D&D 5E Player's Handbook Official Errata

There's a new printing of the 5E Player's Handbook a'coming. It "corrects some typos while clarifying a few rules." But for those of us who already have a 5E Player's Handbook, there's a one-page PDF of official errata now available. It contains 51 items, covering classes, equipment, feats, spells, and more.

Download it right here! The errata has already been incorporated into the free Basic Rules.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Amen. People forget that this isn't a spammable thing. Sorcerers give up getting their "extra" spell slots to use metamagic. Sorcerers don't get sorcery points back on a short rest, only long. Wizards and Warlocks get to reclaim spell slots on a short rest. Using metamagic vs creating extra spell slots is a trade-off. Now it is very unbalanced. The usefulness of sorcery points took a huge hit, especially at early levels. The key thing is that people forget that we can really only do this stuff reliably once or twice per long rest. LONG REST. Not short rest like wizards/warlocks and just about every other class's abilities. Wizards get ritual casting so they don't burn spell slots outside of combat, get spell recovery on a short rest, and each of the tradition schools gives them some pretty good abilities at 2nd and 6th level. Look @ Fighters' extra attack at level 5, or Rogue's sneak attack at that same level - 3d6 extra damage PER TURN. Sorcs were supposed to be flexible casters who could occasionally open up and save their party from a sticky situation. Now, they're Wizard wannabes.

Anyway, my AL games will follow the new errata as written per league rules, and my homebrew games will not.

What I don't get is why people are making a big deal over this. Twinned Spell isn't useful offensively against strong solo monsters anyway, so either you are used to fighting e.g. two ancient dragons at a time (admittedly that does sound like fun) or you were relying on Quickened Spell anyway (e.g. Heightened Hold Monster with Bend Luck + Quickened Fire Bolt) or you are fighting large mobs instead of tough creatures (e.g. two dozen Wights) in which case you weren't going to use Twinned Scorching Ray anyway, you were going to use Fireball! Besides, Twinning a high-level spell like Scorching Ray V is more expensive than Quicken anyway (5 sorcery points vs 2).

I just don't see why folks don't just adjust their thinking and say, "Okay, the Twinned Spell trick doesn't work any more, but it was inferior to Quickened Spell anyway except as a way to turbocharge the concentration economy, and it still works for that."

 

[cmad1977]

Welcome to another episode of nerd rage. Embarrassing.

 

[Eric V]

It isn't inferior to quickened spell, just different. Sometimes there are 2+ "lieutenant" type enemies who aren't conveniently in fireball formation (or your friends are in the way). Twinning SR was very helpful against the giant spiders in LMoP, for example.

There's a ton of variety in D&D encounters, more than you are apparently giving credit for, and Twinning things like SR were helpful in many of them.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

It isn't inferior to quickened spell, just different. Sometimes there are 2+ "lieutenant" type enemies who aren't conveniently in fireball formation (or your friends are in the way). Twinning SR was very helpful against the giant spiders in LMoP, for example.

There's a ton of variety in D&D encounters, more than you are apparently giving credit for, and Twinning things like SR were helpful in many of them.

I have a ton of variety in my own game (in the last three sessions we've had: a fight against a lone roper in a cave; a fight with a double-strength roc; another fight against two ropers at the same time; a fight with five phase spiders in the forest; a space battle against 26 umber hulks and 16 neogi, with catapults and ballistas in both sides; a followup fight against the remaining 16 umber hulks (at half health) and 15 neogi after they regrouped; and the very beginning of a fight between the PC barbarian, solo, and four guards plus a Rakshasa that he doesn't know is a Rakshasa[1]) but I don't have a good handle on the amount of variation other people expect in their own games. Thanks for explaining your thinking. If that's the scenario you're interested in (avoiding friendly fire casualties) you might consider investing in Hypnotic Pattern + Careful Spell metamagic, now that Twinned Spell is no longer available. It would cover your situation nicely.

[1] Outside of combat, they also: found a site for their proposed space colony of New Desdemoria; discovered a new fuel source for their ship (ropers); uncovered an interdimensional portal; negotiated (with much trepidation) a treaty with the Elven Imperial Navy to lift the Interdict preventing spacefarers from landing on their planet, as an alternative to losing their spelljamming ship; started some spell research; and started to investigate the recent disappearance of King Andruin. So it's not really a game about combat, but combat does happen.

 

[CapnZapp]

Not to add to your woes or anything, but it's also FAR more likely for you to run into fire-resistant creatures at that level than it is for your barbarian friend to run into magic weapon-resistant creatures.

Not to pile on, but a level 20 barbarian without a magic weapon?

Yes, I would say it's FAR more likely for the monsters to resist your Firebolts than the barbarian's axe.

 

[Hriston]

Would anyone like to explain what adding the word "clearly" does for the hiding rules? Does this mean you don't need to be heavily obscured? If so, what good is Mask of the Wild? At any rate, I feel I'm missing the point of this bit of the errata.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Would anyone like to explain what adding the word "clearly" does for the hiding rules? Does this mean you don't need to be heavily obscured? If so, what good is Mask of the Wild? At any rate, I feel I'm missing the point of this bit of the errata.

It means that you don't necessarily need to be heavily obscured. Without that clarification, there are people who would interpret Mask of the Wild as being useless because "you can't hide from someone who can see you."

 

[Hriston]

It means that you don't necessarily need to be heavily obscured. Without that clarification, there are people who would interpret Mask of the Wild as being useless because "you can't hide from someone who can see you."

So, it's for people who don't understand "specific trumps general"? I guess that jibes with letting us know that the DM is in charge.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

So, it's for people who don't understand "specific trumps general"? I guess that jibes with letting us know that the DM is in charge.

I think so, yes. That's why it's just an erratum.

 

[Celtavian]

What I don't get is why people are making a big deal over this. Twinned Spell isn't useful offensively against strong solo monsters anyway, so either you are used to fighting e.g. two ancient dragons at a time (admittedly that does sound like fun) or you were relying on Quickened Spell anyway (e.g. Heightened Hold Monster with Bend Luck + Quickened Fire Bolt) or you are fighting large mobs instead of tough creatures (e.g. two dozen Wights) in which case you weren't going to use Twinned Scorching Ray anyway, you were going to use Fireball! Besides, Twinning a high-level spell like Scorching Ray V is more expensive than Quicken anyway (5 sorcery points vs 2).

I just don't see why folks don't just adjust their thinking and say, "Okay, the Twinned Spell trick doesn't work any more, but it was inferior to Quickened Spell anyway except as a way to turbocharge the concentration economy, and it still works for that."

I want to try an Heighten Spell enchantment or polymorph type. That looks fun.