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.

 

[Faolyn]

Oh, they're originally from that adventure? That's cool, I didn't know that. I personally prefer them with the Feywild origin, especially with 5e's lore of them being used as domesticated hunting animals by the Unseelie Court to kill Pegasi, Blink Dogs, and similar fey creatures.

I could go with either, depending on the type of game in question, or just have them as a type of weird magical animal. I do like the Feywild origin a lot, however. Although, I just realized something. I've been rereading the ElfQuest comics recently, and in the "Shards" storyline, the evil elf Winnowill mutates regular dogs into "peace hounds"--which have tentacles on their shoulders--for the express purpose of detecting and killing the good elf protagonists. I wonder how much, if any, of the new displacer beast origin stems from that. (2e's Complete Book of Elves gives them 2-year pregnancies, which is another thing that originated in ElfQuest.)

 

[Rabulias]

Oh, they're originally from that adventure? That's cool, I didn't know that. I personally prefer them with the Feywild origin, especially with 5e's lore of them being used as domesticated hunting animals by the Unseelie Court to kill Pegasi, Blink Dogs, and similar fey creatures.

Displacer beasts were not introduced in the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks adventure, but they were present, and it became a popular fan theory as to their origin.

 

[Weiley31]

I'm looking forward to 3'5" goliaths myself. Should end the "how can a halfling have the same strength score as a Goliath?" arguments.

Giff Barbarian has them both beat!

 

[Faolyn]

Displacer beasts were not introduced in the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks adventure, but they were present, and it became a popular fan theory as to their origin.

I stand corrected.

 

[Weiley31]

Well after reading the new UA today, I am looking forward towards more race reworks.

 

[Hussar]

I am sure there is an aspect of that, but it also seems to me that they are taking an honest pass at cleaning things up. Now, will everyone agree that the things they change needed to be changed or that they changed it correctly? No, they will not. But with just the items they have already discussed in the monster stat blocks all seem like helpful improvements to me.

Yeah, let's be honest here, 10 years is not unreasonable to expect an update for a rule set as complicated as D&D. Heck, we get more frequent updates in video games and they're at least as complicated as D&D (says someone who is STILL trying to wrap his head around Stellaris). It would be pretty sad to think that the rules are just going to be set in stone, and keep grinding gears all the way along.

I think I can be perfectly happy with a new "update" every ten years. I certainly wouldn't complain about it. And, since they're going to put all the major changes through a couple of UA cycles (both to get the playtesting experience AND to market), it's not like the revised 5e will be a huge surprise to anyone.