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.

 

[Vaalingrade]

why? do 12 year olds not know that the word or place exists (I mean I bet in the internet age most if not all 12 year olds know more about sex then I did at 18) and was this problem new, did it not matter 3,5,7, 10 years ago? I mean they are going to make a NEW Dungeons Masters guide in a year or so, and no one will notice or care if they put other things in... but by calling out errata they call attention, why?

1) A lot of DMs for youth groups are adults. Adults who don't want to discuss sex with minors.

2) It's now rather than 10 years ago because clearly they weren't thinking about that 10 years ago and were also trying to win back Random Harlot Table enjoyers from Pathfinder at the time.

3) Seriously, why is D&D having brothels in canonically so personally important to you, dude?

 

[FormerLurker]

This is just nonsense.

You've decided this is the case. WotC haven't said anything of the sort. You, @FormerLurker, have personally decided that, because you don't like the changes, you're attributing them to malice against you, and that you are somehow "no longer allowed to play" and being told to piss off.

That's not real. That's in your head. You can't claim that as fact. You can't claim "5E was aimed at everyone and now it isn't", because your only evidence is "I don't personally like these changes", which just self-regard nonsense of the silliest kind.

When was the last time they did a compilation or update of old adventures?
How respectful of the past was Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft?
You can notice how they switched sharply from nostalgia and respect for the past to “continuity doesn’t matter, the only think canon is the current books.”

And you can bet the forthcoming 6e will have changes to lore rivalling 4th Edition.

They don’t care about anyone over 25. And you’re kidding yourself if you think they still give a **** about you and won’t burn you to get some college aged kid’s cash.

 

[Blue]

And WotC are only now realizing how successful 5E is with kids, particularly the 8-12 yo kids of people who are aged 30-40.

Just to support this, one of the recent big surveys gave me a rather long and comprehensive set of questions when I answered positively to playing with younger players. This seems something they have awareness and focus on.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Does anyone really do anything 'Italian' on Columbus day? In fact, the country that gets mentioned most on Columbus day is Spain!

I mean, we can totally have a day where drunk people enact offensive Italian stereotypes. No need for the guy who wanted to pork a manatee.

The parade, hosted by various Italian-American groups, followed by a picnic featuring Italian food and music and other traditions. It's more Italian around here (New Jersey, with significant IA populations) is probably more Italian than St Patrick's Day is Irish.

 

[Vaalingrade]

And would you have felt comfortable inviting those 40yo back to your place to continue the game?
Would you have felt comfortable going into their house?

In college, we had two dudes in their forties in our group that we met at the card shop and found out our gaming interests (high RP, snarky comedy games) aligned.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The parade, hosted by various Italian-American groups, followed by a picnic featuring Italian food and music and other traditions. It's more Italian around here (New Jersey, with significant IA populations) is probably more Italian than St Patrick's Day is Irish.

So change it to Italian American Heritage day and celebrate Italians who know how to follow a map.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Thank you for taking the time to explain, and I understand your position much better now. We have competing forces of well developed races from a thematic perspective that makes them special and of interest, and the market force for additional races combined with "kitchen sink" settings where everything can be played so players can do whatever they wish.

I don't know that there is a real answer, though my personal preferences definitely come down more on your side. One of the many things I really like about Eberron is how it gives a fresh take to even the most standard races. I think that's a strong, needed point for a setting - otherwise it's just generic. But I understand the wish to play with all the new toys - I've run out-of-setting races like Loxodon, Fairy, "Custom Lineage". ("Out-of-setting" I mean like playing a warforged in FR, vs. playing a warforged in Eberron where they are strongly tied to the lore of the setting.)

I don't know that there can be a solution for that - new races will come out, often in setting books, and they can't have the barrier to publish that they need to be back-fit into all previously published settings. Especially since with homebrew that still wouldn't cut it.

Best answer I can come up with is: if it's a setting book, be specific. If it's not a setting book, be generic: some rules and some tropes to get started. It seems to be WotC's approach as well, but it makes sense to me (for whatever that's worth.)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

When was the last time they did a compilation or update of old adventures?
How respectful of the past was Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft?
You can notice how they switched sharply from nostalgia and respect for the past to “continuity doesn’t matter, the only think canon is the current books.”

And you can bet the forthcoming 6e will have changes to lore rivalling 4th Edition.

They don’t care about anyone over 25. And you’re kidding yourself if you think they still give a **** about you and won’t burn you to get some college aged kid’s cash.

Dude. Read your own post.

If you think WotC ever wouldn't have burned a 40-something to get cash from a college kid, you're absolutely deluding yourself. TSR would have done it too! Planescape, Spelljammer and Dark Sun weren't aimed at 40-somethings, mate, they were aimed solidly at 14-24, hell Spelljammer arguably younger (given comic book tie-ins and so on).

You're claiming this is something new and malicious towards you (and presumably me, given I'm 43). That's nonsensical. WotC and TSR before them have always aimed for players in their teens and twenties because those are the most likely to keep playing and spending.

If you're only playing D&D because of "nostalgia and respect for the past", well, buddy that's an incredibly weak reason and you were essentially "looking to leave".

And let's be real, I'm assuming you're say, 40. If you want the maximum people to play with in, say, 10 years, you should be behind WotC on these changes, because annoying 20-somethings now will be much more chill 30-somethings then, and they're not going to have a problem with a 50yo if he's nice/polite/clean etc. I know, because I was 30-something once, and I interact with 30-somethings all the time.

I love how you say 4E-level lore changes as if some of D&D's best lore didn't come from 4E.

 

[jmartkdr2]

So change it to Italian American Heritage day and celebrate Italians who know how to follow a map.

I'm not in charge of it, but that's what I'd vote for.

But more people are clamoring to call it Indigenous People's Day, because Columbus is evil and they only know the name, not the traditions.

 

[Vaalingrade]

You can notice how they switched sharply from nostalgia and respect for the past to “continuity doesn’t matter, the only think canon is the current books.”

Probably because they've now been shown what 'respect for the past' apparently entails.

And you can bet the forthcoming 6e will have changes to lore rivalling 4th Edition.

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