Aug 28

Aug 28 How Tasha's Cauldron of Everything Makes Me Think and Work Harder

Before we get started, let me say that I am excited for Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (TCoE) to come out, and I will be getting a copy straight away. Its been three years since Xanathar's came out, and from everything that's been released about the upcoming book, TCoE will be following in Xanathar's footsteps. That's exciting for the player in me, as a whole new system for character creation, along with new feats, subclasses, and spells sound fantastic, and I'm excited to test it all out. But it's also a pain in the ass since I'm not sure what to write about now! If there is going to be an evolved system for character creation that is supposed to dramatically change the way you make your character, writing any homebrew seems like a waste of time. I had a gaggle of new ideas I was looking forward to creating, apparently all for naught. Now, what the heck am I going to write about?

Since we've started down the TCoE path, let's talk about some of the more exciting items they touched upon in the press release. The following thoughts are my wild guesses and conjecture, as I haven't read the book yet, but like a great many people, I have an opinion on it will look like.

TCoE is being set up to fundamentally change the game. Crawford's quote stating that "The special witchcraft of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is the freedom it gives you to personalize your D&D character in new ways" makes it sound exciting and fresh (not to mention it's well crafted and very quotable sentence). The question on everyone's mind, though, is what does that mean? I get it. It's a press release for an upcoming book. WotC wants us to buy it, so they tease a little information first, dribble bits and pieces out between now and the release date, which builds the excitement so that we'll all rush out and buy it on November 17th.

The good news for people like me is that it gives us months to speculate and hypothesize what the changes will look like, how they will work, and dream up all sorts of scenarios to create the goblin barbarian with flowing locks of blonde hair that I've always wanted to play.

The bad news is, I want to know how it works now.

After reading a large selection of reviews based on the press release and conversations with Jeremy Crawford, I'm envisioning some combination of new concepts, 3.5e rebranding, existing 5e and Pathfinder 2e rules. I have only recently started exploring Pathfinder so be kind to the newbie if I get something wrong here. (On a side note, I am loving Pathfinder 2e) Based on what I have seen so far, here's what I'm thinking.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds & backstories will become useful - So this one isn't conjecturing since Crawford was quoted as saying, "…many D&D characters have special origins—their players come up with backstories that helps set one character apart from another." Player's can create their backstories pretty much any way they want right now, but in many cases, it's only a story they have made up to give their character some color. A good DM will use those backstories to create a campaign that incorporates the character's histories, but many others don't. Stephen does a beautiful job of this, with each character's backstories being a 'chapter' in the campaign. It gives each of the characters the chance to be the focal point and has worked out well at our table.

Those backstories should and can now tie in directly to backgrounds. But instead of getting a couple of proficiencies or languages, a tool or kit, some equipment you'll probably never use, and a useless feature, I think you'll get to choose from a selection of feats, ala Pathfinder. If I have a charlatan background as it exists now in 5e, I get proficiency in Deception and Sleight of Hand, and disguise kit and a forgery kit, and some equipment. Sure the proficiencies are nice to get, but be honest, how often do you use a forgery kit - unless, of course, you are using the Dump Stat Making Tools Useful homebrew rules. I could care less about a set of fine clothes since I'm wearing armor 95% of the time.

With Pathfinder, and to a lesser extent 3.5e, you get one fixed ability increase and one of your choice, proficiency in stealth and underworld lore (think History skill about nefarious things) and the Charming Liar feat, described as follows:

Your charm allows you to win over those you lie to. When you get a critical success using the Lie action, the target’s attitude toward you improves by one step, as though you’d succeeded at using Diplomacy to Make an Impression. This works only once per conversation, and if you critically succeed against multiple targets using the same result, you choose one creature’s attitude to improve. You must be lying to impart seemingly important information, inflate your status, or ingratiate yourself, which trivial or irrelevant lies can’t achieve.
(Pathfinder 2e Core Rulebook, pg. 259)

This feat may not seem like much, just a variant of a persuasion check. The thing is, you use the persuasion ability a lot more than you'll need to flash your signet ring of an imaginary duke. My hope is we'll get a whole bunch of new feats that your character will get to choose from, depending on the background they choose. Hopefully, there will be rules provided on granting ability score increases and feats if a player wishes to create their background from scratch. Still, depending on how many new backgrounds there are, that may not be necessary.

New Class Features, Subclasses and all the other Cool New Stuff

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is going to include new subclasses and new features for existing classes (including the artificer). In addition, there will be new spells (some of which bear Tasha's name, including Tasha's caustic brew and Tasha's otherworldly guides), new magic items, rules for magic tattoos, and rules for magical spellcasting focuses. You didn't think WotC created all that UA material because they were bored, did you? Playtesting through UA is, in my opinion, one of the smartest things WotC has done. Now that they have been able to tweak, nerf, and rework the UA items based on player's feedback, material that made the cut will become official content. Players crave variety, and it sounds like there will be a plethora of new subclasses to play, spells for those content to play a good old wizard and some neat new features that are currently unavailable to players.

If you can't wait to try out something new, you can always incorporate our Arcane Runes homebrew rules into your game now. Or let your players try out the new Powder Mage subclass we created. You never know, there may be something similar in TCoE!

Lineage/Race

Here's the big one that has people talking. I don't know if the term lineage will completely replace race, and while I think you'll still see the term race used, the section on race will be officially titled lineage. We know that players will now have the option to either alter a race’s traits via changing ability score increases or completely change their character's traits even if they are traditionally unrelated to the race. Crawford makes it crystal clear during the announcement that these new character creation rules were a direct result of WotC attempting to address the problematic element of racism within the RPG.

I am going to say the lineage will be very close to Pathfinder's Ancestries, which is described as follows:

Your character’s ancestry determines which people they call their own, whether it’s diverse and ambitious humans, insular but vivacious elves, traditionalist and family-focused dwarves, or any of the other folk who call Golarion home. A character’s ancestry and their experiences prior to their life as an adventurer—represented by a background—might be key parts of their identity, shape how they see the world, and help them find their place in it.
Pathfinder 2e Core Rulebook, pg. 33)

In Pathfinder, ancestry is the equivalent of race. You still have access to Dwarves, Halflings, Goblins, and Humans. Each is provided a background; of how elves are an ancient race, dwarves live in mountains and kobolds, incorrectly, think they are dragons. I'm willing to bet the descriptions in the new rules will closely mirror those of Pathfinder, focusing on positive features of each, mixed with some interesting lore. Orcs are a perfect example. Described as fearsome warriors who seek out glory, there is no mention, directly or implied, that orcs are evil. Being violent does not inherently make them evil. Otherwise, every barbarian would have to evil.

It will be interesting to see how skills and ability score modifiers are distributed. Since all positive and negative modifiers will be eliminated, there is have to be some way of assigning a certain number of “points”, or some value to each lineage for players to apply. I'm not entirely sold that fixed modifiers should be eliminated, but most need to go. Orc PCs are not always evil, and it's a ridiculous holdover from the D&D of the 1970s that should have been eliminated from the very start. That said, I hope that some racial traits don't get thrown into the mix. For example, if you play a halfling, you are still going to be a small creature, and there are natural pluses and minus to that.

From the sounds of it, those “points” will be able to be applied in whatever manner the player sees fit depending on how it fits with their background. I'm envisioning a combination of specialty feats that are specific to each race/lineage, along with a pool of points you can apply as modifiers, ala the Point Buy system used during character creation. There are already a number of racial feats, so they may expand this pool for each race, and players can choose one along with modifier points. I guess we'll see on November 17th.

I thought long and hard about whether or not to comment on the issue of race and inclusion in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. It is an incredibly sensitive subject that has been and is continuing to be, talked about on countless social media platforms and forums. The opinions that follow are mine only and do not reflect Stephen's thoughts on the issue in any way.

I'm old…going on 50 years old this year. I've witnessed the gatekeeping, sexism, and racism that has proliferated the game over the last 35+ years. When I first started playing, I was fourteen years old. We were told it was a guys game and that girls just wouldn't understand it. Being kids, we ignored what the adults said. While the table was primarily boys, I did have a girlfriend that played at our table (yes, I played D&D and had a girlfriend when I was a teenager), and the world didn't end. We didn't see what the big deal was and went about playing on weekend nights without giving it any thought.

We were incredibly naive.

We never went out of our way to invite someone of a different color, gender, or sexual preference to our table. If someone asked to join the table, we said yes, as our motto was the more, the merrier. We didn't know or care about any differences we may have had, we just wanted to play the game, and the party could always use another spellcaster or front line tank.

That isn't enough anymore.

I'm not going to actively seek out someone of a different color, gender, sexual preference, etc. to make myself feel better and say, "Look at our table! We're diverse, and that makes us better than you." What I will do is invite someone to play with us if D&D comes up in conversation. Maybe they are looking for a table, perhaps not. They could be new to the game and don't know how to get started. Or maybe they are just shy and or socially awkward, and asking to play is not in their skill set. The difference between then and now is I always waited until the other person asked. You sound interested in the game, I'm inviting you to play with us. Don't care what are differences are, you're going to be welcome to the table. Maybe it's a good fit, maybe not. I won't know until I ask.

The more, the merrier.

It’s also my responsibility as an ambassador of the game is to shout down those who seek to close off the game to others or actively ridicule, demean, or spew hate. It amazes me still that people think it's ok to say things online that if they spoke in person would result in getting punched in the face. I am no longer the naive boy I once was. I see what is happening, read the harmful words people send out into the world via social media, and listen to the grognards talk about how the game is worse off because anyone can play now.

My answer to them is simple.

Fuck off. There is no space for you in the game, so please, for everyone's sake, go away.