The Actual Table of Contents for Xanathar's Guide to Everything

A lot of good stuff there.

Of course, on the DM side, a lot of stuff is not there, but I like what I see.

Actually, one of the most useful things will be the appendix of sample names.

 

[Parmandur]

I get that it isn't free. That's now why I'm asking for it for free. I'm willing to pay for product, but that product must be reasonably priced, and the seller must not be asking me to pay for something I could google for free (the names) or for something I already bought (a situation faced by those who already purchased the SCAG, although I did not purchase it the argument remains valid for those who did).

The book is $30 if you don't pay the FLGS price (and if you do, you are paying for the FLGS, not the book), and any way you slice it, it is priced similarly to similar books of a similar length: hardly unfair.

 

[MechaPilot]

The book is $30 if you don't pay the FLGS price (and if you do, you are paying for the FLGS, not the book), and any way you slice it, it is priced similarly to similar books of a similar length: hardly unfair.

$30 is close enough to being fair for me that I'll likely buy the book. But, it's so close to being fair for me because I didn't buy the SCAG and won't be paying for some of the content twice. It does mean that I'll never be willing to pay more than $10-15 for the SCAG however, because I'll already own some of that material, making the MSRP unreasonable for me.

 

[SmokeyCriminal]

Basing a rule on a conversation you over heard one time, is not a good idea.

They should at least make it PHB +2 so that people still have reasons to buy more books.

I think its less about that one specific conversation he heard that one time, and more about it prompting WotC to consider cost to entry and what it might imply to potential players to allow all/X number of books. Even just making it PHB +2 implies that if you want to take full advantage of your options, you need to spend 33% more money for it. Which is kinda a thing WotC does with Magic, so we know its not like they're above it, but I guess they just decided that its not what they want D&D to "say" to players.

Also you might be interested to know that I heard Mike talk about how WotC is changing their 2APs a year to 1AP a year. I think they're keeping the AP for the fall release, and the spring release would now be a "random" release. Or maybe think of it more as a "flexible slot."

 

[Morrus]

On an interesting side note. Mearls also points out that they are in their 38th month with 5e and they are still focused on 5e which wasn't the case before. By the 38th month, 3e was already 3.5e, and by the 38th month of 3.5e they were working on 4e, and by the 38th month of 4e they were working on 5e.

I'm not so sure that's particularly noteworthy. I've reported on the announcements of four editions of D&D now, over a period of nearly 20 years. They said that - or something similar - every time. And they're more fond of secrecy these days than they have been historically. They won't tell us what book they're releasing next, let alone when 6E may or may not be worked on. While I don't think they are planning 6E, I don't think it's surprising that Mearls said something like that.

 

[Parmandur]

$30 is close enough to being fair for me that I'll likely buy the book. But, it's so close to being fair for me because I didn't buy the SCAG and won't be paying for some of the content twice. It does mean that I'll never be willing to pay more than $10-15 for the SCAG however, because I'll already own some of that material, making the MSRP unreasonable for me.

SCAG is less than $30 on Amazon right now: if you haven't bought it in two years, doubt you were about to, or at least not near enough for two and a half pages of content to make a difference. So, since you didn't buy the previous book, they have increased the value of this book for you: and I don't care about the small redundancy.

 

[MechaPilot]

SCAG is less than $30 on Amazon right now: if you haven't bought it in two years, doubt you were about to, or at least not near enough for two and a half pages of content to make a difference. So, since you didn't buy the previous book, they have increased the value of this book for you: and I don't care about the small redundancy.

No. I'm not buying it at $29.64 (the current Amazon price). It has too much FR setting crap in it for that price to be a good value for me. If I can find it in a bargain bin or otherwise lightly used for $10-15 then I'll pick it up.

 

[Yaarel]

Xanathar’s Guide To Everything is valuable to me.

I care about *good* content, meaning balanced mechanics, themes that interest me, and useful customizability.

Xanathars has gone thru the patient public playtest-feedback process that makes 5e excellent.

Heh − good content is better than no content − and no content is better than bad content.

I look forward to this aspect of the book.

 

[SmokeyCriminal]

I actually really like the name list in the book. I'm sure it speaks to both my lack of D&D experience and lack of creativity, and I'm actually a little embarrassed to admit it, but I literally never once considered naming my character anything other then a fantasy name, an English name, or a spanish name.

My go-to is to make cool sounding spanish words into names like Cielo Devallena, which actually means sky whale, because I love hearing my friends say it with their different accents.

But it wasn't untill I saw the names list in the book that I thought "An Arabic, or Egyptian name would be really cool."

And the funny thing is that it seems so rediculously obvious to me now!

So for the people that think the list is completely useless let me be the reminder that some of us D&D newbs really do need things spelled out that painfully obvious.


( Geez, its such a no-brainer, and I was already basically doing it with spanish. How did I not make that finally connection?!)

 

[Guest 6801328]

I’ve never been to DMs Guild. I’m not really plugged in to the WotC ecosystem any more.

I hadn't either until I read your post about their "Adept" program and AL-legal content....

 

[Yaarel]

I've reported on the announcements of four editions of D&D now, over a period of nearly 20 years.

Just have to say, Enworld.org is consistently, comprehensively, and qualitatively the best newssource for what is going on in D&D.