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.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I've always wondered this, too. I've never seen anything from 1e onward that actively presents them as particularly East Asian.

And 5e has primarily depicted them as a sort of evil, demon-worshipping, cannibalistic, human-sacrificing "Mayincatec" culture, even with some "Feathered Serpent" themes included (and Keith Baker's Shulassakar Yuan-Ti are guilty of a lot of this, too), which, you know, is kinda iffy.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

I cannot relate to what is happening to my old hobby. Should I say anything more, warnings and points would most assuredly follow, so I'll quietly keep on enjoying that which I grew up with a few decades ago just the way I remember it.

I stopped relating after they axed 3e and ruined the game with 4e. I don't see 5e as much of a better place, it brought a whole demographic of gamers who have zero respect for many of the game's legacies, have brought so much toxicity with them on top of that, they want everything "zero calorie" in the game, who then turn and complain about wishing certain elements and aspects were in the official game (the very same aspects WotC ditched from earlier editions...the irony...). They bastardize the lore that's been built for decades, then turn around and state "D&D lore doesn't really matter, do what you want" alongside "rules don't matter, do what you want." Like, where is this game going? It's become a chaotic mess with zero consistency besides rolling a d20 (and I won't be surprised if they "simplify" that to a d10 and levels go up to level 10, no more 11-20). What's the point of rulebooks? Just release a basic rules set and tell people,"Now fiddle with it and make your own game." The End.

I know, how will they make money if they did that? Simple, just do blatant commercialized crossovers with more YT celebrities, pop culture references, and Magic the Gathering. I'm waiting on a D&D/Pokemon crossover at this point. It's bound to happen.

What's funny is I used to harp on some older folk who lamented about certain aspects of life actually having been better far back. In terms of D&D, I can now somewhat relate to just that particular feeling (long as it didn't involve them missing certain social prejudices).

D&D was so much better when it WASN'T the cool thing to do.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Just talking off the top of my head, but it could also be possible for each race to have features that come out at certain character levels, a bit conceptually (though likely not mechanically) like the "racial paragon" prestige classes from 3.5. We already have a bit of this where some races get more innate spellcasting at 3rd and 5th level, but imaging if every race, after already being beefed up to be an equal part of character creation at 1st level, also every race had booster at set later levels.

Okay, probably poorly balanced options, but just off the top of my head for an example. Humans might get expertise at 6th and an extra feat at 10th, and a third save at 16th, while the Goliath at 6th can spend a HD when they trigger Stone's Endurance, go up to size Large at 10th but lose Powerful Build, and at 16th they get Reliable Talent for STR and CON checks.

The more mechanics you give to races, the harder it is to add new races. And there will always be people out there who want to play rabbitfolk or slimegirls or whatever new weird thing just got an anime adaptation - the Cantina Approach (the universe is vast and filled with many races; you can play whatever you want because mechanically it doesn't really matter) is very broadly appealing and doesn't preclude thinking deeply about races and cultures and incorporating those thoughts into you game - it simply doesn't require it.

Having five really well-thought-out, highly detailed races with a lot of little details that impact play across pillars is good for a single setting but bad for a multi-setting game. And one thing that keeps people playing DnD is how easy it is to make the setting your own.

 

[Vaalingrade]

it brought a whole demographic of gamers who have zero respect for many of the game's legacies, have brought so much toxicity with them on top of that, they want everything "zero calorie" in the game, who then turn and complain about wishing certain elements and aspects were in the official game (the very same aspects WotC ditched from earlier editions...the irony...). They bastardize the lore that's been built for decades, then turn around and state "D&D lore doesn't really matter, do what you want" alongside "rules don't matter, do what you want."

(long as it didn't involve them missing certain social prejudices).

... 'certain' social prejudices.

But some people just aren't allowed through that gate.

 

[overgeeked]

They bastardize the lore that's been built for decades, then turn around and state "D&D lore doesn't really matter, do what you want" alongside "rules don't matter, do what you want."

If only. I’d love that edition of D&D. I’m here for a do what you want game. Too bad that’s not what we have or what they’re going to produce. More’s the pity.

 

[Malmuria]

Like, where is this game going? It's become a chaotic mess with zero consistency besides rolling a d20 (and I won't be surprised if they "simplify" that to a d10 and levels go up to level 10, no more 11-20). What's the point of rulebooks? Just release a basic rules set and tell people,"Now fiddle with it and make your own game." The End.

Zero consistency like in Ad&d, with its multiple subsystems for resolution?
Not going up to high levels like in B/X, where characters reach name level and retire?
Just a bunch of basic rules, like Od&d, which was an incomplete toolkit, and worked under the assumption that readers would be creative enough to make their own worlds and adventures?

 

[darjr]

I stopped relating after they axed 3e and ruined the game with 4e. I don't see 5e as much of a better place, it brought a whole demographic of gamers who have zero respect for many of the game's legacies, have brought so much toxicity with them on top of that, they want everything "zero calorie" in the game, who then turn and complain about wishing certain elements and aspects were in the official game (the very same aspects WotC ditched from earlier editions...the irony...). They bastardize the lore that's been built for decades, then turn around and state "D&D lore doesn't really matter, do what you want" alongside "rules don't matter, do what you want." Like, where is this game going? It's become a chaotic mess with zero consistency besides rolling a d20 (and I won't be surprised if they "simplify" that to a d10 and levels go up to level 10, no more 11-20). What's the point of rulebooks? Just release a basic rules set and tell people,"Now fiddle with it and make your own game." The End.

I know, how will they make money if they did that? Simple, just do blatant commercialized crossovers with more YT celebrities, pop culture references, and Magic the Gathering. I'm waiting on a D&D/Pokemon crossover at this point. It's bound to happen.

What's funny is I used to harp on some older folk who lamented about certain aspects of life actually having been better far back. In terms of D&D, I can now somewhat relate to just that particular feeling (long as it didn't involve them missing certain social prejudices).

D&D was so much better when it WASN'T the cool thing to do.

So in the light of changing times you emulate those who you thought were wrong?

Uh, can’t help you there.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

I'm happy WotC is no longer afraid to use the word 'brothel'.

I'm unhappy to see the word 'barbarian' get scrubbed out of Storm King's Thunder.

I like the corrected wording for spells and the clarifications on cantrip rules. It's little things like this that make play run smoothly at the gaming table.

It's not terribly useful to remove words or concepts like 'madness' IMO.

Onward and upward!

 

[Staffan]

The more mechanics you give to races, the harder it is to add new races. And there will always be people out there who want to play rabbitfolk or slimegirls or whatever new weird thing just got an anime adaptation - the Cantina Approach (the universe is vast and filled with many races; you can play whatever you want because mechanically it doesn't really matter) is very broadly appealing and doesn't preclude thinking deeply about races and cultures and incorporating those thoughts into you game - it simply doesn't require it.

I don't think D&D is the game for that approach. That works better in a game like Fate or Cortex, where you can make your race/species/lineage into one of your aspects/descriptors and then use that whenever it makes sense.

 

[pukunui]

As pointed to a similar question (by me) on Reddit, probably the map of Tamoachan was simply reprinted because the original in the book it's in a two pages spread and the central part is hard to come by. I admit I've searched for older map of the shrine on google images about those rooms in the middle.

Ah right. That might be it. I was expecting bigger text or something when they said “readability.”