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...

io9.gizmodo.com

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...

gamingtrend.com

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.

www.ign.com

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...

www.syfy.com

 

[Umbran]

Player backlash? To quote the original Incredibles movie, "When everyone's super, no one will be."

Mod Note:

Yeah, but that's the villain talking.

Races (species) without penalties implies a level of "snowflake" that must have difficulty dealing with the real world.

Yeah, that ad hominem is not going to fly.

Your point needs to be able to stand on its own. If the only way you can make your point look good is to make up cognitive flaws in those who disagree, your point is weak sauce. Next time, support your position without attacking people.

 

[Undrave]

There's a big difference between 1 book a month and 3 books of player options(including Tasha's) in 6 years. Plenty of space in between, like 1 book a year, to use up without saturating the market.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind a little bit more bones thrown to players...

But it's all water under the bridge now. I'm happy with 5E and I'm curious to see what they're doing with the new book even if I don't use every option. Sounds like we may be getting some of those "more modular" features they were hoping to add in when the game was in development.

Yeah I'm generally happy with it, it works for playing with my friends... I would like a bit more crunch, but I would probably have to look for another group for that... thankfully I'm moving soon and I'll be able to host my own game nights at last so I might get chance to try new systems.

 

[Charlaquin]

Interesting.

It’s impossible to know what would have happened, of course, but my nearly data-free opinion is that the relative simplicity of D&D, and the absence of system mastery as a barrier to entry, has been a big driver of uptake.

But that doesn’t make it better. I totally get more crunch, more system mastery, could be appealing.

By way of analogy, I thought sport climbing, and especially gym climbing, were a blight on the sport. If you weren’t placing your own gear in real rock you weren’t really climbing. But sport climbing and gym climbing get credit for making the sport accessible, and now everybody does it. So which is “better”? Dunno.

I think decreasing the effect of system mastery was a good move on WotC’s part for 5e. Surely you don’t think when people praise 4e’s design they’re praising the level of system mastery required, do you? 4e was praised for decreasing system mastery requirements relative to 3.5

 

[Gradine]

Yes that... but the healing mechanic of the person being healed spending ressources, healing surge and their interplay with environmental challenges and rituals,

Healing surges was bloat; one more thing for everyone to have to track on their own. It's a gameplay improvement to remove them. Instead we've got HD which... WotC could be doing more interesting things with, sure, but at the risk of, again, over-complicating stuff to track

the bloodied condition,

And that- ...okay yeah I forgot about that one, that one was good.

many of the minor conditions, the 'Brutal' and 'Defensive' and 'High Crit' qualities for weapons, marking mechanics, tactically interesting fighters, clearly designed combat roles baked into the class (the Monk would feel better if it was more focused on being a striker and not some weird 'lockdown the caster, sometimes, a few rounds' emergent role)

<eyes glaze over>

I am quite happy they removed most of the things in this section. Classes should not be defined by combat roles, umpteen complex conditions should not wistfully remind me of "Banding", etc. Marking and tactically interesting fighters still exist, but more interesting because again, asymmetric class design is way better.

e: I realize upon second reading that you're referring to 4e's itemization design, which, if I can respond:
<eyes glaze over>

and I would argue they gutted the concept of rituals instead of expending them more into something more core to the experience...

On the contrary; 4e rituals always felt like an afterthought, a paean to the "I guess Wizards should still be able to cast illusions and knock and stuff like that, if you insist". In 5e rituals feel way more core to the experience and I enjoy the way it interacts with normal spellcasting.

the Primal power source being its own distinct thing... Divine and Arcane characters feeling more different... the interesting cosmology filled with myths and adventure hooks...

I'm not entirely certain why I should care about any of these things... they aren't really "design choices" (at least not in terms of gameplay). And if you're trying to argue that Nentir Vale's cosmology is a lot more interesting than FR's... like... duh? I mean, that should be taken as a given, at this point.

 

[DnD Warlord]

Yeah, I saw that when I was reading through the articles. I just... I'm not hopeful

I was fine with psi point toolkits. I was fine with psi-flavored + feats + psi die. I just don't know what they would have evolved it TO if people said that they found the mechanic "too much bookkeeping" or "too hard to learn."

I mean, if it was the "max roll powers you down, min roll powers you up" thing people had the most issue with (and I still don't see what's hard to grasp about that idea) maaaaaaaaaybe they kept the die mechanic but just changed it to a static die that scales with level and something more baseline that people already know like "Ability Mod + X uses per day?" I dunno. It just feels like they'd rather water it down than take even minor chances with mechanics that have cool flavor.

I not only think the psi die was a great mechanic. I wish it was THEA fighter mechanic.

 

[Undrave]

Yeah, I saw that when I was reading through the articles. I just... I'm not hopeful

I was fine with psi point toolkits. I was fine with psi-flavored + feats + psi die. I just don't know what they would have evolved it TO if people said that they found the mechanic "too much bookkeeping" or "too hard to learn."

I mean, if it was the "max roll powers you down, min roll powers you up" thing people had the most issue with (and I still don't see what's hard to grasp about that idea) maaaaaaaaaybe they kept the die mechanic but just changed it to a static die that scales with level and something more baseline that people already know like "Ability Mod + X uses per day?" I dunno. It just feels like they'd rather water it down than take even minor chances with mechanics that have cool flavor.

Personally I'd have leaned into the gamble aspect: You roll the max, you take 'psychic backlash' damage. Manipulating your die size would increase your backlash damage and so forth...

But that would be too interesting I bet.

 

[OblivionDrive]

I not only think the psi die was a great mechanic. I wish it was THEA fighter mechanic.

In what way? You mean like instead of Battle Master dice? Or something else?

Personally I'd have leaned into the gamble aspect: You roll the max, you take 'psychic backlash' damage. Manipulating your die size would increase your backlash damage and so forth...

But that would be too interesting I bet.

While I get you, I think that would have made it even MORE unpopular since that would be happening fairly often when you were at the low dice. Maybe more tempting when the die gets bigger, for sure.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I not only think the psi die was a great mechanic. I wish it was THEA fighter mechanic.

I'm what a lot of folks would call an old school gamer. A grognard. Someone who wasn't a huge fan of the 4e mechanics and "powers" that mundane classes like fighters got.

That is probably why it may come to a shock to some folks that I could really get behind the idea of a shifting die type like the psi die mechanic for fighters. I think it makes perfect sense in a mundane way to get that extra adrenaline rush (max result) but then are a bit worn out (die type reduces) until you get your breath (minimum die result).

*Having a pool of dice based on level that can be used to increase a skill, saving throw, AC, attack roll, damage delivered, or taken reduced, or increase movement, temp HP, etc.

 

[Charlaquin]

I mean, other than skill challenges (which took many iterations to get... let's be honest, just barely passable, but is still great idea) and 4e monster design principles (which, again, took a few iterations to become truly great) what design choices are those? 5e improved upon the idea of rituals, and better balanced classes without making them symmetrical in design... and they're even finally getting around to the idea that feats are the superior multi-classing.

What else is missing? The W-☠☠☠

Healing surges (no, hit dice are not the same thing, we had a whole thread about it a few weeks back, don’t @me.), feat-based multiclassing, encounter-based resources (short rests being expected after roughly every 2 encounters instead of after every encounter causes a lot of problems for short rest resources), combat roles and power sources, a robust system for rituals as opposed to a half-assed “you can cast this without expending a spell slot if you spend 10 extra minutes,” a proper bloodied condition, spell and power blocks that were clean and easy to parse with standardized language... I could go on.

 

[Undrave]

<eyes glaze over>

I am quite happy they removed most of the things in this section. Classes should not be defined by combat roles, umpteen complex conditions should not wistfully remind me of "Banding", etc. Marking and tactically interesting fighters still exist, but more interesting because again, asymmetric class design is way better.

It's not so much that classes should be defined entirely by combat roles, just that there should be a clear design intent, a clear vision of the 'standard gameplay loop' of a class when designed. The Monk, for exemple, feels like they just threw a BUNCH of stuff that appeared in previous edition without rhyme or reason, same, to a lower extant, the Ranger and even the Cleric, Bard and Wizard. Once you have a solid frame, it's easier to build exit points where players can move away from the basic concept. And you need to better convey your vision to your players. Again, the Monk fluff doesn't really support this idea of 'I'm gonna go at the backline, poke the caster and then bounce' that every body say is what the Monk is good at.

I will say that, on the whole, they actually succeeded at that point.

And I don't want EVERY single condition to come back, but it feels like there's not a lot of lower level penalty that martial characters could potentially inflict... but maybe that's just me. I was just trying to think of missing thing. I could use maybe one or two additional conditions, for exemple, not much more.

On the contrary; 4e rituals always felt like an afterthought, a paean to the "I guess Wizards should still be able to cast illusions and knock and stuff like that, if you insist". In 5e rituals feel way more core to the experience and I enjoy the way it interacts with normal spellcasting.

Oh, I agree that the 4e rituals weren't super integrated (and they didn't come up as treasures often enough in published adventures), but that's because they were meant to be their own system and cover out of combat magic, they were also meant to be easy to opt in with a single feat. I think 5e should actually have more utility spells given longer casting time and the ritual tag. The spell list in the PHB doesn't even denote what spells are rituals or not, which I think was a huge missed opportunity.

Heck, I'd even make 'Ritual Book' a tool proficiency so characters could dabble into magic more easily with just a proficiency slot from background!

I'm not entirely certain why I should care about any of these things... they aren't really "design choices" (at least not in terms of gameplay). And if you're trying to argue that Nentir Vale's cosmology is a lot more interesting than FR's... like... duh? I mean, that should be taken as a given, at this point.

Fair point on the cosmology. I do feel like 'Spells' are just this nebulous thing and there’s such a lack of distinction between Divine, Arcane and Primal that it makes the differences between Cleric (of the blasty kind, not the armored kind), Druid and Wizard feel almost arbitrary. The Druid is just either of the two + Wild Shape for exemple. It’s not a strong identity.