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

[GarrettKP]

My guesses as to which UA subclasses make it into the book:

Barbarian: Ancestral Guardian, Zealot
Bard: College of Swords, Glamour, Whispers
Cleric: Forge, Protection, Grave
Druic: Dreams, Twilight
Fighter: Arcane Archer, Knight
Monk: Kensei, Drunken Master
Paladin: Conquest, Redemption
Ranger: Deep Stalker, Horizon Walker, Primeval Guardian, Monster Slayer
Rogue: Inquisitive, Scout
Sorcerer: Favored Soul, Phoenix, Sea, Stone
Warlock: The Hexblade, The Raven Queen
Wizard: Theurgy

 

[gyor]

Well that's not true. They could easily make each book strictly of a specific type if they wanted. Volo's Guide to Monsters didn't have to have player races in them, they could have just put in more monsters. Likewise, they could have chosen to put all the backgrounds and subclasses that were in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide in the Elemental Evil supplement had they wanted to (and indeed quite possibly was expected to be done back when it was going to be the unannounced "adventurer's book".)

They're only releasing one of these supplemental books a year. So they do indeed get more eyes on them by not making them specifically a "DM book" or a "Monster book" or a "PC book", but instead have bits and bobs for all of them. And yes, that probably does result in part in additional sales.

Then they wouldn't have anything at all for DMs or nothing at all for players, they don't release any more books then 1 per year outside of APs, they can't, they don't have the staff, it's why SCAG and some of the APs we're outsourced.

It's why we can't have a full fledged FRCG, if they did they wouldn't be able to produce anything else outside of the required APs in that year. It's also why you won't see Eberron, Darksun, and so on.

It's also why we don't get FR novels anymore, no staff.

This is an edition on life support from an early point, it purpose is just to barely keep the IP alive so it can be pimped out for movie deals, and other licencing deals.

 

[gyor]

I tweeted Mearl's asking if the UA feats would be in the book.

 

[Mouseferatu]

It's also why we don't get FR novels anymore, no staff.

100%, utterly false.

D&D novels have almost always been farmed out to other authors as work-for-hire. Even those written by people at WotC were treated as separate, work-for-hire contracts. Many were edited by contract editors, as well, and the work that was done in-house wasn't done by the people involved in game design. The novel line has been (at least temporarily) left to languish for market and brand-direction reasons. It has zero to do with the size of the D&D development staff.

 

[gyor]

You believe what you want, but I see WotC's D&D division got pared down to a nubbin, and oh look content is down to a tiny trickle. Anyways I don't want to cause any more thread drift, so I'll say no more on this.

The Subclasses will take up 40 pages at most, heck if they go generous on the art 50 pages.

If they put in the UA feats and starter spells that what 10 more pages at most?

Can traps, mass combat rules, new downtime rules, be enough to fill the rest of the book?

I think it's safe to say the book has stuff that has not been covered in UA articles.

 

[gyor]

"More details from Crawford My italics. "Xanathar's Guide to Everything has over 25 new subclasses; a host of new spells; new rules on magic items, downtime, traps; and more. #DnD" 

So there are also new rules for magic items, new spells as well, a host of them even.

 

[Jester David]

This is an edition on life support from an early point, it purpose is just to barely keep the IP alive so it can be pimped out for movie deals, and other licencing deals.

Three hardcover books, a dice tin, two miniature sets, two board games, a video game expansion, character sheets, a DM screen, and more...
Yeah, totally on life support. Virtually dead.

 

[gyor]

Three hardcover books, a dice tin, two miniature sets, two board games, a video game expansion, character sheets, a DM screen, and more...
Yeah, totally on life support. Virtually dead.

Most of that is not produced by WotC, it's produced by partners, the D&D division itself is on life support, but I pointed out the WotC/Hasbro is interested in licences access to the IP out.

 

[Jester David]

Most of that is not produced by WotC, it's produced by partners, the D&D division itself is on life support, but I pointed out the WotC/Hasbro is interested in licences access to the IP out.

So?
What's the difference between WotC licensing out minis or doing it in house? Well, better quality minis since its being done by a company that knows what they're doing.

If WotC *wanted* to do more books they could. Mearls, Perkins, Crawford, Merwin, and the like could switch to editorial roles and hire freelancers. Or partner with other studios, like in '14-15. Or prior to that when the team was working on 5e while also releasing books.
I really think they're sticking to fewer books not for staffing reasons, but because they just want fewer books.

 

[CapnZapp]

For the most part, I have found the majority of UA classes and subclasses to be drek either mechanically or conceptually (and often both). Therefore, unless, they have undergone serious changes, the player content will be a lot of content for which I have no use (and, there, banned in games that I run). The question for me, as a DM, will be how much DM directed content I find to be useful and the ratio
of that content to the entire book.

I would agree - there was maybe one or two subclasses that offered something interesting. The others mainly reshuffled various ways to gain advantage. I lost interest before the run was through, so I might have missed something.

Based on previous content, I would prepare to pay for a full book, but get maybe a quarter of useful content (as in new spells, magic items and other stuff existing characters and monsters can utilize). Unfortunately, that's an optimistic estimate.