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.

 

[HammerMan]

I also find it funny that on page 6 I said:

what... are you kidding me? in a game where we regularly kill things with sharp or pointy weapons (or beat them to death with blunt ones) the word brothel offended someone?!? that is the most American thing ever... violence gets a pass but we can't even do a hint of sexuality...

not "OMG I'm never playing" or "how dare they" just pointed out that it was a weird thing and for cleaning up it was a strange double standard of in a game about killing the idea of sex work being bad... just still 11+ pages later I find myself defending what I thought was a pretty clear thought...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That's why I think issues regarding brothels is just as fraught. Because brothels have always existed. So we are left with a few ways to look at it from the modern perspective-
A. Brothels (and associated sex work) are "bad" (like slavery) because of issues involving violence, human trafficking, and so on.
B. Brother (and associated sex work) are only "bad" because they are stigmatized and often operate in a gray area which allows criminal elements (such as violence, human trafficking, and so on) to flourish. If we didn't treat it with so much stigma, then it wouldn't be such a problem.

This is certainly how it tends to be dealt with by fantasy authors today. Similarly a lot of modern fantasy authors avoid LGBT+ stuff being an issue by just having it not be stigmatized in their world, or not severely so.

Slavery really only has two ways to go, though, which are "basically it's not a thing" (which is not unreasonable, there have been long periods in large parts of the world where actual slavery, as opposed to wage-slavery or serfdom of varying degrees, wasn't really common or supported by law), or "only bad people do it". Again if we look at modern fantasy authors, we tend to see that - either it's not present or only very bad people do it. There have been authors which have struggled with this. One of the weakest parts of Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive books is when he tries to kind of have his cake and eat it re: slavery (which is practiced by alleged "good guys"), repeatedly.

 

[Faolyn]

but why would that be?

Because in reality, a large percentage of sex workers in the real world are exploited or harmed in some way.

and how many of them were sexually exploited by legal brothals?

Does that actually matter? If someone exploits you, does it matter if the business was legal or not?

I am again just calling out that it is an odd thing to errata, and an odd way of doing it. One that shows at least a puritarian leaning.

I hardly think this is a sign of puritarianism or prudeness. Complain again when the books have married couples in separate beds and the MM has an entry for baby-delivering storks.

But odd that you think it's bad to get rid of brothels but are OK with not dealing with catching STDs from going to one.

 

[Lanefan]

Take that back! Nothing in the Forgotten Realms is worse than Elminster!

You've clearly forgotten Drizz't.

Nothing - nothing! - in all of D&D lore is worse than Drizz't.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You've clearly forgotten Drizz't.

Nothing - nothing! - in all of D&D lore is worse than Drizz't.

Sweet summer child.

Drizzt is like an 8 on a 1-10 scale of terrible D&D lore.

Elminster, specifically sexy, sexy Elminster is at least a 9. There are plenty of other FR characters who are a 9 or 10, but luckily I've forgotten most of their names and details, and only remember how completely, truly awful they were.

That's without even starting on how bad stuff like the lore changes to Athas was, or the Prism Pentad in general.

 

[overgeeked]

They don't need to do that, because even the young people of today know that murder is rarely the method used for money or power acquisition... murder usually results from people hating other people for who they are.

This whole idea of "murder for profit" that D&D and GTA and any and all games that involve "looting" have, is for the most part completely fantastical and everyone knows that. If you want to make any sort of money... no one goes out to kill people to do it, they are so many other better and safer ways to do so and get away with it and become much more wealthy because of it.

And that's why even Millenials and Gen Z aren't that much concerned about D&D's game mechanic of "kill them and take their stuff"... because that's for the most part the fakest thing in the entire game.

Except all of colonial history.

 

[HammerMan]

Snarf I totally respect you but WOW, the first half can totally be read wrong

That's why I think issues regarding brothels is just as fraught. Because brothels have always existed. So we are left with a few ways to look at it from the modern perspective-
A. Brothels (and associated sex work) are "bad" (like slavery) because of issues involving violence, human trafficking, and so on.
B. Brother (and associated sex work) are only "bad" because they are stigmatized and often operate in a gray area which allows criminal elements (such as violence, human trafficking, and so on) to flourish. If we didn't treat it with so much stigma, then it wouldn't be such a problem.

the idea that anyone can conflate sex work and slavery (yes I know you were trying to make a point) is mind blowing.
Sex work is to Slavery as every crumby menial and/or dangerous job is slavery...

Infact I would say I think they should scrub all the slavery from the underdark before touching brothels'

From a modern perspective, then, there are reasonable issues and concerns from both points of view. I do think that a game like D&D becomes ... well, it's even more fraught because it is so relentlessly combat-centric, and because it features concepts like the Thief and the Assassin and the Necromancer up-front. In short, I find it odd that it tends to reinforce a cultural belief that issue of violence and poison and even murder-for-hire are perfectly acceptable within the game, but the mere mention of the possibility of sexual activity is being stamped out- I think that this is typical, but also strangely weird.

yup, that is what I said... like it seems like such a disconnect.

Anyway, what it likely boils down to is the fact that D&D is skewing much younger. It's more about marketing, and about appealing to the current fanbase, than any deep philosophical concerns.

and I can see how not wanting to put it in future products can make sense (and like anything else we can add it if we want) but the idea of saying "Hey erratta for a book from almost 10 years ago, replace it with music hall" is so strange.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

I also find it funny that on page 6 I said:

not "OMG I'm never playing" or "how dare they" just pointed out that it was a weird thing and for cleaning up it was a strange double standard of in a game about killing the idea of sex work being bad... just still 11+ pages later I find myself defending what I thought was a pretty clear thought...

You are free to interpret “music venue” any way you like. Just as you do for the other text in the game.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

You've clearly forgotten Drizz't.

Nothing - nothing! - in all of D&D lore is worse than Drizz't.

Yeah, Drizzt does suck like a hoover, but ....

1. Not a bard.

2. Not Elminster.

3. Really, he's just the same archetype as Holden Caulfield. He's just rebelling against all the phonies that make up society ... you know, in Drizzt case, more like the poisoning, evil, torturing cult of Lolth, but you get the idea. Just like Holden Caulfield, except terribly written. But its normal for people to be like, "Hey, this guy is alienated. I'm alienated too! Wow, we are the same." Same as it ever was.

 

[Lanefan]

Pineapple on Pizza was invented in London, Ontario. Which is part of my country even though I like to pretend everything east of the Rocky Mountains doesn't exist. Therefore I'm obliged to stand up for it, like how I'm supposed to for Hockey and Maple Syrup.

As a true Canadian I too will stand behind hockey, maple syrup and Molson all day long.

I draw the line, however, at supporting pineapple on pizza; instead I can only apologize to the world that our country was the source of such a big mistake and promise we'll do better next time.