D&D 5E Latest D&D Errata: Drow, Alignment, & More

Sage Advice is a series of articles in which Jeremy Crawford, one of the D&D Studio’s game design architects, talks about the design of the game’s rules and answers questions about them.

Book Updates | Sage Advice | Dungeons & Dragons

This Sage Advice provides updates and errata for a number of books, as well as answers to rules questions.

dnd.wizards.com

D&D books occasionally receive corrections and other updates to their rules and story. This Sage Advice installment presents updates to several books. I then answer a handful of rules questions, focusing on queries related to Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos.

Official errata has been published for the following books:

• Curse of Strahd
• Dungeon Master’s Guide
• Player’s Handbook
• Storm King’s Thunder
• Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
• Tales from the Yawning Portal
• Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
• Tomb of Annihilation
• Volo’s Guide to Monsters

Here's some of the highlights.

• Alignment is removed from the Racial Traits section of races.
• Drow have undergone lore changes which reflect the different types of drow. The 'darkness of the drow' sidebar which portrays them as only evil has been removed.
• Storm King's Thunder alters references to 'Savage Frontier' and 'barbarians'; Curse of Strahd alters references to the Vistani.
• The controversial Silvery Barbs spell has been clarified.

As a drow, you are infused with the magic of the Underdark, an underground realm of wonders and horrors rarely seen on the surface above. You are at home in shadows and, thanks to your innate magic, learn to con- jure forth both light and darkness. Your kin tend to have stark white hair and grayish skin of many hues.

The cult of the god Lolth, Queen of Spiders, has cor- rupted some of the oldest drow cities, especially in the worlds of Oerth and Toril. Eberron, Krynn, and other realms have escaped the cult’s influence—for now. Wherever the cult lurks, drow heroes stand on the front lines in the war against it, seeking to sunder Lolth’s web.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

I'm surprised they didn't replace the Kobold trait:

• Grovel, Cower, and Beg. As an action on your turn, you can cower pathetically to distract nearby foes. Until the end of your next turn, your allies gain advantage on attack rolls against enemies within 10 feet of you that can see you. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
  
  I always thought it was a poor trait for a whole species.

 

[Scribe]

I like it.

Almost as much as I'm enjoying the hyberbolic over-reactions in this thread.

lol wizards really are going all out to 'not all x'

 

[bedir than]

I'm surprised they didn't replace the Kobold trait:

• Grovel, Cower, and Beg. As an action on your turn, you can cower pathetically to distract nearby foes. Until the end of your next turn, your allies gain advantage on attack rolls against enemies within 10 feet of you that can see you. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
  
  I always thought it was a poor trait for a whole species.

it's also boring.

Volo's has three "super" kobolds more in line with the power of PCs -- the pathetic inventor, the flyer, and the dragon-magic sorc.
Each of those should have a PC trait and THAT should be what Kobolds get.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I'm largely in favor of most of the changes. However...

Riveting stuff.

On some level, I do have to agree. It does feel a bit like a creativity drain to remove it all completely. I'm still scratching my head over the deprecation of age, height, and weight. Like I get it and I want the game to be more inclusive. I do think it's getting a little watered down.

It took me awhile, but I think what I really dislike about having nearly 50 playable races plus custom lineages is... none of them have any real depth. It feels to me like the fantasy world that D&D is trending towards is one where all linages are participants in the same culture. On the one hand that's kind of cool. Everyone is taken for who they are and is valued for themselves.

On the other hand, having a singular monolithic culture makes everything feel the same. Ultra homogenized. Campaigns like this often leave me feeling like all the characters are just humans in rubber masks because there is no cultural heritage or actual lineage. Of course, they all really are humans in rubber masks; we don't really have an example of a culture of another sapient race we can communicate with or share ideas with. But too many lineages tends to make them all feel like just more humans.

I think of it like Babylon 5 or Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Sure, they're very focused on humans. But any time they introduce a new species, that means a new homeworld. A new, unique culture. A new, unique history. A new, unique story about a people going to space and exploring. Sure, not all of them are always detailed (e.g., the League of Nobody Can Act In This Makeup Worlds, or Latex Forehead Bump Species #4758). Basically, though, all the species of the core characters are well defined with a culture, history, and future, including with relations with other species. That informs each individual character. It affects the character development. It makes the world feel more real. How would we remember G'Kar or Londo if not for the lens of their histories? How mysterious would Kosh be if all of the races were equally unknown? How much meaning would be lost if the relationship between Humans and Minbari didn't have the context of the war.

I want the game to have memorable, heterogeneous cultures. So that when you adventure across the globe you don't find... the same set of people with a different color flag. I can't imagine having 50 distinct, memorable, meaningful cultures in a whole setting. Like holy crap: 50 lineages of origins, cultural history, interwoven political histories, etc.? Ain't nobody got time for that.

I don't want to feel like exploring the world is like going from Ohio to Illinois. I want it to feel like going from Ohio to Mumbai, or to Jerusalem, or to Minbar. Something totally alien with people who perceive the world through a completely different framework.

I don't think we're going to lose that with these changes. But I wonder if more tables will just take the easy way out, and not think of lineage as anything more than a package of abilities.

That doesn't mean that you can't have a setting with a more homogenous or monolithic culture. Star Wars does a pretty good job of pulling that off, I think. I just don't think that's as interesting to me as a world to explore.

 

[bedir than]

having a singular monolithic culture makes everything feel the same.

I cannot fathom looking at the Realms or Eberron and thinking that though a player character's race doesn't determine culture Amn, Chult, the Dalelands, Sharn, Waterdeep, etc are all now the same.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I cannot fathom looking at the Realms or Eberron and thinking that though a player character's race doesn't determine culture Amn, Chult, the Dalelands, Sharn, Waterdeep, etc are all now the same.

The environment is certainly different, but I can see the point being made that Mos Eisley cantina being the default doesnt exactly encourage new and different cultures.

 

[Scribe]

I don't think we're going to lose that with these changes. But I wonder if more tables will just take the easy way out, and not think of lineage as anything more than a package of abilities.

Its literally what they are, a few special rules.

 

[pukunui]

The only one I don’t really get is why they felt the need to change “pixie dust” to “faerie dust” in SKT.

 

[Scribe]

The only one I don’t really get is why they felt the need to change “pixie dust” to “faerie dust” in SKT.

I'm not sure either, are Pixies not in the current list of creatures? Like, we have Fairy?

EDIT: Run it in Urban Dictionary, I bet thats it.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Its literally what they are, a few special rules.

Your Honor, I'd like to submit Exhibit A.