Tome of Beasts Feedback and Bug Thread

Hi all! I led the conversion of Kobold Press'  Tome of Beasts for use on Roll20. Thanks so much for buying it! All of us on the team hope you're enjoying your new monsters. We really enjoyed working on it. Please feel free to leave your comments and bug reports here, and we'll have them fixed up in no time. Thanks again!

Fantastic!

First off, thanks for this! Very excited to have this available for my games. On to the questions! 1. Is there a way in game to have Appendix C (Monsters by Challenge Rating), Monsters by Type, Monsters by Terrain, and the basic Table of Contents (which lists monsters alphabetically) available in the compendium? These types of lists are available from Volo's and the Monster Manual (in game compendium under search Category:CategoryIndex), and are incredibly helpful mid-session to be able to pop open on the fly. Right now (out of game) the only way to view is the big Monsters List which is a little unwieldy when you want to just scan a list quickly, and in game to click Monsters in the compendium and then scroll through everything from all the various books in your compendium collection (which is also unwieldy when you have Volo's and the Monster Manual already). 2. Connected to the first question, is there a way in the in-game compendium to define a search for only ToB monsters? For instance, Category:Monsters will list all monsters from all sources - can I refine that to only show ToB?

Hi Loren, and thank you for the question :) 1. The Monster List can be sorted already by Name, Size, Type, Alignment, AC, HP & Senses. You can see them in the blue buttons just above the first creature. Challenge Rating is something we would like to see sortable too, and are discussing with Roll20 that option. In the meantime, here's a gift of a Monsters by CR page :)&nbsp;<a href="https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/CategoryIndex:Monsters%20by%20CR%20(ToB)#content" rel="nofollow">https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/CategoryIndex:Monsters%20by%20CR%20(ToB)#content</a> 2. In-game there is a marker next to each creature that says TOB. I do not believe Roll20 offers an in-app sort feature at this time by source, but will bring it up with them!

Bianca B. said: Hi Loren, and thank you for the question :) 1. The Monster List can be sorted already by Name, Size, Type, Alignment, AC, HP & Senses. You can see them in the blue buttons just above the first creature.&nbsp; Thanks for the CR rating list! Very helpful. In reference to the quoted part above, this is great for the out of game compendium, but in game there is no way to do this. It would be incredibly helpful to have those lists similarly to the CR rating list so that while in game this information would be easy to find, especially because those tables exist in the book.

Agreed! This is something that needs to be a Roll20 feature however - and I'll pass that idea on to them, if it's not something they're already working on!

a quick way is to present page handout that links to the content already sorted by CR rating. ie a simply page with the CR Rating sorted and monster name as links. similar to this just in linked handout forum&nbsp; <a href="https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Monsters%20by%" rel="nofollow">https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Monsters%20by%</a>...

lordmage said: a quick way is to present page handout that links to the content already sorted by CR rating. ie a simply page with the CR Rating sorted and monster name as links. similar to this just in linked handout forum&nbsp; <a href="https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Monsters%20by%" rel="nofollow">https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Monsters%20by%</a>... That's a great workaround, and can be generally implemented by anyone by just copying and pasting (and some tweaking it turns out, after testing). I can play with the idea of adding a monster handout that contains this info. Though you can also access this Monster by CR page in the compendium itself by going to CategoryIndex and clicking on the page Monsters by CR (ToB) if that helps as a workaround for now too :) You can keep it open in your game by double clicking it to minimize it, and double click it again any time you need it.

So awesome!!

Bianca B. said: lordmage said: a quick way is to present page handout that links to the content already sorted by CR rating. ie a simply page with the CR Rating sorted and monster name as links. similar to this just in linked handout forum&nbsp; <a href="https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Monsters%20by%" rel="nofollow">https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Monsters%20by%</a>... That's a great workaround, and can be generally implemented by anyone by just copying and pasting (and some tweaking it turns out, after testing). I can play with the idea of adding a monster handout that contains this info. Though you can also access this Monster by CR page in the compendium itself by going to CategoryIndex and clicking on the page Monsters by CR (ToB) if that helps as a workaround for now too :) You can keep it open in your game by double clicking it to minimize it, and double click it again any time you need it. I think this is what I was trying to express earlier - adding the Monsters by CR put it into the in-game compendium. If you were to create such a page for Monsters By Type, it also would show up in game just as the new Monsters by CR page does. I get that Roll20 is working on compendium upgrades that I would assume will eventually address all of this in game search, but until they do this, having a static page I can look up in game seems like an easy to implement way to fix the problem (especially because these lists are a part of the book- Appendix C -, so having a static page to see them seems quite reasonable).

Ahhh, Loren. Thanks for clarification! That new page is created to help with that! Linked on the main ToB page and should appear within compendium shortly. Thanks for your great feedback and suggestions on how to better serve this content up! <a href="https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/CategoryIndex" rel="nofollow">https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/CategoryIndex</a>:...

And also created the Monsters by Name for good measure -&nbsp;<a href="https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/CategoryIndex:Monsters%20by%20Name%20(ToB)#content" rel="nofollow">https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/CategoryIndex:Monsters%20by%20Name%20(ToB)#content</a>

Bianca, thank you so much for the prompt attention! As I expressed in my first post, super excited to have this resource for my games, and I also appreciate the responsive customer support. Hope it never came across as a complaint (the internet is so hard with tone!), merely ideas to help what I already see as a great product! (Heck, I've now purchased twice, once on Kickstarter and now on Roll20!) Hope to eventually see the Creature Codex and other Kobold Press products someday as well!

Also, a couple of small typos (noticed through the Monsters by Type page): Arch-Devil Arbeyach is missing a space in it's type: Fiend(Devil) Trollkin, Reaver is listed as Type: " Humaniod " - should probably be spell corrected to " Humanoid " Swarm of Slaugh is listed as Type: "Swarm of Tiny Few"&nbsp; - should likely be "Swarm of Tiny Fey" Swarm of Prismatic Beetles is listed as Type: "Swarm Tiny Beasts" - should likely be "Swarm of Tiny Beasts" to match the syntax of other creatures that are Swarms of Tiny Beasts

Not a problem at all, Loren. You've been super helpful! Thank you! There's a lot of data, and this is Roll20's first non-internally produced compendium, so there's bound to be errors left over no matter how many times we've checked - and features that are easy to implement that we didn't think about. So please keep coming with anything you find - it's very much appreciated and making the product all the better. Thank you again!

All of those spelling points have been corrected as well :)

some content even creates a token page with all the monsters tokens on it. this page could also have sections for the CR akin to how the volos guide does it . exampled below

This is the first time I saw something the store and just said hell yes instant buy. Not that I have a problem with anything else in the marketplace..

Hi Lordmage! That's a great suggestion! It's something we briefly considered, but because ToB has no other material that would work within an addon (I'm pretty sure Volos has maps and other things in there), we felt keeping the product simple and straightforward would make the most sense without getting into bundle and multiple aspect territory. If I see more feedback about that I'll definitely discuss with the team and reconsider, and we'll definitely keep it in mind for other Kobold Press products we do! Thank you! And Thanks Chiatroll!!

If i buy this can players in my game see it?

If I was to purchase this for my campaign, would my Co-GM's be able to access the custom compendium within that game, or would I have to drag out tokens for them beforehand?

Hi, the Tome of Beasts looks amazing. I'd like to purchase it, but I want to make sure the drag and drop features work with the Shaped Character Sheets, as I know it was designed with the OGL one in mind. Can anyone who uses shaped or has it purchased confirm this, please?

Flaming Pancakes said: Hi, the Tome of Beasts looks amazing. I'd like to purchase it, but I want to make sure the drag and drop features work with the Shaped Character Sheets, as I know it was designed with the OGL one in mind. Can anyone who uses shaped or has it purchased confirm this, please? It doesn't convert well at all. It looks like it's managed to bring in basic stats okay, but not actions or abilities at all. You're better off using shaped's 'Import from Statblock' option and copying/pasting from the Tome of Beasts PDF, if you've purchased that, which imports them almost always really well.

Are there plans to bring across the book of Lairs?

I think I may be missing something -- I bought this in the hopes of using some of them to add more flavor to a Curse of Strahd campaign. Does this only work with home-built campaigns and not with canonical purchased campaigns that already have a Monsters section in the compendium?

This is fantastic.&nbsp; When do we get Tome of Beasts 2?&nbsp; I need Dragon tokens!

I was wondering if there was a list of books / products you are planning on implementing on roll20.&nbsp; I may have skipped buying the physical copy of this book had I known.&nbsp;

These sheets don't link to any SRD spells at all, and spellcasting sheets are NOT tagged as spellcasters. Instead, you've opted just to list the spells and slots that they have in plaintext. This is disappointing, I was expecting spells to automatically be linked to the compendium and slotted into the OGL sheet properly for slot tracking. Is this something you can control or fix?

@Distorted Can you share a screenshot of what spells look like right now on the sheets? Was thinking of biting on this, but I might hold off for this reason specifically.

I don't want to get in trouble screenshotting custom content, but spellcasting is listed in their traits in plaintext (this creature is an x-th level spellcaster with the following spells), but they're not tagged as spellcasters in the options (so they dont have actual spellslots) and even if they do get tagged as a spellcaster, the spell list is completely empty and you'll have to drag all those spells into the slots manually from the compendium. EDIT: Upon investigating further, though, this may be at least somewhat out of their control. All my compendium creatures (even monster manual and volos ones) have no spells listed in their spell slots.

@Distorted Thanks for letting me know. @All Can anyone confirm whether or not spells are statted on the creatures? My cursor's hovering over the "buy" button right now. :)

at the moment i believe spell across the board do not drag on sheets so until that is sorted for SRD the official content may not work but since kobold press has the ability to create compendiums they maybe able to update their content to allow it. it i just a matter of sorting out the spells to the NPC levels of the sheet and such which would not take to much just some time to parse it all then update.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Hey Dean, Thanks, that's what I thought. Maybe you can help me see what I'm missing... I've got my campaign set up with: "Access Compendium In-Game: D&D 5th Edition" and "Character Sheet Template: 5th Edition OGL". And in "Playing" on the home screen it says "D&D 5E" Is there someplace I'm missing? Thanks! Pratik

Just FYI Adult Flame Dragon has 28+4 for the tail attack dmg and says it does an average of 70 dmg, pretty sure its just a typo though

Daniel H. said: Just FYI Adult Flame Dragon has 28+4 for the tail attack dmg and says it does an average of 70 dmg, pretty sure its just a typo though Thanks for catching that! Fixed! :) And thanks for the help and information Dean!

Distorted said: Flaming Pancakes said: Hi, the Tome of Beasts looks amazing. I'd like to purchase it, but I want to make sure the drag and drop features work with the Shaped Character Sheets, as I know it was designed with the OGL one in mind. Can anyone who uses shaped or has it purchased confirm this, please? It doesn't convert well at all. It looks like it's managed to bring in basic stats okay, but not actions or abilities at all. You're better off using shaped's 'Import from Statblock' option and copying/pasting from the Tome of Beasts PDF, if you've purchased that, which imports them almost always really well. Just as a note, Kryx has now updated the Shaped sheet to be compatible with Tome of Beasts, some of the data was being stored in a new way so Shaped didn't know to look for it.

The Fraughashar is titled Fraugashar but spelled right in the text. Searching the compendium for Fraughashar comes up with nothing.

I'm interested in Tome of Beast in the Marketplace but I'm wondering if the Tome of Beast PDF is accessible if you purchase ToB in the Roll20 Marketplace. They are two separate products, correct?

Mike said: I'm interested in Tome of Beast in the Marketplace but I'm wondering if the Tome of Beast PDF is accessible if you purchase ToB in the Roll20 Marketplace. They are two separate products, correct? Yeah, there is no PDF included that I am aware of.

I like the product in and of itself but it seems that some of the stat blocks have a few bugs or are otherwise not working as intended. Example being, Spawn of Arbeyach currently have the Arch Devil's image and is missing the sting attack in its multiattack. Then the Spawn of Akyishigal is almost like a hybrid between the Demon Lord's sheet and what it is supposed to be. Those are the couple I've seen so far. I can try and see if there are others to better improve the clarity of the product.

Distorted said: Mike said: I'm interested in Tome of Beast in the Marketplace but I'm wondering if the Tome of Beast PDF is accessible if you purchase ToB in the Roll20 Marketplace. They are two separate products, correct? Yeah, there is no PDF included that I am aware of. Thanks :) I didn't think so, but didn't hurt to ask.&nbsp; Picked it up anyways. Hope I can make good use of it!

Matt W. said: The Fraughashar is titled Fraugashar but spelled right in the text. Searching the compendium for Fraughashar comes up with nothing. Have the rename ordered on that. Should be in soon! The Storyteller said: I like the product in and of itself but it seems that some of the stat blocks have a few bugs or are otherwise not working as intended. Example being, Spawn of Arbeyach currently have the Arch Devil's image and is missing the sting attack in its multiattack. Then the Spawn of Akyishigal is almost like a hybrid between the Demon Lord's sheet and what it is supposed to be. Those are the couple I've seen so far. I can try and see if there are others to better improve the clarity of the product. Thanks for pointing those out :) They've been fixed. Anything else you find please feel free to report here and we'll fix them right up! Distorted said: Mike said: I'm interested in Tome of Beast in the Marketplace but I'm wondering if the Tome of Beast PDF is accessible if you purchase ToB in the Roll20 Marketplace. They are two separate products, correct? Yeah, there is no PDF included that I am aware of. No PDF. This product is separate from the PDF and offers a whole bunch of time saving features :)

The Bouda says it attacks with a bite and Mephitic Claw, but there is no Mephitic Claw attack on the character sheet.&nbsp;

Phi O. said: The Bouda says it attacks with a bite and Mephitic Claw, but there is no Mephitic Claw attack on the character sheet.&nbsp; Thank you for finding that. It's been fixed!

In the Vampire, Umbral entry under Traits, Bane is not capitalized and is not linked to its corresponding entry in the Compendium.

Trudy said: In the Vampire, Umbral entry under Traits, Bane is not capitalized and is not linked to its corresponding entry in the Compendium. Great catch! Thank you. It is fixed!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know that Tome of Beasts was updated today as part of the&nbsp; Roll20 3 million user celebration . The updates are as follows: Stat blocks have been re-styled to better match the source material and show you exactly what you need to know. Entire compendium has been paginated, so you can flip from one monster to the next via the Previous / Next buttons at the bottom of each entry. New Kobold icon added to the in-app compendium list to quickly let you see what source each monster is from. Optimizations and speed improvements have also been implemented. We hope you enjoy!

This is radical! Thanks so much for the update, Bianca. Just bought this yesterday, and I'm really stoked. Really glad you're continuing to improve the Tome, too.