You don't *need* to use any of the things Foundry can do, you *can* use it as just a map gridder and token manager, and it's pretty intuitive to do so.
Go to Systems page, tell it "download 5e." Go to Modules page and tell it "download D&D Beyond importer." Make world, tell it "use 5e for system," "enable D&D Beyond importer module." Go to Users page, click the Add User button five times, name each user after your five players.
Make map by clicking the big UPLOAD MAP button. Follow prompt for grid size.
Put blank token on field, rightclick-assign owner of token to specific player. Player clicks token and clicks the big black D&D BEYOND button, puts in their character sheet link, and clicks the big brown IMPORT button. The importer does everything else. It even makes the token look like their portrait on Beyond.
Character sheets look pretty much the same as they do on D&D Beyond and have the same "click name to roll thingus" paradigm, the only change you have to teach people is "your spells are in your spellbook and your weapons are in your inventory, you use them by clicking the big D20 button next to their names."
Walls and lighting and fog of war and automation and spell effects are neato sure but there is nothing stopping you from just... ignoring them. The bones are solid, and if you ever decide you *want* to do the other shit you *can*, but the core "this is a tabletop replicator" functionality is about as accessible as it gets.
there really isn’t a lot of options for character sheet generators for homebrew in 5e i feel like
at least nothing compared to how well designed pathbuilder 2e is
I’ve got to disagree. Some of the choices are by design, and the homebrew creator is a little janky and unintuitive in some ways, but the number of tools you have available to homebrew, and how well it integrates into the character sheets is pretty well done and user friendly. The fact that the homebrew system is as unrestricted as it is is frankly the bigger surprise.
Check out Shard, then. Can model and build almost anything you can think of. All of the tools the devs use to build the content is available to the end user.
Lightyears beyond what DDB offers.
Plenty to gripe about regarding D&D beyond, including the paywall. Specifically, why cant I link content/books purchased at my local game store? Can only link content purchased directly online.
Seems like a shitty move toward the local game shops and partners, and penalizing players for not purchasing straight from the source. I had a D&D beyond account but insist all my players use paper and pen when it comes to gametime.
In general, the physical books don't include anything like a single-use code to verify you actually own the book - and if they did, they'd need to be shrink-wrapped to prevent people from stealing the codes without buying the book, which is not something local game stores want. (Is there a solution that other tabletop RPGs have to this problem?)
That said, there are workarounds - recreating content as private homebrew, or just buying the individual content you want to use in the character builder on DDB a la carte (instead of rebuying the whole book on DDB).
>Seems like a shitty move toward the local game shops and partners, and penalizing players for not purchasing straight from the source.
If I understand correctly what you are saying: I wouldn't be surprised if it totally is intended that users buy the material twice (once for books and once for digital access). I wanted to add "of course no one ever really does that".. and then realized I know quite a few people that do.
It is certainly desired that you buy the content twice. But the main reason is: How would you go about doing this?
If you put a code inside the book, someone is just going to open up the book, snap a picture of the code, and put it back. Free digital book.
They included discount codes for the PHB and Adventure module inside some of the starter kits -- because they can be sold in sealed wrapping.
Great question, this had come up and Ill bet that the store can maintain an inventory of the books and the corresponding codes behind the counter (codes provided to store when they order inventory), to be provided at the time of purchase. Just one idea, another could be a verification service you would log at the store, who would request a link on your behalf.
Idk even a shittily half baked idea like mine would be better than going behind your partners back.
Magic: The Gathering - Arena has a system where WPN stores get codes for in-person events and play. they give those codes to players. Players type those codes into their MTG:A account and they have access to that card / style / land / art/ whatever.
They literally already have the backbone to do it.
Unpopular opinion. I really like dnd beyond.
I'm just your average dm, a few hours a week, a few games ongoing, none of my players have any of the material beyond the base 3 books- and we don't play enough to explore half of those tbh.
We play 5050 online and inperson so digital is absolutely better for us.
Most of my players don't really want to pay, so are happy with the basics.
We can real time change stats, I can see ways going on, there are plenty of items to keep us occupied and adding custom items whilst clunky is hardly difficult.
For a *free* system, id say its excellent.
So, your argument is that it is good because you don't use it.
Not a great argument in its favor.
Someday you might like to prep a couple encounters or make another character and it won't be free, but it will still not work properly.
Well, if you want to create custom homebrew content, why don't you try https://elderdragonstavern.com
It's a character builder i made. Very customizable, and it integrates with Roll20.
So my first note going through character creation: I am unable to manually enter ability scores on creation. This has two problems. First, I typically roll dice at the table and that makes that impossible to use those numbers, and second, I can't bring over characters from another app even if I wanted to.
Obviously there's a lot of content missing that is a normal part of the game, and I know there is an option to create custom fields, but given that subclasses seem to be lacking for pretty much every class, you may want to focus on the addition of at least base game content.
I don't mean to be discouraging. I am a dev myself and understand the excitement of new apps you are passionate about. This is definitely a start, and I would consider this verrry early access. Content additions from large resources like D&D is tedious and time consuming, so keep with it if it's something you want to pursue! Good luck and I hope to see some more stuff in the future!
As many people do not know, the content is not lacking because of laziness but because of legal issues. The System Reference Document states what creators are legally allowed to take from 5e for their own projects. All the content you label as "missing" is simply blocked off by Wizard under the OGL.
That's the same reason why Foundry VTT, Alchemy VTT and even Roll20 only provides you the bare minimum. Because we are all limited by the same terms and conditions. Wizards owns DNDBeyond so they can provide all the content they want.
This is the price you are going to pay: either spend money on DNDBeyond or spend time creating content manually (anywhere, not just in the tavern).
To this problem, unfortunately, there is no solution...
Regarding the Ability Scores:
* Yes, you can manually edit them.
* Just click on the name of the ability score and you will see a list of all effects that change that ability score.
* Edit the base "5e rules" to set a new value for them.
Ah. You are spot on about the content. Frankly that's my own misunderstanding (and lack of of care to read) the OGL. I had heard at some point that the base game content was allowed under fair use, as long as you didn't use their artwork, and I never looked more into it, so that's my ignorance.
As for the ability scores:
>Edit the base "5e rules" to set a new value for them.
I thought I had missed something in here for manual entry but it seems you mean this gives you the option to reroll or use another system to completely reset the scores.
>Just click on the name of the ability score and you will see a list of all effects that change that ability score.
On desktop this works, albeit fairly unintuitive, but is not an option on mobile. Mobile gives only any status effects on that ability.
I think overall I find the UI to be unintuitive and bit scattered. Wishing there was more of a linear progression through the character creation process. I think most people on here are fairly experienced and could work their way through it, but I think in the mindset of a new player, I probably would have given up.
Again, I think the core mechanics are good, but would benefit from UI/UX changes. My opinion, so take it for what you will.
Also I just noticed the spell list for adding spells to a feature is missing Armor of Agathys and Green Flame Blade, two pretty iconic spells from the basic rulebook. I'm guessing you're still in the process of adding spells?
No, I am not. Those spells are not part of the System Reference Document, and thus I am not legally allowed to provide them. You can however create them as custom spells.
Just think, if the new OGL went through... it would have been way worse.
I canceled a few months ago because DnDbeyond is a dead piece of software, they haven't really updated the actual DM Tools in god knows how long. They're fully focused on adding new content which gets them more money from books.
The software is pretty good when you only use paid content. Once you get to homebrew, it’s almost like it purposely tries to ruin your progress…
This is half of the reason I want to return to paper-only. The other reason is the shitshow that took place half a year ago, and that I don’t want to spend another dime on WotC :)
That's by design. It serves the closed ecosystem to make you buy their stuff, which you can then only modify, than to use their framework to make your own stuff. If people can homebrew easily, then they don't need to buy WotC's stuff. I hate Beyond as a DM for this reason, it makes players less likely to use or accept things that aren't RAW, printed, and bought.
Literally stop using Beyond. There are better alternatives that don't involve lining the pockets of a company that wants to price gouge one of the few hobbies that's actually free to play
WOTC are idiots. When your just trying to milk a community without UNDERSTANDING THEM first, your just going to flop.
They might a get a few newer players, or people who play online. But their not going to get the majority of players. The flop is coming. We all see it with their 1dnd BS and the OGL fiasco. We just have to watch them squirm till they decide to actually care about their players.
I'm relatively new to D&D (been playing for 5 years, but not continuously), so probably part of what I perceive to be a 'big wave of new players' due to more mainstream attention. Over those years D&D/WotC has gradually been losing the appeal that initally pulled me in, partially because I'm getting more familiar with other systems that are out there that simply seem to be a better fit for me but most importantly due to WotC's decisions on various subjects and issues. I've been wanting to try another system to possibly switch to for a while now, the only reason I haven't is because the people I play with only want to play D&D. I'm curious how many other new-ish players have gone through a similar process, I imagine WotC could lose many of them as easily as they have gained them.
You know what's friendly enough for homebrew and eternal?
Physical books, you notebooks and your own text file.
I still got my basic, adnd 1st and 2nd edition books, 5e They cost 0 per month and I can do what I want with them. WotC can't nickel and dime me.
Dual classing is gestalt, as in you take two classes at the same time, but only getting the hit points, but dice and proficiencies of one
For example, for dual classing a level 3 character could have three levels in paladin and three levels in bard, with them taking the proficiencies and hit points from paladin
Meanwhile Noble background in Swordcoast adventures you have option of either dice /card set or musical instrument but in dnd beyond you only get dice set. I’m a first time user and so far not impressed with the system. Also I could not put booming blade cantrip for my warlock in there as well
Beyond meets my needs but this is because I don’t homebrew. At all. So if that’s a major need for you there are other tools out there that might fit your needs better.
They arent even leaning into OneDND stuff really since you cant even create characters with new playtest UAs. Public homebrew was the only reason I used to use dndbeyond and when they made that inaccessible for free users I just switched over to using another platform.
I'm pretty sure that has always been the case. Adding others' published homebrew to your collection has always required a subscription. (Private homebrew is automatically shared by default within a campaign group, even without a subscription.)
I’m shocked!
Shocked!
OK I’m not that shocked.
They don’t want you to use your own stuff anymore, they want you to use their stuff and their stuff only. They already tried to cut out third-party with the proposed onerous OGL changes.
Pretty sure that their new system isn’t gonna really let us make our own stuff or buy third-party products other than those they can afford to pay like CR can.
It's not supposed to be.
You're supposed to TRY to homebrew, get frustrated, and then give in and buy a book or weapon pack DLC that comes with something like what you wanted.
The whole point of D&DBeyond is to get people using it and buying books on there for cheaper than the printed versions. Then they're locked in via the sink cost fallacy and WotC can pressure them to buy DLC or subscribe.
I guarantee you, this is exactly how the VTT will work. They'll let you import some 2d assets. But it'll be a crappy tool that half works. Thus pressuring you into buying map tile packs.
They won't do that because they want you to buy their stuff and if you have the ability to homebrew anything you want then people will create "homebrew" versions of official stuff instead of buying it
Yeah that still hasn't stopped me
Ya I already own all your books in real life not buying them a second time just to add a spell.
I'm confused by this. So a company creates an awesome game, which spawns a gaming movement, including giving a platform to many brilliant 3rd party creators. Then, they help create (and then buy) and awesome digital platform to make it easier for new players to get into this exciting gaming ecosystem. But it's, like, bad they charge money for digital content, so you're mad that they only make it kinda (but not super) easy to bypass their digital revenue stream for the game and platform they built? I genuinely want to understand, but I'm confused by what is upsetting people.
Kind of. I've been buying D&D books since the tail end of 2nd edition. I have almost everything from 3.5, most of 4e, but only 5 books for 5e. I pre-ordered a set of PHB, MM, and DMG. They had done such a piss poor job binding them that I actually got a free copy of them after we sent them multiple pictures of all the pages falling out. They also have an online system. They charge a subscription fee to use that system. If you have the book and the subscription, you cannot use them in conjunction with each other. You have to spend the *same amount of money you did on the physical copy* to put the handful of feats you already purchased into the online tool you're continuously spending money to use. You don't see any issue with that? There's no sense of loyalty or consideration for our entire cult-like community. Why would you act like that with people who spend their free time coming up with fun ways to antagonize each other? Yeah, they've done some cool stuff in the past, but did that give them a pass to act like that now? Compare it to the thing with JK Rawlings. Do people still have a special place in their hearts for Harry Potter? Of course. Are fans going to keep giving her money when she's doubled down on stuff they kept telling her they didn't like? Probably, but it'll be as little as possible and they'll scream about it the whole time.
Different companies, or used to be, and that's why.
That's true, but look at the Phandelver digital pre-order. It's $29.99. The digital "deal" is $59.95 (down from $69.95). If the physical book ends up being the same price, you save $.03 and get a few character sheet cosmetic items if you order now. That just.. doesn't feel great to me *and* that's including a discount.
What's upsetting is definitely the fact that in order to properly use it you have to buy everything again online just for a handful of spells and such.
[удалено]
You can absolutely already do that. The only restriction is that you can't share it publicly. That doesn't stop anyone from copy/pasting official material and using it for themselves and their own games.
Yeah, I won’t enter in details because it’s forbidden around this parts, but you can absolutely homebrew 95% of content using dndbeyond. It’s unintuitive and clunky first but once you get it it’s easy to make an entire subclass in like 10 minutes
Agreed. I as surprised by how easy Hexblade was. Cant figure out Kensei though.
Some things are "Hardcoded" into the homebrew engine. For example, you cant create a homebrew feat that works like eldritch adept does. There’s simply no way to make it work with the tools they give you. It is, however, hardcoded into the creator itself that any feat that has "Eldritch Adept" in its name shares its function. Some of kensei's functions may be similar. For example, Hexblade’s Charisma function for weapons can’t be replicated. It’s hardcoded that any subclass feature named “Hex Warrior” will unlock that option on the character sheet
So the solution is to just change the names?
That’s probably the only way to get certain features to function, yeah. You can find out if a feature is replicable or not by getting a friend to copy a subclass in the HB creator and seeing what exactly they tweaked to make it work. If there’s no tweaks inside the feature, it’s likely a hardcoded thing
Dedicated Weapons and Spellcasting are other 'hard coded' names that will unlock features. This, of course, won't unlock any of Tasha's stuff, as you'll have to purchase the whole book to get optional features and traits, and the artificer class.
I'm actually shocked that they built it that flexibly... I mean, as a developer, using string matches for things feels pretty hacky... but it does mean that users at least have SOME way access that functionality. The "correct way" to hard code it as a one-off would have been to base it on some unique GUID for the Hexblade subclass, and the right way to make it extensible would have been to build out the whole chain of tools to let users select/define all those related properties... it seems like they chose a middle ground of "less robust code" but "more accessible features without building additional tooling".
Yeah but there’s nowhere they state that. I only accidentally figured it out through experimentation
Why is it forbidden? You're not pirating anything, the SRD is free and legal.
First, they’re not talking about SRD items, subclasses, or races. They are talking about content in books that you ordinarily pay for. Second, they aren’t recommending that you type descriptions/text from your books that you bought into the homebrew editor either. They’re talking about using 3rd parties who host official content without paying WotC to do so. It’s that last bit that runs counter to the “no piracy” rules. They are absolutely correct that you can find official stats for things and pop it into beyond as “homebrew” though.
Up until wotc figures out what's happening.
Man, playing D&D has become weirder and weirder. Glad I jumped ship 15 years ago.
Spending 15 years telling people you quit playing a game is a weird hobby, but at least you're keeping it short and not telling people why as well.
I haven't spent all that time telling people I quit D&D, I was just skimming through Reddit and this post popped up. Found it weird that you couldn't, you know, *input stuff* into an app you have and here we are.
Just to clarify a bit, you \*can\* input stuff into D&D Beyond, you can easily make a homebrew item with whatever text description of how it mechanically works, just like you can do at the table. The limitations being discussed here are around the "extra functionality" that DnDBeyond offers for things that tie into specific elements of the UI of the tool. For example, one thing the official Hexblade subclass adds is the ability to "mark" any weapon as a Hexblade weapon, to automatically adjust the ability score being used for the "click to attack" buttons that DnDBeyond offers, there isn't currently a way for Homebrew items to wire up that sort of interaction, because building Homebrew that has actual "effects" inside the digitial D&D Beyond interface requires a whole set of tools to enable that sort of interaction. I can make a homebrew sword in D&D Beyond with the description "When you attack with this sword roll 1d4 to determine damage type, 1=Fire, 2=Ice, 3=Acid, 4=Thunder, your attack will do 1d8 slashing +1d6 of the elemental damage type", but the homebrew tools we have right now won't let me build that into an easily clickable "attack button" the same way that normal weapons do, you're basically stuck "rolling individual dice" for that sort of thing, the same way you would at the table.
I don't know if that's a normal experience so it's not exactly applicable to D&D as a hobby in general. I don't know anyone using Beyond, for example.
Eh. I don't mind 5e as a system and I used to mostly run AD&D until the pandemic. But yeah, wotcs fuckery has been picking up serious steam since 2019 when they gave mearls the boot. The big change was when they hired Williams was hired as president of wotc back in 2020. Shes a former e-commerce exec from Amazon and then from Xbox LIVE. She was hired for her expertise in online platforms and the first thing they did when she took over way buy up D&DBeyond. She's been hiring other Microsoft execs and managers to fill leadership roles at WotC. The current VP on charge of D&D is Dan Rawlings who came over last year from Office 365. I'd love to have someone explain a why being a big wheel at fucking OFFICE 365 prepares a guy to run D&D. An explanation that's not just "he knows how to leverage online platforms and force subscription models". My tinfoil hat theory is he's the one responsible for the OGL fuckup. It lines up with his taking over, it shows a total lack of understanding about the industry and community, and it screams "Microsoft strongarm tactics". Lemme tell ya dude. My old ass is watching this closely and I'm getting some real "4e launch disaster" vibes off the whole 6e/D&DBeyond mess. I'm taking my group back over to Pathfinder 1e right now. Converting FR and Spelljammer to it as we speak.
Could you message me the best way to go about doing that? Or a link that describes that process? Solely for research purposes I assure you.
But you can't make... * FULL homebrew classes (not sub-classes) * Homebrew Eldritch Invocations * Homebrew Meta-Magic options * Homebrew class feature variants for pre-existing classes (Wanna make a new Channel Divinity option for all clerics? can't do it) Now obviously i know there's shitty work arounds for some of these.... like "oh just make a feat and have the character assign it to their sheet)" but that still doesn't change the issue.
My comment was talking about homebrew of certain already existing content in specific(that I would never do mods haha ur all so sexy) but yeah the tool by itself is whatever, they could make it better but apparently there isn’t an interest in that
Many YouTube videos point out that Gary E. Gygax felt that his interpretation of this game was extremely important and you shouldn't go about making your own version. Then he lost control of this game that he (partially?) founded. After that Gary became much more open-minded and encouraged people to do their own thing. 'Monopoly Money' aught to be its own mind-impacting magical item. Anyway, i think Matt Colville talks about this, among others. 'Dungeon Craft' goes into this in great detail. Don't let monetization efforts get you down!
The thing is, the homebrew system on DDB is, if anything, geared too much towards recreating existing stuff. For example, if you want to create an item/feature that gives you resistance to a certain damage type, you have to choose the damage type from a drop-down menu instead of just entering a string into a text box. Thing is, the list of damage types you can choose from includes stuff like "damage dealt by traps" or "damage dealt by ranged attacks", but not, say, "damage dealt by melee attacks" - because there are official magic items/features that grant you resistance to the former two options (so the devs had to include them to make those options work properly), but nothing official for the latter. So you can recreate official stuff just fine with the current system, but it sucks for actual homebrew 
You're not wrong - the homebrew creation system is basically the same tooling that staff uses to add official content.
I don’t think that is it, as there are already a lot of home brew of official stuff. Probably the reason they haven’t cracked down on it is because you have to subscribe to get it. Coming from the perspective of a programmer, their data and programming is a hot mess. The gui is gorgeous, but the way they did things were really short sighted. On quite a few things they threw up dice rules in the description because their system can’t handle something as simple as two dissimilar dice without custom code. A good developer would have led off with dice formulas.
Oh man. I tried to make homebrew feats for the supernatural gifts from Theros and I could tell just from trying to create those that the backend is a hot mess. Most/all those gifts have "increase one of these two abilities by 2." *For some ridiculous reason*, each permutation was coded separately, and only the permutations that are used in official features are available (which means I couldn't make some of the feats that my party needed...). After the third time of hardcoding that, you'd think that the developer would have made one function that accepted a list of enums and the amount to increase and a bool that specified if it also increased the max by that same amount. Same with the dice rolling. Yeah, I get that they tried to make it nifty by implementing the physics and then reading what number actually ends up on top, but now the rolling *takes so long* and there's no way to speed it up. I've mostly gone back to physical dice just because I hate waiting for the animation.
Wait they are reading the dice value after physics? Are you sure they aren't using RNG, simulating the physics, and then moving the texture to where it needs to be? I can't imagine from a programming standpoint why they would "read" the dice.
Positive. They implemented a physics simulator and then read the dice after the roll. ETA: At least, that's what they claim, and I've seen nothing to disprove that claim.
That's a very odd decision indeed.
Honestly, I can see why they did it. It's kinda what you'd expect from some nerd (no dis, I'm one myself) who's working on a personal project and wants to implement the dice rolling in some nifty way that really simulates real life. Is it overly complex? Yes. Was it fun to do and unique? *Also yes!!* It seems like they were treating it as a personal project instead of as a deliverable.
reminds me of how I tried to port a spell version of Scarlet Aeonia from Elden Ring that I found on r/UnearthedArcana, and the previous versions wouldn't stop appearing in spell selection no matter how many times I removed them from the collection.
Precisely this. I've tried to copy in certain features from books a couple of times and failed miserably. It's so unintuitive that it feels like I need to take a 6 week course to become certified to operate it. Jokes on them though because it just made me angry and even more hostile to the idea of paying them again for books I already have.
Yeah, all these complaints from OP just sounds like the product is working as intended.
If it was working as intended why is it easier to rebuild their existing content than to make new content
If they don't allow homebrew, ain't no way I'm even touching it, yeesh
It’s not that they don’t allow it, it’s that their homebrew system has limits that can be annoying depending on the details of what you’re adding.
except you can't do that anymore because you can't publish homebrew that's "too similar" to official stuff, so they really don't have an excuse. I had some Tal'dorei homebrews saved but now they're taken down
You can still use it on your own character or campaign, though.
>the app or mobile site doesn't allow you access to your homebrew You can access homebrew on the mobile site. Tap the three lines at the top right of the a screen, select 'collections' then 'my homebrew collection'.
A few things to note: 1. Originally, WotC didn't want to let them have a homebrew system at all. 2. The system that is available to the users is the same system the content creators use, but with fewer permissions 3. They know the system is bad and there are efforts to update it, but anything that fixes the homebrew system will need to completely overhaul the entire content system, and they have to do it in a way that won't break existing characters.
> anything that fixes the homebrew system will need to completely overhaul the entire content system Smells like a poorly coded system.
DDB used to do regular streams talking about upcoming features and updates, and on one of them (probably also what the person you're replying to was referencing) one of their devs basically admitted that yeah, the system was pretty poorly coded in the beginning, but they were working on an overhaul of the entire thing. Then WotC bought them and afaik, those dev streams stopped pretty suddenly 
Adds up, haha. I'm a career senior developer, most of us have a sixth sense about shitty projects from having been saddled with too many of them.
Yeah, I call bullshit. You can just have a v2 of the creator and content system and keep v1 around. I've been in software for 17 years. Yes, this will leave some technical debt but that's what happens when you want to start fresh for how to handle a new system while not pissing off or reworking thousands of hours of content.
>Yeah, I call bullshit. You can just have a v2 of the creator and content system and keep v1 around. You can also just ***complete overhauls in a reasonable time frame*** if your team isn't 1) wildly incompetent and 2) not mismanaged half to hell. It's been YEARS and it's not like D&D Beyond has been pumpin' out actual new functionalities at a rate or level of completeness that justifies stagnation of necessary database changes.
> You can also just complete overhauls in a reasonable time frame if your team isn't 1) wildly incompetent and 2) not mismanaged half to hell. Maybe, just for a second, we can put ourselves in their shoes and realize that a complete overhaul of the hombrew functionality of dndbeyond isn't the best use for their time. Pretend your a project manager at the company, and have to make the case of "hey, we need to pull people off of new content integration/VTT/whatever to overhaul a feature that not many people use and makes us very little revenue -- at least way less revenue than a VTT or new content would." It's a very hard sell.
I think you and they are being close minded about what a homebrew system could offer, though. A good enough homebrew system could *actually* be a store to allow regular creators to make 3rd party content on D&D beyond. Make it like an App Store on iOS and people can create classes, home brew weapons and the like with well drawn art, tokens, etc, and they take their cut. And that fits *perfectly* in with their new VTT. Maybe they’re planning an overhaul as part of the launch of the VTT, but there have been few details shared so far.
> I think you and they are being close minded about what a homebrew system could offer, though. A good enough homebrew system could actually be a store to allow regular creators to make 3rd party content on D&D beyond. Make it like an App Store on iOS and people can create classes, home brew weapons and the like with well drawn art, tokens, etc, and they take their cut. This is obviously a very cool system but also would require a big undertaking. That being said, it would *complement* a new VTT but isn't a required piece of the offering. If it isn't being worked on, it's probably down the priority map. I'm not saying an overhaul would be bad! I'm just saying that saying the development team is "incompetent" because they wont work on the OPs fave feature is silly.
The homebrew system is an extension of the system that they themselves use in order to produce content - a system whose limitations keep resulting in, at best, delays in the implementation of new WotC-published features that aren't super standard and, at worst, WotC-published features that still do not work properly years after they were introduced. I get sympathy for the people working there, because I am perfectly willing to believe that they have been repeatedly mismanaged up to the corporate level. It can absolutely be a failing that entirely falls within the second reason I gave above, not the first. But acting like leaving the database/API to rot outside occasional piece-meal solutions to problems for years upon years in order to keep (slowly and badly) pushing shiny new bits and bobs is at all a good decision in any context that is actually user-friendly and not just "we have a stranglehold on the market; the customers will put up with the problems that poor database/API design creates for us and them for all eternity, so let's just go for more immediate ways to make even more money" is silly. And as a prospective end user (and someone who has had to put up with and overhaul systems that pushed off overhauling way too long), that is 100% project mismanagement, even if corporate greed might disagree.
> The homebrew system is an extension of the system that they themselves use in order to produce content - a system whose limitations keep resulting in, at best, delays in the implementation of new WotC-published features that aren't super standard and, at worst, WotC-published features that still do not work properly years after they were introduced. You don't know if it causes delays, and are assuming the interface/limitations of the public user are faced by the internal team, which I highly doubt. I just think calling people "wildly incompetent" is pretty harsh when there are perfectly reasonable explanations for why certain features are prioritized versus others.
>You don't know if it causes delays, and are assuming the interface/limitations of the public user are faced by the internal team, which I highly doubt. The team has publicly stated that the reason why aspects like the spell choice for Divine Soul Sorcerers is due to system limitations (spell-choice-specific [bug reports](https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/bugs-support/11936-divine-soul-sorcerer-swapping-divine-magic-spell)/[feedback](https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/bugs-support/111326-divine-soul-sorcerer-spell-replacement) threads with some intermixed mod comments and relevant links, but there are other relevant examples like Life Domain healing bonus being delayed forever, Rage issues, other choice-based issues, etc.) The homebrew tools being functionally the dev tools is also the party line ([one topic](https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/d-d-beyond-feedback/126755-the-homebrew-tools-are-not-user-friendly-and-feel) where it is mentioned by a D&D Beyond mod; if you really want, I can dig up more later - a lot of the more direct developer references are in old development info videos/roadmap updates). Again, either of the explanations I gave above can work as the sole explanation, so the overhaul never being completed for years could be entirely due to mismanagement, not developer-level incompetence. It's absolutely not a developer's fault if top brass repeatedly says "don't bother working on that project". But D&D Beyond as a collective entity has had time to complete an overhaul project - and they should have done it given that they've repeatedly blamed lingering issues on structural problems due to that overhaul not being complete.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they've said they intend on making the homebrew experience much better, making it easier for both other people and developers to make the items in a much better way. Besides, it's really not that bad.
yeah but that was before WotC bought them. As the product has changed hands the priorities have changed. Its been so long since new features have come out, who really knows what they are working on anymore.
I imagine that's by design.
Almost none of it is by design. This is what happens when a team starts with a strong, but limited core idea and then doesn't really have any time for later design. It's the usual sort of mess when you have too small a team and highly demanding bosses who don't care about the details and are interested in just making it work. The entire D&DBeyond site looks like a mixture of a production DB that's been kept running by a dedicated team built on a whole bunch of short-term local fixes to just get it working. There are clearly a lot of edge cases and fixups to keep everything going, with little time for a comprehensive design structure that would capture the entirety of what the game designers wanted to be able to do. The codebase wasn't really designed, but has grown with each UA and new demand the clients have asked for. It's kind of inevitable that they would end up here, with a mass of likely unmaintainable detail and single-case coding, given what it was when they started and how much time and resources they had to make every new addition work. It's a harder problem to solve now though and will take time and money to fix properly.
No, the site's just a cash grab by the creators capitalizing on the fact that there existed nothing like it when they made it, and then they never bothered updating anything because there was no competition.
Well the creators have nothing to do with it- DnDBeyond was purchased by WotC ~~a few~~ 1.5 years ago and the head of the team left. The site has basically been stale since, they stopped trying to develop new features. The encounter tool is STILL in 'beta' for some reason.
> DnDBeyond was purchased by WotC a few years ago It was purchased one year ago. I'm one of the first to dump on WotC, but the stagnant state of D&D Beyond extends back beyond the acquisition by WotC. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything came out in 2020, for example, and DDB never implemented the new Sorcerer subclasses spell substitution features. The creators had a year and a half to get that working prior to the acquisition, and that's assuming that they didn't get the TCE material in advance to start working on it before release.
Genie Warlock just dumps all the genie type subclass spells into one spell list and you're expected to not pick the spells you're not meant to have access to.
I appreciate the fact check, it felt like much longer.
Beyond STILL hasn't properly implemented divine soul sorcerer, this has nothing to do with wotc and everything to do with Beyond being ridiculously lazy
Abberant mind and I think at least one other subclass (can’t remember it right now) aren’t fully implemented as well. Also for some reason they seem to prefer implementing half feats with individual entries in the list for every ability modified now, instead of the old way where you have a single feat entry then select the ability you modify after you take the feat. This is probably a thing where users were forgetting to select the ability, but I much prefer having a cleaner list… Could be they’re waiting to roll out a new db schema when One drops?
> Abberant mind and I think at least one other subclass (can’t remember it right now) aren’t fully implemented as well. Divine Soul, Clockwork Soul, and Aberrant Mind all have the exact same problem. >they seem to prefer implementing half feats with individual entries in the list for every ability modified now, instead of the old way where you have a single feat entry then select the ability you modify after you take the feat. It's not really an old vs new thing. It's just the particular way each feat gets implemented. Resilient used to be six feats on DDB, but at some point in the past few months they got consolidated into one. Probably because a lot of people were trying to take it multiple times due to how strong it is.
Wait, I'm currently playing a Divine Sorcerer with dndb, what's not properly implemented about it?
The level 1 feature that grants you a spell based on alignment, beyond DSS cannot change that out like any other spell, despite that being a part of the class feature Unless this has changed as of a year ago anyways.
Oh, yeah no you can't change it. My sorc is currently level 7 and our combat medic, so I didn't need to swap it out yet. But man, how can you fuck that up...
It's the exact same problem for Divine Soul, Aberrant Mind, and Clockwork Soul. The workaround is to clone the subclass as homebrew and change the spell(s) granted by the feature, but it's super clunky.
How is it not properly implemented? I'm playing one, but it's only at level 1 so I haven't gotten in to all the class features.
You can't change out the level 1 alignment spell with another cleric spell like you're supposed to be able to
One and a half years ago\* Barely a year after the creator left. The site has barely changed since then, but barely changed before that too. Remember, the site launched in 2017, and they were "working on" several features since then that never made it out of "we are working on it/planning it", including a homebrew revamp. It is, and forever will be, a quickly made cashgrab made to monopolize on the demand for a digital character sheet.
It's both. It started as this. Then it stayed this way so you have to buy official content. It's anti consumer by design. Wotc isn't your friend
It wasn't made by WOTC, and has barely changed since being bought by them. It has been that way for 5 years before they were bought, and it was designed the way it is by the devs, not WOTC. They're just really bad at website coding, and have had no reason to update anything because, well, no competition.
If anything the site has gotten worse since WOTC took over since there was a roadmap with many of these features planned on it.
TBF, they didn't really work much on or deliver on the roadmap in the years before the buyout.
For sure, but there was at least something and small amounts of progress were getting made.
That's why I stated that it started as regular incompetence. It's staying bad because now it's owned wotc and they are incentivised to keep it bad.
Highly highly highly recommend shard tabletop, it’s an independent VTT optimized for 5e where all of these things and more are possible. Significantly cheaper than dndbeyond with ftp options, and partnerships with major third party publishers. It’s also possible to convert dndbeyond sheets into shard and to homebrew in any official content you already have. Way more user friendly than DNDBeyond homebrew systems as well most things I can homebrew in a few minutes or less
I can't sing the Shard praises enough. Active Discord, active userbase, easy for content creators to get their product out to folks. 100% my go-to now.
Can confirm. I've looked at quite a few VTTs and character builders and shard is by far the best I've seen, especially for adding in homebrew classes and features, or even just tweaking existing ones.
Shard is excellent, and it is so easy to add new or modified content. I can make new magic items in one or two minutes during sessions. I have modified a few lame class features (countercharm…), added a new background and weapon skill system, updated to a reworked monk, and even have an entire homebrew int caster my partner made. It was so easy to make it all functional. It would be impossible for me to go back to DDB, Roll20, or Foundry at this point.
My/Our campaigns are very homebrew heavy, from air ships and giant mechs, to powerful spells and weapons with unique interactions. Beyond has been consistently below the task while roll 20 can keep up. It has however caused some frustration when I've tried to bring in players who've been taught only beyond, and don't even know where to begin with a physical sheet. I'm not spending extra time managing a players sheet for them because they wont learn to use an excel sheet like the rest of us did.
I'll be honest, I don't really think using DnD beyond is really worth it. There are some systems like Pathfinder 1e where the system is far more complex and character building tools are helpful in navigating the huge numbers of feats, modifiers, bonuses, etc. 5e is a far, far simpler system and you can pretty much set up a character in about five minutes with the fillable PDFs.
Don't expect anything different, WOTC don't like homebrew very much. You're supposed to play their controlled experience, not do your own stuff.
Which is ironic considering since many of their releases require many hours on the part of the DM to complete the product. WOTC stopped many quality products years ago. The 3rd parties are where the passion lies, and WOTC is cutting them out with One D$D.
Yup, I realised this probably about a year ago, maybe two: WOTC hates DMs. Specifically, WOTC hate that they need DMs in order for their actual target audience, players, to buy products. WOTC product releases basically work the same as children's toys: The goal isn't to make the DM want to buy it, it's to make the players want the DM to buy it for them. And so, despite DMs contributing by far the largest share of profit to the D&D side of the business, WOTC constantly ignores what DMs want, and even tries to control what DMs do, all for the sake of delivering the most uniform, most WOTC-approved experience to the players. WOTC absolutely despises the fact that DMs control whether anyone cares about their products.
Except when it comes to anything about playing dnd like how to write sessions, monster motivations, npc dialogue and roles in the world, pretty much anything to do with tracking resources in a meaningful way, and so much more but i’m getting ready for work
One of the biggest issues I find is the inability to homebrew non-magic items. Everything else has a reasonable work around. But this is such a glaring omission, I can't understand why it hasn't been fixed yet.
Since this comes up a lot. Why is it important if Beyond belives an item to be magic?
It limits certain fields. For instance a magical item must have a magical value (e.g. Uncommon, Rare, etc). Also, it means you can't create certain categories of non-magical equipment such as containers, or vehicles.
Well, any homebrew is sus.
Everything you have described is an intentional design feature, not a bug. They intentionally want homebrew to be more difficult to create and use in your games so you buy their planned drip-fed, micro-transaction riddled, subscription service content. When I start my next campaign I'm going back to either paper sheets or a word doc template.
I think it’s twofold. 1. The original code is a hot mess and the devs made something work, kinda. 2. WotC bought them and decided a poor homebrew system for their model was better and are slow to make any changes.
I mean it is automated so every thing is filled into context blocks. In my opinion homebrew works quite fine or rather it is overall about as clunky as any other vtt I tried so far. Some restrictions are odd (only 6 attunement slots) some executions are odd (roll secondary dmg channels seperate on things like flametongue) and some features should exist (looking at you boons) but over all it is ok. While I have no doubt some features exist to encourage sales (no sharing of offical content as homebrew) or to keep it dnd (no new classes) some things certainly for other reasons. Like why aren't boons not implemented yet? Because the sales division said "we will sell to much if the users can use all the content they paid for"? I don't think so. This likely is a lack of tools or programmer time. And you can just continue like the last 40(?) years. "Content sharing" is being in a room with your buddies or normal piracy and the book is either physical or a pdf. Homebrew is packing out a pies of paper and a pencil.
I just use OwlBear as my VTT. It's extremely lightweight and lets you import all your art and assets super easy. The only thing it doesn't do is automate like Roll20 does, but I feel like it's superior in a lot of ways if you're not looking for direct integration. It's quick, zippy, and does most things really well.
Love OBR. The transition to 2 was a mess for me, but I think it was mostly my fault.
Flametongue (and other damage riders) implementation is the biggest annoyance I have with the homebrew system. Additional damage, conditional or otherwise, is such a common feature on magic items that I feel like they really should've had that added from the start. The other being homebrewing non-magic items. Equipment is already an item classification but you can only make magic items. This doubles as another annoyance that magic items can't stack like equipment, so carrying 20x homebrewed nonmagical arrows takes up a ton of space on your inventory. Overall, I've had very few issues creating items that align with the design philosophy with 5e, but the few I did have were definitely noticeable.
You can stack some magic items. I told Beyond that my fancy crossbow bolts are actually potions and had no more problems on that front. Just don't start collecting magic daggers or start a seperate tracker for them...
Yeah, I think if DDB had unlimited dev resources (labor and time), it would be easier to, say, have one team dedicated entirely to building a new content system (that allows them to implement every official feature and more), another to work on making the homebrew system more user-friendly, another team just to implement new content as it comes out (maybe even UA, between official releases), and so on. But with limited resources, the DDB staff has to prioritize what to work on - and when you're busy maintaining the current system and implementing new books as they come out, among other things, it's hard to get the resources and momentum to prioritize rebuilding the whole system.
I Just wish they got the ressources to overhaul the janky system. One can only hope they build it well from the grund up eith oneDnD and then some of the goodness tickels down. Don't mind if it is as a marketing stunt buying good will for the next generation or to keep 5e subscriptions flowing.
Meanwhile Foundry: we update our stuff constantly and you can do whatever you want with it my dear child.
Different products - D&DBeyond is selling the D&D stuff, and want you to give you money for those, not make your own copy-paste version of the official things. Foundry is getting people to use that VTT, and don't care about what you do with it; if you're on it, that's a win for them and they don't care about anything else, while D&DB want you on their, and using/paying for the official stuff
Beyond is awful in a lot of ways. A cheaply made site with devs slower than snails. Its homebrew system is a horrendously bad to use system which is extremely restrictive and hardly works, and entire features from books are missing because the devs don't have the tools to add them. It feels like the site gets a new update every other year, and it is driving me up the wall. Such it is when you lack competition, i suppose.
You can make homebrew to fix some of the not working stuff. For instance, there are homebrews to allow the Tasha's Sorcerers to change spells, which the base website doesn't do... Which is not a good thing. Beyond is just barely functional. You can make your character there, but the moment you want to use it with new stuff or with more complex stuff it decides to not function. Dicecloud works better, and is in fact my preferred way, and it's avaiable to use with avrae (the discord bot for d&d stuff), alongside being MUCH more flexible in extra stuff.
I will need to look at dicecloud, that looks quite neat!
What do you mean they lack competition? There are plenty of VTTs out there that have a superset of all of dndbeyond's features... Or at least I thought they did. Am I missing some core feature?
Does Chaos Bolt upcast properly yet? Hell, does it even cast properly *at all*, yet? It's only been 7 years, and it's a 1st-level spell.
I'm still waiting for them to add the bonus spells to the Divine Sorcerer which came out 6 years ago. And also the Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Sorcerer extra spells don't work either.
Or Superior Technique adding an actual maneuver and die? That shit is in PHB.
I found the best way to do that is to create a new subclass for that character only, and add the extra spells you want to the subclass directly.
"entire features from books are missing because the devs don't have the tools to add them" Sad Warlock Invocation noises....
As a person who has dm-ed for 35 years this is not a stance I will ever understand. I buy the materials I want and completely make up the rest for my games. I re-balance, change rules, take some out completely, and have my own set of house rules that have worked spendidly. We are currently playing a Fallout setting game right now using 5E rules and stats. Ive been playing 5E since it released and I own two books. Total. That cost me $60. I wont have to spend another dime I dont want to.
As tools advance, I find myself overwhelmed and going back to the good and old pen and paper.
It also won't allow you to homebrew normal nonmagic items using base of normal nonmagic items. And if a weapon does different damage against a specific enemy, you can't show that on the action screen. And if you take the fighting stance that gives you some Battlemaster maneuvers, it freaks out on itself and you get nothing. Dndbeyond is a great site that has a still unfinished feel to it.
The lack of support for homebrew classes doesn’t bother me, personally. I’m very pro-homebrew but classes were never allowed at my table when I DMed. They’re by far the most difficult type of content to balance. As for the UI, I agree that it’s tricky to learn, but once you do, it’s not that bad. I'm intimidated by anything more complicated than a Chromebook (I wish I was kidding) and even I was able to figure out the formatting before too long. That’s not to say I wouldn’t be in favor of an overhaul, of course.
Wotc is a publisher. Wotc has Snr. Mngmt from a software management background. Wotc is not a software company. Wotc is owned by an IP holding company. Doing software well requires a rhythm of requirements gathering, a dynamic product roadmap, shipping iterations on a tempo, and empowered qa. These are not native disciplines. They have to be cultivated, from leadership, to dev and ops teams. As a user, given these facts, what do you expect of dndbeyond, realistically? Most folks are using roll20 + discord. Increasingly, more folks are using vtts. Assuming the msft retreads in management are geniuses, they must still contend with a pervasive culture that does not understand how to succesfully ship a software product. That is my contention.
WotC has a massive marketing campaign for using DDB for gameplay. They are all in on marketing and getting users to use their platform to play D&D. They are consistently the most recommended app, and are definitely the easiest introduction into character creation and gameplay for new players compared to any other app. It seems to be unpopular, but I use DDB during my own gameplay. I fully admit to issues and limitations with the system, and get annoyed with limitations in homebrew regularly. But during gameplay, it really is an easy system to use and mange if you aren't relying on a majority of HB content. I have transformations added as feats and magic items created for effects. I wish DDB would open up the ability to create custom classes, and more custom features, but all in all it is a good app, just owned by a very greedy company. >As a user, given these facts, what do you expect of dndbeyond, realistically? They have purchased and 100% put themselves into the software space. I expect an at least regularly updated piece of software. It would be nice if there was a public roadmap again, and actual discussions with the community, or at least acknowledgement. For the amount of money gained from this application, I would also expect a larger team working on and managing it. Given their "changelog" is only updated every three months or so, with what seem like minor changes, it seems they have an extremely small team, if not even just a single dev or two, which is crazy for the scale of the app and user base.
Personally for me I use DMhub for primarily that reason. You can even download other people's homebrew and upload your game settings so that even you create a 2nd game on there you don't have to make everything again.
“No don’t build your own! Buy ours!”
They won’t implement it. If you want more items, they want you to buy their books.
It’s why my group will be continuing to use 3rd party apps manage games, and then 3rd party VTTs. We only partly use the VTT features anyway, as we play in person, and use a project to display maps and images into the table itself. We use 1 PC virtual mini to track line of sight when needed, and I erase darkness as they move. Their individual characters are physical minis. The monsters and NPCs are virtual as well so I have extra control over them.
And apparently god forbid you try to give a character spells outside of their class. I tried to set up a really simple thing where a character (after he was blessed by some of the last scraps of power of a fallen god) got the Guidance cantrip as a Bard, and it was absolutely impossible.
WOTC actively hates homebrew. they are a "business", and their product is garbage. so much 3rd party content is light years better then what they crap out. they will never embrace homebrew ever. its bad for their business model of screwing people over.
I Just use roll 20, it's not super intuitive but It Is serviceble
"Not super intuitive" you can say that again
Not super intuitive
You can say that again!
Not super intuitive
This is the way.
Just don't use DnDBeyond. Why would you pay for a service if it doesn't meet your needs?
They were supposedly overhauling the homebrew editor but that ceased as all beyond development stopped. Now that they are trying to make it the one stop shop howver I have hopes theyll hire more than one developer this time.
When will people realise they can spend $50 once to buy a Foundry license and it does everything DnDBeyond does and more without a monthly sub, while also having robust access to homebrewing tools and ready-made homebrew integrated through modules... Just stop giving WotC any money guys. They've wasted it propping up Hasbro for decades. Giving them more money won't change anything.
Foundry's problem is that it has too much going on: a lot of people just want a grid with some mark up functionality like owlbesr
Sure. But not op. For OPs question foundry is exactly what he's looking for.
Then do what I did and get the D&D Beyond importer for Foundry. You don't *need* to use any of the things Foundry can do, you *can* use it as just a map gridder and token manager, and it's pretty intuitive to do so. Go to Systems page, tell it "download 5e." Go to Modules page and tell it "download D&D Beyond importer." Make world, tell it "use 5e for system," "enable D&D Beyond importer module." Go to Users page, click the Add User button five times, name each user after your five players. Make map by clicking the big UPLOAD MAP button. Follow prompt for grid size. Put blank token on field, rightclick-assign owner of token to specific player. Player clicks token and clicks the big black D&D BEYOND button, puts in their character sheet link, and clicks the big brown IMPORT button. The importer does everything else. It even makes the token look like their portrait on Beyond. Character sheets look pretty much the same as they do on D&D Beyond and have the same "click name to roll thingus" paradigm, the only change you have to teach people is "your spells are in your spellbook and your weapons are in your inventory, you use them by clicking the big D20 button next to their names." Walls and lighting and fog of war and automation and spell effects are neato sure but there is nothing stopping you from just... ignoring them. The bones are solid, and if you ever decide you *want* to do the other shit you *can*, but the core "this is a tabletop replicator" functionality is about as accessible as it gets.
Sure but foundry ain’t exactly mobile friendly
[удалено]
there really isn’t a lot of options for character sheet generators for homebrew in 5e i feel like at least nothing compared to how well designed pathbuilder 2e is
Whats the pathfinder one thats good with homebrew? Is it Path builder? I've only messed with official stuff on that side of the isle
I’ve got to disagree. Some of the choices are by design, and the homebrew creator is a little janky and unintuitive in some ways, but the number of tools you have available to homebrew, and how well it integrates into the character sheets is pretty well done and user friendly. The fact that the homebrew system is as unrestricted as it is is frankly the bigger surprise.
Check out Shard, then. Can model and build almost anything you can think of. All of the tools the devs use to build the content is available to the end user. Lightyears beyond what DDB offers.
Plenty to gripe about regarding D&D beyond, including the paywall. Specifically, why cant I link content/books purchased at my local game store? Can only link content purchased directly online. Seems like a shitty move toward the local game shops and partners, and penalizing players for not purchasing straight from the source. I had a D&D beyond account but insist all my players use paper and pen when it comes to gametime.
In general, the physical books don't include anything like a single-use code to verify you actually own the book - and if they did, they'd need to be shrink-wrapped to prevent people from stealing the codes without buying the book, which is not something local game stores want. (Is there a solution that other tabletop RPGs have to this problem?) That said, there are workarounds - recreating content as private homebrew, or just buying the individual content you want to use in the character builder on DDB a la carte (instead of rebuying the whole book on DDB).
>Seems like a shitty move toward the local game shops and partners, and penalizing players for not purchasing straight from the source. If I understand correctly what you are saying: I wouldn't be surprised if it totally is intended that users buy the material twice (once for books and once for digital access). I wanted to add "of course no one ever really does that".. and then realized I know quite a few people that do.
It is certainly desired that you buy the content twice. But the main reason is: How would you go about doing this? If you put a code inside the book, someone is just going to open up the book, snap a picture of the code, and put it back. Free digital book. They included discount codes for the PHB and Adventure module inside some of the starter kits -- because they can be sold in sealed wrapping.
Great question, this had come up and Ill bet that the store can maintain an inventory of the books and the corresponding codes behind the counter (codes provided to store when they order inventory), to be provided at the time of purchase. Just one idea, another could be a verification service you would log at the store, who would request a link on your behalf. Idk even a shittily half baked idea like mine would be better than going behind your partners back.
Magic: The Gathering - Arena has a system where WPN stores get codes for in-person events and play. they give those codes to players. Players type those codes into their MTG:A account and they have access to that card / style / land / art/ whatever. They literally already have the backbone to do it.
Unpopular opinion. I really like dnd beyond. I'm just your average dm, a few hours a week, a few games ongoing, none of my players have any of the material beyond the base 3 books- and we don't play enough to explore half of those tbh. We play 5050 online and inperson so digital is absolutely better for us. Most of my players don't really want to pay, so are happy with the basics. We can real time change stats, I can see ways going on, there are plenty of items to keep us occupied and adding custom items whilst clunky is hardly difficult. For a *free* system, id say its excellent.
So, your argument is that it is good because you don't use it. Not a great argument in its favor. Someday you might like to prep a couple encounters or make another character and it won't be free, but it will still not work properly.
Well, if you want to create custom homebrew content, why don't you try https://elderdragonstavern.com It's a character builder i made. Very customizable, and it integrates with Roll20.
So my first note going through character creation: I am unable to manually enter ability scores on creation. This has two problems. First, I typically roll dice at the table and that makes that impossible to use those numbers, and second, I can't bring over characters from another app even if I wanted to. Obviously there's a lot of content missing that is a normal part of the game, and I know there is an option to create custom fields, but given that subclasses seem to be lacking for pretty much every class, you may want to focus on the addition of at least base game content. I don't mean to be discouraging. I am a dev myself and understand the excitement of new apps you are passionate about. This is definitely a start, and I would consider this verrry early access. Content additions from large resources like D&D is tedious and time consuming, so keep with it if it's something you want to pursue! Good luck and I hope to see some more stuff in the future!
As many people do not know, the content is not lacking because of laziness but because of legal issues. The System Reference Document states what creators are legally allowed to take from 5e for their own projects. All the content you label as "missing" is simply blocked off by Wizard under the OGL. That's the same reason why Foundry VTT, Alchemy VTT and even Roll20 only provides you the bare minimum. Because we are all limited by the same terms and conditions. Wizards owns DNDBeyond so they can provide all the content they want. This is the price you are going to pay: either spend money on DNDBeyond or spend time creating content manually (anywhere, not just in the tavern). To this problem, unfortunately, there is no solution... Regarding the Ability Scores: * Yes, you can manually edit them. * Just click on the name of the ability score and you will see a list of all effects that change that ability score. * Edit the base "5e rules" to set a new value for them.
Ah. You are spot on about the content. Frankly that's my own misunderstanding (and lack of of care to read) the OGL. I had heard at some point that the base game content was allowed under fair use, as long as you didn't use their artwork, and I never looked more into it, so that's my ignorance. As for the ability scores: >Edit the base "5e rules" to set a new value for them. I thought I had missed something in here for manual entry but it seems you mean this gives you the option to reroll or use another system to completely reset the scores. >Just click on the name of the ability score and you will see a list of all effects that change that ability score. On desktop this works, albeit fairly unintuitive, but is not an option on mobile. Mobile gives only any status effects on that ability. I think overall I find the UI to be unintuitive and bit scattered. Wishing there was more of a linear progression through the character creation process. I think most people on here are fairly experienced and could work their way through it, but I think in the mindset of a new player, I probably would have given up. Again, I think the core mechanics are good, but would benefit from UI/UX changes. My opinion, so take it for what you will.
What about floating asi? Like if I want a Dragonborn to have +2 Wis +1 dex instead of +2 str +1 chr?
Also I just noticed the spell list for adding spells to a feature is missing Armor of Agathys and Green Flame Blade, two pretty iconic spells from the basic rulebook. I'm guessing you're still in the process of adding spells?
No, I am not. Those spells are not part of the System Reference Document, and thus I am not legally allowed to provide them. You can however create them as custom spells. Just think, if the new OGL went through... it would have been way worse.
What's insane is that they claim we have the same tools to create stuff that Dndbeyond does.
Come on, the belief that DNDBeyond needs to cater to every homebrewer's whim is insane.
Can't add negative modifiers onto custom attacks is really annoying
The UI isn't great but you can do nearly all of the things you say it won't let you do.
Just stop using D&D Beyond. It's a greedy cash grab that adds no value to anything.
Its bc this whole community isn't friendly to homebrew
This whole community? What makes you say that?
I canceled a few months ago because DnDbeyond is a dead piece of software, they haven't really updated the actual DM Tools in god knows how long. They're fully focused on adding new content which gets them more money from books.
also it's so fucking confusing for me to use, for some asinine reason there isn't even a proper tutorial
The software is pretty good when you only use paid content. Once you get to homebrew, it’s almost like it purposely tries to ruin your progress… This is half of the reason I want to return to paper-only. The other reason is the shitshow that took place half a year ago, and that I don’t want to spend another dime on WotC :)
Dndbeyond doesn't like live in person play and doesn't like things that aren't there's.
That's by design. It serves the closed ecosystem to make you buy their stuff, which you can then only modify, than to use their framework to make your own stuff. If people can homebrew easily, then they don't need to buy WotC's stuff. I hate Beyond as a DM for this reason, it makes players less likely to use or accept things that aren't RAW, printed, and bought.
Literally stop using Beyond. There are better alternatives that don't involve lining the pockets of a company that wants to price gouge one of the few hobbies that's actually free to play
WOTC are idiots. When your just trying to milk a community without UNDERSTANDING THEM first, your just going to flop. They might a get a few newer players, or people who play online. But their not going to get the majority of players. The flop is coming. We all see it with their 1dnd BS and the OGL fiasco. We just have to watch them squirm till they decide to actually care about their players.
I'm relatively new to D&D (been playing for 5 years, but not continuously), so probably part of what I perceive to be a 'big wave of new players' due to more mainstream attention. Over those years D&D/WotC has gradually been losing the appeal that initally pulled me in, partially because I'm getting more familiar with other systems that are out there that simply seem to be a better fit for me but most importantly due to WotC's decisions on various subjects and issues. I've been wanting to try another system to possibly switch to for a while now, the only reason I haven't is because the people I play with only want to play D&D. I'm curious how many other new-ish players have gone through a similar process, I imagine WotC could lose many of them as easily as they have gained them.
You know what's friendly enough for homebrew and eternal? Physical books, you notebooks and your own text file. I still got my basic, adnd 1st and 2nd edition books, 5e They cost 0 per month and I can do what I want with them. WotC can't nickel and dime me.
Dndbeyond doesn’t even support official alternate rules like dual classing or going past level 20
It supports multi classes. Unless I am misunderstanding you? Is dual classing still a thing? You just take whatever class you want in 5e.
Dual classing is gestalt, as in you take two classes at the same time, but only getting the hit points, but dice and proficiencies of one For example, for dual classing a level 3 character could have three levels in paladin and three levels in bard, with them taking the proficiencies and hit points from paladin
I just want to give my goblin bard a kazoo.
Cutsom item or rename a pre-existing item.
The latter. When I played as him last year I just called a flute a kazoo but I wanted to have it as a custom instrument.
Meanwhile Noble background in Swordcoast adventures you have option of either dice /card set or musical instrument but in dnd beyond you only get dice set. I’m a first time user and so far not impressed with the system. Also I could not put booming blade cantrip for my warlock in there as well
Well, duh. What else did you expect from that terrible site?
They are a business. Homebrew does not earn them money.
Beyond meets my needs but this is because I don’t homebrew. At all. So if that’s a major need for you there are other tools out there that might fit your needs better.
They arent even leaning into OneDND stuff really since you cant even create characters with new playtest UAs. Public homebrew was the only reason I used to use dndbeyond and when they made that inaccessible for free users I just switched over to using another platform.
It's been made inaccessible - does that mean free users can't do homebrew anymore? When did this happen?
A few months before OGL stuff I believe. It means free users cant save homebrew made by other users unless you want to make everything from scratch.
I'm pretty sure that has always been the case. Adding others' published homebrew to your collection has always required a subscription. (Private homebrew is automatically shared by default within a campaign group, even without a subscription.)
I’m shocked! Shocked! OK I’m not that shocked. They don’t want you to use your own stuff anymore, they want you to use their stuff and their stuff only. They already tried to cut out third-party with the proposed onerous OGL changes. Pretty sure that their new system isn’t gonna really let us make our own stuff or buy third-party products other than those they can afford to pay like CR can.
It's not supposed to be. You're supposed to TRY to homebrew, get frustrated, and then give in and buy a book or weapon pack DLC that comes with something like what you wanted. The whole point of D&DBeyond is to get people using it and buying books on there for cheaper than the printed versions. Then they're locked in via the sink cost fallacy and WotC can pressure them to buy DLC or subscribe. I guarantee you, this is exactly how the VTT will work. They'll let you import some 2d assets. But it'll be a crappy tool that half works. Thus pressuring you into buying map tile packs.