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]

actually the Charakter was a chosen of lathander and actually did speak with lathander himself at the end of the novel.

For all the promise oft dialing back in the deities, starting with the sundering novels wie have more deities appearing in novels than before

Shar, Mystra, Cyric, Lolth, Azuth, Asmodeus, Nobanion, Helm, Lathander, it might be easier to count the recent novels without a deity appearing

You forgot Umberlee.

 

[gyor]

Btw is Nobanion listed in the SCAG?

 

[ad_hoc]

I know this.

What I sign up for is in-combat advantage on attacks. Since you can't transform your advantage into giving enemies disadvantage when they save against your spells, you're left with ranged spell attacks.

And there's not enough of them to base a strategy on.

Play a Barbarian?

There are lots of classes to choose from.

Sorcerer is just fine for those of us who appreciate benefits other than advantage on attacks.

 

[gyor]

So, after a few days of frustration, I've finally snagged myself a copy of the book. To answer a few things brought up in this thread (as well as other things):

The non-Sword Coast areas do get brief, but for their length, fairly detailed descriptions. I was honestly surprised in how much info was packed into just a few paragraphs for each entry.

1489 DR is heavily hinted, but not outright stated, to be the present year. One paragraph in the history section starts with "By 1489..." and the next begins with "The world today..." It's a bit murky with the tenses used in the paragraphs in question, but I'd say 1489 would be the most likely candidate, given that every year from 1482 through 1489 - excepting only 1483 - gets date-checked in the section. It would seem odd to go up to 1489 and stop there without it being the present year (and if, for some reason not, then 1490 is just about the only other viable candidate).

Amaunator and Lathander are distinct deities - both get in-depth descriptions, and both sections use the present tense, indicating that both are worshiped separately in the here and now.

The human deities all get fairly detailed descriptions - much more than expected given the length of the section in the pre-released table of contents. The only exception to this are the four elemental deities for some reason. Also, there are a few missing holy symbol illustrations at the bottom of the deity pages - Gwaeron Windstrom and Melil are the two I noticed as missing. But beyond that the artwork for the symbols is top-notch. Only some of the demigods did make it into the book however; like other posters, I'm surprised by the exclusion of Sharess when Jergal somehow made the cut (surely the former has far more worshipers than the latter!)

The non-human deities are less covered. At first it seems that they only get tables for each pantheon, but later in the book, under each race, all of them do get at least some brief coverage. The poor dragonborn, however, have to make due with the info on Bahamut and Tiamat in the Player's Handbook; even though the deities are mentioned repeatedly in the dragonborn section, neither they, nor any of the other draconic deities, merits even a table in this book. Conversely, all of the deities for playable races appear to be fully listed (other than Ghaunadaur, who seems to have been, not unreasonably, recast as a Great Old One patron for warlocks).

The actual main geographical areas covered in the book are surprisingly detailed. The Island Kingdoms section especially stood out for me - given its length and various hints I suspected the Moonshaes might be covered, and indeed they are, quite fully, but I certainly wasn't expecting anything on Lantan or Nimbral! Granted, much of what is said for them (and for Evermeet as well) comes in the form of hearsay from the narrator of the section (a gnome sailor - all the geographic regions covered has their own specific narrator talking about the cities and regions), but even then just the half page or so on Lantan compares favorably to the entirity of the coverage we've had in all previous editions combined...

The races and classes section are chock-full of good stuff - too much to go into in detail, other than the fact that after I got the book today, I now have a variant tiefling, an arcana domain cleric (of Mystra), and a swashbuckler suddenly in my party...

The most ironic thing is that in past editions its actually apart of the lore that she's most popular ON THE SWORD COAST, I kid you not. Yes her roots are in Mulhorand and the Yuirwood and her biggest Temple is in Calimport and she helped found Nathlan, city of cats with Nobanion before it got taken over by the Shue refugees, but it always made it clear that the place she was primarily worshipped in was the Sword Coast, so its just goofy she's not in the book.

I can only assume she in Mulhorand hooking up with Anhur again.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

I know this.

What I sign up for is in-combat advantage on attacks. Since you can't transform your advantage into giving enemies disadvantage when they save against your spells, you're left with ranged spell attacks.

And there's not enough of them to base a strategy on.

You can give yourself advantage on saving throws, including death saves.

 

[gyor]

Thanks for taking the time to notice that and then post it. This is exactly what I was hoping for.

If they ever do revisit Maztica (big if here. We don't even know if the rest of Faerun outside of the Sword Coast will be revisited)I hope they use its time in Abeir as an excuse to help undo some of the more distasteful portions of Maztica and allow it to flourish as a unique place and lives up to its huge potential.

Maztica is mentioned in the PHB briefly I believe so that basically confirms its back.

 

[ZethTheRed]

Anyone have any information they would like to share concerning the Arcana Cleric and Dwarven Battlerager? Really interested in hearing more about them!

 

[the Jester]

Considering that really the big element of the fs IS the domain spells, I wager it will.

I really hope not. There are better, more elegant ways of making the FS more clericy without making the other sorcerer subclasses essentially obsolete.

 

[the Jester]

EDIT: Never mind, I'm like 20 pages behind in this thread.

 

[Serpine]

I really hope not. There are better, more elegant ways of making the FS more clericy without making the other sorcerer subclasses essentially obsolete.

Would it make more sense (for comparative power) to replace the Chosen of the Gods / Bonus Proficiencies features of the FS so they just let them *choose* from that domain list rather then automatically have them known, and grant them the 1st level benefits from the domain?