D&D 5E Here's Tasha's Contents Page

IGN has posted the contents page from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, along with a slew of art.

They also spoke to WotC, who commented on some of the DM tools -- "The DM Tools chapter also includes rules and suggestions for what are being called "Supernatural Regions." These otherworldly locations include (among others) haunted realms where restless spirits wander freely, the Lovecraftian nightmare of a world beyond the known sphere of existence, or a delightfully horrifying colony of mimics." The Far Realm, which is outside the Great Wheel, is where beholders and illithids come from. They also note that there weren't many Unearthed Arcana subclasses which didn't make it into this book.

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything comes out on November 17th in America, and December 1st in Europe, Asia, and Pacific countries.

 

[Weiley31]

It really is something different - half-psion, half-icky tentacular stuff. Arms of Hadar, Hunger of Hadar, Black Tentacles etc on the spell list, and the 14th level ability is basically 'you grow eyestalks or are covered in slimy mucus'.

That's all stuff that's completely alien (pun intended) to, for example, what psionics are in Dark Sun.

My gut feeling is that WotC gave up on having a psion class/subclass that was ready and UA-verified in time for Tasha's, and so gave up and cut it completely. I reckon that if we see a Dark Sun 5e book, the 5e psion (whatever it looks like) will show up there.

Apparently, according to WoTC, they dial backed the Lovecraftian aspects of the original UA version.

 

[Zarithar]

Worth it in my opinion for the subclasses alone. Glad I pre-ordered. This is looking to be the best book since Mordenkainen's.

 

[Vael]

Apparently, according to WoTC, they dial backed the Lovecraftian aspects of the original UA version.

IIRC, they've been quoted as saying that the first Aberrant Mind was too icky, Psionic Soul was too normal. So I'd guess this one will be somewhere between those too.

 

[Jacqual]

One of the biggest complaints they received was the lack of bonus spells that the class had and then lost in its revision. As well as the free mage armor effect it lost.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yeah, popular opinion went against the Mystic class.

As much as I loved it, I wasn't surprised. It was a whole new class system in a class.

I wish they'd at least try out a subclass of sorcerer or monk or something that used the Mystic's discipline mechanic

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I'm really glad they added back the "Aberrent" part for one reason: it is now clear that this won't be* the 5e Psion.

Having a Charisma based Sorcerer subclass represent the traditional Psion(icist) in 5e was extremely controversial. With this change (and I also approve of dialing back the tentacles some), the door is still wide open for a dedicated Psion if they choose to go that route (likely for Dark Sun).

They also dialed back on the number of what looked like psionic powers that they had considered making into spells and giving to arcane casters. Now there are only 2 (an attack and a defense), plus a custom spell Tasha developed rather than a suite of powers just give to all the arcanists.

This is exactly what a good compromise looks like. Some people really wanted to get any form of psionics from WotC, and this book gives them a variety of such things. Some people wanted this sort of thing and didn't want a full Psion class. Others really want a more traditional Psion that is its own class with it's own list of powers and such, which they have graciously made possible by making the Sorcerer subclass clearly not "the 5e Psion" and by not giving all those UA psionic powers to every arcane caster.

I'm very pleasantly surprised by this, and by some of the other things I'm seeing in this book. Looks like WotC is getting better at finding ways not to leave out parts of the fanbase.

Now, the apparent changes to Bladesinger on the other hand, are the only super-botch I've heard about in this book so far, and if there isn't more to it than I'm seeing won't get used in my campaigns.

*Unless, despite the name, they actually present it as "the Psion" in it's description, which seems unlikely.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Aberrant mind seems to be a really specific flavour of psionics though - i don't think it really reflects the psionic soul sorcerer we saw in UA (and the Aberrant Mind showed up in a completely different UA). It really is something different - half-psion, half-icky tentacular stuff. Arms of Hadar, Hunger of Hadar, Black Tentacles etc on the spell list, and the 14th level ability is basically 'you grow eyestalks or are covered in slimy mucus'.

That's all stuff that's completely alien (pun intended) to, for example, what psionics are in Dark Sun.

My gut feeling is that WotC gave up on having a psion class/subclass that was ready and UA-verified in time for Tasha's, and so gave up and cut it completely. I reckon that if we see a Dark Sun 5e book, the 5e psion (whatever it looks like) will show up there.

IIRC, they've been quoted as saying that the first Aberrant Mind was too icky, Psionic Soul was too normal. So I'd guess this one will be somewhere between those too.

I really wanted the sorcerer subclass to have the name "psion" or "psionic" in it somewhere. That would be a nice nod to prior editions. But, I've talked to Dan Dillon in the past about it, and he said that polling showed that a lot of folks didn't care for the old class names (psion and psionicist).

I don't like the idea of the aberrant mind because I'm not a huge Lovecraft fan. I don't like the icky aspect to it. I get that the psionic soul may feel a bit too generic, but I could shape it a lot more.

Honestly, at this point, I could just take the base sorcerer class, change the main spellcasting ability to Intelligence, drop the spell components, throw in some psionic flavor, and then call it a day.

We'll see. Maybe there's something more in there that I'm unaware of.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Most of this stuff looks cool. I'm sure I will make use of about 70% of it (not using these "psionics" or the nerfed Favored Foe, and stuff like that). I was going to buy it anyways, as I have "need" to have every D&D 5e book, but I would have liked for some of the stuff to be a bit different. Oh well. I'll just have to make do with what the book offers.

I am honestly kind of surprised by how few spells there seem to be in this book. There are less spells in this book (including the reprints there are 21) than there are subclasses (22, which is excluding the reprinted ones). That is a bit underwhelming to me. I was hoping they would finally get around to making more elemental damaging spells (besides fire). I guess I have to wait 3 more years with my fingers crossed.

Also, did anyone else notice that there seem to be 4 pages marked for Artificer Infusions? Not all of them have to be completely filled, but that is a ton more than we previously had (only two-pages worth).

There have been some name changes, most of which I think are improvements (love->unity->peace, aberrant mind->psionic soul->aberrant mind, lurker in the deep->fathomless). I hope they fixed bladesingers well, and I was not a fan of the Order of the Scribes. I would have prefered the Onoumancer so much more. It's a shame it was dumped.

I can't wait to see how many feats from the Feats UA made their way into the book and what changes were made. I hope they didn't nerf them too much.

Also, I have never really been a fan of Group Patrons, so I will probably not end up using that. I'm more excited for the magic items.

Sidekicks are a thing, I guess. I don't really care a ton about them, but I'm sure I could make some use out of them somehow.

Other than that, the rest seems cool, especially the natural magical effects, puzzles, and natural hazards.

 

[cbwjm]

As much as I loved it, I wasn't surprised. It was a whole new class system in a class.

I wish they'd at least try out a subclass of sorcerer or monk or something that used the Mystic's discipline mechanic

Thats actually my upgrade for the 4 elements monk, they choose disciplines from the mystic based on the elements for the wu jen. Makes for a more interesting subclass, though it still has the problem of class and subclass abilities fighting for ki points.

 

[Undrave]

Yeah, popular opinion went against the Mystic class.

No really surprising. Did you see the page count on that thing?! It was worth multiple class and could do EVERYTHING.