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.

 

[gyor]

Generic works for basic licensing stuff, and Greenwood really detailed Waterdeep effectively.

Now that you have the book, what do you think of it?

Writing is great, but the way things are organized like the pantheon, is messed up.

Like the Goddess Lurue is mentioned several times in the book, such as the in the knight order sidebar, but SHE'S NOT IN THE PANTHEON SECTION, wtf. Ghuandar is mentioned as being apart of the Drow Pantheon in the Elf race section, but in table on the Drow Pantheon in the Gods section he's absent.

 

[Marandahir]

No mention of spellfire to my knowledge. At least, it's not in the index, and I didn't see it during my read-through.

 

[Irennan]

Writing is great, but the way things are organized like the pantheon, is messed up.

Like the Goddess Lurue is mentioned several times in the book, such as the in the knight order sidebar, but SHE'S NOT IN THE PANTHEON SECTION, wtf. Ghuandar is mentioned as being apart of the Drow Pantheon in the Elf race section, but in table on the Drow Pantheon in the Gods section he's absent.

Oh, so Ghaunadaur *is* still a god. About the other gods, well, we don't have ''stats'' for them, but at least they're confirmed as active/still active Post-Sundering. Either way, assigning domains to them is rather easy. For example, Lurue would probably have Nature, and perhaps Aracana, if you wanted to keep her role as one of the goddesses of magic in Ed's original FR. For Sharess, you could look at Liira for comparison, and she would probably get Life as well. Perhaps Nature too, if you wanted to somewhat highlight her connection to felines.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Writing is great, but the way things are organized like the pantheon, is messed up.

Like the Goddess Lurue is mentioned several times in the book, such as the in the knight order sidebar, but SHE'S NOT IN THE PANTHEON SECTION, wtf. Ghuandar is mentioned as being apart of the Drow Pantheon in the Elf race section, but in table on the Drow Pantheon in the Gods section he's absent.

Ghaunadaur is mentioned as Warlock Patron of the Great Old One style.

 

[jwade1980]

Could someone with the book provide a bit of details surrounding any new tidbits about the bard? Any new colleges? etc?

 

[Demetrios1453]

Could someone with the book provide a bit of details surrounding any new tidbits about the bard? Any new colleges? etc?

There's really not much new game-wise on bards. The section talks about Bardic Colleges, but in the sense of places bards go to learn their craft, and not the PHB class feature Bardic College sense (so you get sentences like "Most bards of New Olamn belong to the College of Lore.")

Beyond that, there is a wide selection of musical instruments listed and described...

 

[gyor]

Oh, so Ghaunadaur *is* still a god. About the other gods, well, we don't have ''stats'' for them, but at least they're confirmed as active/still active Post-Sundering. Either way, assigning domains to them is rather easy. For example, Lurue would probably have Nature, and perhaps Aracana, if you wanted to keep her role as one of the goddesses of magic in Ed's original FR. For Sharess, you could look at Liira for comparison, and she would probably get Life as well. Perhaps Nature too, if you wanted to somewhat highlight her connection to felines.

Actually Sharess in her incarnation as Bast is in the Player's Guide, but for some reason the Egyptian Gods are back in FR, but you can't use them in AL, another goofy rule brought to you by AL. Bast/Sharess domain is War, despite being the Goddess of Cats, Lust, and Brothels, Sharess was a semi retired War God.

When she first came to Faerun in the form of Bast she was a war god and Anhur's Lieutenant in the first war against the Imaskar. It was only later when she first absorbed Falidae (basically a primal spirit or demigod worshipped briefly by beast cults in lands near Mulhorand), and became more about pleasure and travel that she began drifting away from War. Then she absorbed the Yuirwood Goddess Zandilar, a member of the Yuirwood Pantheon which got absorbed into the Seldarine (Elven Pantheon). Absorbing Zandilar who was an Elvish Goddess of Lust who prefered to seducing her enemies to warfare, completed the transformation into Sharess sex Goddess, who was still worshipped by the Mulhorandi as a War Goddess and as the Foe of Set, abit with a more sexual twist.

Given the second war with the Imaskari and the "liberation" of Mulhorand from the High Imaskar, it likely she was invovled in the war.

The only Mulhorand God not listed in the Eygptian Panthion table is Anhur, but I'd just use that stats for Herculu in the PHB, the stats are CG God with the War and Tempest domains, and a Lion head holy symbol.

As for the life domain, the clerics of all gods can chose the life domain no matter if its in thier gods domains or not.

Anyways my problem is that while written is good, and it gives you alot to be excited about, if it had better editing, layout, and 200 more pages, it could have been outstanding. This should have been a proper FRCG and FRPG, and the great writing and interesting unexpected twists tease at what this book should have been.

So its both impressive and frustrating.

As far most interesting locations I'd say around the Sea of Fallen Stars, the lands of Intrigue, the Island Kingdoms (Evermeet, Lantan, Nimbral, Moonshaes), Vaasa with its Warlock Knights, And Eltgurd/Najara war are the most interesting to me.

I will say that the 5e realms are an interesting mix of 1e/2e and 4e. The old races say that its alot like before the spellplague, and on the surface, it is, alot of 3e and even more 4e stuff had been reversed by the Sundering and other events, but when you closely examine the events and locations, you start to see that the connection to 1e/2e realms is an inch deep and a mile wide.

 

[gyor]

Take Alagorond for example, on the surface it seems the same as it was, but examine closely and you see that its gained a large tiefling minority thanks to Thay, its relations with Thay have relaxed compared to the past, the Chosen of Mystra no longer rules, it governed by a council.

Mulhorand seems like its back to being directly by incarnation of its Gods,and it is, but this time slavery has been abolished, Horus-Ra is two seperate Gods now, and its far less culturally insolated then it was back in 1e/2e, which makes sense because much of its population grew up in other cultures as minorities. Think of the creation of modern day Isreal and international influence the Jewish dispora has had on it.

Then you have 4e survivor states, and a few 4e verisions of previous states like Dambrath (which was a half-drow civilization before 4e, but became a wereanimal, shifter, human civilization in 4e and 5e) dimished, but still around.

You have the effect of having at-will magic, new forms of magic of all sorts, new races that didn't exist or were thought extinct, or were unknown.

Lots of interesting stories to be told.

But we still need a SCAG.

 

[gyor]

I like the Yarting, Faerun Guitar, personally for bards, Pan Pipes, and Hand Drums.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I will say that the 5e realms are an interesting mix of 1e/2e and 4e. The old races say that its alot like before the spellplague, and on the surface, it is, alot of 3e and even more 4e stuff had been reversed by the Sundering and other events, but when you closely examine the events and locations, you start to see that the connection to 1e/2e realms is an inch deep and a mile wide.

My Forgotten Realms is set at the tale end of 2e (1370 DR). How much fluff in SCAG will be of use to me?