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.

 

[Justice and Rule]

When they say Pathfinder isn't going to have slavery anymore, do they mean as an institution or forced labor in general? If the latter it will be a bit...suspension of disbelief breaking to never have any bad guys ever forcing people they've abducted to mine for an evil artifact or whatever unless villains never ever take prisoners.

Duergar exist in their setting, right? I'm curious to see if they radically change duergar lore or just never reference them again.

I think the idea is that, as an institution, they aren't going to make it a focus or a hook into their world anymore. There may be an occasional mention of it, for the most part they're just not going to put a focus on it in their books.

 

[Scribe]

I think the idea is that, as an institution, they aren't going to make it a focus or a hook into their world anymore. There may be an occasional mention of it, for the most part they're just not going to put a focus on it in their books.

And it looked like a major point of contention was that in the Society you could have players buy slaves as part of their character?

Seems like quite a poor look in that regard to say the least.

 

[Ixal]

Why was "mad monkey fever" changed to "blue mist fever" in Tomb of Annihilation?

Apparently the word mad is disrespectful to people with mental illnesses or something along those lines.
Honestly I can't keep up what the latest trigger topic in the US is.

 

[Justice and Rule]

And it looked like a major point of contention was that in the Society you could have players buy slaves as part of their character?

Seems like quite a poor look in that regard to say the least.

Yeah, the letter on Owen K.C. Stephens blog references the problems with PFS basically allowing people to buy slaves because it had been included in an early book, it had to be allowed. And if they wanted to get rid of it, it'd have to be a story thing. So trying to go the "Oh, we'll get rid of it in-story" is... well, it's just continuation of the problem from before. I think the letter also hits on a good point that slavery is often reduced to something closer to a simple story hook than an actual terrible problem, and for obvious reasons: it's a really good way of saying "these are the bad guys", but to go further and actually have a real examination of the issue is something that most people don't want because they want to have fun rather than feel bad about s****.

Apparently the word mad is disrespectful to people with mental illnesses or something along those lines.
Honestly I can't keep up what the latest trigger word in the US is.

I know you won't take it seriously, but there's serious problem with disparaging people with mental illness through to grossly poor and often inaccurate depictions. It's a real issue for a lot of people who are trying to live regular lives and have to deal people making assumptions about them because have mental illness. It also feeds into a lot of problems our country has with mental illness, but that's a whole other issue...

 

[jmartkdr2]

When they say Pathfinder isn't going to have slavery anymore, do they mean as an institution or forced labor in general? If the latter it will be a bit...suspension of disbelief breaking to never have any bad guys ever forcing people they've abducted to mine for an evil artifact or whatever unless villains never ever take prisoners.

Specifically: they aren't actually changing the lore (it's still technically around) they're just not going to use it in their adventures anymore. No slaves as background, no slave markets mentioned, not save-the-slaves as official adventure motivation. Theoretically the slave market's still there in town, but it won't be "on-camera" again for the forseeable.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Apparently the word mad is disrespectful to people with mental illnesses or something along those lines.
Honestly I can't keep up what the latest trigger topic in the US is.

Like, if you're not going to even pretend to care about people can you at lest not just say it overtly?

 

[J.Quondam]

Honestly I can't keep up what the latest trigger topic in the US is.

That so many view decency as some chore to "keep up with" is kind of the problem, in a nutshell.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

Why was "mad monkey fever" changed to "blue mist fever" in Tomb of Annihilation?

In addition to the (already named here) concerns about being disparaging of people with mental illnesses, in the US, white supremacists often refer to and/or depict Black people as monkeys or apes in order to portray them as subhuman.

 

[Ixal]

That so many view decency as some chore to "keep up with" is kind of the problem, in a nutshell.

Why should I keep up with any every US specific issue when I live a ocean away?
You need to realize that all those hotly discussed PC issues about slavery, madness, etc. are only really a thing in the USA and maybe in reduced form in other English speaking countries like the UK. But in the rest of the world those are hardly discussed or even considered problematic at all and most people look at bewilderment at what people in the US are complaining about next.

 

[DorkForge]

Why should I keep up with any every US specific issue when I live a ocean away?
You need to realize that all those hotly discussed PC issues about slavery, madness, etc. are only really a thing in the USA and maybe in reduced form in other English speaking countries like the UK. But in the rest of the world those are hardly discussed at all and most people look at bewilderment at what people in the US are complaining about next.

The pulling down of slave trader's statues is a current topic in the UK and mental illness isn't really any better here than it is in the US.

That's besides the point though, because you're choosing to participate in international discussion.