epithet
Explorer
Without spending any money, your character has only one feat available (grappler) and a limited selection of classes and races available. Your dragonborn, for example, could be a draconic bloodline sorcerer, but try making a wild magic or divine soul sorc. Can't do it without buying an entire book.
The subscription becomes necessary if you want more than a few (I think it's four, but I'm not certain) characters. If you wanted to use it to keep track of your characters from a couple of different campaigns, and then build three new ones to help you decide which one you wanted to play, well... too bad.
Honestly, the subscription doesn't bug me much. It isn't a big expense, and it would probably be worth it to have an online character repository with a robust character builder/levelling tool. The part that is a non-starter for me is the idea that I should buy a THIRD copy (hardcover, Fantasy Grounds) of the PH, Volo's, Xanathar's, SCAG, etc. just to be able to use the character options therein on the [fornicating] character builder. Screw that. Also, it is a lie to say that I'd be buying the book... I'd be renting it. Some day there will be a new edition of D&D, and 5e will no longer be supported on D&DB--it is inevitable. Do you think they'll give everyone who "bought" a book on that service a "free" pdf version through the Dungeon Master's Guild? I guess it's possible, but it would surprise the hell out of me.
Look, the D&DB character tool isn't terrible in terms of its design and so forth. If it came populated with all of the character classes and races, well... it would be acceptable. I'm not a big fan of the way it takes you by the hand and tries to impose a particular process on your character generation (which isn't the process I always follow) but it would be usable. For the price, though? Come on, man. I guess if all you want to do is keep track of one dragonborn sorcerer in a campaign without feats, then yeah--the price is right for you. If what you want is to be able to have access to the full range of character options to build several characters, though, then you're getting royally screwed on the deal. Even if you're ok with renting your game books from D&DB, you're still not getting a chargen tool that's worth actually paying for.
