Thoughts on D&D Moving Forward

 With the PHB kinda-sorta out, I've been going nuts on D&D Beyond creating updated versions of characters I've played, and some brand-new characters as well.

Here are my general thoughts:

    First, some functionality on the site needs work - there's no way to designate a Pact Weapon, for example, so you don't get the weapon with its proper attack and damage stats (nor that you're proficient in it). Also, I re-created my very first D&D character and it puts all of his Patron spells as simply "at will." If that were the case, I'd very happily create an endless army of Aberrant Spirits at level 14, but I think my DM might have a problem with that.

    As it stands, D&D Beyond has a lot of things marked as "legacy." You can pick a legacy class or species or even spells, but so far, I don't see a button to just say "legacy character" or "legacy campaign," so, for example, even with the 2014 Warlock I made for a campaign while I'm out of town, the "unarmed strike" section of the action tab has the new version of it - and this was a copied version of an existing character I'd created prior to the changeover.

    On a more design-side of things: we desperately need either many more backgrounds or the ability to customize them. Right now, as it stands, every Monk is going to want to be a Sailor, as it's the only background that gives the Tavern Brawler origin feat, which enhances Unarmed Strikes (though one aspect of it is redundant, as it lets you use a d4 for unarmed strike damage, when a Monk already starts with a d6 now). I understand a desire to make Background a more meaningful mechanical choice, which it sure is now, but it also kind of funnels players into certain archetypes a little like the old method of tying ability scores to what is now called species did. To me, a Background should be mostly a flavor choice, but if these rules were in place when I made my Eldritch Knight back in the day, I'd be very hesitant to give him the Sage background because I'd be starting off with less than 16 in Strength.

Perhaps we could get similar backgrounds with slightly different bonuses, but at that point why not just make them fully customizable?

Indeed, in the playtest, backgrounds were presented as examples, with the primary intention being that most people would make a custom background.

    Planning a character out is going to be a more meticulous process now that feats are better - at the moment, I'm going feat-crazy because you can still max out your primary stat with them. For example, I made a version of my 12th level Monk (with some alterations) I played in Adventurer's League but he's got a lower AC now that he has slowed his advance to 20 Dexterity because he took the Grappler and Speedy feats (and I think Sentinel?) Still very worth it, because now he can grapple a target and run a full 65 feet with them (or 130 if he uses Step of the Wind,) and Monk survival I think is going to lean less on AC and more on negating attacks with Deflect Attacks.

    Also, feats are going to make characters a little more complex. For players who want to covert higher-level characters from existing campaigns, I suggest really taking your time familiarizing yourself with everything that has changed. It might be worth it to simply rebuild the character level-by-level.