While I typically stay in the realm of the OSR my recent and yet unfinished foray into Victorian Horror with my Sherlock/Cthulhu/White Chapel does prove that I am not above traveling to the newer climes of the roleplaying world. Recently I was invited to a 5e game and while I have played the game on many occasions I do not have the time or mental capacity available to handwrite a carefully honed character to take with me to a game.
So without much guilt I logged into DnDbeyond and got to work … however, I noticed something new had been added since the last time I logged in: The Encounter Builder! The last time I played with an official Wizards of the Coast encounter builder was back in the dark days of 4e and the Encounters program. At the time I was the DM for a group at a small shop and the owner paid for my subscription to the online system WoTC used at the time. Since I disliked how structured the 4e Encounters were I would typically play with them in the provided encounter builder and to be blunt, it was my favorite tool in that suite.
The biggest plus I can give to both the old 4e and the new 5e encounter builder is the inclusion of an encounter summary that shows the average difficulty a set of enemies will have on the players. Let’s face it as DMs – we don’t always have the time to figure out the complex mathematics needed to properly construct an encounter that won’t overwhelm, overpower, or worse of all bore the players. The encounter summary which maps out the difficulty based on player average level versus combined enemy XP as well as keeps track of a daily “budget” is a great helper in staving off all the things mentioned above. The builder also allows the DM to give write notes and plans – a reminder of sorts – as to how the encounter should act and behave.
While I have been barking this up there are downsides – not major ones, not deal breakers. First comes in the encounter treasure block. While the rest of the builder (the bad guys) are insertable from official sources which populate XP, difficulty – and if you have Beyond 20, VTT integration – stats look-ups, etc, the treasure block is a purely hand written affair. The larger issue is that of one of the features of DnDBeyond – purchases. While it is possible to use any creature from any available source, one of the larger boons – stat look-up – is missing which can negatively affect use if you are using DnDbeyond as a digital DM’s screen.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to Use | No Treasure Builder |
| Plethora of options | Integration into Beyond’s Store |
| Beyond 20 integration | Most likely will be behind a paywall after Beta |
