by Courtney Dossett Monday 20th March 2017

D&D Beyond: Phase 1 Beta Has Us Wanting More

The hardest part of playing Dungeons and Dragons, especially when you’re first starting, is figuring how the rules work. The Player’s Handbook gives you the framework of the game, spells, character creation, but it’s hard to find exactly what you need quickly. If you’re the Dungeon Master, you have additional materials to consult as well, like the Monster Manual, loot tables, crit charts – the list goes on. Looking up information on the fly can be time consuming and slow the pace of play.

Up until now, there haven’t been any official electronic resources from Wizards of the Coast, although there are some decent 3rd party apps, as well as pirated (illegal) PDFs of the handbooks.

Last week, Wizards teased us with the release of D&D Beyond, which promises to be an in-depth, cohesive, digital resource of all things 5th edition D&D to be released in 3 Phases. Phase 1 of the beta was released today, and it is already more than I had hoped for.

Phase 1 has several sections: the compendium, spells, magic items, and monsters. The compendium includes the basic rules of the game; how to run the game, how combat works, how to do different ability checks and when each type is appropriate. The layout is easy to navigate and makes finding details quick and easy, without having to pause the game for long periods of time to find the rules as written.

Each section has clickable links that lead you to more detailed information. Organized and easy to use!

Spells, Magic Items, and Monsters all have extensive browsing and search abilities. For instance, you can look at spells based on class, or do a search with the filters and look for spells by name, school of magic, or casting time.

You can click on individual spells listed and get a general idea of what is required for each spell, and who can cast it. This is basically a digital spell card.

Magic Items can be browsed through by type of item (like a ring) or with the search function, by how rare an item is, or what abilities it gives the bearer.

The filters for searches are very details for each section. This shows exactly how far down you can drill to find an item to purchase or verify that a player is using their items within the rules as written.

Monsters can be filtered by regional type, class range, abilities or just by what kind of monster it is (like a fey or dragon).

I haven’t had the chance to use D&D Beyond at the table yet, but just by searching for some basic information while creating a campaign, I have high hopes for it’s usability. I definitely think that this will be a good tool for getting more people to start playing D&D, since the fat handbooks are intimidating when you first start, and finding information in them can be difficult.

I’m looking forward to seeing what else Wizards has in store for Phases 2 (character building and character sheets) and 3 ( Homebrew Integration and Campaign Management).

D&D Beyond is an open beta worth signing up for, whether you’re new to the game and just looking to start, or a seasoned adventurer.