Planescape 5 New D&D Books Coming in 2023 -- Including Planescape!

At today's Wizards Presents event, hosts Jimmy Wong, Ginny Di, and Sydnee Goodman announced the 2023 line-up of D&D books, which featured something old, something new, and an expansion of a fan favorite.

The first of the five books, Keys from the Golden Vault, will arrive in winter 2023. At Tuesday's press preview, Chris Perkins, Game Design Architect for D&D, described it as “Ocean’s Eleven meets D&D” and an anthology of short adventures revolving around heists, which can be dropped into existing campaigns.

In Spring 2023, giants get a sourcebook just like their traditional rivals, the dragons, did in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants will be a deep dive into hill, frost, fire, cloud, and storm giants, plus much more.

Summer 2023 will have two releases. The Book of Many Things is a collection of creatures, locations, and other player-facing goodies related to that most famous D&D magic item, the Deck of Many Things. Then “Phandelver Campaign” will expand the popular Lost Mine of Phandelver from the D&D Starter Set into a full campaign tinged with cosmic horror.

And then last, but certainly not least, in Fall 2023, WotC revives another classic D&D setting – Planescape. Just like Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, Planescape will be presented as a three-book set containing a setting guide, bestiary, and adventure campaign in a slipcase. Despite the Spelljammer comparison they did not confirm whether it would also contain a DM screen.

More information on these five titles will be released when we get closer to them in date.

 

[Demetrios1453]

It was less of a factor in 2e also because 2e raised the level limits.

A 1e dwarf was capped at 9th level, and that's if they had a 18 strength. In 2e, it was 15th level, with the optional rule to gain up to +3 additional levels for a high prime requisite (18th for our 18 strength dwarf).

Just a quick comparison, assuming 18 prime requisite. 1e vs 2e.

Dwarf fighter 9 vs 15
Elf fighter 7 vs 12
Halfling fighter 6 vs 9

Elf wizard 11 vs 15
Gnome wizard 7 vs 15

Dwarf cleric 8* vs 10
Half-Elf cleric 5 vs 14

Half-elf ranger 8 vs 16

Now there are some downgrades, to be fair...

Halfling thief Unlimited vs 15
Half-elf druid unlimited vs 9

And with the optional rule, you can add up to +3 more to the 2e side. For most races, level limits were a formality I'm 2e.

* Dwarf cleric, or any cleric but a human or half-human was not allowed in 1e officially until Unearthed Arcana.

And most players gravitated towards those classes with higher limits from a combination of the mechanical advantage and the race/class ideals of the time (and, to a point even today). It would be rare to even hit those limits in the 17 - 19 range, especially with multiclass characters. And, annoying as not being able to hit level 20 like humans could, hitting levels 17 - 19, wasn't a huge difference, as hit points and THAC0s weren't that much different at that point, and any of those characters would have reached hit their max attacks per round or level 9 spells.

 

[Faolyn]

Fair enough. Doesn't bother me.

You do realize that other people are bothered by it, right?

 

[Micah Sweet]

You do realize that other people are bothered by it, right?

Absolutely. And they are as entitled to their feelings as I am to mine. If this was a problem in a game I was running, I would probably compromise to some degree. But for myself, it doesn't bother me.

 

[Faolyn]

Maybe you provide XP rewards for something other than questing.

Too bad none of the books every really supported that in any robust manner beyond nebulous RP awards to make that sort of a game viable...

 

[Micah Sweet]

Too bad none of the books every really supported that in any robust manner beyond nebulous RP awards to make that sort of a game viable...

Yeah. It is too bad.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The DMG has never really been about learning how to run the game.

It should be. It's the "Dungeon Master's Guide". If it fails at guiding DMs at doing their job, the book has failed. That's probably a major reason why people have complained about the DMGs of so many editions. And it's another bad design choice Gygax made.

 

[dave2008]

Absolutely. And they are as entitled to their feelings as I am to mine. If this was a problem in a game I was running, I would probably compromise to some degree. But for myself, it doesn't bother me.

I don't really want to jump into this conversation, but you made me curious. Would it bother you if the situation was reversed? What if humans were limited to 9th level and demi-humans had no limit? Not trying to pick on you just curious why it doesn't bother you that races had arbitrary level limits. I know your really and lore and this restriction doesn't really lean into the lore IMO,

This actually give me an idea: what if max level was based on lifespan or something? So the max level by race was the race's average lifespan divided by 10 or something. That seems to make some fantasy logic actually.

 

[Reynard]

If most people don't play that way, the game should not be about that. The pagecount of the core books should be devoted to helping the majority of players. A later supplement or 3rd party product (like Strongholds and Followers/Kingdoms and Warfare) can be dedicated to nation/faction building.

That's something of a circular argument, isn't it? If you relegate support for certain playstyles to supplements or 3rd party products, of course fewer people will engage in those playstyles -- since even if they want to, there's no support!

I am curious what "majority playstyle" you think is not being properly supported in the core books.

 

[glass]

Please stop insisting your opinion is fact. Truth isn't based on how many or how few others share your belief. Just say that's what you think.

Normally I would be right with you, being all in on de gustibus as I am. But in this case I cannot really get behind "a mechanic should do what it is designed to do" as being a matter of opinion.

 

[Velderan]

Sorry, they were a real rule in 2e.

Yep, so definitely in the "this is dumb" rule category. lol