D&D 5E The New D&D Book: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything!

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The new D&D book has been revealed, and it is Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, "a magical mixture of rules options for the world's greatest roleplaying game." The 192-page book is due out November 17th, with standard and alternate covers, and contains more subclasses, spells, character options, group patrons, and rules. Oh, and psionics!

Cover art is by Magali Villeneuve

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.

Here's the alternate cover:

UPDATE! An online event called D&D Celebration from September 18th-20th will be hosted by Elle Osili-Wood, which is "an epic live event with panels, gameplay, & previews of the book!" See the video in the Tweet below!

Gather your party and join the adventure at  D&D Celebration 2020, an online gaming event open to fans all over the world!

Celebrate the release of  Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden  with a weekend of Icewind Dale–themed virtual play sessions and help us create the biggest virtual tabletop roleplaying game event ever! Fans will also get the chance to preview some content from  Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the forthcoming book featuring massive rules options, subclasses, and more for the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Watch featured play sessions with D&D luminaries and learn something new with a slate of panels led by the D&D design team and community.


UPDATE! Check out the Nerdarchy site for some previews.

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Has, Well… Everything for 5E D&D

The follow up to 2017’s Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, on Nov. 17, 2020 fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons upcoming Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything must indeed possess powerful …

nerdarchy.com

UPDATE! Other news items around the web about this book:

With D&D's Next Rulebook, Character Creation Will Never Be the Same

Although Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition has added as many classes, races, and rules as it has since it first began, for the most part, the way players create characters has stayed the same. You pick a race, that race defines certain things about you, and so on. But the game’s next sourcebook...

io9.gizmodo.com

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything coming in November, brings new ways to personalize your characters

Wizards of the Coast has announced its next D&D book! Entitled Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, this rules expansion follows up Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and will be available on November 17th. Providing both players and DMs with the tools to level up their games, the 192 page tome will be...

gamingtrend.com

Dungeons & Dragons Announces New Book and Fall Event - IGN

The D&D team reveals an online community event in September and a new sourcebook soon to follow.

www.ign.com

D&D's next expansion, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, adds new subclasses and racial customization

Dungeons & Dragons is getting its biggest rules expansion in three years, courtesy of one powerful witch. In November, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything will hit shelves, offering D&D players several new subclasses, some exciting new spells, and a new way to create characters that’s fully...

www.syfy.com

 

[Sir Brennen]

Not every character has to be built around combat.

Heresy!

 

[Parmandur]

Um, that's not how Paizo "stole their market." WotC abdicated that market in order to try something new. Whether or not you like 4E is a matter of taste, certainly, but that experiement failed and they re-examined. Almost immediately, WotC "stole it back."

Also, just out of curiosity, what numbers do you think WotC is lying about?

Citation please. What numbers and why do you think they're wrong?

Rygar is on record as not believing in statistics, so has claimed that all demographic data WotC has produced (all of it) is Voodoo magic.

 

[Parmandur]

It's at #15 in All Books right now...and it's just pre-order for $50!

Is there a benefit to pre-order rather than waiting to closer to the release date?

If the price changes during the pre-order period, Amazon locks you in at the lowest price. So the earlier you order, the more likely you are to benefit from the algorithm lowering the price.

 

[DnD Warlord]

As a stand alone RPG? It wasn't. Great success compared to most indie games.
As a well designed RPG? Not a disaster either. Quite good.

As the flagship D&D game of the most popular game from a business perspective? It kinda was. It fell flat to a huge part of the target demographic, sending many off to PF, was revised shortly after release (essentials, which was too late), and shelved after only a few years in total.

It was the best designed version of D&D and the only one that had to complete with its own former edition. It still sold well (even by late 2e and all of 3e standards) but was hamstrung by piazo doing the whole 3.5 continued... if piazo has not done that we would still be moving forwards instead of this half forward half back 5e (still second best edition of game only 4e was better).
I hope by 6e we can return to some of the 4e greatness

 

[Undrave]

Not every character has to be built around combat.

Yeah but trading a Beast companion for a tiny pair of hands you can move at a distance isn't worth the trade off. Again, a familiar does it and can let you see through it... It's the kind of advantage that's worth a feat at best, not the core class feature of your character.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah but trading a Beast companion for a tiny pair of hands you can move at a distance isn't worth the trade off. Again, a familiar does it and can let you see through it... It's the kind of advantage that's worth a feat at best, not the core class feature of your character.

The Skill Monkey would have a high level of Slight of Hand skill, something a familiar does not. I made one somewhere, but I have to go now, so I will show you later.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah but trading a Beast companion for a tiny pair of hands you can move at a distance isn't worth the trade off. Again, a familiar does it and can let you see through it... It's the kind of advantage that's worth a feat at best, not the core class feature of your character.

Kind of an aside, but it is important in games like D&D that combat and non combat "build points" come from different pools. 5E does a pretty good job at it during character generation but it isn't as good later.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It was the best designed version of D&D and the only one that had to complete with its own former edition. It still sold well (even by late 2e and all of 3e standards) but was hamstrung by piazo doing the whole 3.5 continued... if piazo has not done that we would still be moving forwards instead of this half forward half back 5e (still second best edition of game only 4e was better).
I hope by 6e we can return to some of the 4e greatness

Make D&D great again?

In all seriousness, this is entirely subjective, and I doubt you'll get consensus. So to judge it fairly, we have to look at objective metrics. Like version lifecycle. and looking at the lifecycle, from a business perspective, it was not a success. Also, if PF means that 4e had to compete against a previous version of itself, then the same can be said for 5e. But look at how 5e is doing compared to 4e.

 

[DnD Warlord]

Yeah but trading a Beast companion for a tiny pair of hands you can move at a distance isn't worth the trade off. Again, a familiar does it and can let you see through it... It's the kind of advantage that's worth a feat at best, not the core class feature of your character.

What if it also had enough hp (unlike the familiar) to take a hit or two and had a minor combat ability too (like a d4+2 slam attack or a throw poo to do a ranger distract/aid)

 

[Undrave]

The Skill Monkey would have a high level of Slight of Hand skill, something a familiar does not. I made one somewhere, but I have to go now, so I will show you later.

Is it really worth it trading your whole archetype for that?

What if it also had enough hp (unlike the familiar) to take a hit or two and had a minor combat ability too (like a d4+2 slam attack or a throw poo to do a ranger distract/aid)

You'd still be better served by taking a feat for Familiar and add that on top of another Beast Companion, like the Beast of Air.

Kind of an aside, but it is important in games like D&D that combat and non combat "build points" come from different pools. 5E does a pretty good job at it during character generation but it isn't as good later.

Yeah, I'm not keen on making the Beastmaster even LESS good at combat, an archetype that already falls behind in a class that is already famously low tier and is normally combat focused.