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.

 

[Faolyn]

That does seem to be the gist of what @Ixal is saying. That if he doesn't know something is bigoted, it's totally cool, and he shouldn't have to learn (because people in Greece are anti-Semitic or something, I couldn't really follow that argument).

I mean, I can't say it's an opinion I think many people would subscribe to. Most people would be like "Oh oops sorry!" when being bigoted in another language/culture.

I guess ignorance really is... well, not bliss, since he seems really upset about it. But it's something, I guess.

 

[J.Quondam]

The issue about madness being a bad word that needs to be replaced does not matter to me and most of the world.

Yes, I get that. And I understand that it might be confusing to someone not embedded in the culture.

But with that in mind, it's just silly to then feign indignation when an American company, catering to a largely American audience, makes adjustments to its American game based largely on what's going on in American society.
I mean, what on earth else do you expect WotC to do?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

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.

Weird, I live in neither of those countries and I still see this debate every day.

And I think I see many posters here that arent from both those countries, nor from the anglosphere, and care to share their views on the subject.

 

[Cadence]

Your attack on the US health care system seems like something which would only make sense from a European (or a small number of other countries - but many of them are English-speaking). If you're a European, you definitely live in a country that has these issues.

Heck, I bet plenty of American's would be happy to unload about our health care system too...

 

[Ixal]

Yes, I get that. And I understand that it might be confusing to someone not embedded in the culture.

But with that in mind, it's just silly to then feign indignation when an American company, catering to a largely American audience, makes adjustments to its American game based largely on what's going on in American society.
I mean, what on earth else do you expect WotC to do?

At no point I demanded anything from WotC, I answered why madness was seen as problematic based on my knowledge on what is going on in the US while hinting that said knowledge is limited as I do not keep up to date with US specific problems, especially after the latest flurry of things WotC and Paizo deemed too problematic for their products.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Edit: Eh, not worth the joke.

 

[Malmuria]

The issue about madness being a bad word that needs to be replaced does not matter to me and most of the world.
If you want to take that as a sign that Americans are morally superior be my guest. That attitude is nothing new to be honest.
Just realize that in most other countries in the world people look at bewilderment and amusement at the US about what is declared problematic and replaced next and people don't automatically jump to follow the next moral guideline that comes from there.

I don't think you can speak for or about the entire world. Moreover, these changes aren't for the majority culture, even in the US. They are for people who find themselves in the minority. For example, to take one example that I am familiar with, mental health is still stigmatized in India. So the majority culture there might not, and probably does not, care to think about how mentally ill people are described, but there is absolutely a minority of people who have faced discrimination on this account who do care. Even in the United States, mental health issues have and continued to be stigmatized by the majority culture. Perhaps in your country, too, there are people who suffer from severe mental illness who feel they are treated as outsiders, stigmatized as being "crazy" with no general sympathy (even, in many cases, from their own family) for what they are going through?

 

[guachi]

I quite like 5e, but am feeling disenfranchised with recent releases, and know I'm unlikely to pick-up 6e. The target audience will be half my age. I accept that not every book will be for me. (Nor would I want every book to be for me.) But when no books are for me anymore—including ones that would have been right up my alley just four or five years prior—it's hard not to feel slighted.
I've probably bought the last D&D book I'll ever buy. (I literally just received a cheque for Christmas from family this afternoon, and normally that'd go right to D&D books and RPG supplies but I honestly have no idea what to gift myself anymore.)
When/if my current group falls apart, my time rolling physical dice is over. I will have aged out of the hobby.

Aside from getting money for Christmas, this is the exact state I'm in. Despite falling in love with 5e the moment I read the free rules back in 2014 I am no longer the target audience. I have gobs of cash I could spend on WotC products but have bought nothing since late 2019. What I have done is spend hundreds of dollars on Kickstarters, though.

I am not WotC's audience any longer and losing me as a paying customer is acceptable collateral damage.

 

[Zardnaar]

At no point I demanded anything from WotC, I answered why madness was seen as problematic based on my knowledge on what is going on in the US while hinting that said knowledge is limited as I do not keep up to date with US specific problems, especially after the latest flurry of things WotC and Paizo deemed too problematic for their products.

I took your comment along the lines of Greece having bigger problems.

 

[Umbran]

Mod Note:

And wow, is this discussion off the rails...

Thread closed.