D&D 5E Xanathar's Poll

[Bladecoder]

Hello! Hope everyone had a great holiday.

So like many I treated my self recently and bought Xanathar's Guide, but I have to say I was some what disappointed. To go into more detail, I just felt like they handed us a bunch of UA material and a couple of other small interesting things and sold it off as a finished product.

I noticed there was not a poll and wanted to see what you guys thought, on that note: What do you think?

 

[Slit518]

That is pretty much what it seems to me. It's a more, finalized version of the UA material, condensed down into a $50 book that is the size of a $30 book.

For $50, it should be similar in size to the 3 core books.

PHB - 320 pages
DMG - 320 pages
MM - 352 pages
XGtE - 192 pages

P.S.
For a guide to "everything," it sure lacks a lot of content that indie publishers can put out on the Dungeon Masters' Guild (and more) for less cost/effort, and sometimes, it's just as good as WotC material.

 

[pukunui]

I'll just quote my review:

Xanathar's Guide to Everything does not quite live up to its name. Perhaps a better title would have been Xanathar's Box of Chocolates. Some of its contents are quite tasty, but most of it is rather average. There are a few bits that, if they were chocolates, would most likely get discarded with the packaging.

- Some of the subclasses are quite cool. Some are rubbish. Some are (updated) reprints. A few don't quite live up to their potential. Standouts include the divine soul and hexblade.
- The background stuff looks like it could be fun but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet.
- Some of the DM tools look useful. I particularly like the expanded rules on using tools.
- A number of the reprinted spells have been updated. As for the new ones, there are a few gems in there, but there are also some that are real game-changers, and maybe even a few that are potential game-breakers. Use with caution.
- I'm not sure how I feel about all the random name tables. It's nice to have more names for some of the less common fantasy races (like dragonborn and tieflings) but I could have done without all the real world human names.


Overall I'd have to say that I am somewhat disappointed with this book. Part of it might be because there's not much in there that I hadn't already seen in draft form, but a good chunk of my disappointment stems from the fact that much of its contents still feels half-baked. In fact, the book as a whole feels that way. I'm really not seeing the emphasis on quality over quantity that WotC has been touting here.

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

I liked it overall. I don't really do size comparisons for books because the big three had a lot more to cover. The book is pretty much exactly what I expected which was as others have said for the most part, UA material changed up a bit and some extra tidbits.

 

[Azzy]

I just felt like they handed us a bunch of UA material

Well, if you're surprised about that you really shouldn't be. The whole point of UA is specifically to playtest options that are intended (depending on feedback) to later be published.

What do you think?

While I like it, it does have its shortcomings and it was a bit overpriced. That said, I have no regrets purchasing it.

 

[ad_hoc]

I'm split on the book. There is content I will use. I like some of the subclasses and spells. I like the common magic items and other things of that sort.

I don't like how small the book is once the reprints are taken out. I think it's cool to reprint the spells so that a table doesn't need to have an adventure book to have them. I would have liked it to have a higher page count to accommodate that.

That alone doesn't make it enough to be neutral on it.

I don't like that there is content like the Hexblade that I need to disallow. It would be great if I could just hand the book to a player and say take whatever you like. I try to keep the alterations in my games to a minimum to avoid finickiness.

So it's okay. Not great, not terrible.

 

[Slit518]

They should of upped the page count by around 100 or so if they wanted to charge $50 for it still.
For a few reasons -
1) all the reprinted material
2) the list of names in the back that take up so many pages

Several more pages on spells, several more inspired magical items pages, some more sub-races, a couple pages of races, several pages of new classes with sub-classes, and several more pages of feats.

All-in-all, this book probably should of been $30.

 

[Morrus]

Sure there’s a poll. That’s what the whole reviews/ratings section is for!

 

[Quickleaf]

They should of upped the page count by around 100 or so if they wanted to charge $50 for it still.
For a few reasons -
1) all the reprinted material
2) the list of names in the back that take up so many pages

Several more pages on spells, several more inspired magical items pages, some more sub-races, a couple pages of races, several pages of new classes with sub-classes, and several more pages of feats.

All-in-all, this book probably should of been $30.

I reached the same conclusion that it was marked up and so opted not to purchase until the price comes down. Unfortunately this means going to Amazon when I’d much rather support my FLGS.

 

[Thurmas]

I, like many others, enjoy much of the content in the book. I just wish there was more of it. The spell sections especially was very lacking. Too many reprints and not enough new spells. I would have also enjoyed a bigger Magic Items section. Another 100 pages of content or a lower price.

It's like paying for a full size Snickers, but only receiving a fun size Snickers. I'll still enjoy the fun size, but I wanted the whole candy bar! I'm left still hungry.