The Actual Table of Contents for Xanathar's Guide to Everything

A lot of good stuff there.

Of course, on the DM side, a lot of stuff is not there, but I like what I see.

Actually, one of the most useful things will be the appendix of sample names.

 

[Morrus]

Books like this have page batches of 32: both appendices probably for put in to make up for an additional 32 page block necessitated by the other content once added up.

That’s not why that content is there. That’s the sort of thing first-time self publishing amateurs do, not professional experienced publishing companies.

 

[Mouseferatu]

If any of us understood the so-called value of a dollar, we wouldn't be spending it on ANY Dungeons & Dragons products.

The corollary to this is that if people understood the value of a dollar, they would recognize that RPG books have been under-priced for most of the lifespan of the hobby.

Yes, really. You can throw "demand" and "what the market will bear" at me if you like, but the fact is, relative to the cost of creation and materials, and relative to full-color books in most other markets, RPG books should frankly cost substantially more than they do.

(And no, I don't personally want the costs to go up. I'm much more of an RPG consumer than creator these days; with a few exceptions, such as The Lost Citadel, my focus is mostly on my original fiction, not gaming material. But that doesn't alter the facts.)

 

[Parmandur]

That’s not why that content is there. That’s the sort of thing first-time sled publishing amateurs do, not professional experienced publishing companies.

I'm sure the main reason is demand, but if they had more subclasses ready for primetime, that Appendix would probably be on the block to be shortened.

 

[Kurotowa]

On the issue of name tables, let's not forget that "People who post to EN World" is not an unbiased sample of "People who play Dungeons & Dragons". We are, by definition, self-selected with a bias towards people with greater Internet proficiency and comfort. That doesn't hold true for all or even most people who are going to buy this book.

So just like not every group is going to use the 20 pages of random encounters or the 10 pages of revised traps, not every group will use the 17 pages of character names. But certainly some will, and they'll be glad to have them. So why begrudge them their easy name tables? Do you really think that [Your Favorite Not Included Material] would have made it in if they'd cut the name tables? I highly doubt it.

 

[gyor]

You know Weapon feats, Skill Feats, Mass Combat rules, ect... we're supposed to go in that space, but they were popular enough, and they didn't have the time to fix them, or the staff, or the money, so they grew desperate and decided on the names as filler, but they way over did it, they should have come up with a few other ideas.

Here are five easy, none game breaking things they could filled those 17 pages with that would have been better and more interesting.

1. Every Deity in official D&D that has ever existed, including the obscure ones, including domains and home planes info. No one would have to go without their favourite God again.
2. Warlock Patrons in table form by Patron type.
3. Basic mechanics for other settings, Warforged, Lender, Defiling rules, and so on. I know the books for other settings are never going to happen, this makes that glaringly obvious, but you could have given them the mechanical elements at least, like races and key setting mechanics.
4. Convert 4e fighter/ranger/rogue/warlord at will powers into 5e feats, once you figure out the first one, the rest would be easy.
5. Fluff for the Subclasses. Where are the best places to find Shadow Magic Sorcerors, what academies teach War Magic, Divine Souls are common in the Old, Empires, Samurai and Kenzai are native to Kara Tur and can be found often in these places, The Celestial can be used in Darksun thusly, and so on.

I mean seriously, gathering those names was an hour of work.

 

[SmokeyCriminal]

Mike Mearls did an interview on Nerdarchy a couple of days ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld6bS3ptYws

He talks about the PHB +1 thing and the reason they did it was because he remembers at a Con, he overheard a couple of people saying how cool the game looked but that it looked too expensive to start playing because of all the books. He doesn't mention Power Gaming or Min/maxing.

I think the reason for PHB +1 is ultimately to keep the cost of entry low, and keeping people from feeling like if they don't have all the books then they arn't taking full advantage of their options. And possibly to keep the playing field a little more even. Having a mechanically better Character because you bought all the books comes off as a little 'Pay to Win'-ish.

He also talks about why they put some of the SCAG characters in XgtE. He said the reason was because the subclasses are general enough to be in a general expansion book. He doesn't mention the reason having to do anything with PHB +1

On an interesting side note. Mearls also points out that they are in their 38th month with 5e and they are still focused on 5e which wasn't the case before. By the 38th month, 3e was already 3.5e, and by the 38th month of 3.5e they were working on 4e, and by the 38th month of 4e they were working on 5e.

 

[Morrus]

On the issue of name tables, let's not forget that "People who post to EN World" is not an unbiased sample of "People who play Dungeons & Dragons".

Who cares? We’re some people having a conversation and expressing our opinions to each other, and we are a 100% accurate sample of the people having this conversation.

 

[gyor]

That’s not why that content is there. That’s the sort of thing first-time self publishing amateurs do, not professional experienced publishing companies.

What about experienced publishing companies more interested in selling movie and video game rights then actually publishing, so they cut staff and budgets to the publishing side, make it coast on fumes.

Given that they cut out their novel publishing, publish one none AP a year, and two APs per year, can you really call them a professional publishing company anymore?

It's a she'll company that hold valuable movie rights, that all it is and XGTE is just what it had to do to keep up appearances. 17 pages of names says it all.

Someone on another forum called it Xanather's Guide to Names and Rehash, tongue in cheek obviously, but it's I bad sign that there is truth in that.

I don't blame Mearls and Crawford they are trying to make lemon aid in a bad unfair situation, I blame the suits who make bad choices.

 

[Parmandur]

You know Weapon feats, Skill Feats, Mass Combat rules, ect... we're supposed to go in that space, but they were popular enough, and they didn't have the time to fix them, or the staff, or the money, so they grew desperate and decided on the names as filler, but they way over did it, they should have come up with a few other ideas.

Here are five easy, none game breaking things they could filled those 17 pages with that would have been better and more interesting.

1. Every Deity in official D&D that has ever existed, including the obscure ones, including domains and home planes info. No one would have to go without their favourite God again.
2. Warlock Patrons in table form by Patron type.
3. Basic mechanics for other settings, Warforged, Lender, Defiling rules, and so on. I know the books for other settings are never going to happen, this makes that glaringly obvious, but you could have given them the mechanical elements at least, like races and key setting mechanics.
4. Convert 4e fighter/ranger/rogue/warlord at will powers into 5e feats, once you figure out the first one, the rest would be easy.
5. Fluff for the Subclasses. Where are the best places to find Shadow Magic Sorcerors, what academies teach War Magic, Divine Souls are common in the Old, Empires, Samurai and Kenzai are native to Kara Tur and can be found often in these places, The Celestial can be used in Darksun thusly, and so on.

I mean seriously, gathering those names was an hour of work.

All of those things are less useful to me than some solid random name tables: the good stuff was well covered in the PHB, and Mearls has admitted that one of the books he wants to get out at some point is a "Faiths & Avatars" style book, so that would be where you see expanded info of that sort.

Mo' random name tables, is mo' better.

 

[gyor]

Mike Mearls did an interview on Nerdarchy a couple of days ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld6bS3ptYws

He talks about the PHB +1 thing and the reason they did it was because he remembers at a Con, he overheard a couple of people saying how cool the game looked but that it looked too expensive to start playing because of all the books. He doesn't mention Power Gaming or Min/maxing.

I think the reason for PHB +1 is ultimately to keep the cost of entry low, and keeping people from feeling like if they don't have all the books then they arn't taking full advantage of their options. And possibly to keep the playing field a little more even. Having a mechanically better Character because you bought all the books comes off as a little 'Pay to Win'-ish.

He also talks about why they put some of the SCAG characters in XgtE. He said the reason was because the subclasses are general enough to be in a general expansion book. He doesn't mention the reason having to do anything with PHB +1

On an interesting side note. Mearls also points out that they are in their 38th month with 5e and they are still focused on 5e which wasn't the case before. By the 38th month, 3e was already 3.5e, and by the 38th month of 3.5e they were working on 4e, and by the 38th month of 4e they were working on 5e.

Basing a rule on a conversation you over heard one time, is not a good idea.

They should at least make it PHB +2 so that people still have reasons to buy more books.