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

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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]

It does. And the class costs you your +1 sourcebook to boot, so you're stuck with the PHB Elf ancestries, to boot. No AL Sea Elf Bladesingers, no AL Eladrin Bladesingers, no AL Shadar-kai Bladesingers.

Until now.

Why? Are there Shadar-kai in TCoE? You still couldn't do that, but, assuming the race restriction is lifted, at least now all the PHB races would be available for Bladesinger.

But that seems a really, really minor thing to waste space on reprinting. Removing a race restriction is not much of an "update".

I mean, is official Errata not AL legal? Seems a much better way to handle it if that's all it is (which I don't think it is.)

 

[Urriak Uruk]

From Dragon+;

The adopted daughter of the Baba Yaga, frenemy of Mordenkainen, and real name of Demonomicon author Iggwilv, she is now also the star of her own D&D sourcebook.

Interesting that not only is this explicit Iggwilv = Tasha, it's that Tasha was her original name, not the other way around.

Makes sense too, as Iggwilv sounds pretty made up.

 

[David Howery]

Don’t get too excited. If it turns out to be anything more significant than the removal of the elf restriction, maybe some different fluff, and at most some minor errata, I’ll eat a page from the book.

just in case... what spices go good with paper and ink?

 

[Charlaquin]

I think "old school" style kind of misses the point. I think that while the success of 5E is in part due to nostalgia, nostalgia only gets your toe in the door. It's the flexibility and freedom that 5E gives that sells it and makes it popular. While there were aspects of 4E I liked, it always felt very "locked into" a specific style of play. In many ways 3.x started the trend of locking down players and forcing power limits and expectations, 4E just continued that trend.

In many ways 5E is more of a rules light version of D&D akin to pre-3.x days of yore. So if that's what is meant by old school then I agree. Take a look at the stealth rules for example. In 3.x they tried to explicitly spell it out, in 4 the specifics were spelled out in the powers. In 5? DM decides when you can hide, along with some additional rules structure. Some people hate that of course, but it does seem to be part of the reason for success.

With Tasha's, it looks like we're getting even more flexibility and options. I think doing it this way as optional rules is a good thing, those that don't want the extra complexity can ignore it, people that want the extra flexibility will now have more options.

For the most part I agree.

 

[Charlaquin]

just in case... what spices go good with paper and ink?

If it’s just one page, maybe I could put it on a sandwich. Or blend it into a shake of some kind.

 

[Undrave]

If it’s just one page, maybe I could put it on a sandwich. Or blend it into a shake of some kind.

Use it to make a calzone.

 

[Mistwell]

I don’t assume it didn’t play a part, I just recognize it was one factor among many, and considering how the game’s growth blew WotC’s expectations out of the water, I think it’s likely that the factors that they consciously cultivated probably had significantly less impact than other, unanticipated factors, likely beyond WotC’s control.

I never claimed it was anything more than one factor among many. However, you've set up a catch 22. If they come up with a plan with the marketing behind it and execute that plan and it does well, you claim it must have to do with factors other than the plan. If they do poorly, you can easily claim it's a bad plan. There is no scenario where you could give credit to the plan with that logic.

I'd say at best it's a "We're not sure". To say "probably" other things seems...very biased and spin. It did not "probably" do well based on other factors because it did better than they expected.

 

[Maxperson]

Yet that restriction applies to AL, doesn't it?

No clue. I won't touch AL with a 10' pole.

 

[Charlaquin]

Sorry, mispost.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I think "old school" style kind of misses the point. I think that while the success of 5E is in part due to nostalgia, nostalgia only gets your toe in the door.

Nostalgia can be powerful, but it doesn't impact new players at all who don't have it, and more often than not, is disappointing from what you remember and thus it's exactly like you say; it doesn't lend to staying power.

For example, I have a lot of fond memories (nostalgia) for all things 80s. But going back and rewatching some of the cartoons? Or TV shows? Man, that stuff didn't age well or hold up lol. I've made a commitment to stay away from revisiting some cherished things from the 80s for that very reason lol.