D&D (2024) How D&D Beyond Will Handle Access To 2014 Rules

D&D Beyond has announced how the transition to the new 2024 edition will work on the platform, and how legacy access to the 2014 version of D&D will be implemented.

• You will still be able to access the 2014 Basic Rules and core rulebooks.
• You will still be able to make characters using the 2014 Player's Handbook.
• Existing home-brew content will not be impacted.
• These 2014 rules will be accessible and will be marked with a 'legacy' badge: classes, subclasses, species, backgrounds, feats, monsters.
• Tooltips will reflect the 2024 rules.
• Monster stat blocks will be updated to 2024.
• There will be terminology changes (Heroic Inspiration, Species, etc.)

D&D (2024) - Wizards of the Coast Backtracks on D&D Beyond and 2014 Content

Wizards of the Coast posted an overnight update stating that they are not going forward with previously released plans to require those wishing to use some 2014 content on D&D Beyond to use the Homebrew function to manually enter it. Instead, all the content including spells and magic items will...

www.enworld.org

 

[Micah Sweet]

And then the secret subtext is

"Players will love having powered up spells! Many of them heal more and do more damage! Cool for players right?"

"Yeah, screw the DMs. Challenge Ratings are already only vague approximations so if we throw off CR calculations that DMs are already using, who cares? It's a mess anyway."

That subtext seems less secret every day.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

That's not an educated position. About as many spells were nerfed as increased in power. Most changes though were just fixing unintended stuff or clarifying stuff, like errata.

Oh is that right? Many spells have been nerfed? I got the impression from the WotC defenders of this decision in this thread that all the spells were all "better." I would imagine then in many cases that players would be upset to discover their favorite spell was nerfed if they were forced to switch. Seems like the logical decision then is, instead of surprising people with a mix of power-ups and power downs--let the DM decide to make the transition or not.

I will also admit that my uneducated opinion was spawned by this thread on EN World: D&D (2024) - 2024 Player's Handbook preview: "New Spells" which listed lots of powerups. If it is the case that roughly as many were nerfed as powered-up, then all the more reason not to force adoption.

 

[mamba]

Nope.

I'm sure is

"The 2024 spells are better. We are giving them for free. The fans will be happy to get the better more balanced spells for free. The system is even going to automatically update it for them."

"But what if they want the old spells?"

"The broken spells. What maybe 20 people? Are we going to give a whole programming team a week of overtime for 20 customers?"

So 2) then

 

[Daztur]

That's not an educated position. About as many spells were nerfed as increased in power. Most changes though were just fixing unintended stuff or clarifying stuff, like errata.

Whether that position is "educated" or not is irrelevant. Obviously many people (rightly or wrongly) don't see things that way, enough people that they forced WotC to backtrack. The fact that WotC clearly didn't expect a backlash of this size is a clear sign that they don't have their finger on the pulse of the player base as this backlash was soooooooooo obvious to most people ahead of time to many people.

 

[Minigiant]

So basically #1 then. Nobody in the room thought that there would be a big backlash over this when there being a big backlash over this was incredibly predictable. If they didn't see this backlash coming then they need to hire new people who have a better sense of what the customer base wants and expects because right now their current staff seems to be really really bad at that very simple thing.

So 2) then

One person says 1. Another says 2.

Can't be both.

 

[Mistwell]

Oh is that right? Many spells have been nerfed? I got the impression from the WotC defenders of this decision in this thread that all the spells were all "better."

Yes, I would argue the spells are "better." Better doesn't mean "more powerful." The Simulacrum spell now saying the simulacrum you create cannot also cast the spell Simulacrum and cannot gain the benefit of resting is a "better" version of the Simulacrum spell because it clarifies something in question (can it rest?) and closes an unintended loophole (endless simulacrums).

I would imagine then in many cases that players would be upset to discover their favorite spell was nerfed if they were forced to switch.

Doubtful. DMs were often outright banning the spells that got nerfed, or asking their players to not choose it, or house ruling them. It's not like they did much to common "favorite" spells (fireball is fireball). They fixed things people were generally unhappy about. Either because they were useless as written (True Strike) or so overpowered as written that no DM wanted to deal with it baring a house rule (Simulacrum) or the rule was so weird few even realized they were not using it as written (Magic Missile, which was supposed to be rolling one die and multiplying the result by the number of missiles, but everyone was rolling each missile so they just finally changed it to reflect that).

Seems like the logical decision then is, instead of surprising people with a mix of power-ups and power downs--let the DM decide to make the transition or not.

For us, this is usually a joint decision between the players and DM. A decision it's hard to make when you cannot see the new version without paying for it. We were going to get the new version for free, and still have access to the old version in the digital book and with the homebrew tab. I am guessing a huge number of the spell fixes WOTC applied are going to be preferred by groups, particularly since most of them are clarifications over issues which caused debates at tables.

I will also admit that my uneducated opinion was spawned by this thread on EN World: D&D (2024) - 2024 Player's Handbook preview: "New Spells" which listed lots of powerups. If it is the case that roughly as many were nerfed as powered-up, then all the more reason not to force adoption.

So far I've been much more upset about spells which were not changed but should have been changed. Why does Find Traps still not find traps but instead just detects they are around somewhere the same as it did in 2014?

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

Yes, I would argue the spells are "better." Better doesn't mean "more powerful." The Simulacrum spell now saying the simulacrum you create cannot also cast the spell Simulacrum and cannot gain the benefit of resting is a "better" version of the Simulacrum spell because it clarifies something in question (can it rest?) and closes an unintended loophole (endless simulacrums).




Doubtful. DMs were often outright banning the spells that got nerfed, or asking their players to not choose it, or house ruling them. It's not like they did much to common "favorite" spells (fireball is fireball). They fixed things people were generally unhappy about. Either because they were useless as written (True Strike) or so overpowered as written that no DM wanted to deal with it baring a house rule (Simulacrum) or the rule was so weird few even realized they were not using it as written (Magic Missile, which was supposed to be rolling one die and multiplying the result by the number of missiles, but everyone was rolling each missile so they just finally changed it to reflect that).



For us, this is usually a joint decision between the players and DM. A decision it's hard to make when you cannot see the new version without paying for it. We were going to get the new version for free, and still have access to the old version in the digital book and with the homebrew tab. I am guessing a huge number of the spell fixes WOTC applied are going to be preferred by groups, particularly since most of them are clarifications over issues which caused debates at tables.


So far I've been much more upset about spells which were not changed but should have been changed. Why does Find Traps still not find traps but instead just detects they are around somewhere the same as it did in 2014?

Ironically, we agree on player agency. I don't want to pull the rug out from under my players by telling them the spells on their character sheet changed to 2024. But I also don't want to have to spend extra labor to homebrew existing standard spells and magic items for them to keep what they have. Also, I don't want to change ANYTHING about the system I've been running for 5 years in a fully home-brewed world. So don't rock my boat by forcing a change down my throat and someone else's opinion that they are "better." I'd rather maintain agency and my time. They do it with monsters. Legacy monsters are tagged as such. Tag them Legacy spells or Legacy Items and 2024 versions. Don't offload labor onto already time-constrained DMs.

 

[Remathilis]

And then the secret subtext is

"Players will love having powered up spells! Many of them heal more and do more damage! Cool for players right?"

"Yeah, screw the DMs. Challenge Ratings are already only vague approximations so if we throw off CR calculations that DMs are already using, who cares? It's a mess anyway."

Boy, it's a good thing they were going to give you the updated monsters in February to match.

Were.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

Boy, it's a good thing they were going to give you the updated monsters in February to match.

Were.

You have evidence they were planning to release updated monsters for free? Or you are just hypothesizing? They aren't releasing all updated 2024 classes for free on DDB from the PH so I'm not sure your guess here is accurate that they would have released all updated monsters for free. That said, the lesson here isn't that WotC shouldn't release updates for free...the lesson they can learn from this controversy is--tag old stuff as Legacy instead of deleting it, and then add what you want to give away as "2024" or "new" or whatever you want to call it. 5.5. So the DM can decide what to pull in.

 

[Nikosandros]

They were not going to release the monsters for free. Monsters were explicitly listed among those elements that would have a legacy version and a new version.