D&D 5E The New D&D Book: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything!

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The new D&D book has been revealed, and it is Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, "a magical mixture of rules options for the world's greatest roleplaying game." The 192-page book is due out November 17th, with standard and alternate covers, and contains more subclasses, spells, character options, group patrons, and rules. Oh, and psionics!

Cover art is by Magali Villeneuve

WHAT WONDERFUL WITCHERY IS THIS?

A magical mixture of rules options for the world's greatest roleplaying game.

The wizard Tasha, whose great works include the spell Tasha’s hideous laughter, has gathered bits and bobs of precious lore during her illustrious career as an adventurer. Her enemies wouldn’t want these treasured secrets scattered across the multiverse, so in defiance, she has collected and codified these tidbits for the enrichment of all.

• EXPANDED SUBCLASSES. Try out subclass options for every Dungeons & Dragons class, including the artificer, which appears in the book.
• MORE CHARACTER OPTIONS. Delve into a collection of new class features and new feats, and customize your character’s origin using straightforward rules for modifying a character’s racial traits.
• INTRODUCING GROUP PATRONS. Whether you're part of the same criminal syndicate or working for an ancient dragon, each group patron option comes with its own perks and types of assignments.
• SPELLS, ARTIFACTS & MAGIC TATTOOS. Discover more spells, as well as magic tattoos, artifacts, and other magic items for your campaign.
• EXPANDED RULES OPTIONS. Try out rules for sidekicks, supernatural environments, natural hazards, and parleying with monsters, and gain guidance on running a session zero.
• A PLETHORA OF PUZZLES. Ready to be dropped into any D&D adventure, puzzles of varied difficulty await your adventurers, complete with traps and guidance on using the puzzles in a campaign.

Full of expanded content for players and Dungeon Masters alike, this book is a great addition to the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Baked in you'll find more rule options for all the character classes in the Player's Handbook, including more subclass options. Thrown in for good measure is the artificer class, a master of magical invention. And this witch's brew wouldn't be complete without a dash of added artifacts, spellbook options, spells for both player characters and monsters, magical tattoos, group patrons, and other tasty goodies.

Here's the alternate cover:

UPDATE! An online event called D&D Celebration from September 18th-20th will be hosted by Elle Osili-Wood, which is "an epic live event with panels, gameplay, & previews of the book!" See the video in the Tweet below!

Gather your party and join the adventure at  D&D Celebration 2020, an online gaming event open to fans all over the world!

Celebrate the release of  Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden  with a weekend of Icewind Dale–themed virtual play sessions and help us create the biggest virtual tabletop roleplaying game event ever! Fans will also get the chance to preview some content from  Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the forthcoming book featuring massive rules options, subclasses, and more for the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Watch featured play sessions with D&D luminaries and learn something new with a slate of panels led by the D&D design team and community.


UPDATE! Check out the Nerdarchy site for some previews.

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Has, Well… Everything for 5E D&D

The follow up to 2017’s Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, on Nov. 17, 2020 fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons upcoming Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything must indeed possess powerful …

nerdarchy.com

UPDATE! Other news items around the web about this book:

With D&D's Next Rulebook, Character Creation Will Never Be the Same

Although Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition has added as many classes, races, and rules as it has since it first began, for the most part, the way players create characters has stayed the same. You pick a race, that race defines certain things about you, and so on. But the game’s next sourcebook...

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Tasha's Cauldron of Everything coming in November, brings new ways to personalize your characters

Wizards of the Coast has announced its next D&D book! Entitled Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, this rules expansion follows up Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and will be available on November 17th. Providing both players and DMs with the tools to level up their games, the 192 page tome will be...

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Dungeons & Dragons Announces New Book and Fall Event - IGN

The D&D team reveals an online community event in September and a new sourcebook soon to follow.

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D&D's next expansion, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, adds new subclasses and racial customization

Dungeons & Dragons is getting its biggest rules expansion in three years, courtesy of one powerful witch. In November, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything will hit shelves, offering D&D players several new subclasses, some exciting new spells, and a new way to create characters that’s fully...

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[Snarf Zagyg]

Here's a dirty little secret: If WotC thought that Dark Sun or Planescape or Ravenloft or (and come on, guys) Greyhawk or Spelljammer or Birthright or Mystara would sell more than a MTG setting would, that's what they would be producing.

MTG books aren't "taking slots away" from any of those old settings. Those settings own sales figures and what people are saying in surveys took care of that.

Ed the Economist is walking down the street with his friend, Larry the Liberal Arts Major.

Larry stops and says, "Look, there is a $20 bill on the ground!"

Ed turns to Larry and coolly replies, "You're wrong. If there was a $20 bill on the ground, somebody would have already picked it up."

 

[Ancalagon]

I think this is the first time I strongly prefer the alt cover over the basic one. The basic one is not bad, it's just a bit... "competent, no more"? It seems like it's missing something. The alt-cover has a lot more flavor to it.

This contrasts to Xanathar's , where the basic cover was excellent. It's the wallpaper on my computer, I like it so much.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Greyhawk is dead, man. Let it rest.

You're fun at parties, aren't you?

Well, I certainly hope you never try and advocate for anything- at least, not to me.

 

[Weiley31]

What's the one with chivalry and faeries that people were talking about here a few months ago?

I believe Throne of Eldraine. Which honestly would be the MtG setting I would want if they did another Ravinca/Theros MTG setting book.

I want an excuse for a Gingerbread Planeswalker character.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Personally, I would probably buy a DS book if psionics are easy to take out. I am less sure about Greyhawk. If it had some interesting monsters or setting rules possibly. No idea how the rest of the D&D buying audience feels though.

Given that Oerth was the 1E baseline, there really aren't a lot of compelling monsters that are native to it. The ones Gygax added (the grugach and valley elves, for instance) are OK at best and the ones his successors did, trying to give the world more of an identity, are not great.

So an Oerth book would likely be an updated gazetteer with subraces for those grugach and valley elves (exciting a handful of people at most), some fairly generic D&D subclasses, 5E updates of some missing 1E spells and artifacts (nice, but nothing players can't trivially do themselves) and that's it.

Because what Oerth fans really hate is screwing with the setting, whether it's the Greyhawk Wars or the incredibly stupid and petty Castle Greyhawk module or Erik Mona touching stuff. There's no real upside in WotC trying to update the setting, because a large portion of their target audience will be pissed that they did so.

Best to just open the setting up on DMs Guild and let fans make their own content for it and do something with a bigger upside for the company's bottom line.

 

[TwoSix]

What's the one with chivalry and faeries that people were talking about here a few months ago? Again, not a MTG fan, but that sounded like a lot of fun and a fantasy focus that D&D hasn't had since the TSR days. My daughter would flip for faerie tales plus knights.

I think that's Eldraine, although I only know what I've gathered by reading a few sites online.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Spelljammer only need the right media production. The castle of Greyhawk could be used for a story as a comedic parody of "haunted house" about a wizard who tried to open a planar gate to the akasha realm or ideaverse, or the recursion earths from Monte Cook "the Strange", a demiplane created by the collective memory of sentient beings. Then sparks of this demiplanes created mash-up of D&D and famous fictional characters. Later the castle Greyhawk is teletransported into different D&D worlds.

 

[Weiley31]

You know, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything has the Torkka Card Deck for capturing spirits.


You could totally, now play DND like MtG now, going by that and changing things along with the use of the Planeshift articles/Ravinca/Theros."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't have a problem with Magic's lore. But it is still a CCG played primarily in a tournament setting (large or small) and designed and marketed as such.

Based on Dragon Talk interviews, it sounds like the designers actually do a lot of work on the worldbuilding that informs the cards. To a certain extent, this is just them leveraging an already sunk cost by using it as the basis for a D&D book.

 

[Staffan]

The problem with Greyhawk is that its primary selling point is that it's not the Forgotten Realms. Beyond that, it doesn't really have a hook. But look at the settings they have released:

Ravnica: Planet-spanning city governed by guilds.
Eberron: Pulp fantasy with steam-punk elements.
Wildemount: Critical Role.
Theros: Greek-inspired fantasy with strong mythological elements.

Compared to those, what does Greyhawk bring to the table? And for old fans, you already have the previous books. Greyhawk doesn't have any distinct mechanical elements the way those settings do, so why do you need Wizards to produce a setting book for you?