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.

News Archive | Dungeons and Dragons

Read the full archives of Dungeons & Dragons news, Sage Advice, Unearthed Arcana, and D&D Studio Blogs.

dnd.wizards.com

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

 

[Urriak Uruk]

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.

Yep.

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.

It's a fun idea, but I'd reiterate that because this UA doesn't have any Planescape races in it, seems unlikely to me. If it had races from both settings, I'd think it'd be probable. Instead it has enough Spelljammer-specific races for a whole book of its own.

Is it possible that another UA of races is coming? Possible sure... but if they were merging the two, I don't see why they'd have so many SJ races in a single UA, with no PS ones.

 

[Bolares]

The more I think of it, the more I think getting read of racial ASIs make it easier to design creatures where their features are what defines the race. You don't have to balance them with ASIs in mind, and can put all the heavy lifting in representing them in the features. That's why I feel the Giff are a fail (for me). They seem like an option that would really benefit from +2 STR and +2/+1 CON, but the designer still haven't figured out how to make impactfull big strong races without ASIs

 

[overgeeked]

You can’t squeeze through small openings whilst wearing or carrying anything. That means you will have to strip and/or drop your equipment before taking advantage of this ability. At best, maybe you can hold your stuff on the other side of the opening with your pseudopod if you don’t need to go more than 10 feet from it. Maybe useful for squeezing under a door crack to open it from the other side or something. Unless your DM decides to be a stickler about the wording and rule that holding something in your pseudopod is still you carrying that thing, and therefore you can’t squeeze through small openings when doing so.

A pseudopod is not a disconnected mass under your control, it’s an extension of your body. You can form a tentacle up to 10 ft long. If it’s holding something you’re carrying it.

 

[Demetrios1453]

With the Fey UA, they did include both stuff for Witchlight and Strixhaven in one document, which threw people off a bit. Thri-Kreen could be for a different product than the Giff.

Thri-kreen were a traditional Spelljammer race as well though.

 

[Weiley31]

They seem like an option that would really benefit from +2 STR and +2/+1 CON, but the designer still haven't figured out how to make impactfull big strong races without ASIs

I mean, you can still do that with the Tasha's approach.

 

[Bolares]

A pseudopod is not a disconnected mass under your control, it’s an extension of your body. You can form a tentacle up to 10 ft long. If it’s holding something you’re carrying it.

I don't know if the wording is clear enough to state that with certainty. Because if it's still a part of you, nothing says you cant cast spell through it. you could drop your wand, go trough the door, grab the wand with the pod and fire your spells with it.

 

[Bolares]

I mean, you can still do that with the Tasha's approach.

I know, but I'm talking about how WotC designs their races. Giff seems to be lacking something to fully represent all they are supposed to represent.

 

[Scribe]

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.

Mostly yeah.

I want to see the 5e approach to Gods, Alignment, and the system of Belief, within the context of how they intend to carry that forward, in comparison to how it was on release of 5e.

 

[overgeeked]

IT'S A OOZE SPENDING 10 MINUTES TRYING TO ASFIXIATE SOMEONE BY HUGGIN THEIR FACE

Yeah, I know. My players would instantly look up the suffocation rules and laugh. “So what? I’m perfectly fine for 1 + CON mod minutes. I ignore it and keep going.”

 

[ersatzphil]

"Vecna Must Die" or something like that. He was able to briefly get into Sigil, but was quickly cast our or something. I've only heard about it so I am not sure what happened.

"Die, Vecna, Die!" You were able to interact with the Lady of Pain, but even then she didn't have a stat block: