I voted no. The online CB has a lot of potential but as of now it's a step backwards in terms of functionality.
Good Stuff:
1. It's a web app.
2. It looks amazing and the UI is very user-friendly. I can't complement the WotC developers enough on this point: aside from some nagging performance issues and the absence of some functionality this has all the makings of a great application.
3. It has new content (Essentials and Dark Sun).
Bad Stuff:
1. It's sluggish. Attribute point buys, for example, are frustratingly slow. Sure it's a marvel of modern technology and I'm grateful to live in such wondrous times...but applications are judged by how well they perform and all those lost nano-seconds add up to a noticeable impact on my user experience.
2. House rules are MIA. For instance, a number of campaigns use the "free expertise feat" houserule: this can be accomplished in the old CB but not in the new one. Where is the little "house" button?
3. See
this list. Some of these are important (e.g., customizable character sheets, exporting character files, multiple weapon options for an attack).
There's no reason why the online CB can't be even better than the original. I hope they take advantage of the fact that this is a web app by building in some basic social networking features: being able to share your characters with your DM is one obvious feature; having a "rate my character" community feature would rock the world of many a char-op guru.
There's so much potential here, but as of launch day I'm unimpressed because it doesn't perform that well and it lacks important functionality. I'm paying just as much as I always did for DDI but getting a little bit less in return. I know they need to clamp down on piracy, but part of taking anti-piracy measures is creating a valuable product for your paying customers. I hope Wizards makes the online CB at least as robust as the offline CB.
