D&D Beyond's official partner program to add one of the most popular homebrew classes, which lets you engage in fisticuffs like a true rowdy

Folks, I have been a little harsh on Dungeons & Dragons creators Wizards of the Coast—and its owner, Hasbro—for its many fusses and foibles over the past decade. And not for terrible reasons: Weird pre-order bonuses that reek of the worst of videogame DLC, the slow-motion trainwreck that was Sigil, the troubles with getting anything BG3-related off the ground (and also laying off most of the folks who made BG3 responsible).

I am delighted to report, however, that D&D Beyond is doing something unequivocally neat in its partnered content program, and looks set to continue doing neat things with it without screwing up.

In case you're unfamiliar, D&D Beyond is a digital tabletop version of the TTRPG that Wizards of the Coast bought in 2022. The content partner program, which has been in effect since 2024, allows folks to integrate their work into D&D Beyond while being compensated for their craft.

While my little independent-loving heart thinks sweeping everything into one WoTC-owned platform probably isn't healthy for the hobby as a whole, this kind of cooperation is still a major improvement over… well, the entire OGL thing. You know, where WoTC put a metaphorical gun to the head of its entire creator ecosystem for basically no reason, while making headlines because Hasbro CEOs said it was under-monetised.

It's proven enough of a success now that D&D Beyond has started releasing roadmaps for it, and this year will include one of the more popular homebrew classes out there: The Pugilist, by Benjamin Huffman.

The Pugilist is similar to the monk, in that you spend a lot of time beating things to death with your fists, except it's drenched in flavour that's completely independent of the Monk's shtick. Also, you get to use 'moxie' points instead of 'ki', which is fun.

It's so popular, in fact, that it actually made it to an episode of Dimension 20—one of the most popular D&D actual plays out there, second only to Critical Role (and in fact so good that Critical Role got its DM to run its new campaign).

The class is played by Brian Murphy of NaddPod fame for the steampunk-oriented series Cloudward Ho! (their exclamation mark, not mine, although I am occasionally possessed by the spirit of steampunk so I wouldn't put it past me). He spends most of his time using it to throw people off airships and into genre-conflicting propellor blades. Like some kind of rowdy.

The rest of the roadmap includes an Eberron supplement by its original designer Keith Baker, a collection of first level one-shots by Beadle & Grimm’s Pandemonium Warehouse called "Faster, Purple Worm! Everybody Dies, vol. 1", Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting: Part 2 by Loot Tavern, and the first Griffon's Saddlebag book, a popular magic item supplement.

And hey, this is very much WoTC just doing what it should've been doing for years—but given we've gone from the seemingly open hostility to third-party creators via the OGL fiasco in 2023 to this, I'm more than happy to give credit where it's due.