D&D 5E D&D Studio Blog - Sage Advice - Creature Evolutions

There's a new D&D Studio Blog - Jeremy's posted about "Creature Evolutions": Creature Evolutions | Dungeons & Dragons

Some quick takeaways:

• Some creatures that were formerly humanoids will, going forward, be monstrosities, fey, or something else. ("Humanoid" is reserved for creatures with similar "moral and cultural range" to humans.)
• Alignment got put in a "time out".
• They've started using class tags so that DMs know that a particular NPC can attune to magic items limited to a particular class.
• Bonus actions get their own section in the stat block now.
• They've merged the Innate Spellcasting and Spellcasting traits and have gotten rid of spell slots.

Also some stuff we've already guessed based on the stat blocks and playable races in Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

There's also some Sage Advice on "rabbit hops" for harengon PCs.

 

[Bolares]

We're a bunch of Jon Snows

 

[Faolyn]

Is it only me who cares about the proficiency bonus being spelled out?

It's really useful for people who like to modify statblocks.

 

[Faolyn]

Why would they provide this?

They already did (PHB, under Languages).

 

[Scribe]

They already did (PHB, under Languages).

Yeah I had misunderstood what was being mentioned.

 

[Faolyn]

Yeah I had misunderstood what was being mentioned.

Ah. Still working through the thread so I haven't gotten to that one yet.

 

[dave2008]

Is it only me who cares about the proficiency bonus being spelled out?

No, but they have been doing that for a while. At least the last two books

 

[Charlaquin]

Do we know 4E outsold 3E? Honest question, because I don't remember ever seeing that stated as verified fact.

Unless Mearls was lying when he said it. And it checks out with the fact that it wasn’t outsold by Pathfinder until 5e had been announced.

The thing is, 4e was actually very popular with new players. Unfortunately, because of D&D’s “older cousin model” for introducing new players, there was a cap on how quickly it could grow without the older players. That’s also why many people attribute 5e’s runaway success to the growth of streaming games. Now Matt Mercer can be everyone’s “older cousin.”

 

[Oofta]

Unless Mearls was lying when he said it. And it checks out with the fact that it wasn’t outsold by Pathfinder until 5e had been announced.

The thing is, 4e was actually very popular with new players. Unfortunately, because of D&D’s “older cousin model” for introducing new players, there was a cap on how quickly it could grow without the older players. That’s also why many people attribute 5e’s runaway success to the growth of streaming games. Now Matt Mercer can be everyone’s “older cousin.”

I'm not saying anyone is lying or misrepresenting anything. Just curious because I don't know when or where it was stated.

But I agree that the biggest impact of streaming is that it shows what the game is really like to play.

 

[Faolyn]

I have absolutely no idea what you mean here. Some lore changes, some stays the same. That's how games work.

Oh, you know. Displacer beasts used to have been from a crashed spaceship up on the Barrier Peaks, which is clearly a superior origin then them being from the Feywild. Stuff like that.

 

[Hussar]

Well, a bit of googling turned up this:

D&D 4E Back to Press

Well Before Street Date

icv2.com

A WotC spokesperson has informed ICv2 that Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition has already gone back to press more than a week before its scheduled street date next Friday, June 6th. Sell-in of 4th Edition has “far exceeded expectations” and even though the initial print run for 4th Edition was 50% higher than the order for the previous D&D 3.5 Edition, WotC has now realized that it is necessary to go back to press to meet anticipated reorder demand.

Earlier this week reports indicated that Buy.com was breaking the street date and shipping copies of 4th Edition (and that 4th Edition elements were available as Bit Torrent downloads, see “D&D 4E Out Early”), clear evidence of the highly anticipated nature of D&D 4th Edition.

Sell-in for 4th Edition turned out to be considerably higher than for 3.5 and the number of pre-orders keeps rising. The D&D 4E Core Rulebook Gift Set made it up to #5 on Amazon.com’s rankings today (Amazon appears to be observing the June 6th street date).

Additionally, there is this:

D&D 3E/3.5 - 4E vs 3E Sales Figures: The Facts

Interesting numbers here: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12654.html Basically, it looks like the print run for 4e was half again as much as 3.5E and it's already sold out. Back to the printers you go! Not sure how it would compare to 3E's first print run, to be honest. Edit: The sales...

www.enworld.org

Also, Mearls in his journal notes as far as print runs:

3E < 3.5E < 4E

Regardless of what edition you like, these numbers seem to cast a very positive light on the size and growth of the hobby we share.