D&D 5E D&D Beyond vs Print Books

[Orlando29]

I am planning on DMing my first 5e game. I have the PHB, but I don't have the Monster Manual yet. I was wondering if there would be any value in getting it in electronic format from D&D Beyond. My thought is that I don't need the whole book during play, I could print out the stat blocks of the monsters I intended to use in a session. That way I could reference multiple monsters without having to flip pages.

I have no experience with D&D Beyond's format, is what I am planning easy to do, will it save time?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I've done that. You can print screen and paste various monsters onto one page (in any program of your choice, but it works even with something as simple as MS Paint). Print it in greyscale to save colour ink. It's pretty useful.

The only "danger" with D&D Beyond, is that some day they may lose their D&D license, and then you will wind up without owning anything. This is just about guaranteed to happen - but no one knows when.

 

[OB1]

Welcome to the boards @Orlando29 ! If you are able to use a laptop or tablet at your table, DDB is a great resource, as you can pre-create encounters, run initiative, easily flip between the monsters, get quick, tool-tip like info on spells and other abilities related to each monster, and even roll attacks and damage directly in your browser. It also plugs directly into Roll20 if you are using a virtual tabletop. All in all, a great product that's made my life as a DM much easier.

If you don't want or can't use electronics at your table, I'd lean slightly in favor of getting the physical book, and making photo copies of pages you need for a session (I did this before DDB).

 

[J-H]

I have and prefer the paper books. I do Duckduckgo searches to confirm basic details while prepping, but at the table, it's all books. I use DNDB strictly for character-building. I bought the basic books for this (PHB, X/T GE) when they were on sale a few weeks ago.

 

[Casimir Liber]

I've done that. You can print screen and paste various monsters onto one page (in any program of your choice, but it works even with something as simple as MS Paint). Print it in greyscale to save colour ink. It's pretty useful.

The only "danger" with D&D Beyond, is that some day they may lose their D&D license, and then you will wind up without owning anything. This is just about guaranteed to happen - but no one knows when.

technically true - the issue with books OTOH is when a new edition comes out....aaaaaaand you start from scratch again. Have done this 4 times now....

I'd get both if I can afford it I think...

 

[Oofta]

If you're just starting, you can always get the free basic version here. I use D&D beyond almost exclusively, I either run the game from my laptop or copy the data from DndBeyond. It's really preference, but I find DndBeyond such an easy tool to use for things like spells that I find it useful.

I created a template for monsters long ago so I can create "monster cards", for most monsters I use. Basically print a page with 4 monsters each with their own section, print it and then laminate it. I put all the monsters I've used before in an organizer and now I rarely have to print much.

So it looks like (without the gridlines):

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Micah Sweet]

I advice against buying material on D&D Beyond, for the reasons listed above. They can and do change and remove content as their IP holder sees fit, and there's nothing you can do about it.

 

[aco175]

@Orlando29 welcome to the site. Stick around, there are many good opinions here.

I do not have D&DBeyond and have the MM. I have not used the MM in the last few years. I created a MSWord doc that I copied the template upon and add monsters as I go so I can copy/paste the monster in the adventure I am writing. I have gone to Beyond to look at a statblock to add to the Word doc lately and find that works for me.

 

[Orlando29]

Thanks for the responses. Is everything in the MM open content and posted elsewhere online or is there some stuff I can’t get online.

 

[J.Quondam]

A big chunk of the MM is openly available, too, so you might not necessarily have to immediately purchase the whole MM if you're hesitant. All the Basic monsters are freely available on DnDBeyond; and they're available on plenty of other sites, if you google "5e SRD".

Monsters

D&D Beyond - Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition Tools, Rules, Races, Classes, Items, Spells, Monsters, and More

www.dndbeyond.com

If you need monsters not in the SRD (including a lot of iconics like mindflayers, umberhulks, beholders, displacer beasts, and so forth) you'd have to look elsewhere. In that case, getting the full MM (or whatever) on DDB might be helpful, especially if you plan on doing more DMing.