D&D 5E (2014) D&D Beyond - What's it for?

[Delazar78]

I use the 2 Lion's Den apps (Fight Club and Game Master), which only costed me 3 euro each, IIRC.

I still don't see what Beyond does that it's not included in these much cheaper alternatives.

 

[guachi]

2. Looking up monsters. I don't have the entire MM memorized - I don't know what each creature does. During combat, I either have to have a copy of the stat block or the book in front of me and I am constantly shuffling papers around. Having monster stat blocks available to me at a click of the mouse sounds much more efficient.

What bothers me most about this feature being added is there is no good reason you should need this. A well-written adventure would have inline monster stats right there in the encounter. That the current 5e published adventures don't is a sign of atrocious layout and design and a big reason I won't be purchasing any WoTC published adventures probably ever.

 

[akr71]

[MENTION=6785802]guachi[/MENTION], I can't argue with you there... however the increased page count and therefore the cost might prevent me from buying many as well - and I already don't own many.

I write a lot of the adventures/encounters for my players already - what I would really love is the ability to 'drag and drop' WotC stat blocks or otherwise import them into my session prep documents.

 

[schnee]

What bothers me most about this feature being added is there is no good reason you should need this. A well-written adventure would have inline monster stats right there in the encounter.

What if you write your own?

We run a sandbox campaign with a lot of player driven choices, wilderness, and regional randomness. Instead of a 'well-written adventure' we have a patchwork of adventure hooks, character goals, and re-skinned content lifted in small to large chunks from a huge library of content from all versions of the game.

I think D&D Beyond will be fantastic for our game, especially since one player is on a 2-year sabbatical and Skypes in from places like Bali.

That the current 5e published adventures don't is a sign of atrocious layout and design and a big reason I won't be purchasing any WoTC published adventures probably ever.

I dunno, as a grognard, they're pretty good. Like the rest of 5E - not as tight as Moldvay Basic, or as expansive as 3.X, or as meandering as AD&D, or as mechanically harmonious as 4E - it seems to hit the Venn diagram right in the middle.

Besides, if you don't have to flip to four places in the book to solve a rule dispute, is that really D&D?

If this is so awful, what game is good, then?

 

[MrHotter]

If you play a game online or play with a tablet/PC at the table, then D&D Beyond should save you a lot of book searching.

As someone who has already purchased the 5E Fight Club apps and another character creator app, I'm looking forward to having an online app that has official support from WotC.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Those are exactly the two use cases that are making me consider it also.

The same for me as well, along with:

3. With me getting the $6 subscription tier, I and my group can share all the books we purchase in DDB. Some of the people I play with can't even afford the PHB, let alone any of the other products, so this allows everyone access to everything, at a much lower cost.

Sent from my VS987 using EN World mobile app

 

[ninjayeti]

I write a lot of the adventures/encounters for my players already - what I would really love is the ability to 'drag and drop' WotC stat blocks or otherwise import them into my session prep documents.

You can cut and paste stat blocks (plus spells, etc.) into a document from one of the online versions of the 5E System Reference Docs (www.Open5E.com and www.5thSRD.org both work well). It is not perfect - you will need to tweak the formatting, and the SRD doesn't have everything, but it is free and easy. I have been using it for session prep for a while now and it is a big time saver.

 

[fjw70]

I use the 2 Lion's Den apps (Fight Club and Game Master), which only costed me 3 euro each, IIRC.

I still don't see what Beyond does that it's not included in these much cheaper alternatives.

DDB has all the character building stuff, all the monsters, and all the magic items, in addition to ebooks for all the official books (including adventures).

 

[akr71]

You can cut and paste stat blocks (plus spells, etc.) into a document from one of the online versions of the 5E System Reference Docs (www.Open5E.com and www.5thSRD.org both work well). It is not perfect - you will need to tweak the formatting, and the SRD doesn't have everything, but it is free and easy. I have been using it for session prep for a while now and it is a big time saver.

I'll have to give that a try - thanks.

 

[Ristamar]

...and the SRD doesn't have everything, but it is free and easy.

That's a bit of an understatement as it pertains to class archetypes, spells, or monsters. It's a handy tool as a basic rules reference, but it's sorely lacking as a comprehensive core manual.