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.

 

[Blue]

There are plenty of things in the game that already exist that have recently become unacceptable.

So, are you saying that races that get better spells at 3rd and 5th level are recently unacceptable to you, or is that just a good sound bite and decided to interrupt a fruitful discussion to inject it?

 

[overgeeked]

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.

Did Eilistraee even get listed in the DMG?

 

[Marandahir]

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.

Long term, this will be perceived negatively, because if you're in the entertainment industry, the last thing you want is to encourage fighting instead of entertaining people. If you hold an event that supposed to be fun in your valuable free time, and it devolves into fighting, then most people will say "buh-bye" and walk out the door. Who needs the grief or wasted time? WOTC has competition from other games, but more importantly, other hobbies. Nobody needs to play D&D. They could just leave and take up knitting, or skiing, or fly-fishing or whatever.

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.

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.

Market share is also affected by taking moral stances. A company standing up and doing the moral thing of trying to introspectively change and systematically break down the discriminatory parts of the game is good business in the long run, even if it alienates some players in the short run. Inclusive language matters.

The share of new players they can attract who wouldn't be turned away by racist/sexist/ableist biases previously in the game is worth the cost of grumbling some grognards.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So, are you saying that races that get better spells at 3rd and 5th level are recently unacceptable to you, or is that just a good sound bite and decided to interrupt a fruitful discussion to inject it?

Mostly that second thing, and I apologize for that. But it does reference the general issue at hand.

 

[cowpie]

Market share is also affected by boycotts and public pressure. A company standing up and doing the moral thing of trying to introspectively change and systematically break down the discriminatory parts of the game is good business in the long run, even if it alienates some players in the short run. The share of new players they can attract who wouldn't be turned away by racist/sexist/ableist biases previously in the game is worth the cost of grumbling some grognards.

I guess we'll find out in the next couple of years. I would argue that it's not just some grumbling grognards, but most people get turned off by fighting. We should consider that if the moral reformers are in error about even some of their assumptions then it could potentially backfire. What can I say, I'm not immoral, just a skeptic. Whenever anyone is absolutely certain about being right, I get skeptical, because we're all only human, and nobody is always right about everything.

 

[cbwjm]

Did Eilistraee even get listed in the DMG?

DMG only has the Dawn war pantheon. I think it was the Mordenkainen’s book that listed the whole drow pantheon. She is also mentioned in SCAG.

 

[Vaalingrade]

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.

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.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I stopped relating after they axed 3e and ruined the game with 4e. I don't see 5e as much of a better place, it brought a whole demographic of gamers who have zero respect for many of the game's legacies, have brought so much toxicity with them on top of that, they want everything "zero calorie" in the game, who then turn and complain about wishing certain elements and aspects were in the official game (the very same aspects WotC ditched from earlier editions...the irony...). They bastardize the lore that's been built for decades, then turn around and state "D&D lore doesn't really matter, do what you want" alongside "rules don't matter, do what you want." Like, where is this game going? It's become a chaotic mess with zero consistency besides rolling a d20 (and I won't be surprised if they "simplify" that to a d10 and levels go up to level 10, no more 11-20). What's the point of rulebooks? Just release a basic rules set and tell people,"Now fiddle with it and make your own game." The End.

I know, how will they make money if they did that? Simple, just do blatant commercialized crossovers with more YT celebrities, pop culture references, and Magic the Gathering. I'm waiting on a D&D/Pokemon crossover at this point. It's bound to happen.

What's funny is I used to harp on some older folk who lamented about certain aspects of life actually having been better far back. In terms of D&D, I can now somewhat relate to just that particular feeling (long as it didn't involve them missing certain social prejudices).

D&D was so much better when it WASN'T the cool thing to do.

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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Market share is also affected by taking moral stances. A company standing up and doing the moral thing of trying to introspectively change and systematically break down the discriminatory parts of the game is good business in the long run, even if it alienates some players in the short run. Inclusive language matters.

The share of new players they can attract who wouldn't be turned away by racist/sexist/ableist biases previously in the game is worth the cost of grumbling some grognards.

Morally, it might very well be worth it. Fiscally? Might take a while for that to shake out.

 

[cbwjm]

I skipped something like 20 pages because it seemed to be only about brothels...

Some if the changes seem a little weird, the fire giants lore being stripped out for instance. I guess it isn't that big an issue, WotC can change things how they like, it doesn't really affect much in the way of home games, especially when you have a huge amount of lore from previous editions to draw on. Still, I do think it takes some of the colour away from the monsters in the books. I do think it's funny how up in arms people get over the changes, I kind of get an "Old man shouts at cloud" kind of vibe from some people.