D&D 5E Updated Magic Items and Spell Lists in Dead in Thay

[Majoru Oakheart]

I noticed that the Magic Item document and the Spell document in Dead in Thay are different than the one in the last playtest and the ones in Scourge of the Sword Coast. There are more spells in the new document.

I haven't gotten a chance to go through the whole thing and see what was changed. However, at first glance there are 58 pages in both Scourge and the last playtest for spells. There are 61 pages in the new one. I've noticed Acid Splash, Calm Emotions, Conjure Animals, Counterspell, Detect Thoughts, Eldritch Blast, Jump, Misty Step were added in the new document. The class spell lists weren't changed, however, so none of them are on anyone's spell list.

There is also an entry for Misdirection that just says to use Minor Illusion instead.

The Magic Item list appears identical except for the copyright notice at the bottom of the page. It appears to have been updated from the extremely brief version in the Scourge of the Sword Coast to the full version that was in the playtest.

At the very least, it sounds like Dead in Thay was designed using a later version of the rules that we never saw and therefore NPCs and monsters have more spells than were available before.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Could yoj tell those of us that dont have it how eldritch blast works please


I assume it is fir warlocks

 

[jodyjohnson]

EB, cantrip, Range 120', magic attack, 1d10 force, extra blasts at 5/10/20.

 

[Li Shenron]

The class spell lists weren't changed, however, so none of them are on anyone's spell list.

Sounds like we have erratas in books before the new edition is even out

I can only hope they value quality editing in the core books more than they do with pre-release adventures.

 

[benodoc]

Misty Step was already in the old playtest packet though, albeit in the classes module. It was a spell for paladins who took the oath of vengeance (allows them to teleport 30' to any place they can see). Not sure about the others though.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Sounds like we have erratas in books before the new edition is even out

I can only hope they value quality editing in the core books more than they do with pre-release adventures.

As far as I can tell, each of these spells are on some NPC or monster spell lists in the adventure.

My best guess is that they started pulling the actual nearly final versions of the monsters out of the draft of the Monster Manual to use in the adventure. Then, when they realized that some of them used spells that weren't yet in the playtest, they added those spells to the playtest document so that DMs would know what they did.

They just didn't want to spent the time and effort changing the spell lists for PCs to put them in their appropriate place. I'm actually guessing that there was a large discussion about removing the monsters rather than give us any more information about the game. It was probably considered to be less work to just give us the spells. However, they decided not to include Misdirection for some reason. I'm guessing because its text refers to a rule or something that doesn't exist in the current playtest.

 

[Jack99]

As far as I can tell, each of these spells are on some NPC or monster spell lists in the adventure.

My best guess is that they started pulling the actual nearly final versions of the monsters out of the draft of the Monster Manual to use in the adventure. Then, when they realized that some of them used spells that weren't yet in the playtest, they added those spells to the playtest document so that DMs would know what they did.

They just didn't want to spent the time and effort changing the spell lists for PCs to put them in their appropriate place. I'm actually guessing that there was a large discussion about removing the monsters rather than give us any more information about the game. It was probably considered to be less work to just give us the spells. However, they decided not to include Misdirection for some reason. I'm guessing because its text refers to a rule or something that doesn't exist in the current playtest.

Yep, all new spells are used by monsters and NPCs.

 

[Falling Icicle]

EB, cantrip, Range 120', magic attack, 1d10 force, extra blasts at 5/10/20.

Interesting. So attack cantrips now get extra attacks instead of adding damage dice? Is this true of all of the attack cantrips or just eldritch blast?

Also, if you don't mind, I'm curious what acid splash does.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

How does Conjure Animals work? That seems to be the first time they've even bothered to mention summoning spells.

 

[Li Shenron]

As far as I can tell, each of these spells are on some NPC or monster spell lists in the adventure.

My best guess is that they started pulling the actual nearly final versions of the monsters out of the draft of the Monster Manual to use in the adventure. Then, when they realized that some of them used spells that weren't yet in the playtest, they added those spells to the playtest document so that DMs would know what they did.

They just didn't want to spent the time and effort changing the spell lists for PCs to put them in their appropriate place. I'm actually guessing that there was a large discussion about removing the monsters rather than give us any more information about the game. It was probably considered to be less work to just give us the spells. However, they decided not to include Misdirection for some reason. I'm guessing because its text refers to a rule or something that doesn't exist in the current playtest.

Ok, good to know!

Personally I have having books with erratas, and I am worried that with the (possible) new D&D release format, with the rules being present in different books, we might end up with messy editing.