D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Travelers of the Multiverse

New free content from WotC - the latest 4-page Unearthed Arcana introduces six new races: astral elf, autognome, giff, hadozee, plasmoid, and thri-kreen.

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dnd.wizards.com

Looks like Spelljammer and/or Planescape is back on the menu!

 

[Charlaquin]

So plasmoids...

"Amorphous. You can squeeze through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide, provided you are wearing and carrying nothing. You also have advantage on ability checks you make to initiate or escape a grapple."

Natural shapeshifting grapplers...I foresee a lot of DMs having to look up the suffocation rules as players decide to grapple a target's face and forming around their heads.

It’s not a very effective strategy for combat, as anything with at least a 10 con can hold its breath for a number of minutes. Could be a decent tactic to use on unaware targets, but surprise is already effective enough I don’t feel like that’s a huge boost.

 

[Weiley31]

Judging by the number of people on Reddit yelling things like "Playable Ooze!!! This is a dream!", I can only conclude: ...I am really, really out of touch with what people want from a D&D game.

I, for one, can't wait for the Monster Musume crossover book to happen in 2025/2026.

 

[Charlaquin]

Judging by the number of people on Reddit yelling things like "Playable Ooze!!! This is a dream!", I can only conclude: ...I am really, really out of touch with what people want from a D&D game.

Never heard of slime girls, I take it?

 

[Weiley31]

So plasmoids...

"Amorphous. You can squeeze through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide, provided you are wearing and carrying nothing. You also have advantage on ability checks you make to initiate or escape a grapple."

Natural shapeshifting grapplers...I foresee a lot of DMs having to look up the suffocation rules as players decide to grapple a target's face and forming around their heads.

And as somebody mentioned before, cutting a Plasmoid's head off isn't a big deal like it is for most races.

 

[dave2008]

All I want.

As someone who is not particularly familiar with planescape (I know of Sigil, factions, LoP, & the blood war), what about the setting needs to be updated? It seems to me that everything about planescape is pretty much fluff and could just be use directly from earlier sources.

 

[Bolares]

It’s not a very effective strategy for combat, as anything with at least a 10 con can hold its breath for a number of minutes. Could be a decent tactic to use on unaware targets, but surprise is already effective enough I don’t feel like that’s a huge boost.

It doesn't need to be effective, it just needs to be terrifying

 

[Weiley31]

Session's bad guy of the arc tries to shove Plasmoid pc's head underwater to drown the pc.
Bad Guy: I totally win!
*Plasmoid PC pretends to "drown"
Bad Guy: Now to totally toss the trash o-is immediately backstabbed in the neck by Plasmoid PC
NANI!?-bad guy dies.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Perkins said players would be absolutely terrified of the new product, and that it brought D&D to a place we haven't been before. Again, just a guess.

Plus of the big 5e D&D adventures, I don't believe we've had one with Mind Flayers as the big bads yet.

This might not be connected to the new product, I say this because if it's being announced this month, why not just call it Spelljammer Unearthed Arcana?

 

[Mercurius]

Although I largely agree with your lettered thoughts, I don't agree that means they'll then fold Spelljammer/PS. Meaning, Spelljammer will get its setting or its adventure (or something between), and then Planescape will get its setting. I still think Spelljammer could be considered as the cameo, even if it is a larger cameo than we previously thought, and that could leave a classic setting spot open.

No doubt - and to be clear, I didn't say "that means that" but that I still think its likely that SJ and PS are going to be part of one meta-setting, and maybe not receive distinct setting books. I still think it more likely that we get either a Metaverse or PS book, with SJ as part of that and/or in an adventure. Certainly, this UA moves the dial a bit, though, and makes me think that SJ is more likely to get its own setting book.

In truth, this also puts one of Dark Sun and Dragonlance in a bit more doubt. Three settings in 2022-23 can't fit all four, unless, of course, they fold SJ and PS together.

Or not! It could be that Spelljammer is taking a classic slot. I know Dark Sun and Dragonlance are thought of as getting a classic spot, but both have their own problems that folks have pointed out. Pretty sure Planescape is pretty much a lock though, it seems like a no-brainer.

Yep.

Merging SJ/PS though... I don't see why really. Planescape on its own is huge and doesn't need that material in its own book, and this UA points to Spelljammer getting its own book. So mixing the too seems completely unnecessary to me. From a business perspective, it would make sense to double your revenues and keep them seperated.

Well again, with my first post in this thread, they could re-envision the planes as the "metaverse," which includes PS and SJ as two ways of navigating and conceiving of the metaverse, and all the worlds/planes/settings existing within the metaverse, but interpreted differently.

Or imagine this: A spelljammer captain, planes traveler, and planeswalker sitting at a bar in Sigil, arguing about the true nature of the planes.

 

[Bolares]

Never heard of slime girls, I take it?

Bunny girls, slime girls... DnD is becoming monster hearts