D&D 5E Fantasy Grounds Previews of Tasha's Cauldron

Ahead of the November 17th release date, the product page for Tasha's Cauldron of Everything has several previews on the Fantasy Grounds website. The previews include the origins customization section, group patrons, sidekicks, and a look at the alternate class features for the ranger Beast Master.

 

[Argyle King]

I'm away from books at the moment.

With the melee cantrips now targeting "self" ...

Are there still abilities to share "self" spells with animal companions?

 

[cbwjm]

Luckily, they didn't "change something that didn't need to change". With their current paradigm of not restricting by race, be it feats or subclasses, it did need to change.

Many games, be it ones like AL or at FLGS, will stay to the rules as written and do not have the option to "do what they want with it for their own campaigns". WotC wants these to be inclusive that any character can have access to the, so it isn't "fine as it was" since it would exclude those games. So they changed it. What you said is still as true as it was - those who can change their own campaigns can do what they want with it. Why was that acceptable to you one way but not the other?

Why is it acceptable to change it but not leave it as is? Everyone has their own opinions on this, i simply disagree with yours and WotC on the issue.

 

[ph0rk]

Why is it acceptable to change it but not leave it as is? Everyone has their own opinions on this, i simply disagree with yours and WotC on the issue.

This is the only way to allow for non-elf or half-elf bladesingers in AL games, though, right?

I don't think the elf restriction is that big a deal, but I'm also mostly over FR fluff these days.

On the other hand, the crunch change to bladesingers is, I think, a mistake.

 

[Aaron L]

I’m happy to use Bladesinger as an ancient Gnomish tradition in a world that doesn’t even have the Seldarine. Arcane Tricksters are a derivative form. Elves of this world tend more toward Eldritch Knights.

And that's an absolutely good and thing! For your world.

But retconning the lore of the Bladesinger as being something open to all races by default, rather than the special racial champions of the Elves, means that some players will come to the table expecting to be able to play, say, a Dwarven Bladesinger, and will feel resentful if the DM tells them that his Bladesingers are the original, special, semi-legendary Elf-only racial champions.

I have seen this sort of thing happen more than once with players wanting to play Dragonborn in my brother's campaign, which is in a world that has no Dragonborn as he despises the gaudiness of the race, and the players became resentful and sullen because they weren't allowed to play the race since it was included in the PHB, even though the DM explained that he does not like the race at all and that dragonpeople do not fit with the style and themes of his world. As I have said before, I despise the Dragonborn, but if they had been included in the DMG as an optional race which DMs could choose to include I would have been fine with it, but instead they chose to include them right in the PHB, making this new race suddenly as common as Gnomes (!!!) and all-but forcing DMs to shoe-horn them into their worlds.

The DM's note provided in the SCAG was fine, explaining that by default the role of Bladesingers was restricted to Elves only as the champions of the Elven people, but that DMs could alter that fact for their own campaigns if they so chose, and it should have been left at that.

This idea of removing any and all racial restrictions on important cultural roles is just a horrible idea, and only serves to take away flavor and render worlds more flat and lifeless (one could even go so far as to label it cultural appropriation of an extremely important and unique Elven cultural role, and I could easily envision the Elves going to war against the thieves of this sacred Elven tradition.) Bladesingers weren't just one more type of Wizard... they were the elite champions of the Elven people! But now they've been reduced to just another run-of-the-mill variant of Wizard that uses swords. Its rarity, specialness, and meaning has been totally stripped away. And that is nothing but a loss.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

And that's an absolutely good and thing! For your world.

But retconning the lore of the Bladesinger as being something open to all races by default, rather than the special racial champions of the Elves, means that some players will come to the table expecting to be able to play, say, a Dwarven Bladesinger, and will feel resentful if the DM tells them that his Bladesingers are the original, special, semi-legendary Elf-only racial champions.

I have seen this sort of thing happen more than once with players wanting to play Dragonborn in my brother's campaign, which is in a world that has no Dragonborn as he despises the gaudiness of the race, and the players became resentful and sullen because they weren't allowed to play the race since it was included in the PHB, even though the DM explained that he does not like the race at all and that dragonpeople do not fit with the style and themes of his world. As I have said before, I despise the Dragonborn, but if they had been included in the DMG as an optional race which DMs could choose to include I would have been fine with it, but instead they chose to include them right in the PHB, making this new race suddenly as common as Gnomes (!!!) and all-but forcing DMs to shoe-horn them into their worlds.

The DM's note provided in the SCAG was fine, explaining that by default the role of Bladesingers was restricted to Elves only as the champions of the Elven people, but that DMs could alter that fact for their own campaigns if they so chose, and it should have been left at that.

This idea of removing any and all racial restrictions on important cultural roles is just a horrible idea, and only serves to take away flavor and render worlds more flat and lifeless (one could even go so far as to label it cultural appropriation of an extremely important and unique Elven cultural role, and I could easily envision the Elves going to war against the thieves of this sacred Elven tradition.) Bladesingers weren't just one more type of Wizard... they were the elite champions of the Elven people! But now they've been reduced to just another run-of-the-mill variant of Wizard that uses swords. Its rarity, specialness, and meaning has been totally stripped away. And that is nothing but a loss.

Well put! When the uncommon becomes common, it’s....common.

that said, I have NO problem with folks making changes to their world. I LIKED what doctorbadwolf created! I just don’t want it to be the default.

and there IS a difference...

 

[ph0rk]

And that's an absolutely good and thing! For your world.

But retconning the lore of the Bladesinger as being something open to all races by default, rather than the special racial champions of the Elves, means that some players will come to the table expecting to be able to play, say, a Dwarven Bladesinger, and will feel resentful if the DM tells them that his Bladesingers are the original, special, semi-legendary Elf-only racial champions.

I have seen this sort of thing happen more than once with players wanting to play Dragonborn in my brother's campaign, which is in a world that has no Dragonborn as he despises the gaudiness of the race, and the players became resentful and sullen because they weren't allowed to play the race since it was included in the PHB, even though the DM explained that he does not like the race at all and that dragonpeople do not fit with the style and themes of his world. As I have said before, I despise the Dragonborn, but if they had been included in the DMG as an optional race which DMs could choose to include I would have been fine with it, but instead they chose to include them right in the PHB, making this new race suddenly as common as Gnomes (!!!) and all-but forcing DMs to shoe-horn them into their worlds.

The DM's note provided in the SCAG was fine, explaining that by default the role of Bladesingers was restricted to Elves only as the champions of the Elven people, but that DMs could alter that fact for their own campaigns if they so chose, and it should have been left at that.

This idea of removing any and all racial restrictions on important cultural roles is just a horrible idea, and only serves to take away flavor and render worlds more flat and lifeless (one could even go so far as to label it cultural appropriation of an extremely important and unique Elven cultural role, and I could easily envision the Elves going to war against the thieves of this sacred Elven tradition.) Bladesingers weren't just one more type of Wizard... they were the elite champions of the Elven people! But now they've been reduced to just another run-of-the-mill variant of Wizard that uses swords. Its rarity, specialness, and meaning has been totally stripped away. And that is nothing but a loss.

I have played Bladesingers on and off ever since the Complete Book of Elves splat book in the 90s. Non elf Bladesingers were always a challenge at new tables. Now they aren’t.

It isn’t possible for WotC to please both you and me, here.

There aren’t any other racially restricted classes/subclasses in 5e, so this one seemed off. Perhaps if there were others, that wouldn’t be the case.

Really, lore-wise if half-elves could be Bladesingers, it could only have been a short time until others learned it. Exiles and unwanted wanderers with a forbidden skill set sort of only ends one way.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

And that's an absolutely good and thing! For your world.

But retconning the lore of the Bladesinger as being something open to all races by default, rather than the special racial champions of the Elves, means that some players will come to the table expecting to be able to play, say, a Dwarven Bladesinger, and will feel resentful if the DM tells them that his Bladesingers are the original, special, semi-legendary Elf-only racial champions.

I have seen this sort of thing happen more than once with players wanting to play Dragonborn in my brother's campaign, which is in a world that has no Dragonborn as he despises the gaudiness of the race, and the players became resentful and sullen because they weren't allowed to play the race since it was included in the PHB, even though the DM explained that he does not like the race at all and that dragonpeople do not fit with the style and themes of his world. As I have said before, I despise the Dragonborn, but if they had been included in the DMG as an optional race which DMs could choose to include I would have been fine with it, but instead they chose to include them right in the PHB, making this new race suddenly as common as Gnomes (!!!) and all-but forcing DMs to shoe-horn them into their worlds.

The DM's note provided in the SCAG was fine, explaining that by default the role of Bladesingers was restricted to Elves only as the champions of the Elven people, but that DMs could alter that fact for their own campaigns if they so chose, and it should have been left at that.

This idea of removing any and all racial restrictions on important cultural roles is just a horrible idea, and only serves to take away flavor and render worlds more flat and lifeless (one could even go so far as to label it cultural appropriation of an extremely important and unique Elven cultural role, and I could easily envision the Elves going to war against the thieves of this sacred Elven tradition.) Bladesingers weren't just one more type of Wizard... they were the elite champions of the Elven people! But now they've been reduced to just another run-of-the-mill variant of Wizard that uses swords. Its rarity, specialness, and meaning has been totally stripped away. And that is nothing but a loss.

I'm sorry, but I just don't care that elves (a fictional construct) would be offended, and calling it cultural appropriation is just...extremely tone deaf.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It does; but it makes a sticky warcaster Eldritch Knight a thing of the past and makes their War Magic feature look even more clunky and awkward.

Eldritch Knights already sucked, so I'm not against making the bladesinger a bit better (and actually able to use the spells that were designed for them).

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

And I very, very, intensely despise the idea of non-Elves being able to become Bladesingers.

Why, exactly? If I want my setting to have Githyanki be the creators of the art of Bladesinging, is that wrong? It's totally fine if you want to restrict being a Bladesinger to Elves in your world, but that is up to the DM. IMO, there's no reason to put a racial restriction on any class or subclass in D&D in the rules, because that will vary world to world.

 

[Don Durito]

They should have called the subclass Swordmage.