D&D Beyond

[Stryyke]

This seems like a good tool, but supremely expensive. What are people's thoughts on it?

[Mastikator]

Isn't it mostly the same price as buying the books from a store?

My opinion is that it's mostly useful for building characters since it does what little math there is for you, but it lacks many small (but key) features which feel like a constant hindered. I can make 90% of my characters in D&D beyond but I always have to take it out to finish it. (or make some custom feat, which feels like unnecessary hassle)
Never used the app, seen it used and it didn't inspire me to use it.

From a DMing point of view... I prefer worldanvil, or just windows Word. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[stoutstien]

I can't in good faith spend money on access to material through 3rd parties. Even if I did I'd rather spend it in way that allows me to utilize it like roll20. All n all it's not worth the cost IMO.

[J-H]

I prefer real books. I don't like the idea of renting instead of buying character slots, or re-buying books I have.

In general, I don't purchase anything that's software-as-a-service.

[nickl_2000]

My table uses it and loves it. Our DM got a master level account and has enabled sharing of books. So, as long as one person on the campaign owns the book everyone gets access to it online.

I don't like the character limiting on the free account, but you can export the characters easily to PDF and print it out to have a permanent copy.

[elyktsorb]

It's only really useful if your DM is using it, otherwise it's mostly a waste.

[Sparky McDibben]

Depends on what you're using it for. My players like it, but I never use it for DMing because I'm cheap as hell.

Beyond that...I always feel like if I'm spending money to avoid math, maybe I need to do more math?

[Cheesegear]

This seems like a good tool, but supremely expensive. What are people's thoughts on it?

During a lockdown, it was the only way we could play.

Outside of lockdown? As a PnP player...It's the devil.

It's exceptionally good for new players, or for quickly building a Level 1 character without too much hassle. New players don't actually have to know anything and they can get their character 'written' very quickly. However, I very much like to run my new players through their character sheet during character creation so I actually know that they know what they're looking at, and what the numbers mean. Which means it's bad for new players because it doesn't actually teach them anything.
...You're much better off having pre-printed premade characters.

Once you are experienced and already know what you want. The PitA drop-down menus and your inability to skip processes you already know how to do actually take longer than doing it by hand.

However, asinine load times and an unintuitive UI makes it problematic for finding specific information quickly, which makes it borderline useless during a game, inasmuch as you may as well just print out your character sheet. And, the instant you print out your character sheet...You no longer need DNDB. This is especially true for new players who not only don't understand what they're looking for (Where do I find Athletics? There's no Athletics button?), but they also don't know how to use the UI.

As a DM, I ****ing hate it. Because my players aren't the kind of people to bring tablets and laptops to our sessions, instead, using phones. When I ask my players a question, as well as the load times and confusing AI...They hand me their phone. With text so small it's actually a PitA to read, especially on the more complicated abilities. You may as well just print out your sheet, so you can just hand me your sheet, and I can read that without accidentally swiping or turning the screen off, or one or both of us taps the phone whilst in handover and suddenly I'm reading a different thing.
...Don't even get me started on a player losing battery halfway through a session.

As a DM, who plans encounters and designs stories, where I have complete access to a characters' scores and abilities...It's amazing. I know what my players' Skills are, so when I set a DC, I know what my players' chance of overcoming it, is. And whether or not it's unfair. Because I have all the time in the world and all the rules I could want at my fingertips...Which I then print out and take to the table.

Pros:
Good for creation and design, and online-only groups. Very, very good on a PC.
Good to give you a lot of 'default' information. Such as not having to write down that you have Darkvision, because once you select your species, you already have it or not.
Does maths for bads.
Good for sharing content.

Cons:
Bad for playing at the table. Anything you have on DNDB, you should print.
Incredibly bad for teaching new players about the game and what makes character sheets, work.
Annoying when you have to make a choice, but you already know what the choice, is.
Near-unusable on a phone.
Bad for sharing content that the DM doesn't want you to have.

[J-H]

Printing sheets from DNDB is dodgy. It doesn't seem to handle "these are spells I know, these are spells I have prepared" properly for wizard sheets, and some of my descriptive/history stuff never made it to PDF properly.

[Jophiel]

For DMing, too much of my stuff is off the map to rely on DnDB. Plus I only DM in-person games so I rely on paper anyway. As a player, I'd rather just use a sheet like More Purple More Better to do my math for me and print it out for table use.

More than once, I've seen someone not be able to get a signal or use their device at the table and be cut off from their character sheet. Granted, that's largely on them for not just printing a copy but, as said before, if you're going to print it anyway then there's better/cheaper options.

[FirstAgeMagic]

As someone who's bought into DnDBeyond a lot I'll say this. If you're paying for it, it's a great tool. I DM a lot of games, especially for new players, the Character Sheets off DNDBeyond are easy for them to put together, and everything is organized. What Bonus Actions do I have? I don't know, click your bonus actions tab. Oh Cool! What does this do? No idea, click on it and read what it says. Neat!

So that's the upside. The Downside as you (and everyone) has noted is yeah, I'm not thrilled with how much it costs. You pay for a subscription, then you repay for all the books you already own. I did it bit by bit for a few years and have basically just made peace with it, but I wouldn't just recommend someone else to do it unless you have the spending money and don't care. One of my regular players loves building characters so he's started just buying me things for my account because it's ultimately cheaper for him than buying his own account and such. So I made him a private campaign with source sharing enabled so he can go nuts. It's ended up being kind of funny and works out for us but I know that's not something everyone can/will do. (I never asked him to buy anything btw, he just started sending me gift codes one day).

So yeah, I love it. I really do, and pretty much all my players are happier having access to it, but I still don't think I'd automatically recommend it. Invest if you want just know that eventually, 6e or something will come out and that will be money you never get back.

[Keltest]

Its no substitute for real books and character sheets IMO, and not just because i like physical copies of stuff. Navigating a webpage is always going to be slower than just flipping a sheet of paper.

[Pex]

I like the convenience. I grew up using pencil and paper, but using the app is faster and cleaner. It's very easy to make a character pointing and clicking. Paying for book access i$ expen$ive. You don't necessarily need everything there, but it's not much different than buying the physical book you would get anyway. Depending how close your gaming group players/friends are, it's only necessary for one person to have the books. That person can share the content for everyone else. Even when the campaign ends he can still share access when you're in another game . Create your own campaign slot as if you were DM. Create your characters there. The person can create a character in it and while doing so share his content. This saves you a lot of money, though you do need to pay the subscription for access to the website itself if you want more character and campaign space than what you get for free.

[ProsecutorGodot]

. Navigating a webpage is always going to be slower than just flipping a sheet of paper.

Ctrl-F is an invaluable tool, I highly recommend it.

I think it's great. It's much easier than flipping through my books, even after having tabbed relevant chapters and entries. I can search specifically for what I need and it's shows up.

To begin with as well, half of our group is in a different state, traditional books aren't cost effective as they'd need to purchase their own copies. Instead I can purchase a single copy and share it worldwide.

I find that the digital character creation process also helps for new players to learn, it's especially helpful to be able to directly copy and paste features and traits into a roll 20 sheet so I don't have to type them out or purchase additional books on roll 20, which are only on roll20, DND beyond is as good as being able to carry all of my books with me so long as I have my phone.

If you're already purchasing physical books, it's obviously not cost effective to have to buy them again, that's understandable.

[PhantomSoul]

The layout, level-up fuss, and search functionality (e.g. I want a table with base information, not a list of things I have to annoyingly click) leave me not touching it even though one of my groups has a DM who has given us access to book content. (In my groups it's mixed for whether people use it -- if you do, get the app to be able to roll in Roll20 if you use that to make Beyond slightly less worthless.)

And as noted above, I feel like the limited things it calculates for you just makes things worse in practice; it seems to lower the barrier for new players because things are calculated for them... but the layout seems to work against it, things just don't update well and tracking things appears to be clunky at best (every single new level seems to be a challenge for things like HP), and it means the players often just never pick up what's going on in the game mechanically (and god forbid they be asked for a Charisma (Stealth) or something like that!). I gave up ages ago, so parts of this are based on continued frustration at the table expressed by people who usually now regret their sunk cost of having put time into making a Beyond sheet.

The spell tags generally seem like a good idea, and porting that to literally anything else would be great. I think that's really the only positive I can give it; the extension to connect it to Roll20 seems to be decent, but, uh, that's not-Beyond trying to give Beyond some functionality mostly already available in Roll20 sheets.

[Man_Over_Game]

It's worth noting that you can just buy individual pieces of a book. Player wants a specific subclass? 3 bucks.

[Stryyke]

Isn't it mostly the same price as buying the books from a store?

My opinion is that it's mostly useful for building characters since it does what little math there is for you, but it lacks many small (but key) features which feel like a constant hindered. I can make 90% of my characters in D&D beyond but I always have to take it out to finish it. (or make some custom feat, which feels like unnecessary hassle)
Never used the app, seen it used and it didn't inspire me to use it.

From a DMing point of view... I prefer worldanvil, or just windows Word. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm actually using World Anvil to write a book, but haven't really explored the D&D side of things. It seems like a great place to store a lot of information in a centralized location; but navigation seems a little complicated for a D&D campaign. How do your players find it, to use?

[FirstAgeMagic]

Its no substitute for real books and character sheets IMO, and not just because i like physical copies of stuff. Navigating a webpage is always going to be slower than just flipping a sheet of paper.

Respectfully disagree on this, at least as far as DNDBeyond. For regular PDF's I'm 100% on your side, but for DNDBeyond in specific, all a player has to do is click on a spell or feature on their sheet and it automatically brings up the full description. It has made looking up things for the players a lot easier (especially since few players have their own PHB and it seems my FOUR aren't enough).

That said I still like having my books next to me. If for no other reason then not having too many tabs open at once.

[Imbalance]

I prefer real books. I don't like the idea of renting instead of buying character slots, or re-buying books I have.

In general, I don't purchase anything that's software-as-a-service.

This. Most of the physical books I own were either bought used or on sale. I added up what it would cost to access the same information on dndb one day and it was nearly double what I paid. Now, I know they sometimes offer bundles at a discount or that I can nickel and dime just the a la carte items I'd use, but it's still the fact that it's not even something I get to own that keeps me from purchasing. When the servers eventually go offline - and they will - those who bought in will have nothing to show for it, as is true for all virtual materials.

Instead, with my preference toward the tangible as my guide, I've been collecting miniatures and terrain over the last few years, accessories that many here deem too expensive. Turns out, I could probably just about break even if I wanted to unload that stuff. Some pieces even gain value over time. I'll grant that there's a lot to be said for the value of convenience, but I regret nothing.

[PhantomSoul]

When the servers eventually go offline - and they will - those who bought in will have nothing to show for it, as is true for all virtual materials.

Not to mention that you're stuck with any changes they make, whether you want them or not. They brick the "service" or render it incompatible with what you use? You've just wasted money even if they're still "supporting" it. They change the layout or the functionality in a way that makes it less usable or less appealing to use? You've just wasted money even if they're still "supporting" it. They enforce rules or rule interactions that you don't use or limit modifications (e.g. homebrew) in a way that affects you? You've just wasted money even if they're still "supporting" it.

It's made of nope, especially for a game that's making new things and basically predicated on content showing up that isn't official and/or isn't in their system. (Not to mention how poorly designed this are for ending up on a homebrew page and not knowing it -- the number of times that's come up in games has gotten to the point that saying "It's from [not-Beyond]" is actually a sign of confidence in the material!)

[EggKookoo]

I hesitated a long time over re-buying content I had the physical books for. I finally dove in and I'm glad I did. Having rules handy at a tap makes the game so much easier for new players. We don't use their dice roller or anything like that. They're just digital character sheets with tooltips. It's great. Now that I'm over re-buying the core books, I just buy the digital stuff now. Also, you can often buy pieces of books for a few dollars if you just want that one class or magic item or whatever, and then if you go buy the whole book later that cost is deducted.

My big complaint about DnDB is the lack of good DM tools. There's almost literally nothing to help me organize my campaign. There's a homebrew system if I need to make custom magic items or monsters, and it's nice that I can just give a custom item to a player and it shows up on the digital sheet. But it's klunky and slow. I mean, you can't even organize your stuff into folders.

[follacchioso]

I use it quite extensively. Thanks to a DM who shared a campaign link with me, I have access to almost all sources, but even so I bought some of the contents myself. I don't know any physical book.

I find it much easier to use than a physical book, as you can easily search across all sources. You can see all the spells published in a same page, and a summary of each class with all the subclasses together.

Another big point is the integration with the Avrae bot in Discord. There are many ways to create characters for Avrae, but I find DNDBeyond to be the easiest, the interface is so much better.

[ProsecutorGodot]

When the servers eventually go offline - and they will - those who bought in will have nothing to show for it, as is true for all virtual materials.

What makes you think this will happen any time soon? I'd be willing to bet that 5e publications and sales end long before the servers for D&D Beyond go down.

So unless the servers do go down before I've had my fill of 5e, I don't see much issue with it. I'm either losing access to a digital source or throwing away/donating a physical copy once it starts to take up too much space

[PhantomSoul]

What makes you think this will happen any time soon? I'd be willing to bet that 5e publications and sales end long before the servers for D&D Beyond go down.

I still wouldn't want to lose all of the content I paid for (and the things I made!) because someone else decides that the edition I play or want to reference is outdated, or because they don't get new subscriptions to fund their servers. People still regularly reference stuff from older editions (myself included, despite never having played them) and I know people who still play older editions.

[Imbalance]

What makes you think this will happen any time soon? I'd be willing to bet that 5e publications and sales end long before the servers for D&D Beyond go down.

What part of "eventually" reads like "soon"?

Although, I'm tempted to take that bet.

Also, donating old books is cool, but if you're throwing them away you're being foolishly wasteful.

[stoutstien]

What makes you think this will happen any time soon? I'd be willing to bet that 5e publications and sales end long before the servers for D&D Beyond go down.

So unless the servers do go down before I've had my fill of 5e, I don't see much issue with it. I'm either losing access to a digital source or throwing away/donating a physical copy once it starts to take up too much space

I'd be more worried about some bad blood forming and the Licensing agreement gets cancelled or WoLC decides they want to take another stab at having an inhouse digital platform.

[ProsecutorGodot]

I still wouldn't want to lose all of the content I paid for (and the things I made!) because someone else decides that the edition I play or want to reference is outdated, or because they don't get new subscriptions to fund their servers. People still regularly reference stuff from older editions (myself included, despite never having played them) and I know people who still play older editions.

I don't mean to suggest that your reasoning is wrong here, just that for me personally it's not that big a deal. These books are almost exclusively only going to be used while I'm playing 5e (the 6 source books I bought prior to D&D Beyond taking off collect dust on a shelf as a side note) and if I'm invested in something else at that point I'm not going to be in much need for them.

But to be clear, I do understand why many would be against the digital only format, I just value the convenience now more than I dread the potential loss later.


What part of "eventually" reads like "soon"?

Although, I'm tempted to take that bet.

Also, donating old books is cool, but if you're throwing them away you're being foolishly wasteful.
I wouldn't be throwing them away unless they'd been damaged beyond usability. As far as the "soon" and "eventually" thing, it's pretty hard to tell how long things stay available digitally nowadays.

I wouldn't be surprised if, somewhere in the far future, the live services from D&D Beyond did go down but the site was shifted into a digital archive of content for those who owned it. Can't say for certain how likely that is to happen, but no matter what I expect it to be a ways off.


I'd be more worried about some bad blood forming and the Licensing agreement gets cancelled or WoLC decides they want to take another stab at having an inhouse digital platform.

Honestly, that seems like something that would happen before Fandom ever considered taking the site down.

[AsuraKyoko]

I have a master level account and all the books that I share with my group, and we love it. It very nicely compiles all the options in one place, which makes character creation/advancement simple. My group does bring laptops to the gaming table, and everyone keeps their character sheets digital for all games, not just D&D, so it's not a burden in that regard.

I like it both as a player and as a DM, since it's an easy way to have all the information I need in one place.

My biggest complaint is that the homebrew features aren't as good as I would like, and are finnicky to use.

[Pex]

The layout, level-up fuss, and search functionality (e.g. I want a table with base information, not a list of things I have to annoyingly click) leave me not touching it even though one of my groups has a DM who has given us access to book content. (In my groups it's mixed for whether people use it -- if you do, get the app to be able to roll in Roll20 if you use that to make Beyond slightly less worthless.)

And as noted above, I feel like the limited things it calculates for you just makes things worse in practice; it seems to lower the barrier for new players because things are calculated for them... but the layout seems to work against it, things just don't update well and tracking things appears to be clunky at best (every single new level seems to be a challenge for things like HP), and it means the players often just never pick up what's going on in the game mechanically (and god forbid they be asked for a Charisma (Stealth) or something like that!). I gave up ages ago, so parts of this are based on continued frustration at the table expressed by people who usually now regret their sunk cost of having put time into making a Beyond sheet.

The spell tags generally seem like a good idea, and porting that to literally anything else would be great. I think that's really the only positive I can give it; the extension to connect it to Roll20 seems to be decent, but, uh, that's not-Beyond trying to give Beyond some functionality mostly already available in Roll20 sheets.

The hit points are done automatically for you if you take the average. The so called clunky part is if you roll for hit points. I would have preferred you just enter the number you rolled, but this is one place you do need to do math yourself. You are given the total you rolled for all previous levels. Add the new number you rolled mentally to yourself then replace the old total with that new sum. Do not include the Con modifier. The app will do that for you.

Levelling I find to be easy. The math part is done for you, such as an increase in the number of uses for something or the die used to roll. Proficiency bonus increase is also autodone. When you have to make a decision the decision point is always at the bottom, Click on it to reveal your choices. You can hover over the choices to get a brief description of the Thing then click your choice. Spells can be tricky, but you can filter the information given to you by spell level. When changing a spell you click the associated button. The math of how many spells you can know/prepare is done for you. It is a computer interface app. There will be buttons and windows to click, and that's nothing the app needs to apologize for.

If you create a character of level greater than one from scratch all the levels will have windows to open with level one on top to the level you want on the bottom. You do not have to make your decisions in level order unless a later level decision completely relies on a previous level decision.

[PhantomSoul]

The hit points are done automatically for you if you take the average. The so called clunky part is if you roll for hit points. I would have preferred you just enter the number you rolled, but this is one place you do need to do math yourself. You are given the total you rolled for all previous levels. Add the new number you rolled mentally to yourself then replace the old total with that new sum. Do not include the Con modifier. The app will do that for you.


This gives a good idea of why it ends up being an issue every. single. time. (After all, it's only once per level.)


There will be buttons and windows to click, and that's nothing the app needs to apologize for.

But the layout (locations of buttons and values, locations for data presentation, how information is shown) is a big thing the program should be apologising for it seems! And relying so heavily on the program just seems to make it worse because nothing seems to sink in; it's slow at the table and doing anything the program isn't trying to make super easy (successful or not) is either a nightmare or seemingly impossible (and the program seems to lead to people not being prepared to do it themselves because it just gets relied on without people learning how the game works).

[Stryyke]

The hit points are done automatically for you if you take the average. The so called clunky part is if you roll for hit points. I would have preferred you just enter the number you rolled, but this is one place you do need to do math yourself. You are given the total you rolled for all previous levels. Add the new number you rolled mentally to yourself then replace the old total with that new sum. Do not include the Con modifier. The app will do that for you.

Levelling I find to be easy. The math part is done for you, such as an increase in the number of uses for something or the die used to roll. Proficiency bonus increase is also autodone. When you have to make a decision the decision point is always at the bottom, Click on it to reveal your choices. You can hover over the choices to get a brief description of the Thing then click your choice. Spells can be tricky, but you can filter the information given to you by spell level. When changing a spell you click the associated button. The math of how many spells you can know/prepare is done for you. It is a computer interface app. There will be buttons and windows to click, and that's nothing the app needs to apologize for.

If you create a character of level greater than one from scratch all the levels will have windows to open with level one on top to the level you want on the bottom. You do not have to make your decisions in level order unless a later level decision completely relies on a previous level decision.

That seems to be a rather significant oversight! How long has that been the case?

[greenstone]

Its no substitute for real books and character sheets IMO, and not just because i like physical copies of stuff. Navigating a webpage is always going to be slower than just flipping a sheet of paper.

I find exactly the opposite. I GM using a computer with two monitors, and lots of tabs open.

Finding a monster or spell in dndbeyond is many times faster than grabbing a book (now what book was that spell in, was it XGTE or PHB? was that monster MM or VGTM?), especially given the atrocious indexes in the 5E books.

I also like being able to review things while on break at work.

[luuma]

The one member of my group who learned using dnd beyond struggled with it a lot, while everyone using pen and paper just took to it far faster.

In my opinion, doing a random portion of things for you, and leaving you to do the other 50%, is significantly worse than doing nothing fancy at all.

Like nurofen, mypillow, and all other things that have a fat ad budget and a high price point, it's not worth the money.

[Stryyke]

How long has D&D Beyond been around?

[ProsecutorGodot]

The one member of my group who learned using dnd beyond struggled with it a lot, while everyone using pen and paper just took to it far faster.

What exactly did they struggle with? Assuming they actually own the content on D&DBeyond, character creation is as easy as checking boxes. I can create a 15th level Wizard with all of their spells, features and equipment listed down in less than 5 minutes.

How long has D&D Beyond been around?
It's been "around" for a little over 4 years, though it didn't really start to become a decently usable resource until around 3.5 years ago.

[Stryyke]

What exactly did they struggle with? Assuming they actually own the content on D&DBeyond, character creation is as easy as checking boxes. I can create a 15th level Wizard with all of their spells, features and equipment listed down in less than 5 minutes.

I think what they meant was that they struggled learning the rules of D&D, since they didn't have to personally manipulate much.

[ProsecutorGodot]

I think what they meant was that they struggled learning the rules of D&D, since they didn't have to personally manipulate much.

Character creation is just about the only thing the site "does for you" (as far as players need be concerned) so I can't really understand how they would have a tougher time with anything else. The rulebooks are all identical here, just digital.

[PhantomSoul]

Character creation is just about the only thing the site "does for you" (as far as players need be concerned) so I can't really understand how they would have a tougher time with anything else. The rulebooks are all identical here, just digital.

You don't get what your Athletics bonus is from because it's just magicked in there (but random other things won't be, making things worse). DM asks for a non-standard roll and you're confused because your sheet says nothing, but you don't understand your sheet so you spend a bunch of time looking for it, then the DM explains it's your modifier for an ability score and then your proficiency for that skill if you're proficient... and you get more blank stares.

[Stryyke]

Character creation is just about the only thing the site "does for you" (as far as players need be concerned) so I can't really understand how they would have a tougher time with anything else. The rulebooks are all identical here, just digital.

Right, but figuring out where all the +1's come from, and how they interact, is something you don't learn if it's done for you.

Simple example:

AC: If the character sheet just spits a number back at you, you never learn about unarmored damage, resistances, how shields and armor interact, what kind of bonuses stack, and which don't, how Dex factors in, natural armor from your race, etc, etc, etc

If all the noob does is set the armor to "wield," they never really learn about the rest of that.

[luuma]

You don't get what your Athletics bonus is from because it's just magicked in there (but random other things won't be, making things worse). DM asks for a non-standard roll and you're confused because your sheet says nothing, but you don't understand your sheet so you spend a bunch of time looking for it, then the DM explains it's your modifier for an ability score and then your proficiency for that skill if you're proficient... and you get more blank stares.

Exactly this. Also since features are added automatically, you don't have to read them, and therefore you don't notice them, and don't use them.

[EggKookoo]

My biggest complaint is that the homebrew features aren't as good as I would like, and are finnicky to use.

I learned somewhere (here, or on the DnDB forums, I forget) that the homebrew tools are the API the developers came up with to add official content to the game. They just made them public-facing and game them a "hombrew" branding. It explains why they're clunky, and why you can't easily homebrew something that the official rules wouldn't allow, like a magic weapon that uses something other than your Str or Dex mod (tbh I have no idea how the site gives Battle Smiths the ability to use Int on magic weapons -- I would love to have access to an option like that).

They keep talking about enhancing the DM tools, but then we get another set of pretty dice for their roller...

[PhantomSoul]

Exactly this. Also since features are added automatically, you don't have to read them, and therefore you don't notice them, and don't use them.

And things just seem inconsistent -- your max HP doesn't seem to magic like your skills magic, and your ASIs are confusing because they add to your stats which seem to be linked to nothing clearly, and saving throws vs. ability checks seem not to really be understood (I infer from co-players that you've basically just accepted that you'll look at a box that vaguely sounds what your DM says to roll, and not actually get what these are, but you don't expect to understand because the whole sheet is confusing), and spells just seem to stay confusing (and you don't seem to understand them even marginally as well when you just click on them from a magical list to add and then click on them for it to tell you what to do... having to check most or all of them to be reminded what they do...), and the whole system seems to be more bewildering and unapproachable. You don't get what Beyond is doing and have lots of trouble with anything it doesn't do for you as a result (but you don't really know you need to learn it's not doing those things).

[ProsecutorGodot]

You don't get what your Athletics bonus is from because it's just magicked in there (but random other things won't be, making things worse). DM asks for a non-standard roll and you're confused because your sheet says nothing, but you don't understand your sheet so you spend a bunch of time looking for it, then the DM explains it's your modifier for an ability score and then your proficiency for that skill if you're proficient... and you get more blank stares.

I don't know what you're talking about here, it does in fact tell you exactly where your athletics modifiers are from. Have you looked at a character sheet on Beyond recently? And how is the sites fault that a non-standard roll is being made?

It's all there, I'm genuinely confused here.


Right, but figuring out where all the +1's come from, and how they interact, is something you don't learn if it's done for you.

Simple example:

AC: If the character sheet just spits a number back at you, you never learn about unarmored damage, resistances, how shields and armor interact, what kind of bonuses stack, and which don't, how Dex factors in, natural armor from your race, etc, etc, etc

If all the noob does is set the armor to "wield," they never really learn about the rest of that.
There seems to be some consensus here that because the process of character creation is easier here that it's the ease of uses fault for a player not also reading the rules.


Exactly this. Also since features are added automatically, you don't have to read them, and therefore you don't notice them, and don't use them.
Not reading them is a problem with the player, not the character creator. They're written there exactly the same way, and in cases where the player has any choice they aren't actually added automatically, they player must choose, which means they read them.

[Stryyke]

There seems to be some consensus here that because the process of character creation is easier here that it's the ease of uses fault for a player not also reading the rules.

Not saying that people don't read the rules, just that, as a new person to the hobby, it can be tough to remember everything you read. Most people learn best by doing. Just reading info dumps, about what's suppose to happen, rarely results in information retention. The process of doing is what ingrains the information in the brain. A benefit lost when it's done for you.

[EggKookoo]

Not saying that people don't read the rules, just that, as a new person to the hobby, it can be tough to remember everything you read. Most people learn best by doing. Just reading info dumps, about what's suppose to happen, rarely results in information retention. The process of doing is what ingrains the information in the brain. A benefit lost when it's done for you.

I've found the opposite to be true. I started my current campaign with pencil & paper and moved over to DnDB a few levels into it. That's when a number of my newer players started really digging into their character options, because now everything was right there. They could click on the different features and stuff. Their questions to me changed from basic "how do I do X?" stuff to talking about the implications of different rules.

Would that have happened if we stayed with pencil & paper? Maybe. But it's hardly clear to me that Beyond was an obstacle in any real way.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Not saying that people don't read the rules, just that, as a new person to the hobby, it can be tough to remember everything you read. Most people learn best by doing. Just reading info dumps, about what's suppose to happen, rarely results in information retention. The process of doing is what ingrains the information in the brain. A benefit lost when it's done for you.

Nothing stops you from doing that on D&D Beyond. A new player is likely to not know what half of the things they're choosing mean, good thing there's a handy search bar in the top that lets them look up anything by term.

For example, if you don't know what Athletics is and are confused why its offered during character creation, you can search "Athletics". The top result is already summarized to the right of other results telling you its a skill that uses your strength and has an effect on your ability to climb jump or swim. If you click view the page, it opens up Chapter 7 of the PHB which explains to you what a "check" is and what a "skill" is.

This is the exact same process of pen and paper learning. Not every term or number is explained the first time you encounter it in the PHB, it's on the player to look up that information.

There is also the big and bold "new player guide" tab on the main page that's a near exact copy of the introduction in the PHB.

And to be clear on the bolded part: absolutely, yes, this is true. Heck, I've spent thousands of hours on this hobby now and I still find myself questioning exactly what being Stunned actually does to you. What I don't think is true or fair is to say that using a digital resource somehow makes this learning process more difficult. The site does a lot to make sure you understand what's going on, literally the same things the book does. One of the very first things you'll see on the site the first time you open it up is "new player guide" and if you skip straight to creating a character you're going to be just as confused as if your DM handed you a PHB and an empty character sheet.

[Imbalance]

I wouldn't be throwing them away unless they'd been damaged beyond usability.

Or, "once it starts to take up too much space," your words.


As far as the "soon" and "eventually" thing, it's pretty hard to tell how long things stay available digitally nowadays.

Not as long as they should, as evidenced by the rapidly growing trend of dead or shifting links, particularly ones referenced by scientific journals or legal briefs. Even the things that ought to be kept are not. The inevitable truth is that money paid to dndbeyond is for temporary service access that will sunset for all users in the future.


I wouldn't be surprised if, somewhere in the far future, the live services from D&D Beyond did go down but the site was shifted into a digital archive of content for those who owned it. Can't say for certain how likely that is to happen, but no matter what I expect it to be a ways off.

I can say for certain that it won't be "shifted," not legally, since none of the users "own" any of the content provided there, you only temporarily lease access from business entities that could pull the plug tomorrow without notice. That's how software is sold these days: you don't buy the program; you rent a license. Conversely, neither WotC nor Fandom can confiscate everyone's physical copies. Yet.


Honestly, that seems like something that would happen before Fandom ever considered taking the site down.

This is closer to what I'd wager, that WotC developes their own app and ends their earlier deals with the middlemen. I wouldn't say "soon," but I would bet that it happens prior to (and maybe results in) the exhaustion of 5e, heading into 6e flush with Hasbrobucks.

Suffice it to say, different users have different tastes and different experiences with software - that should come as no surprise. I also use dndbeyond to the extent that it is easy enough to use to me (mostly to search SRD info, but it's also useful for knowing which source holds what I seek for non-SRD items so that I can more readily select that physical book). It's simply not worth my money.

[luuma]

Sorry for adding to the dogpile godot - I see where you're coming from, but I can't help but want to explain.



There seems to be some consensus here that because the process of character creation is easier here that it's the ease of uses fault for a player not also reading the rules.

Yes! Absolutely, I fully agree with this statement. Getting people to read through the rulebook and fill all of their info by hand is a brilliant way to help them remember it. In my experience, if you allow the player to skip that step, they struggle more further down the line. It is the ease of use's fault for not forcing the player to read and reiterate the rules.

I'm not arguing about whether "not reading is a problem with the player" - It is! Therefore, I recommend putting players in a scenario that encourages reading. Heck, before I began GMing, I knew I'd have the same problem, so I literally wrote all of the relevant rules out for my own benefit - and it really helped.

In my experience, these autofill shortcuts simply provide players with a series of invisible crutches that they aren't fully told how to locate or remove. This makes learning the game harder. YMMV

[Gignere]

Sorry for adding to the dogpile godot - I see where you're coming from, but I can't help but want to explain.



Yes! Absolutely, I fully agree with this statement. Getting people to read through the rulebook and fill all of their info by hand is a brilliant way to help them remember it. In my experience, if you allow the player to skip that step, they struggle more further down the line. It is the ease of use's fault for not forcing the player to read and reiterate the rules.

I'm not arguing about whether "not reading is a problem with the player" - It is! Therefore, I recommend putting players in a scenario that encourages reading. Heck, before I began GMing, I knew I'd have the same problem, so I literally wrote all of the relevant rules out for my own benefit - and it really helped.

In my experience, these autofill shortcuts simply provide players with a series of invisible crutches that they aren't fully told how to locate or remove. This makes learning the game harder. YMMV

This is a ridiculous anecdote. I’ve had many players I’ve played with that had the physical books and didn’t know anything about their characters. I much rather have them be able to do a quick digital search instead of them referring to the PHB every time it’s their turn.

Players that want to learn will learn. Whether it’s through physical books or websites. I rather just tell someone to do a quick search to find their ability than say yeah let’s pause 5-10 so xyz can open the PHB or whatever resource they need.

Is DNDBeyond worth the extra money? Not to me, but if they gave a big discount to me for owning the physical books I would totally get it just for the ease of use.

[Imbalance]

Players that want to learn will learn. Whether it’s through physical books or websites. I rather just tell someone to do a quick search to find their ability than say yeah let’s pause 5-10 so xyz can open the PHB or whatever resource they need.

...if they gave a big discount to me for owning the physical books I would totally get it just for the ease of use.

I wouldn't be so dismissive of another's experience, but I do agree with these statements.

[ProsecutorGodot]

In my experience, these autofill shortcuts simply provide players with a series of invisible crutches that they aren't fully told how to locate or remove. This makes learning the game harder. YMMV

There is a certain strength in not having to know or understand why or how certain things are doing what they are. So long as you've done the character creation process correctly (which you almost certainly have using the site) what does it matter if you know exactly where the modifier came from?

What you know is that the DM asked for an Athletics Check, roll d20 add Athletics Mod. Gameplay resumes. For much of the early learning process, this is more than sufficient. There aren't actually any rules you need to understand here. As you level, you're likely learning the specifics of these things through practice rather than study.

Spellcasting is probably then only point where I could find myself agreeing that having it filled out automatically for you can be detrimental, but then pen and paper isn't a whole lot better (we go from a lot of information appearing very quickly to an incredibly drawn out process of writing the specifics of any number of spells - Usually shorthanded which ends up with endless amounts of referencing the PHB anyway) spellcasting just isn't very friendly to new users.

[luuma]

This is a ridiculous anecdote. I’ve had many players I’ve played with that had the physical books and didn’t know anything about their characters. I much rather have them be able to do a quick digital search instead of them referring to the PHB every time it’s their turn.

Players that want to learn will learn. Whether it’s through physical books or websites. I rather just tell someone to do a quick search to find their ability than say yeah let’s pause 5-10 so xyz can open the PHB or whatever resource they need.

Is DNDBeyond worth the extra money? Not to me, but if they gave a big discount to me for owning the physical books I would totally get it just for the ease of use.

Alright, good to see you've elected to ramp up the hostility apropos of nothing. Just to clarify, like what the discussion was centering on, I was specifically talking about dndbeyond's character creation, not about all digital resources. We've just come out of a global lockdown. Virtually every group I know has been making near constant use of digital resources, and pointing their group in their directions. Of course I use them- everyone had to for the past year!

So when I'm saying "manually recording things is helpful for players who don't want to learn", I am not saying "physical copies are superior", I'm saying that I dislike autofill. Across all my groups, I always find that typing the info out helps the newer players to learn.

edit: To be completely clear, I also find digital resources more useful, but I don't use dndbeyond, and the group uses roll20's in-house character creator, which doesn't fill much in automatically

[Gignere]

Alright, good to see you've elected to ramp up the hostility apropos of nothing. Just to clarify, like what the discussion was centering on, I was specifically talking about dndbeyond's character creation, not about all digital resources. We've just come out of a global lockdown. Virtually every group I know has been making near constant use of digital resources, and pointing their group in their directions. Of course I use them- everyone had to for the past year!

So when I'm saying "manually recording things is helpful for players who don't want to learn", I am not saying "physical copies are superior", I'm saying that I dislike autofill. Across all my groups, I always find that typing the info out helps the newer players to learn.

edit: To be completely clear, I also find digital resources more useful, but I don't use dndbeyond, and the group uses roll20's in-house character creator, which doesn't fill much in automatically

I’m just pointing out it’s ridiculous to use anecdote to say manually recording things is helpful to players who don’t want to learn.

In my experience players who don’t learn usually stop showing after a game or two. Those who continue will learn everything they need whether they have the physical books or not.

[luuma]

I’m just pointing out it’s ridiculous to use anecdote to say manually recording things is helpful to players who don’t want to learn

Ah, I get you. But surely it's common knowledge that writing things helps people memorise them. see: the vast majority of teaching exercises used or encouraged in school. it's kinesthetic learning tm


In my experience players who don’t learn usually stop showing after a game or two. Those who continue will learn everything they need whether they have the physical books or not.

On the other side of the anecdote aisle, I've had multiple players who didn't understand how the number of hit points increased upon level up after more than a year of playing (and reminders to recalculate them!)

[Pex]

This gives a good idea of why it ends up being an issue every. single. time. (After all, it's only once per level.)



But the layout (locations of buttons and values, locations for data presentation, how information is shown) is a big thing the program should be apologising for it seems! And relying so heavily on the program just seems to make it worse because nothing seems to sink in; it's slow at the table and doing anything the program isn't trying to make super easy (successful or not) is either a nightmare or seemingly impossible (and the program seems to lead to people not being prepared to do it themselves because it just gets relied on without people learning how the game works).

It's not unreasonable to expect people who want to use it will learn how it works. How long it takes is up to the individual, but it's not the application's fault if a person refuses to take the time to learn it. That's similar to how it's not D&D's fault a player refuses to learn the rules and asks which die to roll to attack in Session 18.

Edit: The game does tell you where your numbers come from. For example, click on your AC on your character sheet. You are shown what Thing gives which numbers. It's possible the character sheet used to not do that, and that is what you remember, but it does so now. They do upgrade how it works.

[Cheesegear]

This is the exact same process of pen and paper learning.

Strong disagree.

Psychologically, when you write something down, your brain has to compute the text three times. This means that you absolutely do remember things you write down better than the things you simply read. Not that you will remember what you write down, but that you have a much, much higher chance of remembering.


I’m just pointing out it’s ridiculous to use anecdote to say manually recording things is helpful to players who don’t want to learn.

I have players who still don't know what their initiative bonus is. For reference, the sheets we use have initiative bonus near the top of the first page, right next to Proficiency bonus. You can't miss it.
I have players who still don't add bonuses to their rolls after ~20 sessions. 'I rolled a 9, so I fail, right?' ...No. You add your modifier to get 15 so you pass. 'Oh, where do I find that?' ...See the thing that says Athletics +6? There? Where it's been the whole time? 20. Sessions.

A player who doesn't want to learn, wont learn. And it doesn't matter what it says on their sheet.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Strong disagree.

Psychologically, when you write something down, your brain has to compute the text three times. This means that you absolutely do remember things you write down better than the things you simply read. Not that you will remember what you write down, but that you have a much, much higher chance of remembering.

It's the same process in the sense that you're encountering all of the same information, there's no doubt that it might be helpful for someone to remember by writing it down but it's not the fault of the system if someone managed to learn nothing while using the online character creator. All of the information was there, ignoring it during that process doesn't put the blame on the character creator.

EDIT: Your edit seems to line up with what I'm trying to communicate here.

[Cheesegear]

All of the information was there, ignoring it during that process doesn't put the blame on the character creator.

Yes and no.
The process of enabling and and automation, means that the user is less likely to seek out information or understand why something works. Which means that the problems caused when something out of the ordinary happens (e.g; the DM offers a homebrew magic item or blessing), or when the DM asks for a non-standard check (e.g; Tying ropes - make a Sleight of Hand check using your Intelligence bonus [Xanathar's].), the player can't do that, because they don't understand what's happening, because they never needed to learn in the first place.

A lot of D&D is 'DM's discretion with a whole lot of improvising'. When the DM starts improvising and using discretion, D&DB can't keep up.
D&DB is great for new players who want to start playing, fast.
It's not so great for experienced players who do anything at all out of the ordinary...Which is going to be all the time.


Your edit seems to line up with what I'm trying to communicate here.

Partially. There are two things, not necessarily mutually exclusive:

1. D&DB is automated, in such a way that a player - new or not - might never, ever learn a certain rule, which sometimes often causes problems for experienced DMs. There are basic rules that players should know, if they actually read the rules. But they're not found on character sheets, so a player will simply forget and/or ignore and/or just not know at all that those particular options exist.
(e.g; Where does my sheet say I can do nonlethal damage?)

2. Socially, psychologically and intellectually, there are a number of players who play this game, unfortunately, who don't want to learn, or simply can't learn (that's why being a good DM, matters). It doesn't matter if D&DB does the computations for them, it doesn't matter if you open the PHB up to the page, and literally point to the paragraph and say 'Read that, idiot.', and it doesn't even matter if you get them to write out that paragraph (at least the important bit; Vert. Jump = [3+Str] ft.). They're just not going to learn. But, D&DB does help these kinds of people, in such a way that the vast majority of rules that they were never going to learn anyway, are done for them.
...Now, a question for another thread, is 'Why can't some players learn?' But that's not for this thread.

[PhantomSoul]

A lot of D&D is 'DM's discretion with a whole lot of improvising'. When the DM starts improvising and using discretion, D&DB can't keep up.
.

And this form of "improvising" is right there in the rules; it's not asking the program to do something outside of the rules, and it appears that the information isn't presented in a way that makes it intuitive (both to know what's going on and, apparently, just to find many things efficiently). There may be alternative character sheet layouts that help with that, but I lost any interest in trying to find out pretty quickly from trying to use their character sheets and other people using them hasn't made me want to retry. (Then again, I also won't pretend I'm a likely user to begin with, so me not using it was pretty much a given.)

[Theodoxus]

There is a certain strength in not having to know or understand why or how certain things are doing what they are. So long as you've done the character creation process correctly (which you almost certainly have using the site) what does it matter if you know exactly where the modifier came from?

What you know is that the DM asked for an Athletics Check, roll d20 add Athletics Mod. Gameplay resumes. For much of the early learning process, this is more than sufficient. There aren't actually any rules you need to understand here. As you level, you're likely learning the specifics of these things through practice rather than study.

Spellcasting is probably then only point where I could find myself agreeing that having it filled out automatically for you can be detrimental, but then pen and paper isn't a whole lot better (we go from a lot of information appearing very quickly to an incredibly drawn out process of writing the specifics of any number of spells - Usually shorthanded which ends up with endless amounts of referencing the PHB anyway) spellcasting just isn't very friendly to new users.

Hard agree. I've had players who just wanted to have everything written down, not caring where it came from and required some assistance every level up. Other players were lore junkies, delving into every single space on the character sheet - learning and retaining what each modifier does and is derived from. People are different, and needing tactile paper or ephemeral electronic data doesn't really matter in the long run.


It's not unreasonable to expect people who want to use it will learn how it works. How long it takes is up to the individual, but it's not the application's fault if a person refuses to take the time to learn it. That's similar to how it's not D&D's fault a player refuses to learn the rules and asks which die to roll to attack in Session 18.

Funnily enough both Godot and Pex's replies remind me of my coworkers who refuse to learn new software to do their job. They grumble and curse about 'the stupid system' for weeks or months, and then, suddenly, a light bulb goes off and they finally understand what the program is doing for them. As the trainer of the group, it's initially very frustrating seeing the resistance - but that Ah Ha! moment each experience in their own time is totally worth it.


Strong disagree.

Psychologically, when you write something down, your brain has to compute the text three times. This means that you absolutely do remember things you write down better than the things you simply read. Not that you will remember what you write down, but that you have a much, much higher chance of remembering.

As an interesting to me anecdote, when I re-read my replies in old threads, more often than not, I don't even recognize my own words... I'm not sure what actually means - but in general, I do retain information better when I write it down, but I'm more of a hands-on learner. Let me muddle around and mess up a couple of times and I'll come out knowing more than just reading or writing down data.

[PhantomSoul]

Funnily enough both Godot and Pex's replies remind me of my coworkers who refuse to learn new software to do their job. They grumble and curse about 'the stupid system' for weeks or months, and then, suddenly, a light bulb goes off and they finally understand what the program is doing for them. As the trainer of the group, it's initially very frustrating seeing the resistance - but that Ah Ha! moment each experience in their own time is totally worth it.

That's (related to or implying) why I do put part of the blame on the Beyond: sure, some players won't care, and others would be slow with the pen & paper forever (making it all the more important to actually be able to cover the rules/mechanics automatically if you set that expectation)... but there's an art to interface design, and it's not just about making a blurred version of the layout look pretty. It should be intuitive to find things, but ideally it should also (partly as a result!) make it intuitive what's connected to what. I remember when I started, switching from an alphabetical list of skills to having skills lined up with the stat they defaulted to was helpful even if the first time it took a moment longer (because the alphabet was a secondary sort, not the primary); it made it much more intuitive which skills were associated with which ability scores by default, it chunked the skills into useful groups (which helps with memory), it made finding skills in the list easier (due to chunking + learning the associations; parsing a lot of things alphabetically is slow even if it's nice to have a set and predictable order), and it gave the character sheet an extra level of visual structure. Just putting the ability score in parentheses after the skill name but having skills all listed alphabetically just didn't give the same benefit (and it seems to generalise beyond just me, based on comparing groups and on seeing improvements when a different sheet is recommended).

You want those Aha! moments, and the program could help those along rather than hinder them as much.

EDIT for clarity: Those Aha! moments might be favoured by different design decisions, so it's not guaranteed to be a one-size-fits-all solution (plus a design that helps new players might not be a design that works as well for people who know the mechanics already). Having multiple character sheet options seems ideal (with clear indications about what that layout is designed for, and regardless an additional a good toolbar [since that interface structure is so common in other programs] that could get you specific functionality seems useful), but it seems from talking to people who use or used Beyond and from my own (brief) testing that it might not hit the sweet spot for everyone and likely even has some of the same sticking points for (pretty much?) everyone. But I won't pretend to be an expert on that end beyond having lots of anecdata and opinions! (For me it's just always been more effective to use other things, including for things like spells despite that the tags made me expect that Beyond would end up being my default.)

[Cheesegear]

Let me muddle around and mess up a couple of times and I'll come out knowing more than just reading or writing down data.

That's not a thing. That's everyone. A person who actually experiences something, and fails to recognise patterns, is failing at basic human brain. There are lots of animals that can use tools after learning how they work. Several species of birds and primates are famous for being 'hands-on learners'.

The skill is being able to recognise something without experiencing it. Reading and writing data, and then immediately applying that knowledge without prior experience, is what's special.

It's not 'I'm more of a hands-on learner.', it's more 'I'm only a hands-on learner.', which is a bad thing.

I'm not sure how I apply that to this particular thread. But it bothers me when someone says 'I'm a hands-on learner', as if that's something that everyone isn't.

[EggKookoo]

Regarding players learning the game, I found it was hugely helpful to get everyone on DnDB so they could browse the rules on their own time from their home computers at their leisure. In contrast to either just me (the DM) having a PHB, XGtE, etc., trading the books around ("who has them this week?"), or requiring everyone to buy their own copies. Since I'm running the campaign and I bought the digital books, all the players in my campaign get free access to them.

Regardless of the psychology behind how people learn, DnDB made it an order of magnitude easier to make sure everyone got the info they wanted when they wanted it.

When it comes to questions like AC calculations, players were more willing to tap the AC icon on the digital sheet and read the breakdown, than they were to ask around who has the PHB, then spend time fishing through the index to find what they're looking for. Far less disruptive if I'm narrating something or even during combat when it's someone else's turn. Most of the time, that breakdown would tell them what they need to know.

For more esoteric rule-appendage stuff like "can I knock someone out instead of killing them?" I've never -- not once in decades of GMing -- had someone go look up a rule like that without first simply floating the concept before me. Digital or dead tree, they player always just asked it outright at the table to see if it was even possible at a high level. If I knew, I'd explain the mechanism and the player would decide what to do with that information. If I didn't know, well, in the old days I'd stop the flow of the game to look it up, or I'd make up something on the spot to keep things going. Nowadays it's a search field away.

[AsuraKyoko]

I learned somewhere (here, or on the DnDB forums, I forget) that the homebrew tools are the API the developers came up with to add official content to the game. They just made them public-facing and game them a "hombrew" branding. It explains why they're clunky, and why you can't easily homebrew something that the official rules wouldn't allow, like a magic weapon that uses something other than your Str or Dex mod (tbh I have no idea how the site gives Battle Smiths the ability to use Int on magic weapons -- I would love to have access to an option like that).

They keep talking about enhancing the DM tools, but then we get another set of pretty dice for their roller...

I figured the homebrew tools were something like that.

Comparing the sets of dice for the dice roller to software features isn't really fair. Adding new dice doesn't take developer time, all you need is someone to put the new textures in place, while making/improving a tool has a lot more work involved.

[EggKookoo]

Comparing the sets of dice for the dice roller to software features isn't really fair. Adding new dice doesn't take developer time, all you need is someone to put the new textures in place, while making/improving a tool has a lot more work involved.

Man, if only we had some kind of universal unit for the allocation of different resources. (https://lonm.vivaldi.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/1533/2018/06/goodsandservices.jpg)

I mean, I get your point, but it feels like DnDB is suffering a shortage of developers. I would say it's not for lack of looking, but I'm curious how much they're paying.

[AsuraKyoko]

I'm curious on their employee status as well, but I don't want to go looking at employment data for some other company when I'm working...

[Pex]

The application allows for customization in its current state, aside from creating your own magic item. You can create your own skill. It will appear on the bottom of the skill list; you'll have to scroll. If you enable the dice roller clicking on it will roll the dice. You can modify your armor class to account for temporary changes so you don't forget. You can customize your equipment to have note appear to remind you of changes. You can even modify your weapons and change the value of the to hit and damage modifiers, if you don't want to bother creating your own magic weapon. For example, you can rename a regular longsword to "Heatblade", give it a +1 to hit and damage, and add a note it also does an extra 1d6 fire damage, though you have to roll that die separately if you didn't create the magic item using the magic item creation app. You can even give your character extra skill proficiencies and feats if the DM granted them during the campaign. There are others I haven't mentioned.

If you want to call these customization options not first time user friendly, fine, but that's not a knock against the application. Learn the basics first, then learn the advanced stuff. It's quite possible a particular DM may have a homebrew Thing the application cannot handle for which it's an easy thing to do with pencil and paper making notes and changes. That's also not the application's fault, because it is unreasonable to expect it to be able to handle every DM's homebrew stuff everywhere of any kind. It does what it can, and they add new stuff as programming allows that is useful enough to warrant the time and expense necessary to develop it.