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.

 

[gyor]

God no, please.



God no, please.



I wouldn't mind a strength-based, unarmed melee combatant but it would probably end up under Monk. (I know a lot of people want "non-supernatural" but I don't think WotC agrees with you.)



Subclasses based on a specific weapon or weapon category are not going to happen..



"Focus" is unlikely but strongly flavored might be possible. But can you give a good example?



Those are just words. Can you describe a clear concept.



That's a mechanical description. What's the distinct concept/flavor, and how is it different from Cleric or Paladin? Do you just mean Eldritch Knight but with Divine rather than Arcane powers?



Not gonna happen.

Shield based formation fighter for Legionaire.

The fighter class is a very generic combat class without spellcasting, ribbon abilities, or other particular flavoured stuff, so nothing, would conflict thematically with say Werewolves or Vampires.

At 3rd level shape shifting, later levels regenerative abilities, and so on.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

SCAGs issues relate to A) being too small for it's basic purpose which was as a Setting Guide, B) the player material didn't get the public play testing that the Subclasses in XGTE got.

But VGTMs in some ways is worse because at least the SCAG knows what setting it's supposed to be apart of, while VGTM suffers from an identity crisis.

Is it a general options book or an FR book? If general options then naming it after Volo is unethical and misleading because that name means something. If it's FR then a lot of the lore in it, especially the Yuan Ti origins is straight up wrong. The line is blurred and I don't like that. In FR the Sarrukh created the Yuan Ti not a decadent human snake worshipping empire.

Does VGTM want to be a DM book or player book?

XGTM looks like it will suffer from similar flaws, although not to the same degree.

Well, guess what? There are obviously many more people out there, like me, that like this format for the book and buy them, than there are people, like you, who hate this format and do nothing but say crap about them. So who do you think they are listening to more, the majority giving them money and saying the books are good or the minority who do the opposite?

 

[Guest 6801328]

Shield based formation fighter for Legionaire.

Oh, yes. That's actually a concept I've thought about. Tricky to implement well, I think, but could be fun. I hate the Roman connotation, personally, but Vikings had shield-walls, too.

The thing is, making a sub-class be dependent on Shield is the same as making it dependent upon a weapon category, namely 1H weapons. And I don't think they're gonna go there. I'd like to see it, but I doubt it will happen.

The fighter class is a very generic combat class without spellcasting, ribbon abilities, or other particular flavoured stuff, so nothing, would conflict thematically with say Werewolves or Vampires.

At 3rd level shape shifting, later levels regenerative abilities, and so on.

I didn't say it would conflict thematically, I just do not want to see "sub-classes" become conflated with "conditions". Then you'd need a sub-class for every class. (Because, otherwise, how would you explain that I can play a Vampire Fighter but not a Vampire Rogue?) And if you did have a sub-class for every class, does that mean that if you multi-classed you would have to choose the same sub-class for the other class? Because if you didn't that would also make no sense.

I hope they don't do this, but I could see "Werewolf" or "Vampire" being a race, and thus you could play a Werewolf Fighter, but it's definitely not a sub-class. (Actually, I could see it working out ok if there were also race-specific feats for those races. So that if you really wanted to go all out as the vampire or werewolf you'd have to spend all your ASIs getting those abilities instead of raising your scores.)

 

[DM Howard]

Or you can just post a thread here asking which are the best Youtube channels that give good DM advice and a bunch of people will point you in a bunch of different directions but the best content will bubble to the top.

Of course, you can also post a thread here asking for specific DMing advice and you will get better specific advice than a generic article or vid will give you. Given the breadth of knowledge held here and places like here I don't see what value a "curated" generic article has over specific, tailored to you advice.

True enough, and there is definitely something to be said for personalized advice of that sort. I guess I still like the all-in-one-place approach. Just call me lazy, I suppose!

 

[Chaosmancer]

This is an old hobby-horse of mine, which I know is an unpopular view.. I think healing spells should be necromancy. Doing that removes the necessary association with evil, and clearly groups all the spells dealing with life magic.

I actually really like this idea, gives a different flavor to both necromancy and those clerics going around healing everyone.

 

[Parmandur]

17 pages of names is a problem, it's blantant filler, having to contract out books like the SCAG to other companies is a problem, not being able to produce a proper FRCG is a problem, the fact that they have to mash books together because wise either DMs or Players go without is a problem.

So yeah if you shut you eyes of course WotC's words make sense, as long as you don't actually challenge it.

17 pages of name tables are useful to some folks, and are a feature not a bug. It has been two years since they had an outside company assist with a book. They don't want to produce a "proper" FRCG, for business reasons. Combing DM with player material is a business strategy: if you want material of either or both kinds, buy the book.

The best reason to think these are business decisions rather than desperate ploys? They've kept it up for four complete product cycles, longer than the lifespan of 4E or 3.0, with nobody being fired.

 

[Parmandur]

Lycanthrope, Vampire, Wrestler, Improvised Weapons User. Fighter subclasses that focus in the none combat pillars, Hopilite or Legionaire, a divine fighter subclass.

Subclasses that specialize in particular weapons.

A Crusader type seems doable, and I actually recall that a Psionics Fighter subclass has been mentioned. But past that, pickings are getting awfully thin.

 

[jmucchiello]

Well, guess what? There are obviously many more people out there, like me, that like this format for the book and buy them, than there are people, like you, who hate this format and do nothing but say crap about them. So who do you think they are listening to more, the majority giving them money and saying the books are good or the minority who do the opposite?

"obviously more...." How do we know this if they have not released a book any other way?

"and do nothing but say crap about them" What other recourse is there for someone who plays 5E and does not like the books WotC makes?

"who are they listening" You make the mistake of assuming people who HATE some of the content of the books are NOT buying them for the other content. They are buying them too because otherwise they have no new material. I don't speak for the person you responded to but for me, I was not happy with SCAG or VOLO and I don't like parts of XaGE that we've seen above. They are still on my shelf to my right (pre-order for XaGE counts as on the shelf). Because they also contain stuff I want. This doesn't mean I can't complain about the stuff I think is wrong with these books. It also means sales don't tell you that people like the product. Scarcity of game options means people buy what they can get their hands on if they like new game options.

sidebar: XGE isn't pronounces about but XaGE could rhyme with sage.

 

[Balfore]

Generally, if they would take the steps to make the books more fluid, they would be easier to use.
*stop putting: "See the DM chapter about XX", and put the freaking page number.
*when referencing a particular monster, also add the freaking page number (because the MM isn't completely alphabetical, you have to know the "types".
*shorten the phrases that describe "Magic Resistance" to freaking say "Magic Resistance" Instead of 3 lines of text to explain it.
*explain traps, puzzles and rooms in simple terms. Not everyone has a freaking college degree...lol. (I spend more time looking up obscure words, in order to present it to my group). Or else, provide a freaking glossary of terms...lol.
*provide "text boxes" for NPCs dialog, instead of losing it in the freaking losing the dialog and demeanor of the NPC in the description body of the paragraph.
*5e is supposed to be the most fluid system so far, yet there's more time spent looking up rules because of wording. (like trying to get a ruleing on Magic the Gathering)then there's conflict of RAW vs RAI.
*I'm sure I'm missing a sleu of other issues that would make these publications more user friendly...
When theres an explaination on Sage Advice or Twitter, Crawford confuses the issues, while Merle simply explains things.
This shows incredible inconsistencies when trying to get a ruling.

~we'd prefer you not advocate piracy, even by implication. Thanks!
Judge if you want, I don't care anymore.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[Parmandur]

"obviously more...." How do we know this if they have not released a book any other way?

"and do nothing but say crap about them" What other recourse is there for someone who plays 5E and does not like the books WotC makes?

"who are they listening" You make the mistake of assuming people who HATE some of the content of the books are NOT buying them for the other content. They are buying them too because otherwise they have no new material. I don't speak for the person you responded to but for me, I was not happy with SCAG or VOLO and I don't like parts of XaGE that we've seen above. They are still on my shelf to my right (pre-order for XaGE counts as on the shelf). Because they also contain stuff I want. This doesn't mean I can't complain about the stuff I think is wrong with these books. It also means sales don't tell you that people like the product. Scarcity of game options means people buy what they can get their hands on if they like new game options.

sidebar: XGE isn't pronounces about but XaGE could rhyme with sage.

OK, so here's the thing: you are not entirely satisfied with the three rule books WotC has released in the past few years...but you bought all of them. Let's say they had done 12 books in that time, and three of them pleased you very much and you bought them, three pleased Gyor very much and he bought them, while I bought none because I am not made of money: instead of nine books, they would have sold six, not to mention the percentages.

WotC is playing the numbers, which night not make the absolute best books...but it keeps the game going financially.