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.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Can I introduce you to Dhampiir's?

With Tashas "make any species you want" Lineage rules, I expect a gambit of edgy species etc. Heck, current 5E game im in, Ive used it to make a "Living Skeleton" character.

 

[HammerMan]

Because as much as we try to deny it, this is a children's game

down a bit lower we can see less then 12% is under 20 years old.. so no it isn't

 

[Cadence]

I can't imagine anyone would even notice (let alone call out) it not being in the new book,

If it doesn't matter if it's taken out between 5.0 and 5.5, why does it matter if it's taken out in an errata?

Also the parents can tell them what ever they feel comfortable with... but sex work is work

Lot's of things are part of real life that aren't part of the random tables?

 

[Cadence]

down a bit lower we can see less then 12% is under 20 years old.. so no it isn't

Being G or PG doesn't make something just for kids, but it does expand the default market reach.

 

[HammerMan]

If it doesn't matter if it's taken out between 5.0 and 5.5, why does it matter if it's taken out in an errata?

because they are going out of there way. this sin't "next time we wont have them" this is "This is so bad we have to go back and errata it"
They wont errata the beast master ranger for god's sake...
What is so bad about a word that appears in 1 random table once... a place that is a safer place for sex workers to work... oh becuse they don't think sex workers are workers maybe?

Lot's of things are part of real life that aren't part of the random tables?

yeah but a lot of things are being called out as needing to be errated 10ish years after a printing.

 

[HammerMan]

Being G or PG doesn't make something just for kids, but it does expand the default market reach.

no, and TV shows (that can't have nudity, and are on during prime time) can have strip clubs in them and hookers... and still stay in the PG range. Aladin has a scene where he jumps into a Harim... it is Aladdin/MPAA rating G
I haven't seen the live action remake but it is PG (I don't know if they keep the joke).

I don't know where the "Oh my god think of the children" argument goes... some % of the 12% under 20 may be preteen or younger, and they may ask a question that could also come up watching a cop drama that airs at 8pm on some nights on a main channel... and is no where near as graphic as accidental (or on purpose) google searches will show.

So again why go back 7-10 years to remove it? because of the stigma of sex work that need MORE normalization not less.

 

[Vaalingrade]

down a bit lower we can see less then 12% is under 20 years old.. so no it isn't

I've read this thread. We are children.

 

[Vaalingrade]

again America is named for an Italian

Her show was pretty good, I'll give her that.

 

[Ixal]

I don't get the modern Zeitgeist.
You have games which are in their core war games with 90% of the rules are about how to kill things and during a campaign the PCs often achieve kill counts in the dozens, if not hundreds of often sapient creatures. Yet that is totally fine but people are concerned about the word Madness, Brothel or Slavery (Paizo just promised to never ever mention slavery again after a anonymous freelancer complained that it was too prominent in Golarion) because apparently even just using those words causes some sort of harm.
Which for me is just silly, but I guess I am too old and thus not sensitive enough for that.

Downside of course is that everything becomes even more generic and kitchen sink with literally all edges filed off. And its quite funny how on one side when people blatantly copy a historic culture they can't repeat enough that they are respectful about it, but then remove anything bad said culture did in history because staying true to history is apparently not included to being respectful...

So while removal of alignment is in theory a good thing, I doubt it will lead to more grey (and imo interesting) morality.

 

[Cadence]

no, and TV shows (that can't have nudity, and are on during prime time) can have strip clubs in them and hookers... and still stay in the PG range. Aladin has a scene where he jumps into a Harim... it is Aladdin/MPAA rating G
I haven't seen the live action remake but it is PG (I don't know if they keep the joke).

Being on during prime time doesn't mean that the producers of the show are trying to market the show to all audiences. I'm guessing there are still a few parents who check out what their kids are watching. (And some of the shows reference things by innuendo and not directly0. I'm guessing WotC has a certain target audience in mind for the default.

I don't know where the "Oh my god think of the children" argument goes... some % of the 12% under 20 may be preteen or younger, and they may ask a question that could also come up watching a cop drama that airs at 8pm on some nights on a main channel... and is no where near as graphic as accidental (or on purpose) google searches will show.

I wish the apps that can cut down on the chance of those things showing up in searches worked better :-/