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.

 

[Dausuul]

The thing about the brothel is that it's in a random table, which means that anyone using that table may find themselves running a brothel scene on the whim of the dice. I can see why Wizards decided to cut that. Lots of groups would rather not go there, and a general-use random table should have generally useful results.

Not as convinced about some of the other changes. The fire giant thing is just odd.

 

[FormerLurker]

Mod Note:

Everyone’s allowed an opinion. Not every game or even every edition is for every player. Personally, 3.5Ed is my favorite iteration of D&D. I enjoyed 4Ed as a player, but would NEVER run itl. 5Ed left me cold, and I’ve not spent a penny on it.

But there comes a point where you should move on and find new games to play- of find others who want to play the same stuff you do- instead of railing against the tide. And when you start ranting like that? Just dumping on other people’s fun?

Maybe you’ve reached that point.

I think the problem with this statement is the farther you are from the current edition, the harder it is to find people to play with.
Just finding people you mesh with to play 5e can be hard; 3.5e or 2e are even more challenging. And if you find some niche indie RPG or OSR game then you better have an existing group to play with.
Dune and Vaesen might have been the most anticipated RPGs of 2021 at ENWorld, but they're still 0.02% of Roll20 accounts. I quite liked the Alien RPG when I read it and would like to test it out, but there's a single group on Roll20 looking for players.

I quite like 5e, but am feeling disenfranchised with recent releases, and know I'm unlikely to pick-up 6e. The target audience will be half my age. I accept that not every book will be for me. (Nor would I want every book to be for me.) But when no books are for me anymore—including ones that would have been right up my alley just four or five years prior—it's hard not to feel slighted.
I've probably bought the last D&D book I'll ever buy. (I literally just received a cheque for Christmas from family this afternoon, and normally that'd go right to D&D books and RPG supplies but I honestly have no idea what to gift myself anymore.)
When/if my current group falls apart, my time rolling physical dice is over. I will have aged out of the hobby.

 

[niklinna]

A book of NPC allies and companion creatures would be amazing. Great idea.

The Shady Dragon Inn!

 

[Zardnaar]

I think the problem with this statement is the farther you are from the current edition, the harder it is to find people to play with.
Just finding people you mesh with to play 5e can be hard; 3.5e or 2e are even more challenging. And if you find some niche indie RPG or OSR game then you better have an existing group to play with.
Dune and Vaesen might have been the most anticipated RPGs of 2021 at ENWorld, but they're still 0.02% of Roll20 accounts. I quite liked the Alien RPG when I read it and would like to test it out, but there's a single group on Roll20 looking for players.

I quite like 5e, but am feeling disenfranchised with recent releases, and know I'm unlikely to pick-up 6e. The target audience will be half my age. I accept that not every book will be for me. (Nor would I want every book to be for me.) But when no books are for me anymore—including ones that would have been right up my alley just four or five years prior—it's hard not to feel slighted.
I've probably bought the last D&D book I'll ever buy. (I literally just received a cheque for Christmas from family this afternoon, and normally that'd go right to D&D books and RPG supplies but I honestly have no idea what to gift myself anymore.)
When/if my current group falls apart, my time rolling physical dice is over. I will have aged out of the hobby.

I'm having that problem. Have started thinking about quitting.

Not due to rules or anything the age thing. I've had players half my age and it's not getting any better.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Not as convinced about some of the other changes. The fire giant thing is just odd.

My thought there is that it's mostly about the idea of trading for captives with new slaves, which might be looked at as a solution for players to use in a scenario or something for a GM to integrate into a story.

 

[pukunui]

Like how people are railing against smart, non-evil orcs in the setting of Obold Man-Arrows?

I think WotC kind of shot themselves in the foot by writing Obould and his kingdom out of 5e in their efforts to reset the Realms. If they’d kept him and his kingdom in, they’d have the perfect example of how orcs can cooperate and build a civilization.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think WotC kind of shot themselves in the foot by writing Obould and his kingdom out of 5e in their efforts to reset the Realms. If they’d kept him and his kingdom in, they’d have the perfect example of how orcs can cooperate and build a civilization.

Think they've balls up the implementation over the years.

A WotSQ pt 2 with Elistraee winning for example, Lolth could even survive but be kicked back down to demon lord.

It's also funny trying to use RAS to try and fix problems RAS has caused.

 

[Scribe]

My thought there is that it's mostly about the idea of trading for captives with new slaves, which might be looked at as a solution for players to use in a scenario or something for a GM to integrate into a story.

So...so what? Nobody is going to say slave trading is acceptable, noble, good, but...if you are dealing with slavers, why would that NOT be an option?

Like really, looking at Volo's and the section in question.

They want payment.
They want payment not in treasure, but in ore, metal, or, different slaves, because Fire Giants, take and use slaves.

So.freaking.what? Dont like it? Go kill the Fire Giants, free the slaves, and take their loot!

Hell, there is a whole section RIGHT ABOVE THE PART REMOVED, detailing why they have slaves.

This kind of demonstrates what this all is about. Wizards is absolutely unwilling to have even the HINT of something disagreeable, by todays blinkered Western standards, even hinted at as something players would engage in.

I think WotC kind of shot themselves in the foot by writing Obould and his kingdom out of 5e in their efforts to reset the Realms. If they’d kept him and his kingdom in, they’d have the perfect example of how orcs can cooperate and build a civilization.

Its still there no? I swear its in one of the books.

 

[Justice and Rule]

So...so what? Nobody is going to say slave trading is acceptable, noble, good, but...if you are dealing with slavers, why would that NOT be an option?

Like really, looking at Volo's and the section in question.

They want payment.
They want payment not in treasure, but in ore, metal, or, different slaves, because Fire Giants, take and use slaves.

So.freaking.what? Dont like it? Go kill the Fire Giants, free the slaves, and take their loot!

Hell, there is a whole section RIGHT ABOVE THE PART REMOVED, detailing why they have slaves.

This kind of demonstrates what this all is about. Wizards is absolutely unwilling to have even the HINT of something disagreeable, by todays blinkered Western standards, even hinted at as something players would engage in.

There's a difference between having slavery exist in a world and dropping a hint to players that participating in the practice is a solution (and given the metals they mention, certainly the easiest one). If you want them to go off and kill the Fire Giants, then you don't need the passage anyways. But the problem would be that in mentioning it, it's basically saying "Well, you could just find humans to give them".

 

[Scribe]

There's a difference between having slavery exist in a world and dropping a hint to players that participating in the practice is a solution (and given the metals they mention, certainly the easiest one). If you want them to go off and kill the Fire Giants, then you don't need the passage anyways. But the problem would be that in mentioning it, it's basically saying "Well, you could just find humans to give them".

And? Is playing an Evil PC not an option?