D&D General Data from a million DnDBeyond character sheets?

[Ferrousbones]

I've played many games without backgrounds or by choosing 2 additional skills only. I don't know how common that is but i'd be hesitant to assume 15% of the characters simply didn't finish selecting a background especially given my experiences. That's a ton of class, race and other data to arbitrarily throw out just because the background is missing.

Well, since each background grants not just 2 skill proficiencies, but also proficiency in 2 languages/tools, plus some equipment, plus a possibly useful feature, it would seem strange for a full player character to lack some form of background.

I know little about how Beyond functions.

I haven't used it in months, but when I did have an account, I noticed that at least for races, you could see, though not select, those races beyond those you paid to access. I just don't remember if that applies to subclasses or not.

 

[Oofta]

Does it force the other selections? Race, Class, Stats, etc?

It looks like it? Of course some of this data could be people starting to create a character and then closing their browser. No background could easily be caused by a custom background.

 

[FrogReaver]

Well, since each background grants not just 2 skill proficiencies, but also proficiency in 2 languages/tools, plus some equipment, plus a possibly useful feature, it would seem strange for a full player character to lack some form of background.

I haven't used it in months, but when I did have an account, I noticed that at least for races, you could see, though not select, those races beyond those you paid to access. I just don't remember if that applies to subclasses or not.

IME, One of the most common things to change about character creation is backgrounds.

 

[FrogReaver]

It looks like it? Of course some of this data could be people starting to create a character and then closing their browser. No background could easily be caused by a custom background.

I'm wondering if it accepts "Blank" as a customer background name.

 

[Ferrousbones]

No background could easily be caused by a custom background.

IME, One of the most common things to change about character creation is backgrounds.

I'm wondering if it accepts "Blank" as a customer background name.

So, is it possible to see whether a character has a custom background in the data?

 

[FrogReaver]

So, is it possible to see whether a character has a custom background in the data?

I have all the names, but no direct indicator if it’s custom. Would need a list to check against.

 

[Ferrousbones]

Would need a list to check against.

Well, from what I remember, there are almost 100 official backgrounds, and even though some of them are functional duplicates of others, that still means dozens.

Sadly, like with subclasses, the only place I know of that has such a list, particularly in a useful form, is listed as piracy.

 

[ichabod]

Multiquote isn't working for me, so here are my thoughts to various things:

I'd want to look at keeping all the classes more. There's a lot of munchkin stuff in the data. There's a 1,000+ characters with point buy scores high enough to get all 18's as starting abilities. I assumed the odd classes were part of that. But maybe that could be taken care of by trimming out the munchkin stuff directly. And remember: all the abilities in the data are starting abilities. Racial bonuses, items, and ASIs are not included. I don't think class features are either, but I'd have to check to be sure. That's why I was using point buy score to trim the data. I was trying to find an upper bound for a 4d6 drop low character. So if you are going to trim by ability scores I would actually used 3-18, since that covers rolling and point buy.

I have a list of subclasses I used for subsetting the data. Since there are concerns about piracy I will not post it here.

I believe you can have a character without race and class, but that it is not viewable, so it should not be part of this data set. D&D Beyond does not force abilities, which is how so many characters in the data have all 0's or all 8's.

I could try looking into the backgrounds more, by finding no-background leveled characters and checking the JSON. Maybe over the weekend.

 

[FrogReaver]

Multiquote isn't working for me, so here are my thoughts to various things:

I'd want to look at keeping all the classes more. There's a lot of munchkin stuff in the data. There's a 1,000+ characters with point buy scores high enough to get all 18's as starting abilities. I assumed the odd classes were part of that. But maybe that could be taken care of by trimming out the munchkin stuff directly. And remember: all the abilities in the data are starting abilities. Racial bonuses, items, and ASIs are not included. I don't think class features are either, but I'd have to check to be sure. That's why I was using point buy score to trim the data. I was trying to find an upper bound for a 4d6 drop low character. So if you are going to trim by ability scores I would actually used 3-18, since that covers rolling and point buy.

I have a list of subclasses I used for subsetting the data. Since there are concerns about piracy I will not post it here.

I believe you can have a character without race and class, but that it is not viewable, so it should not be part of this data set. D&D Beyond does not force abilities, which is how so many characters in the data have all 0's or all 8's.

I could try looking into the backgrounds more, by finding no-background leveled characters and checking the JSON. Maybe over the weekend.

Did I miss the JSON if this data?

 

[Oofta]

I'm wondering if it accepts "Blank" as a customer background name.

Maybe? It would be helpful if we could create a character or ten and look at what we get.