D&D 5E (2014) Official WotC 5e pdfs

[Remathilis]

I am ok with that, open up the 2014 books on DMsGuild, don’t care about the 2024 ones all that much anyway

Seeing as WotC doesn't view them as separate, I'm guessing you're going to have to wait until an incompatible 6e to get all the 5e books in PDF

 

[djotaku]

You're getting me off on my other rant that the whole industry should be publishing in Markdown and EPUB as well... Raging Swan is doing it. I'm doing it. Some others are doing it.

EPUBs give that same multi-platform flexibility, improved accessibility, archivability, and convertability but our industry is so built around PDFs that that's what we do. Making a good EPUB is hard. I'm lucky enough to have 30 years of web development experience so I can hammer out some HTML (which is essentially what EPUB is under the hood) but it takes hours of work to convert a book over. For me, it's worth giving people that extra flexibility.

I think you're awesome for doing that. Given the fact that the medium to big companies KP and Paizo charge extra for PDF (and I get it, it's not just layout - a good PDF has good hyperlinking), I can't imagine how much they'd charge for an epub. And at that point...if they're already pushing to demiplane....

What would be awesome (but maybe a pipe dream?) would be if they could find some kind of middle-ground where the fans could make the epub (some CC or open source hybrid) and therefore it could be given for free to people who buy the PDF? I'm not a huge fan of companies profiting off free labor, but if they're not willing to do it on their own...

I don't know, this industry is full of all kinds of weird one-off examples that aren't industry-standards. Like Paizo giving away all the rules for PF2e and SF2e which means the system can be free on Foundry and if you want the nice art, then you pay Paizo money. Or in my case, I like the books are art in, and of, themselves. So I buy the books even though all the rules are free. But no one is doing that. Probably because Paizo's money is from APs instead of the rules? But how cool would it be if WoTC did that? And Kobold Press? And everyone else? Because, as I said above, I understand it costs money to create a foundry module. I don't expect WoTC or KP or any company to give me that for free. But if the rules were free, then the community cna make the module. And the publisher can still make money on Adventure Paths, and token art, and other add-ons.

 

[djotaku]

Seeing as WotC doesn't view them as separate, I'm guessing you're going to have to wait until an incompatible 6e to get all the 5e books in PDF

I'm not a big fan of the constant pooping on WotC for 5.0 and 5.5 being the same, but in this case - you make a great point. They're too similar for WotC to put 5.0 out on DMG with 5.5 as the exclusive release.

sidenote: Now that we are a bout a year out from the 5.5 release I took a look back at the 2014 books and I will say that I think the biggest loss to me was the class flavor we lost when all the subclasses just became subclasses. (Instead of the flavor text that accompanied each one in 2014. I don't have the books in front of me, but like instead or rogue subclasses they were rogue criminal levels or something like that)

 

[mamba]

Seeing as WotC doesn't view them as separate, I'm guessing you're going to have to wait until an incompatible 6e to get all the 5e books in PDF

I am not even sure I will see them then, well ToV and A5e are offering theirs as PDFs, so I buy those instead

 

[Distracted DM]

I'm not a big fan of the constant pooping on WotC for 5.0 and 5.5 being the same, but in this case - you make a great point. They're too similar for WotC to put 5.0 out on DMG with 5.5 as the exclusive release.

sidenote: Now that we are a bout a year out from the 5.5 release I took a look back at the 2014 books and I will say that I think the biggest loss to me was the class flavor we lost when all the subclasses just became subclasses. (Instead of the flavor text that accompanied each one in 2014. I don't have the books in front of me, but like instead or rogue subclasses they were rogue criminal levels or something like that)

Oh ha I did not see this since I don't use most of the '24 stuff unless a player requests it. Yeah you are spot-on, wow.

Spoiler

5e14

5e24

5e14

5e24

Either they thought players would be confused because druids had circles and paladins had oaths, or they just wanted to genericize them all to the same term for other reasons.

 

[djotaku]

Oh ha I did not see this since I don't use most of the '24 stuff unless a player requests it. Yeah you are spot-on, wow.

Spoiler

5e14View attachment 428742

5e24View attachment 428743

5e14View attachment 428744

5e24View attachment 428745

Either they thought players would be confused because druids had circles and paladins had oaths, or they just wanted to genericize them all to the same term for other reasons.

EXACTLY! The changes do make it easier for brand new players if they don't have someone to onboard them. But I think anyone with enough ability to learn D&D could probably figure it out relatively quickly - especially since they all come at level 3 now instead of all over the place. (and I didn't have anyone to onboard me so I'm definitely empathetic. My kids wanted to play and so I bought a new player box and tried to learn from there. It was....rough....)

Which brings me to rant #2 about 2024 changes and subclasses - I don't mind having them all happen at the same level. What is, again, annoying is having it all happen at level 3. Once more I understand that for a BRAND NEW D&D player it gives them some time to play as their class before selecting a subclass. But for story reasons there are certain classes where it doesn't make sense - like Warlocks and their patrons and maybe even Clerics and their domains.

Although so far I've only played 5e (D&D both 5 and 5.5 and Tales of the Valiant) and Cosmere - I am familiar with how Paizo does things (via getting the rulebooks from Humble Bundle). I think Paizo does it best by having all the subclasses at level 1. It makes the most sense for RP for most classes. Also, having read it, but not having experience playing it (or GMing) - their archetype systems seems like a more elegant solution to multi-classing.

 

[Tigris]

Which brings me to rant #2 about 2024 changes and subclasses - I don't mind having them all happen at the same level. What is, again, annoying is having it all happen at level 3. Once more I understand that for a BRAND NEW D&D player it gives them some time to play as their class before selecting a subclass. But for story reasons there are certain classes where it doesn't make sense - like Warlocks and their patrons and maybe even Clerics and their domains.

Well official starting level now is level 3. Level 1 and 2 are only meant as tutorial for new players. So this "story reason" does not come into play unless you have beginners and then its good to have a simpler complexity.


And also flavour is free. You can call your subclass however you want. But having more vocabulary is confusing for new players and just increases the cognitive load for no reason.

 

[djotaku]

Yeah, as someone who spent a few years reading comics from the big 2 I'm familiar with this tension. If you've been reading for a while, you want complex stories that reference the past. If you're new, you want a basic starting point. Hence DC rebooting their universe every X years. And Marvel not necessarily rebooting, but doing things like creating the universe with Miles Morales and other shenanigans. In the end, it caused me to stop reading those comics as that tension led to unfulfilling stories. I moved to indie comics that have plans to end - eg Chew which ended after 50ish issues. Or Invincible or The Walking Dead.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I think you're awesome for doing that. Given the fact that the medium to big companies KP and Paizo charge extra for PDF (and I get it, it's not just layout - a good PDF has good hyperlinking), I can't imagine how much they'd charge for an epub. And at that point...if they're already pushing to demiplane....

What would be awesome (but maybe a pipe dream?) would be if they could find some kind of middle-ground where the fans could make the epub (some CC or open source hybrid) and therefore it could be given for free to people who buy the PDF? I'm not a huge fan of companies profiting off free labor, but if they're not willing to do it on their own...

I don't know, this industry is full of all kinds of weird one-off examples that aren't industry-standards. Like Paizo giving away all the rules for PF2e and SF2e which means the system can be free on Foundry and if you want the nice art, then you pay Paizo money. Or in my case, I like the books are art in, and of, themselves. So I buy the books even though all the rules are free. But no one is doing that. Probably because Paizo's money is from APs instead of the rules? But how cool would it be if WoTC did that? And Kobold Press? And everyone else? Because, as I said above, I understand it costs money to create a foundry module. I don't expect WoTC or KP or any company to give me that for free. But if the rules were free, then the community cna make the module. And the publisher can still make money on Adventure Paths, and token art, and other add-ons.

In a completely unrelated topic, some web clippers, like the Obsidian web clipper, are fantastic at grabbing HTML and turning it into Markdown. And there are scripts and tools to take markdown and turn it into epubs!