D&D 5E 5E Books Through 2021 and the Road Ahead (2022 and Beyond)

[Neonchameleon]

2024 marks the 10th anniversary of 5e and the 50th anniversary of D&D, period. I literally can't think of a better time to make a soft revision of D&D 5e than with a 10th/50th anniversary version.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I think next year will be a settings heavy year, but 2023 might have a splat book in the vein of a manual of the planes, IF Planescape isn't one of the classic settings (if it is, the Planescape book will fill the Manual of the Planes role).

Right now there just doesn't seem to be a focused splat book gap screaming to be filled otherwise, so I think they will focus on setting books alot more for the next 2 years with a couple of adventures and a adventure anthology in there. I'm not sure what other kind of books they might do.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

2024 marks the 10th anniversary of 5e and the 50th anniversary of D&D, period. I literally can't think of a better time to make a soft revision of D&D 5e than with a 10th/50th anniversary version.

I could see a full blown 6e at that point, I know alot of folks are like, but 5e is so popular right now, but it won't be driven by a lack of sales, it'll be driven by the consquences of rules revisions accumulating and a belief by the D&D team that they can build something even better.

 

[Parmandur]

I think next year will be a settings heavy year, but 2023 might have a splat book in the vein of a manual of the planes, IF Planescape isn't one of the classic settings (if it is, the Planescape book will fill the Manual of the Planes role).

Right now there just doesn't seem to be a focused splat book gap screaming to be filled otherwise, so I think they will focus on setting books alot more for the next 2 years with a couple of adventures and a adventure anthology in there. I'm not sure what other kind of books they might do.

O mean, if theybdo go full nuclear on Settings, that covers monater and rules splats pretty thoroughly, bit in a modular thematic series of packages.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I think next year will be a settings heavy year, but 2023 might have a splat book in the vein of a manual of the planes, IF Planescape isn't one of the classic settings (if it is, the Planescape book will fill the Manual of the Planes role).

Right now there just doesn't seem to be a focused splat book gap screaming to be filled otherwise, so I think they will focus on setting books alot more for the next 2 years with a couple of adventures and a adventure anthology in there. I'm not sure what other kind of books they might do.

If they do Dark Sun, that means we'll have some sort of psionics rules codification, finally, that would be printed in that book. That would mean, like Eberron and the artificer, that they'll want to re-print the rules in a splat book. I'm sure they could come up with some further sub-classes (more psionic ones among them), add some things like an expanded magic item list (which they still have a good amount of room to grow, and they'll want to have some psionic items as well), and a chapter or two on further options, and they have a good splat book there. Granted, after that, splat book subjects will be getting stretched fairly thin.

 

[Neonchameleon]

If they do Dark Sun, that means we'll have some sort of psionics rules codification, finally, that would be printed in that book. That would mean, like Eberron and the artificer, that they'll want to re-print the rules in a splat book.

That's not what I see happening. Between the Aberrant Mind, the Soulknife, the Psychic Warrior, and a couple of the bard subcolleges we already have a collection of psychic subclasses and the Aberrant Mind is squarely (or possibly squamously) where I'd expect to see a psion class.

Also we already have a system to cover the ubiquitous psionics of the setting; Theros has Supernatural Gifts and Van Richtens has Dark Gifts; I am 99% sure that Dark Sun will give psionic gifts.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I want to see the spell lists of the Wildemount setting guide in core. The dunomancy spells involving space, time, and force are significant. Perhaps a future player splatbook like Xanathars and Tashas will republish them.

That's not happening anytime soon, IMO. In Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, they didn't even reprint all of the 3 spells from Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. They reprinted Blade of Disaster, but didn't reprint Create Magen or Frost Fingers, even though Frost Fingers is a nice spell that deserved a spot in the book just as much as any of the other ones and Create Magen is a fine spell that they could give to the Wizard (and possibly the Warlock/Sorcerer). They might reprint Frost Fingers in Fizban's along with the Spells from the Draconic UA (specifically akin to Icingdeath's Frost), but I wouldn't count on that, either.

The Dunamancy spells are largely weirder than Frost Fingers or even Create Magen. They haven't reprinted the spells from the Acq. Inc., Ravnica, and Wildemount books, and I'm guessing that this is because those books have their spells fairly closely tied with the products' identities.

I would love for this to happen, especially if they added more Dunamancy spells and more dunamancy subclasses (give me a Dunamancer Cleric or two! Luck/Karma-Shifter Rogues! Dunamis Sorcerers and Future-Self Warlocks! I want all of those!!!), but I don't think it's likely at all.

 

[Parmandur]

If they do Dark Sun, that means we'll have some sort of psionics rules codification, finally, that would be printed in that book. That would mean, like Eberron and the artificer, that they'll want to re-print the rules in a splat book. I'm sure they could come up with some further sub-classes (more psionic ones among them), add some things like an expanded magic item list (which they still have a good amount of room to grow, and they'll want to have some psionic items as well), and a chapter or two on further options, and they have a good splat book there. Granted, after that, splat book subjects will be getting stretched fairly thin.

I am skeptical that we will see much further from Psionics in any product: maybe Dark Sun could get Wild Talents that mirror Supernatural Gifts and Dark Gifts, and reprints of the Psychic Warrior and Soul Blade.

 

[Demetrios1453]

In a not-so-serious vein, I was thinking about what other psionic subclasses they could create besides the Psychic Warrior and the Soulknife, and had the sudden thought they could do a psionic warlock, but the pact would be with yourself, in the ultimate self-motivating, "I can do this" sort of way...

 

[Parmandur]

In a not-so-serious vein, I was thinking about what other psionic subclasses they could create besides the Psychic Warrior and the Soulknife, and had the sudden thought they could do a psionic warlock, but the pact would be with yourself, in the ultimate self-motivating, "I can do this" sort of way...

That's funny, but I would say that the GOO does cover "weird psychic" stuff for Warlocks. Dunno how much space there is for alternate Subclasses at this point.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

In a not-so-serious vein, I was thinking about what other psionic subclasses they could create besides the Psychic Warrior and the Soulknife, and had the sudden thought they could do a psionic warlock, but the pact would be with yourself, in the ultimate self-motivating, "I can do this" sort of way...

Nah, IMHO, you should combine the "pact with yourself" Warlock with a Time-Dunamancer Warlock , and you get the "Future Self" Warlock patron, where a future version of you turned the present version of you into a warlock of them in order to ensure that you survive your adventuring career, and thus be strong enough to . . . become a warlock patron of your past self.

They could even have subclass features called "Mobius Mage" or something like that!

 

[Parmandur]

Nah, IMHO, you should combine the "pact with yourself" Warlock with a Time-Dunamancer Warlock , and you get the "Future Self" Warlock patron, where a future version of you turned the present version of you into a warlock of them in order to ensure that you survive your adventuring career, and thus be strong enough to . . . become a warlock patron of your past self.

They could even have subclass features called "Mobius Mage" or something like that!

I mean, they sort of already did that in SCAG by implication, by supplying Fistandantilus as a Patron for the Undying.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I mean, they sort of already did that in SCAG by implication, by supplying Fistandantilus as a Patron for the Undying.

I don't see any Dunamancy spells on the Undying spell list (because they hadn't been written yet). Also, that subclass sucks mechanically so much that WotC pretty much invalidated most of its thematic niche with the Undead Patron warlock from Van Richten's, so I'm not really worried about stepping on its toes a bit more, especially for something like a Dunamancy Warlock.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't see any Dunamancy spells on the Undying spell list (because they hadn't been written yet). Also, that subclass sucks mechanically so much that WotC pretty much invalidated most of its thematic niche with the Undead Patron warlock from Van Richten's, so I'm not really worried about stepping on its toes a bit more, especially for something like a Dunamancy Warlock.

I mean more the "your patron is your future self" story idea.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I mean more the "your patron is your future self" story idea.

Gotcha. It is a bit similar, but IMO, it's more than distinct enough.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Nah, IMHO, you should combine the "pact with yourself" Warlock with a Time-Dunamancer Warlock , and you get the "Future Self" Warlock patron, where a future version of you turned the present version of you into a warlock of them in order to ensure that you survive your adventuring career, and thus be strong enough to . . . become a warlock patron of your past self.

They could even have subclass features called "Mobius Mage" or something like that!

But what if you find out that Future-you is irredeemably evil, so you set out on course to ensure that version of Future-you never happens, which means that particular Future-you never exists to grant you the power in the first place? Ah, the fun dilemmas of time-travel...

But circling back to the original subject, I wish the Aberrant Mind didn't take up the "psionic sorcerer" spot, since, given that they haven't figured out another way to do it, it would probably be easiest to make the pure psion/mystic a sorcerer subclass. The whole "your powers were awakened by a Far Realm being" really doesn't fit the classic psion origin of self-meditation and self-awakening. Maybe they'll still find room for it though...

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

What about Gamma World as a D&D setting, not as a separate game?

 

[Yaarel]

That's not happening anytime soon, IMO. In Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, they didn't even reprint all of the 3 spells from Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. They reprinted Blade of Disaster, but didn't reprint Create Magen or Frost Fingers, even though Frost Fingers is a nice spell that deserved a spot in the book just as much as any of the other ones and Create Magen is a fine spell that they could give to the Wizard (and possibly the Warlock/Sorcerer). They might reprint Frost Fingers in Fizban's along with the Spells from the Draconic UA (specifically akin to Icingdeath's Frost), but I wouldn't count on that, either.

The Dunamancy spells are largely weirder than Frost Fingers or even Create Magen. They haven't reprinted the spells from the Acq. Inc., Ravnica, and Wildemount books, and I'm guessing that this is because those books have their spells fairly closely tied with the products' identities.

I would love for this to happen, especially if they added more Dunamancy spells and more dunamancy subclasses (give me a Dunamancer Cleric or two! Luck/Karma-Shifter Rogues! Dunamis Sorcerers and Future-Self Warlocks! I want all of those!!!), but I don't think it's likely at all.

The Acq Inc spells tend to be humorous and whimsical (and make power gamers cry).

But the dunomancy spells of Wildemount are quite balanced and useful.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

What about Gamma World as a D&D setting, not as a separate game?

I am open-minded about that idea. It is possible, but the high-tech firearms would force to recalculate the challenging rating of the encounters. With the right weapon an enemy, a giant beast or a combat vehicle, could be killed or destroyed with only one shot. Even a civilian vehicle could be used to run over a horde of zombies. I guess the easiest option could be a videogame using a variant version of the d20 system. I feel a lot of curiosity of a G.I.Joe+Cobra-la mash-up version set in Gamma World. Why not to ask IDW to publish a comic about that?

Why Gamma World? If you want it can be child-friendly with mutant antropomorphic animals, or grimmer/mature style like Heavy Metal cartoon movie.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Nah, IMHO, you should combine the "pact with yourself" Warlock with a Time-Dunamancer Warlock , and you get the "Future Self" Warlock patron, where a future version of you turned the present version of you into a warlock of them in order to ensure that you survive your adventuring career, and thus be strong enough to . . . become a warlock patron of your past self.

They could even have subclass features called "Mobius Mage" or something like that!

Mage Hand Press has a "Future You" warlock patron that's pretty cool.