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

 

[JEB]

We will have to see what it looks like in a Few weeks. I think the change will be less extreme than you are expecting.

@pukunui's list there was literally copied from D&D Beyond, as seen in the OP.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Please. WotC hasn't claimed it's too difficult technically, that's us speculating from the sidelines.

WotC has an interest in moving towards the new ruleset. Those in charge don't feel supporting both rulesets as separate things is worthwhile. Some of us fans are on board with that, others are not. Shrug.

Roll20 does not have an interest in moving fans to the new ruleset. Their interest is too support what folks are playing, or to try and get ahead of that.

A real shame that WotC's interest is not to support what folks are playing.

 

[Micah Sweet]

We will have to see what it looks like in a Few weeks. I think the change will be less extreme than you are expecting.

They were pretty clear about the changes they're making.

Look, people have different opinions about how significant these changes are, both in general (5.0 to 5.5) and specifically as it relates to D&D Beyond. These are personal opinions (not facts), and everyone would be better off respecting the personal opinions (not facts) of others here.

 

[DinoInDisguise]

A real shame that WotC's interest is not to support what folks are playing.

And it's not hard. Just adding a tag, like Sly Flourish pointed out was done with Kobold Press' material, would be all that is needed. So it's clearly a conscious choice to try and force the change. Just like the decision to not change the name, it's just more 5e. It's all an attempt to mask the change so WotC can have their cake, selling you new books, and eat it too, still sell you the existing stock of old stuff.

I don't think pukunui will be the only person to feel the frustration of having rules changes thrust upon them mid-campaign. And I doubt those players will be inspired by that frustration.

 

[pukunui]

I have a player who likes playing warlocks but who has been pretty ambivalent about switching to the new rules. If I were to let him keep playing a 2014 warlock on D&D Beyond, if he took any 2014 invocations that grant a spell, the tooltips on his character sheet would point him to the 2024 versions of those spells.

Yes, we can work around that, but it defeats the purpose of using the D&D Beyond digital character sheet, which is the convenience of having rules references hotlinked via tooltips and the like. For me, that is the main draw of using D&D Beyond as a player. (As a DM, it's more the Encounter Builder and now the Maps feature. (The latter will still be usable, but the former will give me 2014 monsters with tooltips that point to 2024 rules.)

 

[SkidAce]

It seems the simple and easiest choice. I just don't understand the upset of some fans over the revised rules changes and how DDB is supporting them.

Because its not just the tool tips. Its the items and spells on your 2014 sheet that will be involuntarily updated to 2024.

 

[Blue]

Which is why they are updating the tooltips to the 2024 versions.

Serious question: is anyone upset you can't access the original Elemental Evil Player's Guide version of the Goliath? Or the elf-only SCAG version of the bladesinger? Or the original Orc stats from Volo? Maybe the uncapped version of Healing Spirit? All those things got eratta'd out or replaced in subsequent books. Should D&D Beyond allow me to use the originals in the database and tooltips? Should I have a choice which version of Goliath I want to appear when I hover over it?

Because DnDBe is treating 2024 like a massive errata dump for 5e. Just like MotM did for Volo and ToF or Tasha and Xanathar did its reprinted options. At a certain point, every piece of errata would create a divergent entry and the site would clog up with hundreds of the same thing only with various changes and the character sheet trying to find the correct version of green flame blade you're using.

Are my 2014-2023 books going to be errata'd? Monsters updated with the Magic Action, every spell, class and subclass, piece of equipment errata'd? Errata happens to existing books. Will all of my books be updated without any purchase?

If not, this isn't an errata and it is disingenuous to call it as such. Look up the definition of errata, it's corrections to a previously published work. If they are not putting out corrections to the 2014 books, it's not errata by definition.

There is a full RPG system that started in 2014 and went on for around 10 years that many of us are in the midst of running campaigns for. Many of us want to change at our own rate. Finish an existing campaign without character changes. Or even wait until all three books are out and then adopt them together. Or never change for whatever reason we have, regardless if others agree with it.

 

[Blue]

They have no real incentive to support 2014. They want people to buy 2024. Roll20 has no such conflict of interests.

They have sold 2014 books and are not refunding them. They have an obligation to support it. Incentive doesn't get to overrule that unless we the consumer all roll over and show our bellies by not holding them to that obligation.

Tell them you want your 2014-2023 purchases to work correctly,without mixed rules or not showing your 2014 tooltips, or you want a refund. Enough people do this, they will remember their obligation.

 

[Daztur]

I'm upset about the way in which they are going about it. I've had gaming groups break up over GMs wanting to change the rules mid-campaign, and here WotC is forcing every single one of its D&D Beyond users to do just that if they want to keep using the tool's main functionality. What's worse, because the three core rulebooks aren't all coming out at once, the changes will be happening in chunks over the next six months.


Oh, I think a lot of the changes will be subtle ... and so a lot of people who haven't been paying attention won't notice, which will likely lead to confusion, arguments, and/or tedious rule-referencing at the table. Things like:

DM: "You gain a level of exhaustion, that means you have disadvantage on ability checks."
Player: "What? No, my character sheet says I just get a -1 penalty."
DM: "That's the new rule. I'm not using that rule. Go to the 2014 PHB in the compendium and look up the old exhaustion rule."

Or it might be something like:

Player: "My wolf companion attacks the troll. He hits and knocks the troll prone!"
DM: "Uh, no, the troll gets to make a save to stay standing ... which he passes."
Player: "What?! My wolf statblock just says on a hit the target is knocked prone! No save!"



Yeah, no thanks. I'll just go back to using pen-and-paper so we can all be using the same rules.

Yeah, this is the exact scenario that I can see playing out over and over especially if it crops up in the middle of a campaign. I run everything solely on pencil and paper (because old) but I've had players with Beyond on their tablet and use that for everything at the table. They often didn't know the rules well so they used the tooltips on beyond to tell them what to roll etc. having a whole slew of these tooltips suddenly be swapped out for something unfamiliar is going to cause a lot of confusion at a lot of tables.

On another thread I've been doing on (and on and on and on) about stuff that I care about like the Command spell changes in 5.5e that I don't think most newbies are even going to notice, but this naughty word is going to create a good bit of backlash from casual players.

I don't think this was a good move on WotC part, bringing people to 5.5e with the carrot seems to make more sense than the stick, at least until the majority of players have gotten used to 5.5e, they should really wait for people to get acclimated before they start phasing out 5e stuff.

 

[bedir than]

They're attempting to clarify the changes.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/news-announcements/204068-news-clarifications-on-the-2024-d-d-beyond