D&D (2024) "The Future of D&D" (New Core Books in 2024!)

The online D&D Celebration event, which has been running all weekend, comes to a close with The Future of D&D, a panel featuring WotC's Ray Winninger, Liz Schuh, Chris Perkins, and Jeremy Crawford, hosted by Elle Osili-Wood.

D&D is exploring the multiverse
Revisiting classic settings. 1st of 3 settings (Ravenloft) released this year. Next year, the other two major classic D&D settings come out. Both in formats they've never published products before.

Plus a "little peek" at a third classic D&D setting - a cameo.

In 2023, yet another classic setting is coming out.

Evolving D&D
Because of new players, they're always listening. Exploring new styles of play (like no combat needed in Wild Beyond the Witchlight). Also presentation of monsters and spells. New product formats. More adventure anthologies.

Making products easier to use. Ways to create the best experience. Experimenting and looking into technology.

Approaches to Design
Wild Beyond the Witchlight has interior design and tools to make running the adventure easier. Story tracker, guidance.

Beyond the books, they want to make different and varied products - packaging and form factor. Things different to hardcovers and boxed sets.

A blog post is coming soon detailing some of the changes, with more to come in future posts.

50th Anniversary in 2024
They've begun work on new versions of the core rulebooks. Recent surveys tie into that. They're still making plans, but expect more surveys. More will be said next year.

They will be completely compatible!

New experiences in the digital arena.

January Gift Set
Rules Expansion Gift Set -- Xanathar, Tasha, and a new book: Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. All in a slipcase. Was intended for the Holidays, but global production issues mean January instead. There's also an alternate cover version.

D&D 5E - A Closer Look At January's D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set

WotC earlier announced a D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set for January, which includes three books - Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and the new Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. These were intended for the holidays, but the global production issues...

www.enworld.org

Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse
A treasure trove of creature related material from previous products compiled into one book and updated.

Opportunity to update material with a feel for how the 50th Anniversary books will be.

Improvements based on feedback, rebalancing, new and old art.

Over 250 monsters, and 30 playable races. All of the setting agnostic races that have been published outside the Player's Handbook.

Some content from Witchlight, Fizban's, and Strixhaven was influenced by Mordenkainen's.

Available first in the gift set, but separately later in the year.

Monsters alphabetized throughout rather than using subsections.

D&D 5E - Zooming In On Monsters of the Multiverse [UPDATED!]

Earlier, WotC announced Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse, a new D&D compilation of monster material from previous products updated to a new format. These screen grabs are as good as I could get them. They're not terribly clear, but you can make more out than in the original...

www.enworld.org

Stat block changes --

Spellcasting trait is gone. Spellcasting action, slimmed down. Spellcasting monsters need less prep.

Spell slots are gone for NPCs. Regular actions that would have once been spells.

It was too easy for a DM to use spells which result in the monster having a too low effective CR.

Monsters can be friends or foes, and some magic will help rather than hinder PCs.

Where are we going?
More adventure anthologies. Another classic setting fairly soon.

Two all-new settings. Completely new. In development stage, an 'exploration' phase, testing the viability of them. They might not see the light of day.

Retooling nostalgia and blending it with new concepts. A blend of things that you know, and things that they have never done before.

In the short term -- more news next month about a new product for 2022 which goes into a new scary place we've never been before.

Boo the miniature giant space hamster
Below is an sketch from Hydro74's alt cover, which features Boo the miniature giant space hamster.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The removal of the wall of the faithless is particularly...odd in this regard, but it is what it is.

I think it's foretelling some thing that Drizzt will do in the current trilogy to end the wall.

 

[Scribe]

I think it's foretelling some thing that Drizzt will do in the current trilogy to end the wall.

lol, jumping the gun a bit much then dont you think? Its been removed for quite some time.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

lol, jumping the gun a bit much then dont you think? Its been removed for quite some time.

Not that long before the trilogy actually.

 

[TheSword]

I simply don't think it's needed. My issue, nothing more.

Something being unique is a reason to include it, not remove it. That said, It’s an archetype: educated knight who fights on foot with a strong will. You could use it for a samurai, knight of the round table or a poet soldier.

Don't get hung up on the name. I’ve seen monks played as boxers, brawlers, and spies. They don’t need to play up to eastern exotica.

The troublesome elements raised by Asians Represent were removed as far as I can see.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

But they really aren’t. They’re different. If you called the Samurai subclass “Knight” I’d be confused, while the Cavalier makes sense for the European Knight, but would be odd for the classic Samurai. Both get some extra social graces, but their mechanics reflect different priorities and tactics, and different cultural expectation of the classic iteration of the concept.

Like, go watch any Japanese movie about Samurai, and…there is a lot more difference between them and European knights than there is between English and Spanish Knights. It makes sense to make them different.

Yeah, I don't agree. Mechanically, the abilities of the Samurai subclass fit a knight pretty well. The Cavalier mechanics don't fit a samurai, but it would fit a mounted samurai. Even the names of abilities fit fine.

Anyway, I agree with others here that the term "samurai" is too niche and tied to one specific real-world country.

I've talked about this enough, especially as how this is far off-topic of the thread.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yeah, I don't agree. Mechanically, the abilities of the Samurai subclass fit a knight pretty well. The Cavalier mechanics don't fit a samurai, but it would fit a mounted samurai. Even the names of abilities fit fine.

Anyway, I agree with others here that the term "samurai" is too niche and tied to one specific real-world country.

I've talked about this enough, especially as how this is far off-topic of the thread.

The specificity isn’t a bug.

As for the Cavalier fitting a mounted Samurai…where is the mounted archery, just for a start. What in the subclass speaks to the cultural expectations in Japan of a Samurai warrior?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

The specificity isn’t a bug.

As for the Cavalier fitting a mounted Samurai…where is the mounted archery, just for a start. What in the subclass speaks to the cultural expectations in Japan of a Samurai warrior?

Yo, you're just proving here how specificity is a bug here. If I make a knight in Eberron, no one is going to be confused. If I make a samurai, everyone's going to look at me and say, "What? Which nation here has samurai? That's a Japanese warrior!" The subclass is too tied to a specific real-world culture (which translate badly to fictional settings) to give it its niche... but if we remove that cultural stuff, it's just a knight!

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

They don’t need to play up to eastern exotica.

Except, that's literally built into the mechanics of the game. Monks can run up walls and on water, one of their main mechanics is named "Ki", their fists are magical, they stop being affected by aging, can literally astral project and turn invisible and get resistance to all damage (except force) by using their ki points.

The Monk class, although I wish it was more open to fit pugilist and spy characters, is very much filled with "eastern exotica". I'm absolutely fine with those roles being playable in D&D 5e, I think they're awesome and would play them in a heartbeat, but the class is so dependent on real world stereotypes that I find it a bit cringy, just like I think that it's a bad idea to have the Paladin or Barbarian classes as reliant on their source material as they were in previous editions.

IMO, the same applies to the Samurai. Why can't there be Paladin Samurai, Monk Samurai, or even a Barbarian or Ranger Samurai? Why does it have to be a subclass, instead of just, you know, a theme that characters can choose? We don't have a subclass for Aztec Eagle and Jaguar Knights, or an Amazonian Warrior, or a Greek Hoplite, or a Roman Legionnaire, but have one for the Japanese Samurai? All of these roles can be played by just flavoring your martial character as those, taking fighting styles, weapons, and feats that mirror how they fought historically, and roleplay them in a manner similar to the historical culture they came from. They don't need subclasses, because opening up the door for subclasses for them could get arduous and potentially problematic really fast. It's just much easier to file them under "reflavor, roleplay and make fitting character decisions to that style" instead of "this real-world-culture-specific warrior needs a subclass, and the others don't get them, because reasons".

That's why I don't like having classes or subclasses so specifically dependent on real world cultures. It creates issues, and there's just a way easier way of doing it.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

As for the Cavalier fitting a mounted Samurai…where is the mounted archery, just for a start.

They can pick up a bow while mounted . . . and use that bow while mounted. That's where the mounted archery is. They can even use the Archery Fighting Style and Sharpshooter feat while doing so!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yo, you're just proving here how specificity is a bug here. If I make a knight in Eberron, no one is going to be confused. If I make a samurai, everyone's going to look at me and say, "What? Which nation here has samurai? That's a Japanese warrior!" The subclass is too tied to a specific real-world culture (which translate badly to fictional settings) to give it its niche... but if we remove that cultural stuff, it's just a knight!

Wait, you think pre-industrial Japanese culture translates poorly to fictional settings? What on Earth!?

That aside, it’s pretty easy to use the Samurai in Eberron. I’ve seen it done as a Hobgoblin born to martial leadership, I’ve seen it as a dueling master seeking glory from a small nation in Sarlona who was secretly on a mission against the Inspired, and as a Cyran refugee who was a member of a particular martial order of the Silver Flame.

Obviously in FR there are places that literally just have Samurai, and in a homebrew you can easily build a culture that has a similar dynamic and philosophy of a given period of the history of Japanese Samurai.

But having a subclass that is a specific Order is fine. There isn’t a reason to not do that, and Samurai isn’t the only one. Hell it isn’t the only fighter archetype that belongs a single nation! The Purple Dragon Knight is specific to one nation in on setting, but people have no problem translating it outside of that context. It would be weird to make it a base class, but a subclass? Pretty normal fare. The only difference is Samurai is not from the same RL culture as most of the PHB.