D&D 5E Xanathar's Poll

[neobolts]

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.

While I can empathize with the letdown of seeing a lot of material that already felt familiar, I'm surprised you didn't see it coming. The whole point of the UA playtest material is to 1) playtest it, 2) identify what works and refine it, 3) and then publish it in a book. I would've honestly been surprised if they didn't fill the book with UA material after years of playtesting and surveys about it, all with the expressed intent to polish and print it.

Liked: I was thrilled with the archetype expansions, and I really like the expanded tool usage rules and downtime rules (particularly the magic item crafting/buying rules).

Disliked: I did not need a 17 page appendix of randomly generated names, although I have encountered a DM since that struggled to name an NPC, and was happy when I pointed out Xanathar's Appendix B to her.

Vote: Happy with it.

 

[Dualazi]

Voted Hate it, which is a little harsh but ultimately justified but the dearth of other options over the course of the edition thus far. Which is a decision I was all on board with, assuming it included the all-important caveat that when expansions were released, they were extremely high quality, and Xanathar's is anything but. There's good stuff to be found in there, but amidst the copious reprints, flawed, un-ambitious rules, and large tracts of pointless filler (Common items and Names are the worst offenders), the book is just a huge letdown. I've posted my review to the reviews section highlighting my full experience with it for those few who care to read it, but I'm honestly very disappointed. I hope that either this is not a sign of things to come, or that an option similar to the OGL encourages others to pick up the slack.

 

[Mistwell]

This is hilarious. The poll is running around 76% are happy or very happy with it (182 total votes). And yet more than 50% of the comments in the thread are neutral to negative about it (42 total posts).

Proof, once again, that forum posters are not representative of the whole of the consumer base for D&D. They're not even representative of their own message board participants!

 

[Mercule]

Unfortunately, various real-life issues (like kids' activities and an illness) have kept us from having a session since the book came out. So, my take is pretty theoretic.

I think most of the player info is pretty well done. There are some archetypes I doubt I'll ever use, but I didn't see anything I wanted to ban. The rest of the book is totally hit-and-miss, though. Not so much bad as just boring. If the book had a somewhat higher page count and/or there was another section (preferably GM-oriented) that stood out as really good, I wouldn't have minded. As it is, it feels like I bought the modern version of a "Best of Dragon", with a higher production value and a hard cover.

Actually, come to think of it, maybe a "Best of Dragon" is exactly what I actually want. They just need to refine the contents a bit -- half ogres, pain rules, critical fumbles, "The Elven Point of View", "Bazaar of the Bizarre", etc. Still not happy about the price point, but I bought it cheaper on DDB, anyway. That price tag was about right.

 

[Ancalagon]

Names are great! ... buuuut they should have been a free web supplement, not 20 pages in a book...

On the other hand, the book *does* have Tiny Servant, a spell so good the rest of the book could have been entirely blank.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

This is hilarious. The poll is running around 76% are happy or very happy with it (182 total votes). And yet more than 50% of the comments in the thread are neutral to negative about it (42 total posts).

Proof, once again, that forum posters are not representative of the whole of the consumer base for D&D. They're not even representative of their own message board participants!

That is just standard for forums: they represent an overall much more negative view of the product. It is the nature of people to put more effort into complaining and denigrating than praising.

That and forumgoers tend to be on the more hardcore and 'technical' fraction of a game's customer base, so most products are aimed a little further towards the casual end of the spectrum than we'd like.

 

[gyor]

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?

You actually that is exactly what they did, parts of it really do feel unfinished, so they used filler like mostly useless common magic items and endless pages of names.

It's a shame because if the whole book had been as good as the spells, feats, and subclasses it would have been a great book.

Hell I'd have been happy with replacing the names with setting fluff for the Subclasses, Spells, and feats like the SCAG had for it subclasses. Honestly I was surprised that AL at least didn't out something out with suggestion at the very least.

 

[Charlaquin]

Lol the common items and names are probably my favorite parts of the book. Well, second favorite. My favorite are the guidelines for awarding Magic Items, but that really should have been in the DMG.

 

[Zilong]

You actually that is exactly what they did, parts of it really do feel unfinished, so they used filler like mostly useless common magic items and endless pages of names.

First session after I got the book I introduced some minor magic items. Players loved them and tried to buy all of them. They couldn't afford everything, but that's a different issue. They especially liked the cloak of billowing and the endless spice pouch. Both items are mechanically pretty pointless, but they were favorites none the less. Point being, the common magic items are far from useless at my table.

Could I have homebrewed something similar myself? Sure, and I probably will in the future using the items in Xanathar as examples. But for now these are perfectly functional little doodads to distract the players from complaining about a lack of loot (its a pretty low magic setting).

 

[Parmandur]

Lol the common items and names are probably my favorite parts of the book. Well, second favorite. My favorite are the guidelines for awarding Magic Items, but that really should have been in the DMG.

Thee life-story tables have to be my favorite, but those parts are amazing, too.

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