New SCAG Info: Someone Got The Book

Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide hits preferred stores tomorrow (and everywhere else in a couple of weeks). However, some stores have jumped the gun - which only benefits us, as folks on social media are telling us all about it! Below is a compilation of that information. I'm sure come tomorrow, the amount of information on the book will increase dramatically.

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[h=4]Original Post[/h]
Thread is here, Gnunn and others are answering questions about it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/3pot39/call_your_local_stores_scag/

The info:

I'am trying to compile the answers here by those who have new information. The answers do not represent me in anyway I'am just passing on the information.

Q: Name all the subclasses (submitted by me)

A:

Not really interested in spoiling all of the specifics, but here's what I noticed to be new at first glance:
Races:
Gray Dwaves (Duergar)
Ghostwise Halflings
Deep Gnomes (Svirfneblin) -- also provides a new feat "Svirfneblin Magic" (same as EE)
Half-Elf Variants
Tiefling Variants


Classes (only new class options, not new classes):
Barbarian - Path of the Battlerager, new Totem Spirits
Bard - New musical instruments
Cleric - Arcana Domain
Fighter - Purple Dragon Knight
Monk - Way of the Long Death, Way of the Sun Soul
Paladin - Oath of the Crown
Ranger - Several paragraphs that amount to nothing
Rogue - Mastermind Swashbuckler
Sorcerer - Storm Sorcery
Warlock - The Undying
Wizard - Bladesinging


New cantrips for sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards
Booming blade, green-flame blade, lightning lure, sword burst.

Backgrounds:
City Watch
Clan Crafter
Cloistered Scholar
Courtier
Faction Agent
Far Traveler
Inheritor
Knight of the Order
Mercenary Veteran
Urban Bounty Hunter
Uthgardt Tribe Member
Waterdhavian Noble
This only covers about 50 pages of the almost 160 page book. There's a TON of info on the Sword Coast itself. I'm sure DMs who already have the book are salivating at the moment.



Q: No Bard, Ranger or Druid subclasses?

A: There are new bard colleges. I only listed non-flavor changes (in my opinion at least each one is paired with an existing class option so nothing new in terms of mechanics.

-Q2: Wait WHAT? So the Bard Colleges AND Druid Circles don't list fully new subclasses that offer new mechanics to that class? And no "spell-less" Ranger variant or anything?

-A2: Correct on all accounts.



Q: Monk Subclasses specifics

A: Sun Soul gives the monk methods of dealing radiant damage. Burning hands makes an appearance as well.It seems almost too obvious, but all of the Long Death abilities are triggered by death in some way - either yours or an enemy.



Q: Warlock the Undying

A: Hard to explain. It's Lich-like, but not undead it seems.



Q: Paladin Oath of the Crown

A: The new paladin oath is a straight up tank. They seem to have added a ton more detail for the paladin codes. Too much to go into here.



Q: Fighter Purple Dragon Knight

A:Party buffs/heals. Would be a good party leader out of combat as well.




Q: How do the Half elf and tiefling variants work?

A: Tiefling variants are pretty different. I'm not next to my book currently, but I believe there were three options. Half elf replaced the half elf skill dealy with a selection from the elf half. Like Drow magic replacing the skill selection for example.


Q: What does it say about Aasimar?

A: It basically just says, "See the DMG.

(I guess that makes Eldarin valid as well)

Edit 1: Did some cleaning, added cantrips and explanation that is not me giving the answers.

 

[Degwerks]

I was really hung up on the Bladesinger not getting the EK's War Magic ability, also I wanted my bladelock to get War Magic as well. Grabbing 7 lvls in EK is not a great idea for either class. However today I've rediscovered the 5e version of the Scimitar of Speed, this little guy kinda solves my envy of the EK's 7th level ability. Does less damage than a rapier but I can still finesse it.

 

[psychophipps]

Not in 5e. No wizard subclass limits spell access or anything else. Subclass features are purely additive across the board in 5e.

Please don't take this in the wrong way, but I'd encourage you to read or re-read the wizard entry in the PHB. It sounds like you may be going on some outdated premises. I apologize if I'm misunderstanding your argument.

I was talking about Arcane Trickster and the Eldrich Knight variants, actually.

 

[psychophipps]

I was about to post something like this. It really sounds like the bladesinger is being compared to older-edition wizards.

Read the wizard entry. Completely. Without assumptions. You'll find a lot of prior-edition knowledge simply isn't accurate here.

No, I understand it just fine. I'm simply pointing out that the stuff you lose for going with Bladesinger vs. another Wizard type isn't what I consider a big hit in most circumstances. With the right character concept, I would even go so far as to say that the stuff that you guys are clinging so tightly to is far inferior in many respects to what you would gain with Bladesinging, especially since my earlier comments were lacking the knowledge that starting at level 10 the Bladesinger can dump spell slots for damage mitigation (Seriously ?!?).

Trying hard to figure out the best way to handle this as Shield is also a Reaction. Do you hide the to-hit total from the player hoping to draw a spell slot with Shield use or do you announce all of your to-hit totals and give them a leg up on picking the perfect method to deal with each attack as it comes in?

How y'all aren't seeing what I see is pretty confusing to me, but we obviously have completely different priorities in terms of game balance.

 

[Prism]

Trying hard to figure out the best way to handle this as Shield is also a Reaction. Do you hide the to-hit total from the player hoping to draw a spell slot with Shield use or do you announce all of your to-hit totals and give them a leg up on picking the perfect method to deal with each attack as it comes in?

We tend to announce the AC that the monster hits so as a player you know if using shield will work or not. We also often play using fantasy grounds and that automatically tells you the AC that the monster hits.

How y'all aren't seeing what I see is pretty confusing to me, but we obviously have completely different priorities in terms of game balance.

We may well have different priorities of what we want in a character option but I wouldn't say terms of balance. I am quite happy that the bladesinger is well balanced. Where we differ I think is how much we rate AC on a wizard. I know its a high AC - equal to a plate mail wearing fighter. I just don't see this remotely as an issue. I have several characters with AC 20 to 22 and they get hit often enough. At the same time the bladesinger has a fairly low damage output with weapons.

I much prefer the more offensive and out of combat options that the other wizard schools get. Much more than having a better defense.

 

[Tia Nadiezja]

I tend to announce the AC the monster hits too. It feels more right to me... the character is a trained adventurer; they would generally know if their spell would be able to deflect the blow or not.

Then again, for that very reason, I tend to err in the direction of giving too much information (particularly mechanics information) to the players over too little. The mechanics are how the players interact with a world that their characters will, by necessity, know more about than I can convey descriptively. The mechanics are the visible laws of physics for the game world; the characters have an instinctive understanding of them.

 

[Charles Rampant]

When rolling to hit versus players with access to Shield, I roll and announce each attack's total. That means that the player has to decide, when hit by the first attack of three in a multiattack, whether they need to blow the shield spell or not. It adds a bit more tension to that decision, which I like.

 

[gyor]

I finally got a look at the SCAG, and here is what I noticed.

First since I've seen people ask about the Barbarian's Tiger spirit, its gives a jumping bonus while raging, two bonus skills out of a selection of four (I only remember Athletics and Acobatics), and the big daddy, if you move in a straight line over 20 feet and attack, you can make a bonus attack as a bonus action, basically a humaniod verison of pounce. I really like it. I didn't have time to catch Elk.

I focused more on the fluff.

Mulhorand is not back from Abier, more like back to the future (or past). The Mulhorandi lead a second revolt against the High Imaskari, drove them into the purple desert and to safehavens in other planes (Shadowfell and Feywild? Ethereal plane? Elemental? Outer? Astral? it doesn't say which planes).

The Mulhorand Divine Incarnations sound like Chosen whose power is to be possessed by the full might of they're Gods (same with Gilgeam in Unther), they're host "Chosen" is are either Human, Aasimar, or Tiefling (which likely makes these the most powerful and respected Tieflings in the realms).

The Mulhorand section reads like its writtem by someone who works for the propoganda branch of the Mulhorand Government. The Mulhorand gods reincarnated into the Mulhorandi population, beat the stuffing out of the Imaskri like they did thousands of years previously, but this time they eliminated slavery (of course the High Imaskari already did this, but apparently they're rule was somehow like slavery, aside from some religious freedom suppression I guess, and they had to deal with the High Imaskari secret police so I sort of see it, or at least I can see how the Mulhorandi buy into it).

The Tiefling section has abit more like how Mulhorand Tiefling last name, like all desendants of the gods, have Sia or Zai added to the thier Ancestor God's name, examples given are Sia'sobek and Zai'Anhur (Anhur was Chaotic Good, why does he have Aasimar desendants? It actually makes sense in a minute).

The Mulhorand Gods are one big happy family, well not so happy, but they're united in ruling Mulhorand as Pharos, so Set is back in as a member of the ruling family, no longer an outsider within the Pantheon. They all rule it together (I sure Sharess, aka Bast, aka the Foe of Set is thrilled they one big happy family again).

Mulhorand is focused on protecting they're returned turf.

Unther is back and its pissed off, it was subjagated by other beings, until Gilgeam reborn lead a revolt in Abier to free his people, and on the cusp of William Wallace's, er I mean Gilgeam's last battle for FREEEEEEDOM, Unther was teleported back to Faerun where, wait for it...Tymanther IS STILL THERE, that's right, Tymanther did not go back to Abier.

So the Unther Tymanther war happened, the Dragonborn it appears where one of the beings were dominated the the Untherites, and Tymanther shrunk to a much smaller, place on the coasts. Its fortified its position so it isn't going anywhere, and the Untherite Navy is kept at bay by a strange beast in Tymanther's waters.

Tymanther isn't the only 4e survivor, Najara, Elf Harrows, Air Spur (what's left of the Akanul Genasi Empire, its now just one of many Chessenta City States, and but it still floats unlike other motes), Eltgurd, possibly a few I'm not thinking of.

Evermeet is cooler then ever, if abit confusing by what it means by existing in three planes, it almost sounds like its comingled with the Feywild and Avandor Eberron style.

Alot of peoples that returned from Abier seemdd scarred by thier time in Abier, possible exception Halruu which did it on purpose, displacing part of Abier to the Shadow Plane (I assume the Shadow Planes inhabitants, were returned to Abier, no doubt becoming creeper for the experience like the Shades).

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, the Bladesinger is cool; but it doesn't replace the Fighter, nor negate the coolness of the base classes.

One of the beauty of 5E design is that they do not need to make anything worrying about multi passing "balance" as the optional rule is called out as unbalanced: play at your own risk!

 

[gyor]

One interesting thing is how they dealt with the Gods they did write ups for, many of the evil Gods have a less evil spin among regular folks, with Asmodeaus beings the most jaw dropping as the God of Indulgence, like folks will pray to him for forgiveness for thier sins, wish fulfilment, to hide stuff from other gods, ect...and not just in exchange for ones soul either, I guess since he benifits from worship as well as Souls, lesser gifts don't cost your soul anymore, just some praying, or at leasts that's what it sounds like.

Serious he sounds like a cross between Jesus, Pan, and a Genie who has a side job as the devil he doesn't like to talk about.

I could totally see a Good Priest of Asmodeaus as weird as that sounds, Bane too, especially in Eltgurd oddly.

 

[Parmandur]

Well, Lawful Neutral possibly. Sounds more like real religion, or even more like Greenwoods' concepts.