D&D (2024) "The Future of D&D" (New Core Books in 2024!)

The online D&D Celebration event, which has been running all weekend, comes to a close with The Future of D&D, a panel featuring WotC's Ray Winninger, Liz Schuh, Chris Perkins, and Jeremy Crawford, hosted by Elle Osili-Wood.

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D&D is exploring the multiverse
Revisiting classic settings. 1st of 3 settings (Ravenloft) released this year. Next year, the other two major classic D&D settings come out. Both in formats they've never published products before.

Plus a "little peek" at a third classic D&D setting - a cameo.

In 2023, yet another classic setting is coming out.

Evolving D&D
Because of new players, they're always listening. Exploring new styles of play (like no combat needed in Wild Beyond the Witchlight). Also presentation of monsters and spells. New product formats. More adventure anthologies.

Making products easier to use. Ways to create the best experience. Experimenting and looking into technology.

Approaches to Design
Wild Beyond the Witchlight has interior design and tools to make running the adventure easier. Story tracker, guidance.

Beyond the books, they want to make different and varied products - packaging and form factor. Things different to hardcovers and boxed sets.

A blog post is coming soon detailing some of the changes, with more to come in future posts.

50th Anniversary in 2024
They've begun work on new versions of the core rulebooks. Recent surveys tie into that. They're still making plans, but expect more surveys. More will be said next year.

They will be completely compatible!

New experiences in the digital arena.

January Gift Set
Rules Expansion Gift Set -- Xanathar, Tasha, and a new book: Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. All in a slipcase. Was intended for the Holidays, but global production issues mean January instead. There's also an alternate cover version.

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Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse
A treasure trove of creature related material from previous products compiled into one book and updated.

Opportunity to update material with a feel for how the 50th Anniversary books will be.

Improvements based on feedback, rebalancing, new and old art.

Over 250 monsters, and 30 playable races. All of the setting agnostic races that have been published outside the Player's Handbook.

Some content from Witchlight, Fizban's, and Strixhaven was influenced by Mordenkainen's.

Available first in the gift set, but separately later in the year.

Monsters alphabetized throughout rather than using subsections.

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Stat block changes --

Spellcasting trait is gone. Spellcasting action, slimmed down. Spellcasting monsters need less prep.

Spell slots are gone for NPCs. Regular actions that would have once been spells.

It was too easy for a DM to use spells which result in the monster having a too low effective CR.

Monsters can be friends or foes, and some magic will help rather than hinder PCs.

Where are we going?
More adventure anthologies. Another classic setting fairly soon.

Two all-new settings. Completely new. In development stage, an 'exploration' phase, testing the viability of them. They might not see the light of day.

Retooling nostalgia and blending it with new concepts. A blend of things that you know, and things that they have never done before.

In the short term -- more news next month about a new product for 2022 which goes into a new scary place we've never been before.

Boo the miniature giant space hamster
Below is an sketch from Hydro74's alt cover, which features Boo the miniature giant space hamster.

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There are people that will play 4 Element Monks, Undying Warlocks, and Purple Dragon Knights. Just because people play it, doesn't mean that it's "playable". (I mean, I'm obviously wrong here, because if people play it, it's obviously playable. However, you get my point. Some things are just so egregiously bad mechanically that they're "unplayable", even if there is a strange minority of people that will play it.)
But genasi aren't even unpopular. They're one of the most popular non-phb races.
I want Genasi to be balanced in comparison to the other races in the game, I want them to become lineages like the Gothic Lineages from Ravenloft, and maybe have a bit of tweaking lore-wise (as Genasi used to be people who were just touched by the elemental planes, instead of having to be half-genie).
Gods please no. They're not humans or elfs touched by an elemental plane, they're their own race, and have been for a couple editions now, at least. The impulse to force things into symmetry is bad for the game, and for art in general.
Good point.
Thanks! I really hope they do update wildshape, including relaxing the restrictions on movement types and opening things up to some fey and plants, even if it has to list out specific ones in order to do that, or make things like nymphs and dryads and treants the sort of thing that gets a tasha's style statblock. Oh, and monstrosities. Come on. Owlbears are part of nature at this point.
Just cleaner. I doubt they will remove them, but I would prefer if PC abilities didn’t refer you to the monster manual.
I get that, for sure. To me, the versatility of those spells leads to a wider range of surprising and engaging moments than the mechanics of the Summon XYZ spells do, and i see great value in both styles of summoning.
 

It sounds like reprints of existing stat blocks, but in the new format with “typically [alignment]” instead of just two letters, proficiency bonus listed in the stat block, and spellcasting monsters re-worked to have combat-related spells written out as actions.
And hopefully stuff like just having Dryads have 16 AC (Barkskin) as part of it's stats, rather than having to cast it or concentrate on it.
 

Ok, a bunch of the same questions keep coming up about the Monsters of the Multiverse, and I've listened to the stream, so I'll make some bullets;

  • There is probably not any truly new material (monsters or races) in this book. The word "new" was not mentioned, and the book seems purposefully made to collect material scattered across other already-released books.
  • What is new: there is going to be new art (entirely new or updated) for some monsters.
  • Monsters with spellcasting may be redone, to help encourage optimal spell/ability usage. CRs seem to remain unchanged.

So, great book to get if you just need another supplementary Monster Manual. It's essentially a Monster Manual 2, by pooling together a bunch of already released books.
 

I get that, for sure. To me, the versatility of those spells leads to a wider range of surprising and engaging moments than the mechanics of the Summon XYZ spells do, and i see great value in both styles of summoning.
Yeah, makes sense. On the plus side, fully backwards compatible, so presumably anything they remove, you’ll still be able to use the original version of if you want.
 

But genasi aren't even unpopular. They're one of the most popular non-phb races.
Which is probably because they were also the first race to come out after the PHB and were free. And, just because something's popular, it doesn't mean that it's not subject to modifications. That's kind of the point of the whole "revising the core races and rulebooks" thing that WotC just announced that they were doing. D&D 5e is popular, but that doesn't mean that it isn't subject to modifications.
Gods please no. They're not humans or elfs touched by an elemental plane, they're their own race, and have been for a couple editions now, at least. The impulse to force things into symmetry is bad for the game, and for art in general.
How would it diminish their identity at all to allow them to be any race that is half-genie (or possibly just touched by the elemental planes, like in 4e)? That wouldn't change their mechanics, because D&D 5e's Genasi are already not at all connected to their Genie heritage, they're just elemental in mechanics. It would just be a fluff-option, like in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount where Genasi can be the result of babies born during natural/magical disasters, but opened up to all races.

If Half-Hags are a lineage, I don't see any reason why Half-Genies shouldn't be one, too.
 

Well, we're mostly there already. I do not expect much that's new (though I hold out for Gnoll...)

1 Aasimar
2 Bugbear
3 Centaur (Theros)
4 Changeling (Eberron)
5 Fairy (WBtW)
6 Firbolg
7 Goblin
8 Goliath
9 Harengon (WBtW)
10 Hobgoblin
11 Kalashtar (Eberron)
12 Kenku
13 Kobold
14 Leonin (Theros)
15 Lizardfolk
16 Minotaur (Theros)
17 Orc
18 Satyr (Theros)
19 Shifter (Eberron)
20 Tabaxi
21 Triton
22 Warforged (Eberron)
23 Yuan-Ti

(all VGTM unless noted)
Owlin from the Strixhaven book...? Grung? Locathah? Are those even actual "official" races?
 

Well, we're mostly there already. I do not expect much that's new (though I hold out for Gnoll...)

1 Aasimar
2 Bugbear
3 Centaur (Theros)
4 Changeling (Eberron)
5 Fairy (WBtW)
6 Firbolg
7 Goblin
8 Goliath
9 Harengon (WBtW)
10 Hobgoblin
11 Kalashtar (Eberron)
12 Kenku
13 Kobold
14 Leonin (Theros)
15 Lizardfolk
16 Minotaur (Theros)
17 Orc
18 Satyr (Theros)
19 Shifter (Eberron)
20 Tabaxi
21 Triton
22 Warforged (Eberron)
23 Yuan-Ti

(all VGTM unless noted)
Duergar
Svirfneblin
Eladrin
Shadar-Kai
Gith
Tortles
Tiefling variants
Aaracokra
Genasi
Locatath
Grung
Verdan
 


Yeah, makes sense. On the plus side, fully backwards compatible, so presumably anything they remove, you’ll still be able to use the original version of if you want.
True!
Which is probably because they were also the first race to come out after the PHB and were free.
That is an enormous stretch, 7 years later.
And, just because something's popular, it doesn't mean that it's not subject to modifications.
Who said it was?
How would it diminish their identity at all to allow them to be any race that is half-genie (or possibly just touched by the elemental planes, like in 4e)?
It would make them not a race? Their identity is equal parts what they can do and where they come from. Dramatically changing their origin dramatically changes their identity.
That wouldn't change their mechanics, because D&D 5e's Genasi are already not at all connected to their Genie heritage, they're just elemental in mechanics. It would just be a fluff-option, like in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount where Genasi can be the result of babies born during natural/magical disasters, but opened up to all races.

If Half-Hags are a lineage, I don't see any reason why Half-Genies shouldn't be one, too.
Half-genies are only one origin of genasi, first of all. Hexbloods were invented from the ground up to be something you can become, genasi aren't.

Meanwhile, you can just describe your genasi as looking more like a dwarf than a human, if you want. Nothing stops you.
 

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