D&D 5E Least Favorite WotC 5E Book?

[Scribe]

After looking over Witchlight several times, it may be Witchlight. While I meme on Tashas because of the direction it represented for the game and what it did to player options, Witchlight maybe represents more of a lost opportunity.

Because I actually want a Feywild book that is not...this.

 

[pukunui]

I found Van Richten's to be fun to read, and there are some useful tools for running a horror game in there, and some interesting monsters as well, but the actual domains are too threadbare to be of much use. I wasn't offended by it as I have never been familiar with Ravenloft beyond Barovia.

After looking over Witchlight several times, it may be Witchlight. While I meme on Tashas because of the direction it represented for the game and what it did to player options, Witchlight maybe represents more of a lost opportunity.

Because I actually want a Feywild book that is not...this.

I find the hate for Witchlight interesting. Like I get not wanting something that's so non-combat oriented, but I actually liked the adventure when I read through it, and I am keen to run it someday. It seems like a good one to run for my children.

 

[Scribe]

Like I get not wanting something that's so non-combat oriented, but I actually liked the adventure when I read through it, and I am keen to run it someday. It seems like a good one to run for my children

I think with just the smallest of some art changes, I could have been fine with it. It's probably just that person "so close"! aspect that gets me. It's got elements from a few of my favorite artists, or COULD have, and so it's just a real missed opportunity to me.

 

[Neonchameleon]

My personal pet hate is the "Dragon Heist" with no dragons and no heist.
My pick for the absolute worst D&D book is the "Dungeon Master's Guide" that does almost nothing to guide new dungeon masters. It's a core book that is not fit for purpose.
My pick for the absolute worst book is Volo's Guide to Monsters that needed eratta to blame the racism on Volo.
And finally a dishonourable mention for being a waste of time and money to Spelljammer. Unlike the other three it won't actively put people off the whole game.

 

[humble minion]

I found Van Richten's to be fun to read, and there are some useful tools for running a horror game in there, and some interesting monsters as well, but the actual domains are too threadbare to be of much use. I wasn't offended by it as I have never been familiar with Ravenloft beyond Barovia.

VRGtR is a weird one. Most of the player options are really solid (the bard subclass is silly, but there's always an exception), and the Dark Gifts are cool. All the material and advice about the different genres of horror and running horror is really high quality. I personally prefer a Core model of Ravenloft rather than the Domains-drifting-in-the-Mists model they went with, but both ways have legitimate supporters and the setting has taken both approaches in the past.

But a significant number of the domains are weird messes or have been wildly altered from their historical incarnations in often bemusing or nonsensical ways. The cosmology behind the whole thing, how most NPCs are just shadows created by the Dark Powers to torment darklords, is so miserably nihilistic that it borders on sociopathic, and makes any achievements your PC might accomplish utterly meaningless. And for a book that cut out masses of really evocative and interesting setting material in order to focus more tightly on the Darklords and campaigns that centre tightly around a single domain, it has a weird fascination with creating silly multi-domain organisations like the Priests of Osybus and the Ulmist Inquisition which run entirely counter to that design principle, and with codifying and giving names to the Dark Powers which EVERY SINGLE OTHER ITERATION OF RAVENLOFT has been far too smart to do.

Excellent in some places, clumsy and thoughtless and fundamentally misconceived in others.

 

[pukunui]

I think with just the smallest of some art changes, I could have been fine with it. It's probably just that person "so close"! aspect that gets me. It's got elements from a few of my favorite artists, or COULD have, and so it's just a real missed opportunity to me.

OK so for you it's mainly the art that's off-putting rather than the adventure itself?

 

[Scribe]

OK so for you it's mainly the art that's off-putting rather than the adventure itself?

I didn't play it, but yeah, the art and marketing killed my interest. Some have said it's not bad, and I really want a Feywild centered book, old school Fairy Tales, but Wizards did enough to kill my interest.

I keep wanting to give it a chance and really read it over, one day.

 

[Divine2021]

I think it is a healthy reminder to let people know that it’s ok to like what you like, and not let internet randos disparaging what you like get you upset. Some people are just haters, and that’s ok. But yea, if you don’t think Masters of the Multiverse is the worst WoTC book out there, I can’t help you

 

[mamba]

if you don’t think Masters of the Multiverse is the worst WoTC book out there, I can’t help you

Didn't know they released a He-Man book

 

[cbwjm]

I found Van Richten's to be fun to read, and there are some useful tools for running a horror game in there, and some interesting monsters as well, but the actual domains are too threadbare to be of much use. I wasn't offended by it as I have never been familiar with Ravenloft beyond Barovia.


I find the hate for Witchlight interesting. Like I get not wanting something that's so non-combat oriented, but I actually liked the adventure when I read through it, and I am keen to run it someday. It seems like a good one to run for my children.

I quite like van richten's as well, never really into the setting during earlier editions. I use it for ideas on domains to drop into my own games, pretty much ignoring the actual overall setting. I've added the Egyptian domain to a location in my home-brew world, for instance.