D&D 5E Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide: Player Content Guesses

[Staffan]

A little of both actually. The bulk of the people who complained were doing so from the position of it not filling the Eberron artificer's original role(s), but there was a fair amount of complaint centered around it being too weak and actually making your character less effective.

Heh. I must be projecting my own biases a bit.

UA also did offer the Favored Soul as well, and that was (generally) well received.

Right, for some reason I got it in my head that that article wasn't UA. Probably because it wasn't presented so much as a playtest thing as a "behind the scenes" thing with a pair of worked examples in it.

 

[Remathilis]

According to Dragon+ (issue 3)

Uthgardt Barbarian
Elven Bladesinger
Purple Dragon Knights
Oath of the Crown (Paladin) - oath to civilization and sovereign nation or deity of law and order
New [Barbarian] Totems
New Warlock Patron: Undying (multiversal references mentioned)
Tiefling and Half-elf customization options
New Background (unnamed) that involves being the heir to something valuable; a bit of lore, a strange tattoo, etc.
Duergar is mentioned as "important" in both RoD and SCAG in the "Next Issue" section

So it sounds like we're probably getting at least one new option for each class and quite a few racial options...

 

[Irennan]

These are just a few examples. In the magazine it is said that the book will have many other options as well.

 

[gyor]

Does anyone know what the Undying are? My first thought was Undead, perhaps connecting them to the Negative Energy Plane or the Shadowfell.

My other thought was Vestiages, basically a Binder Patron. Vestiages were multiversal in nature, but what plane would they be accoitated with.

Possible Primordials, but I think those are Gods again, sort of, so I doubt it.

Immortals maybe?

Somekind of Evil tied to the Underdark or Shadowfell?

The Minds of powerful Magic Users trapped in the Weave of Magic (unlikely, no Multiverse connections).

Any other guesses?

 

[Remathilis]

My first guess was "undead", with a hint of Vecna/Accerack in there for cross-promotion, but Vestiges would work too (and probably better).

A few guesses.

Uthgardt Barbarian - Barbarian subclass
Elven Bladesinger - My guess is wizard, to be an alternative to EK. (more wizard-with-sword than figther-with-spells type gish)
Purple Dragon Knight - Strongly leaning on Fighter with hints of leader.
Oath of the Crown - Paladin version of PDK.
Swashbuckler - Rogue (already in UA)
Undying Pact - Warlock

That leaves Druid, Cleric, Monk, Bard, Sorcerer, Ranger without a mentioned new toy. I wager we get something new for each, either new powers (Hunter types for rangers), Spells (for clerics and druids) or subclasses (stormborn sorcerer seems a good candidate). I don't think any class is not getting some love.

As for races
Elf: Aquatic subrace, maybe a proper moon/sun variant.
Dwarf: Duergar, possibly more on Shield/Gold dwarves.
Halfling: Ghostwise, possibly more on Strongheart/Lightfoot
Gnome: Reprint the Deep gnome?
Tiefling and Half-elf variants

Not sure if I see anything for Half-orc, dragonborn, Human, or the EE races; maybe a "where they fit in the Realms" paragraph or two.

 

[cmad1977]

My guess is that no matter what they put in it will not satisfy people who insist on moar content.

 

[gyor]

I could see a half Gray Orc variant for Half Orcs.

As for Uthgardt Barbarian my first assumption was obviously Barbarian, then I looked up the PrC for that and found it resembled the Totem Barbarian Subclass, and we're getting totems in it.

Beside calling it Uthgardt Barbarian when its a Barbarian Subclass, is redunant, that would make it Barbarian Uthgardt Barbarian.

I'm thinking Ranger that allows access to Barbarian Totems.

 

[gyor]

Its a beginning...

 

[bedir than]

I wonder if they will modify the Realms list of deities to better match 5e rules. For example, Tempest is a popular Cleric Domain. But there are only three FR gods in the PHB that have Tempest as their domain, and all three of these gods are evil. I would guess they might add the Tempest domain to a few good or neutral gods, or bring in a few new gods to give players more choices to pick from.

Play balance or player desire are poor reasons to add areas of influence to gods. Most of these gods have a couple dozen years existing and rewriting that to say "they control storms now" while done before, is fairly lame. The tie between story elements and mechanics shouldn't be about giving players stuff. It should be about advancing stories.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Does anyone know what the Undying are?

The article calls this out as multiverse nod, so I'm thinking it has some thematic connection to Eberron's Undying Court.