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

 

[pukunui]

Can anyone using DnDBeyond clarify if WotC just went reneged on what they said and forced the 2024 Free Rules into 2014 games? I'm seeing a complaint from today on FB about it from someone who is running a 2014 campaign and the 2024 Free Rules started infecting all the characters, even though their options are set for 2014.

I'm just looking at the 2014 characters I've got in my DDB campaigns, and I'm not seeing anything new. Heroic Inspiration and the changes to grappling / shoving were forced on us back in September. Other rules tooltips and such still seem to be pointing to the 2014 versions - or in the case of something like conditions, it provides both (with the 2024 version at the top and the legacy 2014 version at the bottom) - but again, that's not a recent change.

Are you able to link to or post a screenshot of the complaints you're seeing?

EDIT: In fact, I can confirm that in the character sheet back-end, I can still filter spells by "[2024] core rules", "expanded rules", and "2014 core rules". Any player who is playing in a 2014 campaign can toggle off the "[2024] core rules" and just have the other two on and then they can't accidentally pick any 2024 versions of spells when making their character / leveling up / changing their prepared spells.

I can also still filter equipment in the character sheet backend (on the Equipment tab). It has even more source category filtering options than the spells section: "[2024] core rules", "expanded rules", "2014 core rules", "legacy", "Critical Role", "Minecraft", and "Homebrew".

I've heard that there's limited access for DMs to control which ruleset's content their players can use in shared campaigns, but I've never used Beyond that way so I can't confirm anything first-hand.

Not being able to filter between 2014 and 2024 versions of things like spells and magic items is annoying, yes. However, it's not any more annoying than not being able to filter out content from specific books I own on DDB. For instance, I own the Acq Inc book, but I don't want to include its content in every game I run. But there's no way for me to filter out that content without also filtering out all the other "Expanded Rules" content. I'd love to be able to toggle each book's content individually, but it's currently only possible to do that with the compendium, not the character sheet.

So for me, having to tell a player "You can't choose that spell because it's a 2024 spell" is no worse than having to tell the player "You can't choose the Jim's Magic Missile spell because I'm not allowing any Acq Inc content in this game" or even "You can't choose Leomund's Tiny Hut because I've banned that spell for this campaign".

 

[LaTia J]

I cast Summon @LaTia J!

Hello! Thanks for your patience and understanding that I get as FAR away from work as possible on the weekends! What's the question?

 

[pukunui]

Hello! Thanks for your patience and understanding that I get as FAR away from work as possible on the weekends! What's the question?

All good! @Blue cast Revivify on the thread with this post:

Can anyone using DnDBeyond clarify if WotC just went reneged on what they said and forced the 2024 Free Rules into 2014 games? I'm seeing a complaint from today on FB about it from someone who is running a 2014 campaign and the 2024 Free Rules started infecting all the characters, even though their options are set for 2014.

I've just been doing some testing and am not seeing anything new myself, but I thought you might be able to confirm or deny either way.

 

[Belen]

Supporting multiple versions of D&D on DDB goes directly against the strategic goal that WotC very clearly laid out with the announcement of OneD&D: that they wanted to shift from an editions-based sales model, for a whole bunch of pretty good reasons, to a new model in which the game was allowed to incrementally evolve.

I agree with that strategy. However, I think they screwed up by making the changes to the newest version of 5e just enough that some folks have decided it's too much of a change, and so that there are a few glaring difference that are a problem on DDB (e.g. druids, weapon masteries). If they had kept the changes to a Tasha's level, I don't think we'd be having this conversation. Folks aren;t too worked up about the DMG or MM, for example - it's the PHB.

It's not exactly true that DDB was never intended to support multiple versions of the game. For instance, it had no problem supporting players who bought Tasha's and those who didn't. And it's supporting the current situation pretty well, but obviously some adjustments are needed.

I don't think WotC should enshrine the 2014 rules. I think that traps them back in perpetual editions wars. I think it's worth taking a small hit to break free of that terrible business model.

I disagree. People are still playing OD&D so a better solution would be to become the single source for all D&D games.

They handle different versions of 5e such as LOTR on DDB already so it is no different.

The main issue is that people paid for access to the 2014 content in the character builder.

It would have been easier to create a toggle and keep everyone happy.

Instead, a ton of folks left for roll20 etc and they further eroded their product, especially as they made a flawed revision.

 

[J-H]

Hello! Thanks for your patience and understanding that I get as FAR away from work as possible on the weekends! What's the question?

Hi!
Some of us have experienced numerous problem running 2014 games because players who are less detail-oriented or aware of the differences accidentally create characters that use 5.24 content.

Would it be possible to get a checkbox in the allowed sources section to disable 2024 rules entirely for a character, such that they only see 2014 species, classes, backgrounds, items, spells, etc.?

Without this, if you want to build a Human Fighter with 5e rules, you have to go to the Class section and scroll past the 5.24 Fighter to get to the 5e Fighter, then with Species scroll past the 5.24 Human with its wonky initiative bookkeeping to get to the 5e Human, etc.

I have experienced this both in person and on forum games with multiple players in each environment. Even with players on a D&D forum who are presumably likely to know the difference have had this problem.
It was especially frustrating telling an older adult who showed up for a one-shot with a character, sure that he'd been careful to use the correct ruleset, that he had selected the 5.24 species and class traits after all. We had to rebuild his character and reprint it before starting play, which held things up for everyone and made him feel bad. He's a nice guy but not so great with the rule details.

After repeated instances of this, I have had to start actively telling people to not use D&D Beyond to create characters for my D&D games due to the amount of confusion it causes.

Even for my own characters as a player, I have switched new active characters away from Beyond. My newest character uses a lance, and Beyond will only display the 5.24 stats for the weapon instead of the correct stats for the rules we are all playing with.

A simple one-click way to disable the entire set of 5.24 rules when they are unwanted would resolve this problem for the majority of users. It would make the people who have spent time complaining on the Beyond forums with no response pretty happy too.

 

[LaTia J]

All good! @Blue cast Revivify on the thread with this post:



I've just been doing some testing and am not seeing anything new myself, but I thought you might be able to confirm or deny either way.

Gotcha. I have not been made aware of any changes to how the rules are represented on DDB. I do know that it can be very confusing for a player who's only trying to use the 2014 versions of things, as they've been relegated to a toggle in the Character Builder and are no longer the default.

I'd make sure that the 2014 toggle has been selected so that players have access to those rules, and that they're scrolling down to choose the 2014 Core Rules options in every menu where that's an option; the 2024 Core Rules are now the top option for every menu and the 2014 Core Rules are third, I believe, after Expanded Rules and before Partnered Content.

If there's anything else or if I didn't cover the question accurately, I may have to do some digging to clarify, but TL;DR, we aren't pulling any sneaky moves.

 

[LaTia J]

Hi!
Some of us have experienced numerous problem running 2014 games, because players who are less detail oriented or aware of the differences accidentally create characters that use 5.24 content.

Would it be possible to get a checkbox in the allowed sources section to disable 2024 rules entirely for a character, such that they only see 2014 species, classes, items, spells, etc.?

You're not the first person to request this and I know you won't be the last. I can certainly pass the feature request along!

 

[J-H]

Thank you! It's encouraging to know that someone at WOTC is at least aware of this

 

[LaTia J]

Thank you! It's encouraging to know that someone at WOTC is at least aware of this

Happy to do what I can! Thanks for understanding

 

[Clint_L]

Instead, a ton of folks left for roll20 etc and they further eroded their product, especially as they made a flawed revision.

Citation needed.