D&D 5E The New D&D Book: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything!

​

The new D&D book has been revealed, and it is Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, "a magical mixture of rules options for the world's greatest roleplaying game." The 192-page book is due out November 17th, with standard and alternate covers, and contains more subclasses, spells, character options, group patrons, and rules. Oh, and psionics!

Cover art is by Magali Villeneuve

WHAT WONDERFUL WITCHERY IS THIS?

A magical mixture of rules options for the world's greatest roleplaying game.

The wizard Tasha, whose great works include the spell Tasha’s hideous laughter, has gathered bits and bobs of precious lore during her illustrious career as an adventurer. Her enemies wouldn’t want these treasured secrets scattered across the multiverse, so in defiance, she has collected and codified these tidbits for the enrichment of all.

• EXPANDED SUBCLASSES. Try out subclass options for every Dungeons & Dragons class, including the artificer, which appears in the book.
• MORE CHARACTER OPTIONS. Delve into a collection of new class features and new feats, and customize your character’s origin using straightforward rules for modifying a character’s racial traits.
• INTRODUCING GROUP PATRONS. Whether you're part of the same criminal syndicate or working for an ancient dragon, each group patron option comes with its own perks and types of assignments.
• SPELLS, ARTIFACTS & MAGIC TATTOOS. Discover more spells, as well as magic tattoos, artifacts, and other magic items for your campaign.
• EXPANDED RULES OPTIONS. Try out rules for sidekicks, supernatural environments, natural hazards, and parleying with monsters, and gain guidance on running a session zero.
• A PLETHORA OF PUZZLES. Ready to be dropped into any D&D adventure, puzzles of varied difficulty await your adventurers, complete with traps and guidance on using the puzzles in a campaign.

Full of expanded content for players and Dungeon Masters alike, this book is a great addition to the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Baked in you'll find more rule options for all the character classes in the Player's Handbook, including more subclass options. Thrown in for good measure is the artificer class, a master of magical invention. And this witch's brew wouldn't be complete without a dash of added artifacts, spellbook options, spells for both player characters and monsters, magical tattoos, group patrons, and other tasty goodies.

Here's the alternate cover:

UPDATE! An online event called D&D Celebration from September 18th-20th will be hosted by Elle Osili-Wood, which is "an epic live event with panels, gameplay, & previews of the book!" See the video in the Tweet below!

Gather your party and join the adventure at  D&D Celebration 2020, an online gaming event open to fans all over the world!

Celebrate the release of  Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden  with a weekend of Icewind Dale–themed virtual play sessions and help us create the biggest virtual tabletop roleplaying game event ever! Fans will also get the chance to preview some content from  Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the forthcoming book featuring massive rules options, subclasses, and more for the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Watch featured play sessions with D&D luminaries and learn something new with a slate of panels led by the D&D design team and community.


UPDATE! Check out the Nerdarchy site for some previews.

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Has, Well… Everything for 5E D&D

The follow up to 2017’s Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, on Nov. 17, 2020 fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons upcoming Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything must indeed possess powerful …

nerdarchy.com

UPDATE! Other news items around the web about this book:

With D&D's Next Rulebook, Character Creation Will Never Be the Same

Although Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition has added as many classes, races, and rules as it has since it first began, for the most part, the way players create characters has stayed the same. You pick a race, that race defines certain things about you, and so on. But the game’s next sourcebook...

io9.gizmodo.com

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything coming in November, brings new ways to personalize your characters

Wizards of the Coast has announced its next D&D book! Entitled Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, this rules expansion follows up Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and will be available on November 17th. Providing both players and DMs with the tools to level up their games, the 192 page tome will be...

gamingtrend.com

Dungeons & Dragons Announces New Book and Fall Event - IGN

The D&D team reveals an online community event in September and a new sourcebook soon to follow.

www.ign.com

D&D's next expansion, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, adds new subclasses and racial customization

Dungeons & Dragons is getting its biggest rules expansion in three years, courtesy of one powerful witch. In November, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything will hit shelves, offering D&D players several new subclasses, some exciting new spells, and a new way to create characters that’s fully...

www.syfy.com

 

[Sir Brennen]

I mean, if it was the "max roll powers you down, min roll powers you up" thing people had the most issue with (and I still don't see what's hard to grasp about that idea) maaaaaaaaaybe they kept the die mechanic but just changed it to a static die that scales with level and something more baseline that people already know like "Ability Mod + X uses per day?" I dunno. It just feels like they'd rather water it down than take even minor chances with mechanics that have cool flavor.

Changing it to a static, scaling die makes it too much like Battlemaster Superiority Dice IMO, and I think the designers are still going to try and have something distinct for psionics.

Even just switching to "max roll powers you up, min roll powers you down" might be more intuitive for some people, reflecting a power surge or one that's sputtering.

I also like tying number of feature uses to Proficiency Modifier (instead of Ability Modifier), as has been done in some recent UA subclasses. Perhaps that will figure into psionics somehow.

 

[Undrave]

While I get you, I think that would have made it even MORE unpopular since that would be happening fairly often when you were at the low dice. Maybe more tempting when the die gets bigger, for sure.

Maybe any dice size above your 'base' level would have that? So that the limit would go up as you go in level? Something like that, I dunno... just keep the Gamble/Push-your-luck aspect anyway.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

With the example of how a spellbook could look like a Romance Novel.

Exactly what would the Romance Novel spellbook of your Wizard be then?

 

[Oofta]

With the example of how a spellbook could look like a Romance Novel.

Exactly what would the Romance Novel spellbook of your Wizard be then?

Probably something like this?

 

[Sacrosanct]

D&D has largely stayed away from exploding criticals. I wouldn't mind see that in some form. I have fond memories of single handily taking out a Minotaur in WFRP 1e with a brand new character by rolling 4 sixes in a row. The GM was not amused

 

[Gradine]

Healing surges (no, hit dice are not the same thing, we had a whole thread about it a few weeks back, don’t @me.), feat-based multiclassing, encounter-based resources (short rests being expected after roughly every 2 encounters instead of after every encounter causes a lot of problems for short rest resources), combat roles and power sources, a proper bloodied condition, spell and power blocks that were clean and easy to parse with standardized language... I could go on.

HD aren't Healing Surges, they replace Surges, to 5e's gain, in my opinion (which, if we've all forgotten, I've previously established is the definitive opinion). "Healer" is not the role for everyone, true, but it's still a pretty popular role. 5e lets us have a dedicated healer for people who want it, but also doesn't really require a "healer" for a well-balanced party. That's a plus.

Feat-Based Multiclassing is great in concept; horrible in 4e's execution, where the math demands you go SAD which sorely limits your choices for interesting multi-class combos. 5e is finally getting it though, if the stuff we're hearing about Tasha's is true (hey, remember Tasha's! That's the book this thread is supposed to be about!)

I won't belabor the point on AEDU; but suffice to say it is not an objectively better class design system, and asymmetric class design makes for more interesting character design and party composition. Combat roles and power sources instead led to forced symmetry that... well, eventually led to pointless classes and balance issues (oh hi Seeker!). These are all things 5e rightfully got rid of.

Also: "spell and power blocks that were clean and easy to parse with standardized language" always makes me a laugh, because I remember that time that a 4e PC that was on fire and immediately dove into a pond, but the DM insisted they were still on fire because the power clearly states that the condition doesn't end without a successful saving throw.

Here, let's just do a definitive list (based, as it is, on my opinion)
Things 4e did horribly that 5e does much better:
*Math/Bounded Accuracy (Every PC is SAD or a bust)
*Rulings over Rules
*Asymmetric Class Design
*Ritual Casting
*Social & Exploration Pillars
*Theatre of the Mind Combat
*Magic Equipment
*Feat Design

Things 4e did great that 5e does better
*Hit Dice > Healing Surges
*Class Balance
*Cantrips
*Attack Actions (looking at you, 3.X Full Attack)
*Race Design

Things 4e did great that 5e doesn't do as well
*Grid-Based Combat (specifically, Movement & Placement abilities)
*Bloodied is a great idea
*Monster design in general (other than the math)
*Feat-based Multi-classing (5e is finally catching up though!)
*OK, I also miss Themes

Things both 4e and 5e suck at it
*Skills (Skill Challenges are a great idea but 4e never fully stuck the landing (the terrible 4e math didn't help either), but 5e loses points for not even trying).

 

[OblivionDrive]

Maybe any dice size above your 'base' level would have that? So that the limit would go up as you go in level? Something like that, I dunno... just keep the Gamble/Push-your-luck aspect anyway.

That could be a thing. Though the way it was in the playtest, your only real limit was if you powered down past the bottom, but in theory you could luck out and keep operating at mid-low to mid-high power almost all day if the dice were in your favor. I imagine they could have thought that was unbalanced? Not dropping below the base would eliminate the power down inevitability.

 

[Maxperson]

I like the player-side release schedule. It keeps the focus on the game and off the character build without allowing the options to get stale.

For a lot of us, it's about character concept and not power builds. With 3e/3.5 I could make virtually an concept I could think of without sacrificing on the concept by having to kludge in something that didn't really fit. With 5e that's not true. A 1 per year release wouldn't overwhelm the game and would allow more concept customization.

 

[Undrave]

well, eventually led to pointless classes and balance issues (oh hi Seeker!)

The Seeker was a Primal Controller, which already existed in the Druid so it didn't actually have anything to do with 'grid filling'. In fact, if grid filling was a thing, we would have seen a Martial Controller and we never did.

That could be a thing. Though the way it was in the playtest, your only real limit was if you powered down past the bottom, but in theory you could luck out and keep operating at mid-low to mid-high power almost all day if the dice were in your favor. I imagine they could have thought that was unbalanced? Not dropping below the base would eliminate the power down inevitability.

Maybe... But I would imagine a ton of ability would bring you up or down a dice size as a cost.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Unless the book includes a warlord and shaman class, clearly the title is not correct. :/