UA to Become Weekly! Pendleton Ward Helped On New AP!

WotC is currently at Gamehole Con, a convention in the US Midwest. According to a GameholeCon attendee at one of WotC's D&D panels, featuring Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, and Mike Mearls, Unearthed Arcana (Mike Mearl's monthly rules column) is going to become a weekly column. Not only that, Sage Advice will be pausing for a while while Jeremy Crawford joins Mearls on the UA columns. There will be a new Unearthed Arcana every Monday, with the next being three new barbarian options.

WotC's Chris Perkins also said that "The next D&D story is *not* based on Adventure Time. However, Pendleton Ward did help us create it." Ward is, of course, the creator of the US cartoon Adventure Time.

Photo courtesy of @BasementofDeath
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[dndthrowaway1]

Extra UA articles do nothing for me unless they actually get put into AL-legal books since that's what my DM allows. I'm not sure how much of their UA stuff has become hardcopy-AL-legal yet, but my impression is that it's a very small amount. I have 0 interest in adventure paths, personally.

I'm not going to buy another settings book like Forgotten Realms. I wanted more crunch and that provided some, but in retrospect, that was dumb of me. I shouldn't be supporting products just because they have a teeny amount of approved crunch - that sends WotC the wrong message, that it's ok to do that. No, the only way they should get more money from me is by providing a book focused in large part, if not exclusively, around rules and options.

I know it's not a popular opinion around here, but I think the ecosystem should be able to handle an options book every two years. There has to be some middle ground between releasing the absolute smallest mechanical content possible and deluging us with a flood of splat books.

 

[Mercule]

something niche an elemental "Inferno Rager" or an actual "bearskin" that's sort of a shifter.

I have no idea why this crept into my skull, but I read that as "Disco Inferno Rager". Which, actually, would be an awesome subclass -- for the April issue.

 

[dave2008]

Extra UA articles do nothing for me unless they actually get put into AL-legal books since that's what my DM allows. I'm not sure how much of their UA stuff has become hardcopy-AL-legal yet, but my impression is that it's a very small amount. I have 0 interest in adventure paths, personally.

It is likely that the increased rate of UA articles indicates that we will see these start to migrate to a book soon (not sure if it would be AL-legal or not), so that could help you. And since there will likely be surveys about these UA articles it is a good idea to be aware of them if you want to help guide them to the final product.

 

[Parmandur]

Heh, it still could be "Volo's Guide to Adventuring" or something like that. I was thinking at first that even with other stuff, it might not be able to fill out 224 to 256 pages. But a full psionics system with 2 or more classes (and associated subtypes), and a description all the necessary powers, along with a few new playable races (thri-kreen will almost certainly be included here), 1 - 3 new subtypes for each PHB class (I'm hoping to see a few new extra cleric variants myself, say Protection and Darkness), probably a good number of new/updated spells, and likely some feats, well, that probably would fill up a book. At worst, there could be some new DM options and rules clarifications (a more detailed coverage of underwater combat/adventuring would be very useful) to fill in any remaining pagecount.

At worst, however, I still assume that any future "monster books" will be "Volo's Guide to..." (and perhaps even other fluff-heavy books like campaign settings and planar book) even if the other books aren't...

Oh, yeah, I think we will definitely see books like Volos for future monster content, probably with Volos name. In addition to this, Ed Greenwood is putting a series of "Volos Guide to [insert placename]" short books on the DMs Guild, and the Dungeonering book: they are investing an awful lot into Volo as an iconic character...

 

[chibi graz'zt]

Feel pretty certain that the Mystic & such is going to be in the the big rules expansion book; my hypothesis is that we might see year and half year gaps between experimental books (SCAG, Volis) and any potential followup pending feedback. @mearls got coy on Twitter recently at the possibility of a follow-up to SCAG, no plans "that we can talk about" sort of thing. So, I think we will see more Volos, but maybe not till 2018. While next year, we will see the Big Book of Crunch experiment, and maybe another setting book...

I really hope that is the case; with my Underdark campaign in full swing, Im really making use of the Mystic rules and I would like to see something more complete/official soon; that said, a Manual of the Planes (Planescape anyone?) is currently in demand as 5e enters its 3rd year, hope to see something like this soon, even if its Realms-centric at launch and takes you to Sigil.

An FR book covering the Moonsea/Inner Sea would be great, a perfect compliment to SCAG!

 

[Parmandur]

I really hope that is the case; with my Underdark campaign in full swing, Im really making use of the Mystic rules and I would like to see something more complete/official soon; that said, a Manual of the Planes (Planescape anyone?) is currently in demand as 5e enters its 3rd year, hope to see something like this soon, even if its Realms-centric at launch and takes you to Sigil.

Think one of the APs in the pipeline will be Modron-centric, based on the core books obsession with them and hints from Perkins, and wouldn't be surprised to see "Volos Guide to the Planes."

 

[CHEMISTSDP]

We are early enough in this edition that can definitely support weekly UA. I am very interested to see other areas that they flesh out. I am always interested in new Feats, Spells, and combat manuever options for example. To me, this is great news!

 

[blakem]

The UA options don't lack quality control. Rather, they are part of the quality control process.

Well put.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I'm just posting here so I'll get emails to let me follow if there is any new news.

 

[Dire Bare]

DELETED POST

Sorry, posted to the wrong thread.

 

[Pauper]

I'm not sure how much of their UA stuff has become hardcopy-AL-legal yet, but my impression is that it's a very small amount.

And you'd be right.

Of the class-based options previewed in Unearthed Arcana, only one -- the storm sorcerer -- has made it into a hard-cover sourcebook. Given that ten playable races were included in Volo's Guide, you might expect at least one of them to have been an Unearthed Arcana subject, but no: changelings, warforged, minotaurs, and variant tieflings all appeared in UA, but none of them made Volo's Guide.

And I'm OK with that -- of the four UA races that could have been included, three were strongly identified with a setting that wasn't the Forgotten Realms. It's nice to see the designers rejecting the 4e-era 'everything must be usable in every game' attitude that made all the different worlds of D&D seem to run together into a bland mush.

If I have a criticism of the approach, it seems to me that much too much weight is put on characters that supposedly have a nostalgia appeal (Volo, Minsc, etc.); FR fiction authors are coming up with interesting new characters in each book, and there are plenty of NPCs in the hard-cover adventures that could really use some extra fleshing-out. I'm not sure we need to revisit Planescape or Dragonlance, but if we do, let's at least view those settings through fresh eyes, and maybe allow a new generation of players to find something of their own to like in those settings.

--
Pauper

 

[Demetrios1453]

Think one of the APs in the pipeline will be Modron-centric, based on the core books obsession with them and hints from Perkins, and wouldn't be surprised to see "Volos Guide to the Planes."

I 100% agree with both of your assumptions here. VGtM stated they plan on looking into fiends in the future, so I imagine that "Volo's Guide to the Planes" would do deep dives on fiends and celestials at least. Possibly modrons, slaad, and elementals as well, but I'm not sure how must monster lore stuff you can squeeze in there and still do a fairly comprehensive guide to the planes, although presumably the "beastiary" section will be somewhat smaller - you could probably fully update most planar creatures in 50 - 60 pages instead of 100 like on VGtM

 

[bedir than]

And you'd be right.

Of the class-based options previewed in Unearthed Arcana, only one -- the storm sorcerer -- has made it into a hard-cover sourcebook. Given that ten playable races were included in Volo's Guide, you might expect at least one of them to have been an Unearthed Arcana subject, but no: changelings, warforged, minotaurs, and variant tieflings all appeared in UA, but none of them made Volo's Guide.

And I'm OK with that -- of the four UA races that could have been included, three were strongly identified with a setting that wasn't the Forgotten Realms. It's nice to see the designers rejecting the 4e-era 'everything must be usable in every game' attitude that made all the different worlds of D&D seem to run together into a bland mush.

If I have a criticism of the approach, it seems to me that much too much weight is put on characters that supposedly have a nostalgia appeal (Volo, Minsc, etc.); FR fiction authors are coming up with interesting new characters in each book, and there are plenty of NPCs in the hard-cover adventures that could really use some extra fleshing-out. I'm not sure we need to revisit Planescape or Dragonlance, but if we do, let's at least view those settings through fresh eyes, and maybe allow a new generation of players to find something of their own to like in those settings.

--
Pauper

Swashbuckler made SCAG.

There's been a lot of talk of Luskan in SCAG, Volo's, etc. I think that the minotaur as mariner and other pirate type stuff makes an AP soon.

 

[Shroomy]

The UA Barbarian PDF is available if you can figure out it's URL; I'm assuming the article will be up shortly.

 

[Prakriti]

The UA Barbarian PDF is available if you can figure out it's URL; I'm assuming the article will be up shortly.

Did I figure it out?

http://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_Barbarian.pdf

 

[Xeviat]

Did I figure it out?

http://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_Barbarian.pdf

On the surface, I like it!


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[flametitan]

I'm not sure what to think of the flavour of these, (I have minor concerns that the zealot path is starting to tread on the toes of the Paladin and Cleric) but rage beyond death seems like an amazing Path capstone.

 

[Corwin]

Oh, thank the gods we will be getting a whole lotta new options soon. Not that it will stifle those incessantly crying for more. Because it will either not be the *particular* options the want, or it won't be done in the *exact way* they wanted. I just hope its useful and fun for those of us who actually *like* 5e.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

On the surface, I like it!


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Me too.

 

[Corwin]

Did I figure it out?

http://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_Barbarian.pdf

Ooooo! I really like the Zealot!