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

 

[Marandahir]

That's what's been said; 5 reprints from the setting books (possibly with small tweaks) and 22 new ones (chosen from the last year's worth of UA). Oh, also however many of the Artificer subclasses they choose to reprint to go with the base class and the Armorer.

Thanks for the confirmation. That's really, really, really exciting. Jaw dropping so. This is a much bigger expansion than Xanathar's was.

I'd imagine Alchemist + one other (probably Battle Smith, lest it be 3 A-letter subclasses).

 

[lkj]

Nearly every setting is a post-Golden Age setting, except for Morningstar and Dawnforge -- neither of which WotC picked in their 3E new setting hunt, incidentally. Fallen empires and relics of past golden ages are more or less required for all the TSR/WotC settings, including Krynn and Toril.

I say this as someone who loved and used the gazeteer for years: Greyhawk doesn't have a hook other than "this is Gary's world (more or less)." If you want it to be something you can sell to fans whose parents may not have been alive when the gazetteer came out, you're going to have to do better than "it's sort of sword and sorcery, other than the fact that it's not."

If you really want to play a sword and sorcery game in 2020, you probably want Dungeon Crawl Classics, especially the Lankhmar books. Alternately, you'd want Thule or Hubris.


Calling Greyhawk "sword and sorcery" requires stretching the definition past the breaking point. It has chivalry -- the gazetteer is covered in heraldric symbols, after all -- all the iconic spellcasters in the 5E PHB and many more besides (we miss you, Sustarre!). It has a demigod ruling a kingdom and devils ruling another. It has one of the original two megadungeons you can commute to while still keeping an apartment in the city. The barbarian lands it has don't look much at all like Conan and are pushed to the edge of the map, over where they've got a version of Blackmoor held hostage.

So, I'm definitely not going to disagree that the differences between FR and GH are not stark enough from a marketing perspective to give GH any 'leverage' over, say, Dark Sun as an opportunity for WotC to explore something really different. I think they are very different settings in feel. But not enough so to get across in a way that would justify Greyhawk getting its own setting book. At least right now.

What I will say-- as a Greyhawk fan, not as an argument for why it deserves anything-- is that Greyhawk offers some very, very cool story elements. It also has-- in my opinion-- a substantially different feel than FR. To be clear, I like FR. I've run plenty of games there. But reading through the Saltmarsh book and then revisiting old GH material just gives me a different sense. And I like that. A lot. And I'd argue that WotC folk have made a similar assessment (note the Dragon+ article awhile back suggesting how much grittier and morally ambiguous Greyhawk is than FR)

So here's my hope: WotC has shown that they also think some of the lore from Greyhawk is very cool. And they've shown no hesitation in attributing that lore to Greyhawk. Even look at today's marketing articles-- Greyhawk gets mentioned without hesitation. They went 'all in' on Greyhawk as a setting for Ghosts of Saltmarsh. What I hope this means is that they are introducing the setting bit by bit to these new audiences. Making it part of the lexicon and lore. Which opens up the possibility of Greyhawk showing up in major adventure storylines without much fuss or bother. Potentially leading to some deeper treatment down the road.

In other words, while I'd love a setting book, I don't think we'll get any book that is just Greyhawk. But could it get a section (and then further online expansion) as part of some broader storyline? I sure hope so. And I'd argue that WotC doesn't consider the setting dead. They sure bring it up often enough, and they've been introducing characters and stories from it for the last couple years.

AD

 

[Parmandur]

So those reprints are 5. We then have Fey Wanderer, Circle of Stars, Aberrant Mind, Armorer, Creation Bard and Psionic Soul sorcerer
Added together and that's 11 outta 22 so far.

11 out of 27, the reprints are 5 more than the new 22.

 

[Marandahir]

Thanks for the confirmation. That's really, really, really exciting. Jaw dropping so. This is a much bigger expansion than Xanathar's was.

I'd imagine Alchemist + one other (probably Battle Smith, lest it be 3 A-letter subclasses).

I saw on reddit that Artillerist was confirmed, but unsure where. I'd be surprised if Alchemist wasn't reprinted too, so maybe all three will for a nice even 30 subclasses in the book? I guess they could drop Battle Smith for Armourer…

 

[Zsig]

I'd imagine Alchemist + one other (probably Battle Smith, lest it be 3 A-letter subclasses).

The Nerdarchy article shows the image for the Artillerist Artificer subclass, so I guess that's pretty much confirmed it's in there.

EDIT: ninja'ed

 

[Marandahir]

The Nerdarchy article shows the image for the Artillerist Artificer subclass, so I guess that's pretty much confirmed it's in there.

View attachment 125045

EDIT: ninja'ed

11 out of 27, the reprints are 5 more than the new 22.

This is the guess I've seen passed around a lot. I added all 3 E:RFtLW subclasses for a nice even 30, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were only 28 or 29 (dropping 1-2 of the Artificer subclasses):

• Barbarian: Path of the Beast, Path of the Wild Soul
• Bard: College of Creation, College of Eloquence
• Cleric: Order Domain, Twilight Domain, Unity Domain
• Druid: Circle of Spores, Circle of Stars, Circle of Wildfire
• Fighter: Psi Knight, Rune Knight
• Monk: Way of the Astral Self, Way of Mercy
• Paladin: Oath of Glory, Oath of the Watchers
• Ranger: Fey Wanderer, Swarmkeeper
• Rogue: Phantom, Soul Knife
• Sorcerer: Aberrant Mind, Clockwork Soul
• Warlock: The Genie, The Lurker in the Deep, (plus Talisman Pact Boon)
• Wizard: Bladesinging Tradition, Order of Scribes
• Artificer: Alchemist, Armorer, Artillerist, (Battle Smith too?)

 

[dave2008]

Personally, I'm thrown as I was expecting a place for Gem Dragons in the Q4 book (Nathan Stewart said there would be a book with them in 2020) and it doesn't seem like Tasha's book includes new monsters.

FYI, I did see in one of previews on another site that it does include some monsters?! Unfortunately is was one sentence fragment in a multi-paragraph article so I wasn't sure if I misunderstood or it was a mistake or if there really are monsters in there too.

 

[Parmandur]

This is the guess I've seen passed around a lot. I added all 3 E:RFtLW subclasses for a nice even 30, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were only 28 or 29 (dropping 1-2 of the Artificer subclasses):

• Barbarian: Path of the Beast, Path of the Wild Soul
• Bard: College of Creation, College of Eloquence
• Cleric: Order Domain, Twilight Domain, Unity Domain
• Druid: Circle of Spores, Circle of Stars, Circle of Wildfire
• Fighter: Psi Knight, Rune Knight
• Monk: Way of the Astral Self, Way of Mercy
• Paladin: Oath of Glory, Oath of the Watchers
• Ranger: Fey Wanderer, Swarmkeeper
• Rogue: Phantom, Soul Knife
• Sorcerer: Aberrant Mind, Clockwork Soul
• Warlock: The Genie, The Lurker in the Deep, (plus Talisman Pact Boon)
• Wizard: Order of Scribes, Bladesinging Tradition
• Artificer: Alchemist, Armorer, Artillerist, (Battle Smith too?)

This is the guess I've seen passed around a lot. I added all 3 E:RFtLW subclasses for a nice even 30, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were only 28 or 29 (dropping 1-2 of the Artificer subclasses):

• Barbarian: Path of the Beast, Path of the Wild Soul
• Bard: College of Creation, College of Eloquence
• Cleric: Order Domain, Twilight Domain, Unity Domain
• Druid: Circle of Spores, Circle of Stars, Circle of Wildfire
• Fighter: Psi Knight, Rune Knight
• Monk: Way of the Astral Self, Way of Mercy
• Paladin: Oath of Glory, Oath of the Watchers
• Ranger: Fey Wanderer, Swarmkeeper
• Rogue: Phantom, Soul Knife
• Sorcerer: Aberrant Mind, Clockwork Soul
• Warlock: The Genie, The Lurker in the Deep, (plus Talisman Pact Boon)
• Wizard: Bladesinging Tradition, Order of Scribes
• Artificer: Alchemist, Armorer, Artillerist, (Battle Smith too?)

Not really a guess, those numbers have been stated in official interviews now.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The Nerdarchy article shows the image for the Artillerist Artificer subclass, so I guess that's pretty much confirmed it's in there.

View attachment 125045

EDIT: ninja'ed

That's at least another example of an East Asian character being represented in the art (beyond Hennet the Sorcerer), without being something like a Monk or Samurai.

 

[Marandahir]

That's at least another example of an East Asian character being represented in the art (beyond Hennet the Sorcerer), without being something like a Monk or Samurai.

I love the Chinese medieval dragon rocket cannon. Let's Get Down to Business!

Not really a guess, those numbers have been stated in official interviews now.

Which numbers? 28, 29, or 30? We know that 27 doesn't include the Artificer reprints.