D&D 5E Latest D&D Errata: Drow, Alignment, & More

Sage Advice is a series of articles in which Jeremy Crawford, one of the D&D Studio’s game design architects, talks about the design of the game’s rules and answers questions about them.

Book Updates | Sage Advice | Dungeons & Dragons

This Sage Advice provides updates and errata for a number of books, as well as answers to rules questions.

dnd.wizards.com

D&D books occasionally receive corrections and other updates to their rules and story. This Sage Advice installment presents updates to several books. I then answer a handful of rules questions, focusing on queries related to Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos.

Official errata has been published for the following books:

• Curse of Strahd
• Dungeon Master’s Guide
• Player’s Handbook
• Storm King’s Thunder
• Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
• Tales from the Yawning Portal
• Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
• Tomb of Annihilation
• Volo’s Guide to Monsters

Here's some of the highlights.

• Alignment is removed from the Racial Traits section of races.
• Drow have undergone lore changes which reflect the different types of drow. The 'darkness of the drow' sidebar which portrays them as only evil has been removed.
• Storm King's Thunder alters references to 'Savage Frontier' and 'barbarians'; Curse of Strahd alters references to the Vistani.
• The controversial Silvery Barbs spell has been clarified.

As a drow, you are infused with the magic of the Underdark, an underground realm of wonders and horrors rarely seen on the surface above. You are at home in shadows and, thanks to your innate magic, learn to con- jure forth both light and darkness. Your kin tend to have stark white hair and grayish skin of many hues.

The cult of the god Lolth, Queen of Spiders, has cor- rupted some of the oldest drow cities, especially in the worlds of Oerth and Toril. Eberron, Krynn, and other realms have escaped the cult’s influence—for now. Wherever the cult lurks, drow heroes stand on the front lines in the war against it, seeking to sunder Lolth’s web.

 

[Malmuria]

The changes seem to be driven by some kind of moral obligation to take a public stand vis a vis contemporary politics, which tends to cause arguments and conflicts. This stance seems to be appealing to a minority of very vocal new players who seem to be picking fights with the old players, who eventually respond in kind.

You're making assumptions about the "politics" of younger and older players

I'm no genius, and I would hope they don't need my advice, because it's pretty basic stuff. To make the most money and keep market share: don't alienate customers, make products that appeal to the most people, and limit the amount of controversial topics in the product (for the same reasons we avoid discussing them at Thanksgiving dinner), Just stay out of it, and let the players hash things out on their own.

What controversial topic has been introduced by this errata? Changing "brothel" to "music hall" in a random table in the dmg?

I don't know if they're making money hand over fist, but if they're not, then they should be striving to maximize their sales and keeping their existing market share--again, basic stuff.

They are, in fact. They are doing really well:

Dungeons & Dragons had its biggest year ever as Covid forced the game off tables and onto the web

During a time when gamers were unable to meet in person, the Dungeons & Dragons brand had its best year ever.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Vaalingrade]

There were good Drow before the new lore. WotC seems to have forgotten the Elistree worshipers when they made 2 whole new surface Drow societies.

Didn't it just start with the ones in the module were evil and then the entire species was flanderized?

Like how people are railing against smart, non-evil orcs in the setting of Obold Man-Arrows?

 

[cowpie]

Yup, totally the new players that opened up in this very thread with expletives and hyperbole.

And also only the new players welcoming the changes and/or talking about how they've done this a long time.

I just started playing D&D this week actually.

The stance some of the new players are taking is that the old game was morally deficient. By implication, that's kind of calling all the old players morally deficient to, via guilt-by-association, which given the moral failures being implied, would be pretty insulting to anyone. Naturally, that's triggering the old gamers to get angry that they're being called names, and responding in kind. It's been happening for a while, so now they're entering room already angry. But they didn't start this stuff--they were just fine with things as they were--it's pretty obvious that the small group of new gamers is using conflict to try and trigger a change.

 

[Zardnaar]

Mod Note:

Everyone’s allowed an opinion. Not every game or even every edition is for every player. Personally, 3.5Ed is my favorite iteration of D&D. I enjoyed 4Ed as a player, but would NEVER run itl. 5Ed left me cold, and I’ve not spent a penny on it.

But there comes a point where you should move on and find new games to play- of find others who want to play the same stuff you do- instead of railing against the tide. And when you start ranting like that? Just dumping on other people’s fun?

Maybe you’ve reached that point.

Damn you're brave with 3.5. Probably my favorite with fluff etc. Mechanics not so much.

 

[cowpie]

You're making assumptions about the "politics" of younger and older players


What controversial topic has been introduced by this errata? Changing "brothel" to "music hall" in a random table in the dmg?


They are, in fact. They are doing really well:

Dungeons & Dragons had its biggest year ever as Covid forced the game off tables and onto the web

During a time when gamers were unable to meet in person, the Dungeons & Dragons brand had its best year ever.

www.cnbc.com

No assumptions, I've just read most of the posts on this site, and what WOTC said. It's a pretty consistent messaging pattern. Also, other posters here, who are pretty pro-change, have been saying it's newer players who want the changes, so I'm following their lead.

I don't want to talk much about the politics of it, because it will lead to banning here, due to controversy.

For now WOTC is doing well, but the article you quote for fiscal year 2020, not 2021. Sure games increased during lockdown, but we're talking about the changes they're introducing now, and i think long-term, they will start shooting themselves in the foot.

 

[OakenHart]

The stance some of the new players are taking is that the old game was morally deficient. By implication, that's kind of calling all the old players morally deficient to, via guilt-by-association, which given the moral failures being implied, would be pretty insulting to anyone.

I don't think they're saying old players are morally deficient, I think that's people tying too much of their identity to the game they play and getting defensive over imagined slights. They seem to be saying that aspects of the the game are old-fashioned and not really in line with a lot of modern beliefs. WotC is adapting for their new demographic that caused the game to explode in popularity (cynical approach) or because they are trying to do right by their own beliefs (very optimistic approach). Likely a combination of those two things, going by past tweets by the developers.

If someone is taking a change to the game as a personal attack, it is time to take a step back and re-evaluate how they are connecting to this game and conversations surrounding it.

My 2 copper, at least.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The stance some of the new players are taking is that the old game was morally deficient. By implication, that's kind of calling all the old players morally deficient to, via guilt-by-association, which given the moral failures being implied, would be pretty insulting to anyone. Naturally, that's triggering the old gamers to get angry that they're being called names, and responding in kind. It's been happening for a while, so now they're entering room already angry. But they didn't start this stuff--they were just fine with things as they were--it's pretty obvious that the small group of new gamers is using conflict to try and trigger a change.

Okay, lets shout this out once more for the people in the upper deck:

You Are Not Your Fandom

Just because something you like is being criticized, doesn't mean you as a person are being criticized.

I grew up loving a certain sitcom named for and fronted by a man who has been convicted for heinous crimes. I didn't throw my DVDs away. Sometimes I still watch them. Doesn't make me a supporter of what he did and I feel no need to go to freaking war to defend the show from people who don't want to deal with it any longer.

I still quote jokes from... way too many comedians that turned out to be hatemongers. Like the good jokes they told back in the day, not the ones about how they hate certain people and know the current buzzwords. What they do these days doesn't reflect on me as a person and I can still admit that they're wrong for it when they do wrong.

I read DC comics. That doesn't mean I love cutting people's left (always the left!!) arms off.

As the world moves forward, we have to be able to examine and accept that some things we like might not be all that great. Maybe we just never noticed the issues, maybe it wasn't an issue people were vocal about in the past, maybe we even agreed with them then but have come to see things differently as we grow older and have more experiences with more people. I know I said and did and believed some very crappy things in days gone by I've come to regret now that I've met and seen people who it would have effected.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I kind of wonder how many 15-18 year olds coming into the game even know what a brothel is to leave the game in droves over it.

My younger cousins marvel in mock disgust at people using the term 'tape' for recording/video. I can't imagine an archaic word for a rare (in the US) establishment is going to fair much better.

 

[Zardnaar]

I kind of wonder how many 15-18 year olds coming into the game even know what a brothel is to leave the game in droves over it.

My younger cousins marvel in mock disgust at people using the term 'tape' for recording/video. I can't imagine an archaic word for a rare (in the US) establishment is going to fair much better.

Not all of us are Americans though. Brothels have been legal here since 2003, age of consent is 16, and they'll probably decriminalize drugs soon.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Not all of us are Americans though. Brothels have been legal here since 2003, age of consent is 16, and they'll probably decriminalize drugs soon.

I'm just trying to make fun of all the brothel talk here, mate.