What is required for character creation?

[nckoliss]

So my group is transferring over from R20 as we are having some issues and really don't want to have to do another yearly subscription. My we're all going to pitch in to help our DM buy an ultimate subscription, however, we are trying to find out what additional expenses we might need, specifically for character creation and monster sheets. In our party, we have an aasimar, a divine soul sorcerer, and a blade singer, so we are going to need access to volo's, sword coast, and xanathar's as well as the PHB, xanathar spells, and sword coast spells.

There is a lot to go through for FG, but from what I understand, we will have to purchase the Ultimate subscription, and then each of the individual books, but since my DM will have the only subscription, we will only have to buy each book once. Is this correct?

[ChumSlinger]

Welcome to the Forums nckoliss!
If your DM has an Ultimate Subscription/License , and a copy of the books you are using, any player can create a character while they are connected to the DM's server.
If you want to be able to create characters when you are not connected to the DM's server, you will need your own license and books. The good news is the Players Hand Book and DMG are on sale frequently.
Even though I play mostly StarFinder I have copies of The PH and DMG because I have found them on sale in the Fantasy Grounds store for pretty cheap and every once in a while I do join a 5E game.

[LordEntrails]

So as you noticed you will need a license. The Ultimate (one-time or subscription) is probably the best bet if you don't rotate GMs.

You actually don't need any of the books to play. BUT, you will probably want them. Without them you have to enter everything manually (lots of typing), but it can be done. With the books you will be able to drag and drop, link, etc like you've seen in the videos. Good news is that the books on FG are cheaper than they are on Roll20. Plus when their are sales they are even cheaper.

As mentioned, if the GM has the books, anyone can use them when they are connected to the GM.

Any other questions, just let us know :)

[damned]

Hola nckoliss

Most definitely the GM will want the PHB.
If you want to just hit the ground with minimum fuss then yes you would also buy the other volumes you mention.
You can enter the data in manually - its cheaper but not that much fun.

[Nyghtmare]

You actually don't need any of the books to play. BUT, you will probably want them. Without them you have to enter everything manually (lots of typing), but it can be done. With the books you will be able to drag and drop, link, etc like you've seen in the videos.
Actually, anything that you create manually from within FG (such as putting in the classes, races, backgrounds, etc. yourself) can then be dragged and dropped onto the character sheets, not just the stuff from bought books.

Just wanted to clarify that one point. :)

So, to start with, nckoliss could just put in the races/classes/backgrounds/items/spells/etc. for what his players are actually going to play, as well as the monsters that they will encounter, and then go from there.

Buying the PHB, DMG, and Monster Manual just saves you a massive amount of typing and proofreading/fixing. ;)

[Valyar]

Edit the XML directly!