D&D Beyond Will Rollout New 5.5E Rules – Whether You Like It Or Not
D&D Beyond has revealed how the update to the 5.5E Ruleset will play out, letting players know what they will – and won’t – have access to.
The new D&D 5.5E Player’s Handbook is almost here. And with it comes a transition that’s a curious product of D&D’s digital state. In a post on D&D Beyond, WotC lays out the plan for updating the D&D Beyond Toolset for the 2024 Core Rulebooks.
And remember, in WotC’s eyes, D&D is now a “living edition” which can be updated as the game continues. It’s a page straight out of the Games Workshop playbook, and this is probably the most Warhammer-y of updates for D&D.
Especially since, as the changelog reveals, the new default assumption will be that you’re playing with the 5.5E (or 2024) version of the ruleset.
D&D Beyond 5.5E Ruleset Rollout
Get ready to homebrew some of your old spells.
First things first, D&D Beyond states upfront, right away, that you won’t be losing access to any of the content you’ve already paid for. The 2014/5E rules aren’t going away. You won’t lose access to the 5E Basic Rules or Player’s Handbook – but D&D Beyond will be automatically updating character sheets to the 5.5E ruleset and rolling out the rules in terms of tooltips and spells.
The default assumption will be that you’re playing with the new 5.5E ruleset, with the 5E content being labeled as “legacy” content. And while you’ll still be able to use most of the “legacy content with D&D Beyond’s character builder, the rules for spells, magic items, mundane adventuring gear, and core rules are getting an automatic update across the board. Whether you paid for the new Player’s Handbook or not. Presumably, because the 5.5E SRD is coming soon and D&D Beyond is easier to update.
With the rules revision, we are updating game materials in the toolset and in tooltips to be in line with the 2024 Core Rulebooks. This change impacts the information you’ll find on your character sheet, in tooltips, and that is linked in the compendium.
Aside from a few exceptions, all entries for mundane and magical items, weapons, armor, and spells will also be updated to their 2024 version. For magic items, most of those changes will come with the release of the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide. Further, all tooltips and links to monsters will also be updated to point to their newest version.
via D&D Beyond
If you’re wondering what that means, WotC has provided many examples. But it seems that the one that has most players a little hesitant about the new ruleset is the character sheet update. For instance, if your character has the Healing Word spell, your character sheet will reflect the 5.5E version. The old version of Healing Word will be available through the D&D Beyond Compendium. If you want to use the older version on your character sheet, you’ll have to go through a slightly roundabout process of creating a homebrew copy of it and then enabling the homebrew content on your character sheet.
It’s one of the quirks of a digital ruleset. When an update like this rolls out, the support changes. And it’s clear that moving forward, WotC wants to give more attention to the new ruleset. Which is fine – 5E has been out for a decade. But it’s an artifact of the new Edition Wars landscape that players may not have anticipated.
Badges? Badges? Turns Out, You Kinda Do Need a D&D Beyond Legacy Badge
But what will be happening to the older rules if it’s not going away? Well, according to D&D Beyond, older 5E content will be marked with a “Legacy Badge”. We saw something like this with the release of Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, when the Goliath presented there became the default, and the older version from the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion, which was marked with a Legacy badge.
But we also saw older content be replaced outright. For instance, the playable Orcs in Volo’s Guide to Monsters were replaced with updated Orc rules reflecting the ones in Eberron: Rising from the Last War, which didn’t have an intelligence penalty. And then when Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything came out, and racial stat modifiers went away, this change was also reflected in the D&D Beyond Character Creator.
This is why there have been some concerns about how the new rules will be implemented. And make no mistake, WotC does consider this new edition a replacing of the current rules. This is reflected in how WotC defines the Legacy Badge (emphasis ours):
The Legacy badge indicates material that does not follow the current rules of the game or lore. For example, when the Goliath was updated in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, its former version in Elemental Evil Player’s Companion received a Legacy badge. When the 2024 Player’s Handbook releases, the Goliath from Monsters of the Multiverse will also get a Legacy badge.
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That “the current rules of the game” line reflects the “living edition” or “One D&D” language that was bandied about before someone at WotC decided they wanted to hang on to the “5E” branding.
But How Will It All Work?
Here’s a look at what rules will be updated automatically for all D&D Beyond users. Again, this is what your character sheet and other tooltips will reference, whether you have the new PHB or not.
- Core gameplay definitions
- Armor Class
- Saving Throws
- Skills and Abilities
- Alignment
- Senses (Blindsight, Darkvision, Tremorsense, Truesight)
- Area of effect definitions
- Mundane and Magical Items (Except for the Net which is being archived and replaced with the new Net adventuring gear)
- Spells (Except for Feeblemind and Branding Smite, which are getting archived and replaced with Befuddlement and Shining Smite unilaterally)
But, according to D&D Beyond, you’ll still be able to play with the older content. The following will be flagged with a Legacy badge but won’t be automatically updated:
- Classes
- Subclasses
- Species
- Backgrounds
- Feats
Though, here we get an idea of how the “Backwards compatibility” will work. You can’t play a 5E/2014 class with a 5.5E/2024 subclass. WotC highlights how this dichotomy works:
You create a Cleric using the 2024 Player’s Handbook. At level 3, you get to choose a subclass. You own the 2014 Player’s Handbook and decide you want to use the Knowledge Domain subclass from that book. You may select it in the Character Builder. As you level up, your subclass features will unlock according to the Cleric’s progression in the 2024 ruleset.
But you couldn’t, for instance, play a 5.5E Cleric and use the 5E Light Domain Subclass. The two are incompatible. Similarly, if you’re playing a 5E Warlock, you can’t take the 5.5E version of the Fiend Patron subclass. I mean, you can, technically. You just won’t be able to do that on the D&D Beyond Character Creator.
A lot of the rules references will reflect the new stuff. Clicking on a condition will show the 2024 version of the condition, not the 2014. Again, the old rules will still be there; you’ll just have to go look them up in the 5E Basic Rules or Player’s Handbook (provided you own that). And your character sheet will, for instance, now show “Species” instead of “Race.” Instead of using an object action, you’ll have the 5.5E utilize action. Minor changes, but they’re to the functional part of the website that you’ll use when playing.
If you want to play in WotC’s garden, you’ve got to play by WotC’s rules. For a full list of changes, follow the link below.
What do you think of D&D Beyond’s coming changes? Convenient? Or a downside to digital rulesets?
