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 …

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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...

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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...

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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.

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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...

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[Frilf]

I'm a little surprised that they're using the word "Everything" in the title. Since it was already used in Xanathar's Guide, I'd have thought they'd want to make the title of this one more distinctive.

Rather partial to the title: "Tasha's Cauldron of Wondrous Witchery" myself. But I guess "Everything" has more mass appeal....

 

[Zardnaar]

They could be a bit more honest I suppose.

Xanathars book of Powercreep.

 

[Frilf]

Character options are always welcome. I love being able to customize and create new concepts, so this book will probably be an auto-purchase for me depending on the reviews. Heck, it will probably be an auto-purchase anyway. Hopefully, it will contain more ideas and variants than we've seen so far in the UAs (especially with regard to subclasses). Psionics is always nice, too, and I hope they get the balance and flavor right for 5E. Can we get a Dark Sun setting, please?

 

[Frilf]

Ok, calling it a cauldron "of Everything" now makes me expect the following to be in this book:

• Greyhawk
• Dragonlance
• Dark Sun
• Planescape
• Mystara
• Cthulhu et al.
• Delicious recipes
• All spells previously in D&D not yet officially in 5E
• An incense censer shaped like a happy pig
• Three monocles of different sizes
• Ten new ballroom dances with step by step instructions
• A Star Trek™ style Holodeck
• and Gnome Paladin subclasses, lore, and mutliple images

Those are realistic expectations, I think, but what I'd really like to see is some other spells attributed to Tasha beside "hideous laughter". Can we get one other, maybe, seeing as she's such a big deal in the lore?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

They could be a bit more honest I suppose.

Xanathars book of Powercreep.

To be honest, the power balance of XgtE was a little all over the place, so I would not call it powercreep.

-The Hexblade is pretty front loaded, but its later features are that great. Its a multiclass dream, but a pretty meh patron for all-in warlocks. They can almost be considered fix-patch, like the new ranger's archetypes.

• The Zealot is a better berserker than the berserker.
• The inquisitive, mastermind, duelist, samurai, cavalier, spirit barbarian, warmage, forge and death cleric etc are pretty balanced and dont overshadow the PHB's archetype.
• Storm barbarian and arcane archer are not that great.
• Some spells were a little, Healing Spirit was even modified. Most of the elemental evil spells are pretty bad.

So, all in all, I dont think this would count as powercreep. Most of the stuff from the guide plays nicely with the stuff from the PHB.

 

[Zardnaar]

To be honest, the power balance of XgtE was a little all over the place, so I would not call it powercreep.

-The Hexblade is pretty front loaded, but its later features are that great. Its a multiclass dream, but a pretty meh patron for all-in warlocks. They can almost be considered fix-patch, like the new ranger's archetypes.

• The Zealot is a better berserker than the berserker.
• The inquisitive, mastermind, duelist, samurai, cavalier, spirit barbarian, warmage, forge and death cleric etc are pretty balanced and dont overshadow the PHB's archetype.
• Storm barbarian and arcane archer are not that great.
• Some spells were a little, Healing Spirit was even modified. Most of the elemental evil spells are pretty bad.

So, all in all, I dont think this would count as powercreep. Most of the stuff from the guide plays nicely with the stuff from the PHB.

New spells and a few of the subclasses are up there.

Berserker is just bad IMHO. I like the totem one bit don't really like the Barbarian on multiple levels regardless of it's power level.

 

[Marandahir]

I counted the fingers...it's definitely Graz'zt in the alternate cover - which is the one I am getting, as I have the alternate covers for Mordenkainen's and Xanathar's, too.

As I said, not sure we need new sub systems for parley, but I just thought of something...if racial traits become optional or swappable, that would provide a sweet simple framework for creating new races. Which is a plus in my book. Seems they are going at least partially the route which I already was a big fan of in the Zweihander system.

For those who don't know what I mean: In Zweihander, you have attribute modifications according to your ancestry but also one other special feature from a list, usually rolled randomly. For example, the ogre that can eat nearly anything, the dwarf with an extra bonus to his resistance against poison...things that make every ancestry unique but are not necessarily shared by all members of an ancestry.

This is why nobody should be upset about them decoupling "races" from their "racial features."
Even if you disagree vehemently with the practice, WotC is giving you a toolset to make your own "races."
They haven't shined a spotlight on that balancing practice previously in this edition.

For me, I prefer a bit of a mix - I don't like that proficiencies and ability scores are linked to character ancestries (characters are heroic figures, not cultural averages, and if I'm the strongest and ugliest halfling in the world, there's no reason why I shouldn't have a bonus to Strength instead of a bonus to Charisma). But I do believe that ancestry features can guide a story for that ancestry in the game.

Keith Baker talks about how, in HIS Eberron, Elves have Fey Ancestry and know Elvish by default. To him, that means that rather than the character LEARNING Elvish because they were raised in an Elven household to Elvish parents, they were born understanding Elvish, even if they orphaned and raised by say, Dwarves. Upon first encountering another Elf speaking Elvish (or any other Fey creature), they understand it, because their Fey Ancestry means they are not Natural Humanoids, they're Fey, and they have an innate connection to the language of Thelanis (the Feywild in Eberron). This creates a unique and unifying story about Elves that is very interesting in his game, and drives questions like where does that leave Half-Elves?

I think that's great. I don't think Elvish works that way in MY setting, so I'd decouple language proficiencies from ancestry. But other features drive ancestral cultural stories in my games, and I'd want to keep those as unifying features.

The point being is that this is an awesome toolset that should be useful for nearly everyone: the DM who wants to build their own unique ancestry for their game, the Player who wants to play a Dark Elf without sunlight sensitivity or an unlucky but cantrip-casting Halfling, the Player who wants to play Tauriel and Kíli's child from their Desolation of Smaug fanfic - and not use the Gnome statistics because they think that should be reserved for their OC mary sue's future kid with Frodo Baggins, and the min-max player who just wants the tools to build a character that fits the build they want while still telling the roleplaying story they want (like a wood elf warlock pact of the blade archfey patron with Charisma bonus, Sylvan language, and Longspear proficiencies).

I thought Tasha was an odd choice for the book since I can only think of a single spell named for her, I guess it is a well known spell though.

You're in a BIT of luck, at least - the book will contain new spells attributed to Tasha. No idea about her statblock, though.

 

[TwoSix]

I'm deeply curious if the 1st level bonus feat of Variant Humans is a feature that will be uncoupled and selectable by characters of other races/ancestries/origins. Because that would be pretty ideal, from my perspective.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm deeply curious if the 1st level bonus feat of Variant Humans is a feature that will be uncoupled and selectable by characters of other races/ancestries/origins. Because that would be pretty ideal, from my perspective.

I imagine they would have to lose other abilities but they could.

Which makes them probably a funny looking vuman with Darkvision perhaps.

 

[TwoSix]

I imagine they would have to lose other abilities but they could.

Which makes them probably a funny looking vuman with Darkvision perhaps.

Hey, if I can play some of my favorite races (Changeling, Halfling, Half-elves) with a bonus feat, I don't even need racial adjustments.