D&D 5E 2020 Release Speculation Thread

[Parmandur]

Yeah, maybe. But getting three setting books in a year seems ambitious, even with WotC new interest in the format. And I really think Planescape covers way too much setting material to be able to smoosh alongside all this other stuff, unless your breezing through the planes in a similar way to the DMG already doing.

Very true. A few points of comparison present themselves:

- 73 pages for all UA this past year except the two published in Theros, as opposed to 84 pages for Eberron PC options (in comparison, XGtE has 69 pages). There is the open question of how much space the new People/Folk approach will take, but then much of the UA content won't be published in the end in all likelihood, so the numbers are interesting.

- The Eberron Gazeeter has 47 pages for the general world, 31 pages for just Sharn, and a whopping 90 pages of Adventure building material. If they at any time put a book with that amount for the Outer Planes and Sigil, it would be many times over what is in the DMG (like 20 pages all told, and maybe half a page on Sigil).

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I'll just pile on and say my expectation is a planar book with a ton of player options.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Planescape is definitely a "real Setting," even if it ties into every other Setting, well ..so does every other Setting. The character they initially were going to put on the Eberron book's cover actually lives in Sigil, per the text of the Eberron book!

It ties into every other setting, but every other setting isn't the thing that ties them together. Spelljammer and Planescape are the ones that tie everything together, so they're not "true settings", because they are bigger to the extent that everyone knows them. (By everyone, I mean everyone who knows anything about cosmology in the worlds with these planes)

The number of Subclass options on hand, realistically, is probably going to be closer to SCAG.

Unless they add the subclasses from other books. You also need to add in the Artificer.

They don't market books to players. Every one of their books has a pretty explicit DM appeal, with anything with player material having more DM material, except the PHB.

I've seen a lot of players buy XGtE. They don't market adventure books, setting books, and the DMG and MM to players. They do market player option books to them.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

- 73 pages for all UA this past year except the two published in Theros, as opposed to 84 pages for Eberron PC options (in comparison, XGtE has 69 pages). There is the open question of how much space the new People/Folk approach will take, but then much of the UA content won't be published in the end in all likelihood, so the numbers are interesting.

Eberron had races. This book will probably have races, but definitely not as many. I think a lot of the subclasses will be published, as they seemed to have gotten good reviews and feedback.

 

[Parmandur]

Eberron had races. This book will probably have races, but definitely not as many. I think a lot of the subclasses will be published, as they seemed to have gotten good reviews and feedback.

Yeah, Eberron had 20 new Race options (compared to the PHB), a hefty section explaining the specifics of all the existing Races in-setting, a new Class and the new Group Patron mechanic. If this is a new Setting book, one might expect it to be more concise, though I do think their new Race paradigm, whatever that ends up looking like, will be substantial, at least more than the 13 pages of Variant Class options that received the highest popularity mark ever.

I see no reason to expect that an unusually large percentage of this batch of Subclasses will see print: if anything, these options are less likely to have passed muster than the older batches that were tested, being in general more "out there." UA Subclasses are very much a "throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks" exercise, and the majority can like the option and still not reach publishable standards of approval.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Eberron had races. This book will probably have races, but definitely not as many. I think a lot of the subclasses will be published, as they seemed to have gotten good reviews and feedback.

It will have the "alternative ability score increases" rules, but it remains to be seen if this will be a general rule for all or a race-by-race variant. Other than that I expect to seen reprints of races that have not yet appeared in print book, such as genasi (perhaps with tweeks), and perhaps "multiverse wide" races from setting books like the Satyr. I doubt there will be anything completely new though.

On past performance, around 40% of the UA classes will make it in, but at least one for each class (including artificer). I also expect to see a significant proportion of reprints, from SCAG to MOoT.

Lots of "alternative class options" including the primal beast for beastmaster rangers.

Lots of new spells.

 

[Parmandur]

Other than that I expect to seen reprints of races that have not yet appeared in print book, such as genasi

Decent speculation overall, but just as a note, the Genasi have been printed in the past few months, in Wildemount, along with the Aarocka and Tortle. Doesn't mean they won't be in any other book this year, but they have been printed in a campaign sourcebook already.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Decent speculation overall, but just as a note, the Genasi have been printed in the past few months, in Wildemount, along with the Aarocka and Tortle. Doesn't mean they won't be in any other book this year, but they have been printed in a campaign sourcebook already.

Yeah. I'm sad they didn't revise them.

A planescape book will probably contain Genasi, Tiefling variants, Aasimar, and some more planar races.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah. I'm sad they didn't revise them.

A planescape book will probably contain Genasi, Tiefling variants, Aasimar, and some more planar races.

A Planescape book would need to reprint Genasi, Aasamir, and the Gith (maybe some Tiefling variants). They would need to add Bauriars and Rogue Modrons (maybe some sort of "Planetouched" as the designers have hinted at over the years to fit the 2E-style Tiefling role).

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Yeah. I was thinking about the "Planetouched" option that they could do, and I think it's going to end up as a supernatural gift similar to the ones in MOoT. The other option is a subrace similar to the Dragonmarks, that lets you be any race and take that subrace to give you planar powers.