D&D 5E Xanathar's Guide to Everything -- new mechanical expansion/UA book! -- November 10 with a limited-edition cover by Hydro74

[CapnZapp]

I knew the AL rule was a bad idea, but people wouldn't listen to me. Now it's actually undermining the quality of products, even if only slightly.

I don't play in the AL and hate reprints, but I feel the PHB+1 idea is *excellent*...

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[CapnZapp]

They already said that the pages taken by the reprints are not replacing any possible new crunch. If they didn't reprint the SCAG stuff they would not be adding more new things, only lowering the page count.

How is this a good argument...!?

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[Mephista]

The gold fish cracks me up.

Also. New Traps! Yes! *crosses fingers that new poisons will also make their debut.*

 

[Li Shenron]

They already said that the pages taken by the reprints are not replacing any possible new crunch. If they didn't reprint the SCAG stuff they would not be adding more new things, only lowering the page count.

Don't WotC books have to conform to a a number of pages multiple of 16? I don't think 4 subclasses will take more than 5-6 pages.

There is no way around it really, if they add something to a book, it takes up space that could be used for something else, even if that would be just larger artwork. Now if they don't think they have enough material to fill the page count, they will fill it with whatever they have at hand, zoom some pictures, or leave the pages blank. Which one would games appreciate more?

They must have thought about pushing more stuff from UA (or something we've never seen), but presumably they believed that everything else was too poor, half-baked or risky (such as prone to abuse) to publish. They could have put the Mass Combat rules in those remaining pages for example, but if they don't do it, it must be because they don't want to "burn" them by releasing an unsatisfying version, they still want to keep working on them until they can publish something that won't need further updates.

Didn't this "republish" controversy happened also in the AD&D era? It is totally understandable that someone who bought a book and sees part of it pasted to another book they also plan to buy, would feel cheated into spending 100$ for maybe 90$ worth of material, having to buy the same 10$ worth of stuff twice. OTOH filling up those 10$ book space with 0$ worth of stuff isn't a good idea either. The only good solution would be to just do some extra work and increase the publishable UA material a little bit.

About the AL "PHB+1" rule... this is really only related to player characters stuff right? DM rules modules don't really matter for this purpose. So when they say they want to help players in AL by reprinting four SCAG subclasses, we're really talking only about a player who wants to use feats or spells or magic items in XGE together with one of those 4 subclasses (or maybe a multiclass mixing up with a XGE subclass). Basically these are specific combos. But isn't the AL rule meant exactly to limit the number of combos? The results of limitations are always arbitrary... there's no way to tell that a Swashbuckler + XGE feat should have more or less rights to be in AL compared to a Purple Dragon Knight + XGE feat.

So despite of the fact that personally I (who didn't buy SCAG) can only benefit from those reprints, I'd just say suck it up and live with that limitation! If you want to play any combo with any books, do so in your home group. I can't believe gamers would be so petty to pretend exactly that combo in AL, you're lucky enough that there are AL games to play in the first place.

 

[GarrettKP]

They must have thought about pushing more stuff from UA (or something we've never seen), but presumably they believed that everything else was too poor, half-baked or risky (such as prone to abuse) to publish. They could have put the Mass Combat rules in those remaining pages for example, but if they don't do it, it must be because they don't want to "burn" them by releasing an unsatisfying version, they still want to keep working on them until they can publish something that won't need further updates.

Mass Combat is not in this book, as confirmed by Mike Mearls. Said Mass Combat was very poorly received and was dropped entirely.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Hmm, I didn't see this many complaints when TftYP reprinted a good number of monsters from VGtM. In fact, those monsters likely take up more space than the 4 subclasses will in XGtE!

Sent from my VS987 using EN World mobile app

 

[Bolares]

Well, if you can somehow acquire updated Eberron game mechanics without simultaneously acquiring updated Eberron story and fluff, then congratulations! Hope it works out for ya!

I know I'm a little late for this, but YOU DO NOT update Eberron's story and fluff, ever. That's one of the major things of this setting, the story evolves in game, not in a book.

 

[hejtmane]

I know I'm a little late for this, but YOU DO NOT update Eberron's story and fluff, ever. That's one of the major things of this setting, the story evolves in game, not in a book.

I am so lost on all these discussions of Eberron, Forgotten Realms, GreyHawk ? I guess that is my fault for only really playing D&D and 1e were we had a bunch of Dragon Lance stuff come out after the books were a hit.

I read while over 300 fanatasy book but my D&D titles are very limited on what I read; so I get lost in these discussions on story line etc etc. I guess that is an advanatge when they change things up I never notice because I have no clue. Even with the book naming discussion I was like ok what ever just give me some new sub classes and feats here take my money.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I know I'm a little late for this, but YOU DO NOT update Eberron's story and fluff, ever. That's one of the major things of this setting, the story evolves in game, not in a book.

I presume you just mean not advancing the timeline? Because Eberron fluff does indeed get updated to a certain extent... that's how Eladrin, Tieflings, and Dragonborn were introduced to the setting when the 4E book was released. But yes, the timeline was not advanced when they released 4E, so presumably if they decide to "re-write" the story and fluff of Eberron a second time to put it in a 5E campaign setting book, they won't advance the timeline this time either.

Of course... that indeed begs the question why they would ever bother to develop and print a 5E Eberron campaign setting book if all of the non-mechanic sections (basically 95%) are the same as what they've already printed twice before. Personally, I don't see it happening. Not for this setting at least.

 

[Bolares]

I presume you just mean not advancing the timeline? Because Eberron fluff does indeed get updated to a certain extent... that's how Eladrin, Tieflings, and Dragonborn were introduced to the setting when the 4E book was released. But yes, the timeline was not advanced when they released 4E, so presumably if they decide to "re-write" the story and fluff of Eberron a second time to put it in a 5E campaign setting book, they won't advance the timeline this time either.

Of course... that indeed begs the question why they would ever bother to develop and print a 5E Eberron campaign setting book if all of the non-mechanic sections (basically 95%) are the same as what they've already printed twice before. Personally, I don't see it happening. Not for this setting at least.

Yeah, most of the changes in 4e were to integrate the new core races in to the setting. In 5e there is no new core races, so they would need only to update the crunch. Maybe I don't see a solo Eberron book coming anytime soon, but maybe a multiverse book with rules for multiple settings, and some reprint of the flavor would fit well. It would be a perfect place to put the artificer and mystic in 2018.