Are D&D Beyond's rules official for Adventurers League?

Question

A variety of errata for spells and items are published on D&D Beyond.

The question What is the rarity of an Amulet of the Shield Guardian?, for example, notes that D&D Beyond contains a reference for a master's amulet needed to control a shield guardian that is otherwise not listed in printed resources.

As I understand it, D&D Beyond is an official publication of Wizards of the Coast. If D&D Beyond rules are official for Adventurers League this would clarify rulings for spells and also clarify that the rarity of a shield guardian's amulet is rare (it's otherwise unstated).

Are D&D Beyond spells and items official for Adventurers League?

Answer 1

Maybe.

The AL Player's Guide and AL DMG don't address which rules to use outside of setting minimums and outlining the "+1 rule." So we turn to the AL FAQ (version 7.1 as of this writing) which contains this relevant guidance on p.2:

What Rules Do I Use?

As a D&D Adventurers League Dungeon Master, you are empowered to adjudicate the rules as presented by the official materials (PHB, DMG, MM, etc.).

So it has to be "the official rules," and PHB, DMG, MM are examples of such rules.

The next page makes a bit of an argument against, in that it lists twenty-four separate sources and doesn't list D&D Beyond, but arguments from omission are inherently weak, in my opinion.

That said, since the differences between D&D Beyond and the PHB, for instance, haven't been issued as errata you're "safe" going with the legacy wording.

Proceed with clarity.

In a few months we should be seeing a set of AL documents in the v.8 form which one hopes will make some mention of D&D Beyond. Until then just be clear with your players/GMs what you're using. Either "I don't see D&D Beyond the list so I'll stick with listed sources" or "it's an official WotC product which is what they say to use" certainly strike me as legitimate positions. As usual: what is important here is probably not so much arriving at a "correct" conclusion as is arriving at a shared conclusion.

Answer 2

By implication, yes...

Using DnD Beyond for Adventurers League (AL) character creation is considered legal according to this tweet from Adventurers League’s official Twitter account:

D&D Adventurers League @DnD_AdvLeague · Jan 27 Replying to @Novaree and @DnDBeyond Yes! No requirements on what platform or sheet you use as long as you're using AL character creation rules.

Casper Kirketerp-Helenius @Novaree @DnD_AdvLeague Is playing with your char sheet on @DnDBeyond considered AL legal, if the char itself is AL legal?

Character creation is algorithmic on the DnD Beyond website. Many choices for your character are generated automatically drawing from the rules. It can be reasonably expected that any errata that have been published in DnD Beyond will be updated in the character creation process on the site.

By implication, if you can build an AL legal character from their site, and yet those rules could differ from the printed text due to errata corrections and other modifications, then that suggests that DnD Beyond can be considered official rules for AL.

This assumption would not be true if evidence could be presented that character creation on DnD Beyond was shown to adhere to the printed materials and not DnD Beyond itself.

In sum, given that it is legal to create your character using DnD Beyond tools for Adventurers League - it is a reasonable assumption that the DnD Beyond rules hold as well.