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.

 

[Ixal]

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.

Yes, international. Not USA specific.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

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.

Well if the country you are from isnt discussing how to treat your fellow humans better, I think you would need to ask yourself ''why is that?''.

How we treat people around us is really not only an ''English countries'' thing.

 

[Ixal]

Well if the country you are from isnt discussing how to treat your fellow humans better, I think you would need to ask yourself ''why is that?''.

How we treat people around us is really not only an ''English countries'' thing.

Or maybe the country I live in has no real history with slavery and the word "madness" isn't considered problematic by anyone so its removal would do nothing for treating people better. The same applies to many other US specific discussions.
You need to realize that the entire PC discussion about trigger warnings, etc. is very specific to the US and to a lesser extend UK and the rest of the world just rolls their eyes when they see whats the next "problematic" topic in the US.

 

[J.Quondam]

Why should I keep up with any every US specific issue when I live a ocean away?

Why, I had no idea that human decency was a uniquely American concern!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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.

This simply isn't true and it's a weird thing to claim.

There are undoubtedly many countries where it isn't a major issue, but if you're going to pretend it's "only a US thing" and "maybe other English-speaking countries", you're just talking absolutely bollocks, mate. A lot of Northern and Western Europe and some other parts of the world including parts of Latin America is dealing with some or all of the same stuff.

In some countries things aren't an issue simply because the language doesn't create the same issues. In others because you have really bad people in charge who benefit from enabling stigmatization and so on. In others, bigotry runs absolutely rampant, which is nothing to be proud of - Greece, for example, has anti-Semitism levels higher than much of the Middle East. Where are you from, exactly?

 

[Ixal]

This simply isn't true and it's a weird thing to claim.

There are undoubtedly many countries where it isn't a major issue, but if you're going to pretend it's "only a US thing" and "maybe other English-speaking countries", you're just talking absolutely bollocks, mate. A lot of Northern and Western Europe and some other parts of the world including parts of Latin America is dealing with some or all of the same stuff.

In some countries things aren't an issue simply because the language doesn't create the same issues. In others because you have really bad people in charge who benefit from enabling stigmatization and so on. In others, bigotry runs absolutely rampant, which is nothing to be proud of - Greece, for example, has anti-Semitism levels higher than much of the Middle East. Where are you from, exactly?

And why should someone from Greece now stay up to date with the latest taboo word in the USA like madness when he has os concerned about the local anti-semitism?

 

[Faolyn]

And why should someone from Greece now stay up to date with the latest taboo word in the USA like madness when he has os concerned about the local anti-semitism?

You're not saying that different types of bigotry are OK in different countries, are you?

 

[Justice and Rule]

And why should someone from Greece now stay up to date with the latest taboo word in the USA like madness when he has os concerned about the local anti-semitism?

If you're not concerned with the issues that an American company is concerned with, then why are you even commenting on them?

 

[Ixal]

You're not saying that different types of bigotry are OK in different countries, are you?

Again, why should someone in Greece stay up to date with a taboo word in the USA and know exactly why this is a bad word when the reason for it is entirely specific to the US?

Because that is what people demand here.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

And why should someone from Greece now stay up to date with the latest taboo word in the USA like madness when he has a anti-semitism problem?

Ok, so you're Greek? I mean I guess that's all we're getting.

Greece is a country with big problems when it comes to bigotry, even by world standards. But you seemed to be proud of the ignorance re: these issues you possess here? Am I understanding correctly that you think not knowing this stuff makes you a better person somehow? Or is that totally not what you're saying? I'm finding it hard to decipher here.

Again, why should someone in Greece stay up to date with a taboo word in the USA and know exactly why this is a bad word when the reason for it is entirely specific to the US?

Because you're the one who is choosing to attempt to discuss a US game with a bunch of people who are mostly American and British. So if you refuse to understand what's going on with that game, how can you possibly discuss it in any good way?