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.

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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.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

how would one even make bunnies grimdark?

Someone didn't see the 1980s animated movie of Watership Down.

 

[Micah Sweet]

how would one even make bunnies grimdark?

Efrafa Warren from Warership Down?

 

[darjr]

 

[HammerMan]

how would one even make bunnies grimdark?

how not to... I mean crib part batman part punisher and throw a light spackling of fantasy on it...

"I lived in the hallows, a halfling and (what is the name of the rabbit race?) centric part of town. Me and my twelve brothers and sisters lived with my parents. Until Ickabod the Invocker came to town. I was town guard, but really I didn't do much, but I was part of the force sent to stop him (what a joke we never stood a chance). He held me with magic while he bunt the hallows... he laughed as I watched everyone I loved and cared for go up in smoke. He then peppered me with force bolts. He left me for dead but my anger and my rage held me to this mortal coil. I awoke in smoke and soot and swore my vengence."
There is a rabbitflok fighter 4 with mage slayer... hunting Ickabod the Invocker.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I find it so amusing that there are people who honestly believe that going from "All orcs are evil by design" to "Some orcs are evil based upon what they actually do" is making things bland.

One is a wide brush of paint across an entire species with absolutely no thought whatsoever as to why other than one single idea... where the other needs actual design and story process to come up with explanations and reasons for why each individual orc or group of orcs are evil based upon the story they are in (while the others are neutral and/or good). And the one with hundreds and thousands of different options for evil is the bland one? Uh... okay. Sure.

 

[Lanefan]

Blue Mist Mage?

Yeah, they're comin' to town next month. Hope there's any tickets left...

 

[Faolyn]

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.

And that would be a great topic for a Dragon Magazine article, if Dragon Magazine was still around. Or a blog article of your own, if you have a blog.

Although I have to wonder why they would be judged at all, if the brothels were mostly or entirely religious in nature.

 

[Bagpuss]

Nope, after you count several million people who’s left? Abject failure.

Oh in that case musical instruments and most sports are an abject failure if you are just judging by the number of people that gave them up.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

To be fair in 1,2,3,3.5 and 4e things had not gotten this silly.

Witchlight and Strixhaven are many things, gritty is not one of them. You literally can play Fairies, Bunnies,and Owls .

Keep in mind the bunnies encountered in Witchlight are Chaotic Evil bandits and that they were only made a PC race at the popular request of playtesters.

I'm also running a campaign now where the bunny person of the group is a Chaotic Evil barbarian who carries around the skull of the dire wolf who killed her family to remind them of how the weak perish and strong survive.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I find it so amusing that there are people who honestly believe that going from "All orcs are evil by design" to "Some orcs are evil based upon what they actually do" is making things bland.

It's particularly wild given a lot of us have been running it that way for 30+ years without any apparent ill-effects or blandification.