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.

 

[CleverNickName]

I think some folks in this thread are confused (or pretending to be confused) about the difference between
"try to be careful and understanding of others when dealing with sensitive topics"
and
"ignore those sensitive topics and pretend they never happen(ed)."

 

[John R Davis]

All seems to be the case, as much in life at the mo, the noisy 100's are altering stuff for the silent 100,000s who are quite happy with the status quo.

Maybe I am now the wrong target audience for 5e ( I bought everything up to Candlekeep but have bought nothing since).

 

[Malmuria]

The issue is, it isn't at the expense of continued popularity or growth.

False premise.

Well that's for wotc to decide. But the question remains (and I think I've asked you this in other similar threads), why not just play your preferred edition, with all the adventures and supplements you want available on dtrpg? Or play another osr game and make use of all the creative products being produced right now? fwiw, this is what I do when I want to run a dnd-like game, not necessarily because I have a specific problem with 5e I just find these other games easier to run and more fun.

 

[Ixal]

There's some really profound point-missing here.

Slavery isn't being removed because it's wrong and might confuse people into thinking it's right.

It's being removed from the default descriptions because D&D is realizing a significant percentage of potential players might have ancestors, some not even that ancient, who were slaves, and that depicting slavery frequently or without considering the impact, as part of a "fun game for kids" might not be like, totally awesome for those people.

How many generations and centuries does something needs to be in the past before in can be referenced safely? I doubt that many potential players even know if and how their ancestors were enslaved and just assume they were.

I certainly have no idea what all my ancestors were doing 200-300 years ago.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

All seems to be the case, as much in life at the mo, the noisy 100's are altering stuff for the silent 100,000s who are quite happy with the status quo.

This presumes you're smarter than WotC's management, I should note.

I question whether that is the case.

 

[J.Quondam]

All seems to be the case, as much in life at the mo, the noisy 100's are altering stuff for the silent 100,000s who are quite happy with the status quo.

To be sure, it's very likely that those silent 100,000s will likely continue to be happy with the status quo after it changes. They just play whatever is put in front of them. They simply don't have much vested interest in "the way it used to be" or "the way it ought to be" to care.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

How many generations and centuries does something needs to be in the past before in can be referenced safely? I doubt that many potential players even know if and how their ancestors were enslaved and just assume they were.

I mean, if they're American, and Black (or part-Black), and their ancestors didn't arrive in the last 150 years, yeah, they pretty much know for sure their ancestors were slaves. Same for people from a number of colonial New World locations, actually.

It's pretty wild that this didn't occur to you.

 

[FormerLurker]

Bro, stuff happens.

I mean, I know you don't like "get over it", but you think you're special?

You think you're unique?

You think it's personal?

Nah.

Nice to know my feelings don't matter.
Taking a screenshot of this to remind me and give me that final bit of encouragement the next time I'm in an emotional valley.

 

[Remathilis]

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.

So Kate Moss?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Nice to know my feelings don't matter.
Taking a screenshot of this to remind me and give me that final bit of encouragement the next time I'm in an emotional valley.

This is pure hypocrisy on your part.

Everyone's feelings matter about the same amount. My point is, this happens to literally everyone who is the fan of a long-running IP sooner or later. But you're acting like it was personal and malicious. It isn't. It's business.

Let me ask again:

What did you require, specifically, for D&D to count as "respecting" you?