D&D General Who has the "Constitution Oath" version of the FR Heroes of Faerun physical book?

[Silam]

Dear EN World community,

Today, as our protectors are (hopefully) recovering from the recent Butlerian Jihad, I want to regale you with a bit of collector's trivia. Let's talk about physical books!

It has come to my attention last year that there are many (at least two) versions of the Heroes of Faerun book. I am not talking about the standard and alt covers though! I am talking about the content itself. The Oath of the Noble Genies Paladin (on pages 20-21) provides an alternative AC formula in its level 3 Genie's Splendor feature. In one printing of the book, that formula is 10 + Dex + Constitution (like the Barbarian's), while in another printing it is 10 + Dex + Charisma (like the Draconic Sorcerer)!

The official word on the matter from D&D Beyond staff is that the "Constitution Oath" was a mistake and that future printings will feature Charisma as the "corrected" one. This would in turn mean that the Constitution Oath is a limited print run collector's version, and potentially more rare. Based on past discussions online, I know that some people have been getting the "Charisma Oath" version including early on when it had just been released.

Fast forward a year later, translations of the book are coming out, and lo and behold, they seem to have translated the Constitution Oath! So alternate language fans are also treated to the special collector's version (though as far as I know translations have only the standard cover, not the alt cover). I have not yet found any word on whether a corrected Charisma version does or will exist for non-English languages.

So, all that to say, this poll is to survey which physical books exist out there and to get a sample for how prevalent each version is! I hope I have not forgotten any valid permutations because I am not sure if I'll be able to edit the poll if I did. But please let me know anyway if you think I forgot any.

Please vote only if you own the physical book! Let's not pollute the results with what you see on D&D Beyond or other VTTs. The poll allows multiple selections in case you own multiple versions.

Cheers

 

[aco175]

Sounds like;
Oops, my bad. You should buy multiple versions of the book and boost sales. We will 'never' do that again.

Until next time if sales boost for this book.

 

[Silam]

Sounds like;
Oops, my bad. You should buy multiple versions of the book and boost sales. We will 'never' do that again.

Until next time if sales boost for this book.

Bah… I think this kind of quirk will only result in more sales for degenerate collectors (like me …). Regular players will make do with one copy, and whichever one they get, the DM will decide which version of the Oath to play with at their table…

 

[mamba]

Fast forward a year later, translations of the book are coming out, and lo and behold, they seem to have translated the Constitution Oath!

this is just great

 

[Silam]

this is just great

One Elf’s trash is another Elf’s treasure

 

[Afroconan]

Standard cover, English, Constitution Oath for me.

There could be another permutation to it though, where were the books printed.

I have every 5.5 book released so far in English and:

• PHB, printed in Belgium
• MM, Belgium
• DMG, Belgium
• Dragon Delves in, USA
• Forgotten Realms - Heroes of Faerun, USA
• Forgotten Realms - Adventures in Faerun, USA
• Eberron - Forge of the Artificer, China
• Ravenloft - The Horrors Within, China
• Arcana Unleashed, China
• Arcana Unleashed - Deadfall, China

All bought from local stores in Spain.

I know the core books where printed from at least 3 different regional hubs so there should be printings from USA, China and Belgium (Europe). I suppose for supplements it may have been scaled back and the following supplements were printed in just China and USA or maybe just one or the other. Could be the case that one or the other got a more updated version. That would definitely crack the code.

 

[Silam]

There could be another permutation to it though, where were the books printed.

Ouf, yeah, that would blow up the permutation count quite a bit if true

I just checked and my English HoF copy is also printed in the US. If anyone reports an English HoF copy printed elsewhere than the US, I guess I could add more permutations for it…

Interestingly, the poll results so far indicate 100% Constitution Oath!

 

[pukunui]

I’ve got an alt cover copy with Constitution. I’m not surprised as it was one of the first copies available for sale here in NZ, so it most likely came from the initial print run. Mine says it was printed in the USA.

 

[Silam]

I’ve got an alt cover copy with Constitution. I’m not surprised as it was one of the first copies available for sale here in NZ, so it most likely came from the initial print run.

Yeah… I was initially surprised that the results so far are (still!) 100% Constitution Oath. But I guess the community here is strongly biased towards either getting the book as soon as it launches or not at all. So it would make sense that this first print run is well represented here, no matter what the real % is in the total they sold… would need more answers to the poll to add power to the study !

Mine says it was printed in the USA.

Good to know! Maybe for splatbooks they go with a single printer and ship from there, rather than localize the production. For a higher volume product like the core books maybe the latter strategy works out well, thanks to better economies of scale

 

[pukunui]

Good to know! Maybe for splatbooks they go with a single printer and ship from there, rather than localize the production. For a higher volume product like the core books maybe the latter strategy works out well, thanks to better economies of scale

I think it also depends on which distributor the FLGS buys their stock from. The books I got were being sold by a local game store that seemed to have them before all the other local stores, possibly because they use a different distributor. (I’m pretty sure some of my 5e books were printed in China and would have come from an Australian distributor.)