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

 

[dave2008]

Long shot prediction time: There are 22 entirely new subclasses in Tasha's Cauldron. People counted up the UA material and got 24, which less the two Wizard subclasses that had been called out as not making the cut (Psionic and Onomancy Wizard) leaves 22. Thus people have assumed that some version of everything else made it in. But is that true?

There's been conflicting information on if the Sorcerer subclass that made it in is the Aberrant Mind or the Psionic Soul. But is there a conflict? In one of the Dev videos, they commented that the feedback on Aberrant Mind was "Too much mucus" and the feedback on Psionic Soul was "Not enough mucus". What if they decided to please both camps by finding enough design space to do both of them?

Thus my long shot prediction is that both the Aberrant Mind and Psionic Soul will be in the book, and an unknown 1 of the other 21 UA subclasses got left on the cutting room floor.

There is also the new artificer subclass (or was that in a UA). Is that included in the 22 new or an addition to that number?!

 

[Mistwell]

It's at #15 in All Books right now...and it's just pre-order for $50!

Is there a benefit to pre-order rather than waiting to closer to the release date?

 

[Kurotowa]

There is also the new artificer subclass (or was that in a UA). Is that included in the 22 new or an addition to that number?!

As best we know it's 22 from UA (including the Armorer Artificer), 5 reprints (from Ravnica, Theros, and Sword Coast), and the 3 base Artificer ones from Eberron.

 

[TwoSix]

They say lots of things that are obviously false. Like the blatantly false numbers they've been claiming for D&D players that fall apart with a moment of examination. I'd imagine this is just the same kind of thing considering that it worked just fine for 40 years and their biggest competitor stole their market by doing that.

Looks to me that they're using it as an excuse to avoid admitting 4th edition was a disaster.

The idea that they're making business decisions in 2020 based on protecting the reputation of a discontinued decade-old edition is deeply conspiratorial thinking.

 

[TarionzCousin]

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?

"During the press briefing they did not get too deep into new spells and magic items in TCoE but there are some tidbits to share. For starters Tasha adds new spells of her own design to D&D canon. Tasha’s caustic brew and Tasha’s otherworldly guise are two mentioned and I’m excited to see more. Spells named for the wizards who created them evokes a sense of mystery and wonder in all D&D players and after all her incredible excursions and magical experimentation I’m certain Tasha’s influence on 5E D&D will be immense." From the article at Nerdarchy mentioned in the original post.

 

[Undrave]

So the beast of the water is the same as the beast of the land but has a swim speed?

In which case why have beast of the land at all? Just take a beast of the water in case swimming crops up.

Realistically, in order to gain swim speed it would have to loose something - either land speed or some other feature. Which would make it an inferior companion for the 90% of adventures that do not take place in the water.

NB, giant snakes and frogs aren't going away, the Primal Beast sits along side them as an alternative.

I just checked the UA and the Beast of Land could already have a swim speed. It had:

Speed: 40 ft, climb or swim 40 ft (your choice when you bond with the beast)

And it has a Charge ability and its attack inflicts slashing damage.

So I could easily see the Beast of Land being a 40 ft speed with climb, while the Beast of Water has only 30 ft on land with 40/50 ft swim and, instead of a charge attack, has some kind of grappling option. Maybe with a bite attack that inflicts piercing damage, or a slam that inflicts bludgeoning damage. The stat blocks as they are aren't that deep so that minor distinction would probably be enough. Also the Beast of Air has d6 hit dice and the Beast of Land has d8 hit dice, they could play with that differentiation too.

The idea of a 'Beast of Skill' (like a small monkey or something) isn't bad either, BTW, but I think that just steps on the toes of the Familiar spell too much. Also, I can't imagine it would provide the kind of battle prowess the Beast needs to balance out the Beastmater, at least IMO.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The idea of a 'Beast of Skill' (like a small monkey or something) isn't bad either, BTW, but I think that just steps on the toes of the Familiar spell too much. Also, I can't imagine it would provide the kind of battle prowess the Beast needs to balance out the Beastmater, at least IMO.

Not every character has to be built around combat.

 

[DnD Warlord]

They say lots of things that are obviously false. Like the blatantly false numbers they've been claiming for D&D players that fall apart with a moment of examination. I'd imagine this is just the same kind of thing considering that it worked just fine for 40 years and their biggest competitor stole their market by doing that.

Looks to me that they're using it as an excuse to avoid admitting 4th edition was a disaster.

4e was anything but a disaster

 

[Chaosmancer]

Guys, let's keep talking about Tasha and not do yet another round of sniping about the success and how you measure success of various editions. It hasn't been interestng the last five times it happened.

 

[Sacrosanct]

4e was anything but a disaster

As a stand alone RPG? It wasn't. Great success compared to most indie games.
As a well designed RPG? Not a disaster either. Quite good.

As the flagship D&D game of the most popular game from a business perspective? It kinda was. It fell flat to a huge part of the target demographic, sending many off to PF, was revised shortly after release (essentials, which was too late), and shelved after only a few years in total.