D&D 5E Latest D&D Errata: Drow, Alignment, & More

Sage Advice is a series of articles in which Jeremy Crawford, one of the D&D Studio’s game design architects, talks about the design of the game’s rules and answers questions about them.

Book Updates | Sage Advice | Dungeons & Dragons

This Sage Advice provides updates and errata for a number of books, as well as answers to rules questions.

dnd.wizards.com

D&D books occasionally receive corrections and other updates to their rules and story. This Sage Advice installment presents updates to several books. I then answer a handful of rules questions, focusing on queries related to Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos.

Official errata has been published for the following books:

• Curse of Strahd
• Dungeon Master’s Guide
• Player’s Handbook
• Storm King’s Thunder
• Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
• Tales from the Yawning Portal
• Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
• Tomb of Annihilation
• Volo’s Guide to Monsters

Here's some of the highlights.

• Alignment is removed from the Racial Traits section of races.
• Drow have undergone lore changes which reflect the different types of drow. The 'darkness of the drow' sidebar which portrays them as only evil has been removed.
• Storm King's Thunder alters references to 'Savage Frontier' and 'barbarians'; Curse of Strahd alters references to the Vistani.
• The controversial Silvery Barbs spell has been clarified.

As a drow, you are infused with the magic of the Underdark, an underground realm of wonders and horrors rarely seen on the surface above. You are at home in shadows and, thanks to your innate magic, learn to con- jure forth both light and darkness. Your kin tend to have stark white hair and grayish skin of many hues.

The cult of the god Lolth, Queen of Spiders, has cor- rupted some of the oldest drow cities, especially in the worlds of Oerth and Toril. Eberron, Krynn, and other realms have escaped the cult’s influence—for now. Wherever the cult lurks, drow heroes stand on the front lines in the war against it, seeking to sunder Lolth’s web.

 

[J.Quondam]

What WOTC is doing is flipping this to make the races start samey, requiring the majority of players to house rule the game just to play the most popular archetypes. This turns off new players,

I understand your argument, but do you have any evidence that what you call "samey" actually does turn off new players?
I assume WotC has done a fair bit of market research into their "new player" and "likely book buyer" demographics, so I suspect they're going in the direction they are because they believe it will appeal those people, not turn them off.

 

[Mordhau]

I understand your argument, but do you have any evidence that what you call "samey" actually does turn off new players?
I assume WotC has done a fair bit of market research into their "new player" and "likely book buyer" demographics, so I suspect they're going in the direction they are because they believe it will appeal those people, not turn them off.

It's really not all that long ago when they were deliberately designing races to mechanically reinforce stereotypes in regard to race. In fact with 5e they doubled down on that, reinforcing concepts that they'd opened up over the life of 4e.

So either they:
1) Did market research then but are ignoring it now.
2) Didn't do market research then and are doing it now.
3) Never did market research
4) Or the fan base preferences have dramatically changed in the 7 or so years since they launched the most successful edition to date.

 

[Scribe]

It's really not all that long ago when they were deliberately designing races to mechanically reinforce stereotypes in regard to race. In fact with 5e they doubled down on that, reinforcing concepts that they'd opened up over the life of 4e.

So either they:
1) Did market research then but are ignoring it now.
2) Didn't do market research then and are doing it now.
3) Never did market research
4) Or the fan base preferences have dramatically changed in the 7 or so years since they launched the most successful edition to date.

5) None of the above.

 

[Zardnaar]

It's really not all that long ago when they were deliberately designing races to mechanically reinforce stereotypes in regard to race. In fact with 5e they doubled down on that, reinforcing concepts that they'd opened up over the life of 4e.

So either they:
1) Did market research then but are ignoring it now.
2) Didn't do market research then and are doing it now.
3) Never did market research
4) Or the fan base preferences have dramatically changed in the 7 or so years since they launched the most successful edition to date.

Proof is in the pudding and how well 6E goes down.

They probably think they'll make more money but atm they're riding 5Es success built up on a different approach.

We won't really know until 6E. If it works short term there still using the 5E foundation if it doesn't it's also getting to the point where sales normally decline (late in an editions cycle).

 

[pukunui]

4) Or the fan base preferences have dramatically changed in the 7 or so years since they launched the most successful edition to date.

It’s more that the fan base itself has changed dramatically. When they first published 5e, it was written to lean heavily on nostalgia to try and coax back players who left because of 4e.

Since then, the game’s success has led to a huge influx in new players. The changes WotC has been making recently are to cater to these newer players.

 

[J.Quondam]

It's really not all that long ago when they were deliberately designing races to mechanically reinforce stereotypes in regard to race. In fact with 5e they doubled down on that, reinforcing concepts that they'd opened up over the life of 4e.

Okay? And by now leaning into this so-called "sameyness," WotC appear to be unwinding that for whatever reason, market research or no.
So the question stands: What's the evidence that this "samey" quality (whatever that means) turns off new players? I mean book sales seem healthy and WotC seems to be pretty content with doing what they're doing, so this "turn off" must be manifesting in some other way?

 

[Zardnaar]

It’s more that the fan base itself has changed dramatically. When they first published 5e, it was written to lean heavily on nostalgia to try and coax back players who left because of 4e.

Since then, the game’s success has led to a huge influx in new players. The changes WotC has been making recently are to cater to these newer players.

This. Newer players might like 5E as is though so see how 6E goes down.

Won't really know until about 2 years into 6E.

 

[J.Quondam]

Since then, the game’s success has led to a huge influx in new players. The changes WotC has been making recently are to cater to these newer players.

I think this is it. The D&D fan base has evolved a LOT in the last half-decade, possibly in ways no one even really saw coming when 5e was introduced.

 

[FormerLurker]

There's a certain amount of irony in how, both times D&D has become a burgeoning pop culture phenomena, it has responded by heavily sanitizing the game. Removing various degrees of "objectionable material" in an attempt to appease some theoretical audience that they hope will flock to the game afterward and silence its critics. As if the people who hate D&D will just stop being critical if WoTC makes the right combination of changes...

This is a pretty tame example compared to what we can expect the new edition will probably look like, as it can't mess too much with the pagination or excise content referenced in other products. They can't entirely remove Madness from the DMG without making it harder to run Out of the Abyss or rename the barbarian class.
You can bet the changes we'll see in two years will be much more dramatic.

I'm pretty woke and have spent a lot of time defending WotC and it's social justice initiatives online. A lot. If you can make a change
But it is going lengths that border on satire. Removing even a minor references to brothels and (villainous) slavers in table feel like changes a parody errata might include.
Good drow and less of a focus on innate evil? Absolutely. Intelligent orcs with the same range of emotions and potential civility has humans? Okay, sure. Misunderstood Mind Flayers and Yuan-Ti that can also be good and noble? That feels like it's pushing it.

Especially as people LIKE adult content. Game of Thrones and The Witcher are extremely popular. Critical Role featured characters who frequented a brothels in campaign 1 and a character who was raised in one in Campaign 2. Dark Sun is one of the most popular settings, and it's basically an amalgam of various trigger warnings. People like a bit of edge to their fantasy.
Who are they making 6th Edition for?

 

[Mistwell]

I don't care about any of this alignment stuff. I just want to know if there is anything meaningfully changed about mechanical issues? Any spells nerfed? Feats? Sub-class abilities? Anything like that?