Thoughts on the Charactermancer with PHB

I started a D&D 5e campaign a few months ago, before the Charactermancer level-up. We've been using D&D Beyond to manage characters and then manually transferring them to Roll20. I'd rather do everything in Roll20, so I'm thinking about buying the Roll20 version of the PHB and DMG, but I was hoping to get some reviews. If you've used the Charactermancer with the PHB, how have you liked it? How does it compare to D&D Beyond?

The process is slightly different, but mostly they are both wizards that walk you through character creation. If you've used the Charactermancer at all with the SRD, then it is basically like that only with full options (including the rules for generating stats). I'd suggest playing around with it to build a couple characters and see how you feel about it. I personally really like having it all available in game and in one place. I'm very excited for the remaining books to get the Charactermancer treatment so I can have the complete options here on Roll20. There are still some outstanding implementation issues (you can check the bug reporting forum for the official thread that lists known issues), and people are finding the occasional bug here or there since it just rolled out with the leveling to 20, but overall I think it works great.

the books cost too much if you ask me, and they don't even let you download the pdf versions of the books. why do we need to be absolutely tethered to roll20? we're paying for the value of the book and thensome for roll20 added features. we should be able to download the pdfs.

There are no PDFs of any of the 5e Core books and adventures. Wizards of the Coast has not released any, nor have they allowed their content to be digitally released in a non-proprietary fashion. And when you buy from Roll20 (or any other legal vendor of the rules), you are paying for conversion time, automation, and licensing.

I agree with everything that Keith said, and will just add that you don't need to be tethered to Roll20 - that is what either the print books or other digital avenues are for. If you want to be able to use them seamlessly with Roll20 though, that is what purchasing them here is for. Just because you purchase a piece of media somewhere (a cd, a book, a movie, whatever) doesn't mean that you have universal access to that item through all digital platforms - it means you have the ability to use it in the one way you purchased it (you don't usually get to go "hey, I bought the CD at the concert, now I should be able to download the music for free from Amazon and iTunes"). 

Loren the GM said: The process is slightly different, but mostly they are both wizards that walk you through character creation. If you've used the Charactermancer at all with the SRD, then it is basically like that only with full options (including the rules for generating stats). I'd suggest playing around with it to build a couple characters and see how you feel about it. I personally really like having it all available in game and in one place. I'm very excited for the remaining books to get the Charactermancer treatment so I can have the complete options here on Roll20. There are still some outstanding implementation issues (you can check the bug reporting forum for the official thread that lists known issues), and people are finding the occasional bug here or there since it just rolled out with the leveling to 20, but overall I think it works great. Thanks for the feedback. I went ahead and got the PHB and have been tinkering with the Charactermancer. The interface isn't quite as slick as D&D Beyond, but it's pretty good. I think this will make it easier for my group to manage their characters.