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

[Ketser]

So is cavalier the knight, the samurai or perhaps a mix of them?

Also Inquisitive was some time ago... Considering that the "blade bard was in popular, but needing some revisions" UA. How much older stuff might we see? Having seen seeker warlock stuff in the UA makes it a possibility of seeing some old stuff like the shadow sorcerer?

 

[Olive]

I'm excited about the book - more options and the like - and I like the alt cover.

 

[CapnZapp]

That would be too much of an Overhaul. Mearls mentioned that getting rid of Bonus Actions would basically mean re balancing how actions work in general.

The bonus action thing; certainly.

The initiative thing is easily small enough to get in. Though my impression was it's a personal campaign rule?

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[CapnZapp]

I do find it odd that they are thinking of only including two subclasses for each.

They have clearly realized by now that enough gamers give them a free pass on a glacial release schedule.

Unless we start complaining en mass, there is no reason to not give away as little crunch as possible.



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[CapnZapp]

What are the chances that old UA material, from before the push, is going to make it? Stuff like the Demon Summoning Spells of "That Ol'Black Magic" or the Eberron stuff, or even the seafaring stuff.

Assuming decent survey ratings, I see no reason they couldn't add some of it in.





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[CapnZapp]

These books should have a large amount of flavor (what others improperly call "fluff").

Please share your definition of fluff, and point out where you think the thread has used the term improperly. Thank you.



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[gyor]

I do find it odd that they are thinking of only including two subclasses for each. Most of the UAs had 3 or 4 subclasses which would mean a significant amount of content is getting passed over.

I'm also curious what kind of downtime activities they would be including, because I was hugely disappointed in the UA and I'm hoping that got a serious overhaul.



What are the chances that old UA material, from before the push, is going to make it? Stuff like the Demon Summoning Spells of "That Ol'Black Magic" or the Eberron stuff, or even the seafaring stuff.

It will be interesting to see what the actual contents are, and I really hope it ends up being worth buying because I'd love to have official versions for a lot of those UA subclasses, they can be a lot of fun.

2 or more, not two. I think they only showed 2 subclasses for the Rogue for example, and some of the subclasses we're simply unpopular. Mike Mearls originally said 3 each except the wizard, then he got corrected, which suggests to me that a lot of them might get 3 or a few like the Sorceoror or Bard 4 subclasses, but a couple like the Rogue and maybe the Druid And Paladin might only get two.

 

[GarrettKP]

So is cavalier the knight, the samurai or perhaps a mix of them?

Also Inquisitive was some time ago... Considering that the "blade bard was in popular, but needing some revisions" UA. How much older stuff might we see? Having seen seeker warlock stuff in the UA makes it a possibility of seeing some old stuff like the shadow sorcerer?

Cavalier was a subclass in the Kits of Old alongside the College of Swords Bard. It most likely is getting revamped tho since it used Combat Superiority heavily in that UA.

I suspect that the idea of a Cav played well but the UA it was in didn't so they retooled it. One of the original Cav features made it into the Knight for instance (Born to the Saddle).

 

[gyor]

Artificer
Alchemist
Gunsmith

Barbarian
Ancestral Guardian *
Storm Herald
Zealot

Bard
Glamour
Satire
Swords *
Whispers

Cleric
Forge
Grave
Protection

Druid
Dreams
Shepherd
Twilight

Fighter
Arcane Archer *
Cavalier ***
Knight
Monster Hunter +
Samurai
Scout +
Sharpshooter

Monk
Drunken Master
Kensei *
Tranquility

Mystic
Avatar
Awakened
Immortal
Nomad
Soul Knife
Wu Jen

Paladin
Conquest
Redemption
Treachery

Ranger (not counting those for the revised class)
Deep Stalker
Horizon Walker ***
Monster Slayer
Primeval Guardian

Rogue
Inquisitive ***
Scout

Sorcerer
Favored Soul *
Phoenix
Sea
Shadow
Stone

Warlock
Hexblade
Raven Queen
Seeker
Undying Light

Wizard
Artificer +
Lore Mastery
Theurgy
War Magic


Notes:

- We already know that the new classes Mystic and Artificer will not be in XGtE.

- We already know that subclasses marked with *** will be in XGtE.

- Subclasses marked with * we recently asked for an extra feedback round and thus they are highly likely to be included in XGtE.

- Subclasses marked with + have been superseded by others and thus they are highly unlikely to be included in XGtE.

It's almost funny (but really not) how the number of prospect subclasses in XGtE is descreasing at every new tweet... first "3 subclasses per class" (36), then "2 or 3 subclasses per class" (24-36), then "more than 25 subclasses", then "2 subclasses per class" (24), then "more than 20 subclasses". To be on the safe side I'd stick with expecting only the 3 specifically mentioned!

But then I must say I don't care that much... What WotC decides to put in XGtE is not my problem, it's their problem. Because if I really like something from UA, and it doesn't make it to any official book, I can still use the UA version. I don't care if it's not "official" because I don't play official events or tournaments, and if I decide to play them one day, I don't have to pick exactly one of those options, there are plently of playable stuff in the PHB. I don't even care if it's not "finalized" because the truth is that most of UA stuff is playable with no adjustments, and supposed problems just come up because some specific players (you know who you are) want them to come up, in which case I'd deal with them the usual way: fix the stuff with a hammer or... fix the player with a hammer.

So as [MENTION=1288]Mouseferatu[/MENTION] wisely say, what will matter is if the book as a whole is not just useful but also inspiring to read and look at (i.e. artwork!). It's really only going to be WotC's problem if it's not.

---

As an aside note, there is one generally disappointing trend in 5e for me, that has been going on since the playtest years. Fortunately the edition as a whole is IMHO the best ever in many ways, but this trend I don't like: it's the fact that every single time, first they come up with the most original ideas, and sometimes they create some hype about them, then between the community apparently giving the most conservative possible feedback and the editors probably wanting to play safe, those most original ideas are typically discarded in favor of more "normal" stuff. Not to sound offensive, but this IMHO says a lot about how everyone (both designers and gamers) overestimates their own "creativity" in this hobby.

[With regard to the subclass topic, IMHO the most original ones in concept have been the Tranquility Monk, the Redemption Paladin, and the Undying Light Warlock, and I could bet that none of these will make it to the book]

I honestly liked none of those, pacifists make no sense as adventurers, and the undying light steps on the Undying Warlocks toes big time, and it doesn't really have a patron.

 

[Li Shenron]

So is cavalier the knight, the samurai or perhaps a mix of them?

IIRC, the UA Cavalier was largely focused on riding but the Knight & Samurai were "noble educated warriors".

I don't know what were the feedback results, but personally I thought the Cavalier was appalling for two reasons:

- riding abilities are always problematic in D&D because of many adventures being in dungeons (or anyway in places where a horse is impractical), leading to player's frustration for having abilities she cannot use, and DM's pressure to adapt adventures to compensate

- the UA version re-used the Superiority Dice mechanics but basically just offered a small subset of maneuvers from the Battlemaster, plus maybe 1-2 new out-of-combat unique maneuvers

In my opinion Knight & Samurai were a more solid concept, although the mechanics weren't particularly interesting, and probably it would make a lot of sense to merge these into a single subclass, and just let flavor distinguish between the European and Asian versions. However, I guess a lot of people found both of them weak concepts given the fact that any Fighter with the Noble background can adequately cover them.

So while my preference would be to merge all the three of them together, it's really possible that the Cavalier is just the horse-riding focused subclass, but hopefully with better mechanics.