Coasting off of the success of Wizards of the Coast’s most recent release, Mythic Odysseys of Theros comes a new handbook: Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. This book releases on November 17, 2020, just in time for the holiday season.
TCoE is an upcoming rules expansion book that is going to be changing the way D&D is played going forward. Unlike campaign sourcebooks, TCoE won’t be adding a new world to explore. Rather, it will serve as a rules expansion going forward for Fifth Edition, as well as introducing a host of new subclasses and content.
The most interesting part of the upcoming release is an overhaul to how players design characters. With these new rules, races won’t be tied to inherent stat boosts and abilities. This is meant to give players more creative freedom in the character creation process and allows for easier optimization when creating characters that may go against the grain, such as a Goliath Wizard or a Goblin Cleric.
The base rules will still be available to those who prefer to use them, but these appear to be what WotC are going to using going forward.
Along with these new changes are additional subclasses for every class in D&D, including Artificer, who could see the addition of a final printing of the Armorer subclass. We also know that Warlocks will be seeing a final printing of the Noble Genie patron.
More feats and class features will also make a debut in TCoE, likely to solidify changes made in previous Unearthed Arcana playtest materials in the Feats 2020 UA released in July.
A new mechanic, called Group Patrons, will also be making a debut as part of TCoE. according to the Dungeons and Dragons website, “…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.”
These perks and assignments are likely to work like they did in Eberron: Rising From the Last War, but now they’ll be ready for use in any campaign.
New spells, artifacts, and magic tattoos will be added as well, likely as final changes to the Unearthed Arcana material published back in March of this year.
A slew of new rules covering a variety of topics such as sidekicks will be added, as well as new puzzles for DM’s to unleash on their unsuspecting players.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything releases November 17th, 2020. Be sure to catch D&D Celebration on Sept 18-20 for more information on the upcoming expansion.