D&D Fan Rewrites the 5E Player's Handbook Index

Yeah, the index is a running joke in my group.

Sorry, but I don't have time to contribute right now, but I'll be interested to see how this thread goes.

 

[delericho]

The idea of buying another 150 dollars of books, well cheaper on Amazon, just over a year after buying them originally is not making me happy.

Yeah.

3e/3.5e I thought were going to fall apart but they held together fine.

I remember reading Ryan Dancey talking about the abuse they put the 3e PHB through just to make sure of the binding, and thinking it was excessive. But now I'm really quite glad of it - I used those books extensively for years (mostly 3.5e), and they're still solid.

(My 2nd Ed books haven't held up quite so well, but those got even more abuse over the years. And they still didn't actually lose any pages, though some were loose by the end.)

 

[daveb22]

Very cool, many thanks

 

[copperdogma]

I'm excited to use this for my games! Is this something that is still in the process of being updated? Or is the link in the OP to the final version?

As far as I know I'm done. I ASSUME, though, that I have a bunch of mistakes/omissions that I'll find or people will tell me about and I'll incorporate them and keep updating the github repository with the newest version.

There's also a searchable mobile web version in the works.

 

[copperdogma]

Awesome, thanks! I look forward to using this!

PS: Will you update this thread if you do make changes?

If I make major changes I'll update this thread. If they're just minor additions I'm just going to update the repository.

There's a subscribe function on the github repository. I'd subscribe to that directly if you're interested in the little updates as they trickle out.

 

[Marandahir]

No doubt! It also feels like the released it like software: rush it out and patch it later. But it's not software. It's a book. You can't patch it (aside from what I did with this index).

I'd rather they release the PHB as an app, complete with dynamic search, live examples, videos, easily accessible tables, dice roller, DM tools, etc. Whatever would help comprehension. Then they could update it as they go. I'd buy that in a second. I'd miss paper, but I wouldn't miss it THAT much.

The 4e Compendium was like that.

It was also hated by the D&D Design team, since it was created for the sake of the Digital Team, and basically gave away the books for free (or rather, the low price of a monthly digital fee that went to the Digital department, not the actual creators of the content).

It would be nice to have a 5e Compendium program, where, like with Fantasy Grounds, you can opt into any books you buy for it (so it adds them piecemeal). However, Fantasy Grounds requires buying the books over again. If your purchase of them in Fantasy Grounds opted you into their usage in a Compendium function, that might make the double purchase more worthwhile, but it's still painful to buy a book twice.

In addition, the Fantasy Grounds/digital purchase still runs us into that same issue of "where does the money go?" The creators didn't get properly compensated last edition due to so much emphasis on digital. Not to mention, anything homebrewed or from a 3rd party wouldn't end up in the Compendium, and thus became far less desirable to consumers who used the Compendium and Character Builder last generation. We don't want a repeat of that. 5e is currently far more friendly to 3rd party and homebrew content, and that's largely due to the LACK of reliance on digital.

 

[delericho]

The 4e Compendium was like that.

It was also hated by the D&D Design team, since it was created for the sake of the Digital Team, and basically gave away the books for free (or rather, the low price of a monthly digital fee that went to the Digital department, not the actual creators of the content).

The Design team were wrong. The Compendium was probably the single best thing about 4e.

As for the allocation of profit to departments - that's an internal problem at WotC. It shouldn't be beyond them to fix it. Say by allocating it all to an overall "D&D" team.

Not to mention, anything homebrewed or from a 3rd party wouldn't end up in the Compendium, and thus became far less desirable to consumers who used the Compendium and Character Builder last generation. We don't want a repeat of that.

If it's a choice between a 5e Compendium and third-party support, I'll take the Compendium.

Besides, at the moment we don't officially have either - all existing 5e third-party materials are using the SRD intended for 3e, and doing so despite WotC's expressed preference that they wait.

 

[darjr]

The basic rules are in a hyperlinked website at WoTC

 

[Marandahir]

I agree that the Compendium was the best thing for a DM about 4e.

I don't agree that it's necessarily a good thing for the game.
If there was a Compendium like tool that you could plug-in 3rd-party content (even if you had to write in the entries yourself), then I'd be all for it. But there were huge issues with 4e's tools making 3rd-party content second-class citizens.

Even using the 3e OGL and SRD, 5e is operating a world of a difference.

 

[Radaceus]

Excellent resource, well done and thank you [MENTION=6804654]copperdogma[/MENTION]!

 

[CapnZapp]

http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/DnD_SpellLists_1.0.pdf

It sucks that each spell description entry doesn't have which classes that have the spell.

The entry for Fireball should have a line "Wizard 3, Sorcerer 3, Cleric Light 3,... "

No separate list can fix that crucial omission.