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.

 

[Umbran]

wow that is quite a way to demonize sexworkers... you do know that the legal brothals in NV are less likely to be used for trafficing or exploitation then most fast food resterants?

NV is not most of the country (indeed, it is about 1% of the US population). WotC has to police its language for the general case, not for the Nevada-specific case.

And, it is not demonizing sex workers to note that in most places they are subject to abuse. The demons are the abusers, not the victims of abuse.

 

[Charlaquin]

it depends I have heard people interpret it to stack with shields and cover. I personally say it just sets the lowest it can be,

You personally are correct, that’s exactly what it says it does.

 

[HammerMan]

NV is not most of the country (indeed, it is about 1% of the US population). WotC has to police its language for the general case, not for the Nevada-specific case.

where I agree that they don't need to choose language based on 1%, they should at least look at the fact that anyplace that doesn't outlaw brothels' have the safest places for SW being brothels'... so unless the reason to remove it is because SW is illegal in that campagin world, and as such that campaign world those places have a high crime rate... but if that is the case we should probably look at gambling too.

And, it is not demonizing sex workers to note that in most places they are subject to abuse. The demons are the abusers, not the victims of abuse.

I agree the bad people are the abusers, but I don't think saying the safest place to do the work is the place they are subject to the abuse is in anyway the best way to handle it... again it seems to be the American 'sex bad' puritan attitude and not 'protect the SW' attitude I would think a forward thinking labral minded progressive company would want to put forward.

 

[DEFCON 1]

if you do not know what you're doing ie a are a noob being both a human and a fighter both things where you have a lot of freedom can instead end up with nothing but a dull and bland character as when you are new it is hard to RP properly hence the trap part.

also, we pay them a lot of money I want more than mechanics I want inbuilt inspiration so I can be inspired to use the mechanics.

you are correct but we do seem to be losing bad fluff with no corresponding replacement that strikes me as a bad thing.

A dull and bland character to whom? You? You don't want your new players bore you with dull roleplaying so you need the books to give as much detail as possible so that they aren't trapped into being uninteresting?

I hate to break it to you... but if a player is "boring", no amount of detail to read is going to help them not be a boring player. They will be boring as a Human Fighter or as a Kenku Path of the Zealot Barbarian / Circle of the Shepherd Druid.

And besides... it doesn't even matter. They aren't at the table for your entertainment, they are there for their own. So if you think they're boring to watch play... well, too bad.

 

[HammerMan]

You personally are correct, that’s exactly what it says it does.

I'm not sure there is a correct. The rules are not written in legalize and I understand how there reading come into it. (something about things that effect your skin can't change the nature of the shield or cover)

 

[sevenbastard]

I'm all for a books that are 99% crunch 1% lore.

I build my own settings and I don't need players with preconceived lore notions.

I've never done anything but skim the pictures in the first half of Volos Guide to Monsters.

I'm also down for removing race. And just let people reskin thier humans with elven heritage feats or Dwarven cultural feats or what ever.

 

[Charlaquin]

I do think they should be expanded on that (including a section in the DMG) for each entry and do something like 3.5 did with "often" or "usually" clarifiers. I've always been kind of surprised they didn't do this for 5E.

They’ve started doing that in 5e, as of I think Witchlight. Probably going to add those qualifiers to a lot more monsters with the upcoming Mordenkainen’s book.

 

[Umbran]

where I agree that they don't need to choose language based on 1%, they should at least look at the fact that anyplace that doesn't outlaw brothels' have the safest places for SW being brothels'

No, really, they don't. That's not a subject that's going to find its way into American games sold to 12-year-olds.

 

[HammerMan]

if you do not know what you're doing ie a are a noob being both a human and a fighter both things where you have a lot of freedom can instead end up with nothing but a dull and bland character as when you are new it is hard to RP properly hence the trap part.

More then once at the gaming store here (well old one it didn't survive covid) have I seen players quit games because they made a 1st level human fighter go up 5-6 levels and found that harry potter is now closer to Dr Strange, well they are playing the most boreing game ever.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

If this was a Modern rpg, then the implication of the word 'brothel' would more likely denote the modern locations you speak of, sure. And quite possibly be more acceptable and less prone to invoking the issues that sex-work has had over its history. But for a game that takes place in a pseudo-medieval setting, the word 'brothel' taken from that time period I imagine invokes much different ideas than the modern use, which is why WotC might be deciding to go in the direction they are going.

I mean, this isn't anything new. Every single word connotes different things depending on the context it is being used. Look at a word like 'Master'. That word can imply all sorts of things, many positive and many quite negative. So depending on what the book is you are writing and what the context for the word is, using the word 'Master' might be a right call or a very, very wrong one. 'Brothel' can be seen the exact same way I think.

If you look at the history of FR, Brothels don't have the same dark history as say Brothels during ancient Roman times did with the use of slavery (exceptions exist), in FR Brothels often have more religious element thanks to Sune, Sharess, Llirra, and Waukeen among other Gods, and they & sex workers aren't judged nearly as harshly as they are in the real world.

FR has an Renaissance aesthetic,but it's never really been a midevil or Renaissance world in terms of social dynamics, there really isn't a RL equivalent. Imagine the sexual revolution of the 60's happened back during the Renaissance, and that the idea that humans have races in the popular culture sense didn't exist, along with no rise of Monotheism, and ancient Egypt, Greece, and Mesopotamia but with access to Renaissance tech, still exist, and tons of wide and high magic then you get a step closer to FR.