D&D 5E What We Know About Tasha's Cauldron Of Everything

This is a short summary of various things we've learned so far about the upcoming Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

• The initial announcements. November 17th, 192-page hardcover.
• Two subclasses (Warlock Genie, Barbarian Path of Wild Magic) have been previewed.
• Origin customization rules allow you to switch out ability scores and proficiencies.
• Psionics are manifested as psionic-themed spells.
• Preview of a gelatinous ice cube familiar and inspired cocoa mug magic item.
• November 2019's class features Unearthed Arcana playtest document seems to have been largely adopted.
• 22 subclasses from Unearthed Arcana, or reprinted from earlier books.

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.

 

[Wrathamon]

i get that, but i dont play AL so I admit I'm ignorant of how popular that is. I really dont know very many people who do play. But, seems like a strange reason imo even if it was popular. I get the PHB + a campaign book for that season but it feels like a bad choice to do that. You should pick PHB + xgte or PHB + tashas so you get the most options available to you. I think the +1 rule is a bit outdated with as much content that they have now. its too restrictive at this point.

 

[Oofta]

i get that, but i dont play AL so I admit I'm ignorant of how popular that is. I really dont know very many people who do play. But, seems like a strange reason imo even if it was popular. I get the PHB + a campaign book for that season but it feels like a bad choice to do that. You should pick PHB + xgte or PHB + tashas so you get the most options available to you. I think the +1 rule is a bit outdated with as much content that they have now. its too restrictive at this point.

It's a few pages that likely didn't change the price point one way or another. In addition, it saves quite a few people purchasing a book where the majority of content is not relevant.

Not sure why anyone would care.

 

[Parmandur]

Just to be picky, but we know the Artillerist is in, from an illustration, and we can assume the Alchemist is in, as the basic default Artificer, but do we have any evidence that Battlesmith is in?

It's a fair question: yes, all the Rising from the Last War Subclasses are in, along with the Armorer, per Crawford, along with the Ravnica/Theros Subclasses, the Bladesinger, and 21 other Subclasses from UA in the past year.

 

[Wrathamon]

It's a few pages that likely didn't change the price point one way or another. In addition, it saves quite a few people purchasing a book where the majority of content is not relevant.

Not sure why anyone would care.

because I'm paying for that content multiple times. It's not a few pages and it's content that could be something new. but, you disagree so not trying to change your mind. I care. Never said you had to. And, never said they need to change their model. It pretty much is what it is.

 

[JPL]

I dig it . . . don't want to pay for the same thing twice.

YMMV, but it seems to me that some stuff just fills a niche so well that it warrants repetition. I'd include the swashbuckler; those "Sword Coast" close-combat cantrips; the low-level elemental spells from Xanathar's; maybe the bladesinger. Like, if the Player's Handbook were five pages longer, this is what I would add.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

I dig it . . . don't want to pay for the same thing twice.

YMMV, but it seems to me that some stuff just fills a niche so well that it warrants repetition. I'd include the swashbuckler; those "Sword Coast" close-combat cantrips; the low-level elemental spells from Xanathar's; maybe the bladesinger. Like, if the Player's Handbook were five pages longer, this is what I would add.

That, by itself, is an interesting thought experiment.

 

[JPL]

It is, isn't it? I wonder if there would be any substantial consensus reached.

And five more pages of DMG . . . I dunno. See how these sidekick rules shape up, I suppose.

Five more pages of MM . . . flumphs, I guess. A progressive, inclusive take on flumphs.

 

[ChaosOS]

Here's why they're doing reprints

• For someone who's barely bought books (PHB, maybe Xanathar), it's effectively new material
• For someone who's bought a setting book or two (I skipped both MTG books but got Rising), that's still basically-new material for me
• For someone who's bought every book ever and has the dndbeyond legendary bundle... You're a whale and pretty clearly not going to leave the hobby any time soon.

Given the very real benefits of collating setting material into these "Everything" books, I don't think Wizards is entirely unjustified in looking at the third demographic I list there and say "No big deal". If you're willing to drop $30+ for two subclasses and a handful of races, you'll probably be just fine with this new book where you're getting 22 brand-new subs for $30+.

 

[Oofta]

While I don't know exactly what percentage of the book will be "reprinted", my previous point was that I don't think it would affect the price point much even if it was cut. Nor would it be replaced by anything else.

Price points for most products are not based on some secret formula. In general companies have a rough idea of what they need to set the price at to break even and then increase the price from there for profit margin. But there's no secret sauce. That whatsit that you buy for $4.99 is not priced at $4.99 because that's exactly what's needed, it's priced at $4.99 because people think $5.00 will be too much.

So Amazon is selling it at $29.97 because $29.99 would have been too many 9s, and it's "under $30.00" which is another major price point. Unless they could have brought the price down below $20.00 they probably aren't going to sell it for much less.

Besides a lot of people don't buy every single book, especially books who's content is primarily campaign specific so this is a nice additional selling point that won't hurt sales.

 

[jasper]

i get that, but i dont play AL so I admit I'm ignorant of how popular that is. I really dont know very many people who do play. But, seems like a strange reason imo even if it was popular. I get the PHB + a campaign book for that season but it feels like a bad choice to do that. You should pick PHB + xgte or PHB + tashas so you get the most options available to you. I think the +1 rule is a bit outdated with as much content that they have now. its too restrictive at this point.

As AL DM I love the PHB +1 rule. I haven see builds which can nearly run over a Tier 3/4 module by themselves. Also as AL DM I wonder if the book is going to be ALL AL legal or parts. I thinking now all of it will be AL legal. Which means I have to buy the book.