Today’s announcement of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything brings one of the first books to tackle Dungeons and Dragons race issues head-on. Rime of the Frostmaiden will arrive first and does begin to make some changes to how races are presented, but Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything will go a step further and introduce an entirely new (and optional) gameplay mechanic for customizing characters’ lineage and origin and divorcing starting stats and bonuses from race entirely.
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Like all of the new content in the recently announcement Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the new lineage character creation features are completely optional. The goal is still to have D&D 5e be completely playable with just the three core books (DMG, Player’s Handbook, and Monster Manual), but Tasha’s Cauldron offers a ton of new rules options for players and DMs who are ready to expand the game.
In terms of new character creation changes, Tasha’s Cauldron seems to be going all out with the introduction of a brand new way to customize your player’s origin and make the details that are developed in their backstory have gameplay ramifications, regardless of the race you’ve selected. During a recent press event, Game Rant had a chance to hear Jeremy Crawford, the book’s lead designer and the principal rules designer of Dungeons & Dragons talk in detail about the goals and implementation of the new option…
Crawford went on to really make a point that this template is not complicated and it will be very user-friendly and quick. It sounds like the intention is to make sure that using this custom lineage option will not greatly increase the work of building a new character or the time it takes to put together a character sheet.
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It sounds like the hope is that digital kits like DnD Beyond will hopefully incorporate this new character building option into their character creator tools as close to the launch of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything in November as possible. Considering all of the discussion surrounding the impact race has on gameplay in the DnD community, this feature will likely be put under a microscope one more details about it are revealed closer to the book’s actual launch. It will be very interesting to follow along and see how well it is received. Eventually, DnD Beyond will likely share some stats about how many users select a custom lineage versus sticking with the original bonuses associated with each of the races.
There are going to be a lot of other details about Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and other upcoming D&D products dropping throughout the rest of the summer and early fall, so be sure to stay tuned and check back for additional news. Be sure to check back in the near future for more Dungeons and Dragons news, updates, and strategy guides. Until then, roll well, adventurers!
Dungeons and Dragons: Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything releases on November 17, 2020. Existing Dungeons and Dragons products are available now at game stores or digitally through DnD Beyond.
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