Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is essentially a sequel to
Xanathar's Guide to Everything, in that both provide a bunch of new rules options for players and some additional tools for DMs. Also like
Xanathar's, much of the material had previously appeared in playtest form as part of the Unearthed Arcana web column. The narrator of this tome is Tasha, previously better known in D&D lore as the evil Iggwilv, though she comes across here as more just a sassy sorceress (who makes a number of modern-sounding references in her quips). I think it would have been more fun to keep her more on the menacing, villainous side, but oh well.
(One other minor quibble - the page count was slightly down from other D&D books, and the font size was slightly up, but the price tag was the same. It's how these things go, I know, but I still noticed.)
Tasha's is broken into four chapters - one for character options (nearly half the book), a much shorter chapter on group patrons, another short chapter with new spells and magic items, and a final chapter on DM tools. Going through each chapter...
(view spoiler)[Chapter 1 - Character Options: This section starts off with rules for customizing your character race. Essentially, it lets you move around the race's various bonuses and proficiencies, or even design a brand new character race from scratch if you choose. This is followed by rules for adjusting skills and subclasses. For as much hype as this section got in advance press, it's surprising that it only took up two pages - there weren't even any examples for us to work with. Still, these do provide good options for players, especially if they had DMs who were strictly by-the-book on such matters.
Next is a "new" class, the artificer, whose main shtick is creating magic items on the fly. (It actually originated in Eberron: Rising from the Last War.) Included are four subclasses: alchemist (potions), armorer (fantasy Iron Man, basically), artillerist (they get a little cannon helper, plus "arcane firearms"), and battle smith (they get a "steel defender" ally). This is followed by several "infusions" (abilities for temp magic items), some of which would be rather neat as normal magic items. The artificer looks very fun, but - excepting the alchemist - it doesn't feel like it would fit well into campaigns that aren't comfortable with a certain amount of magi-tech.
The artificer is followed by new options for the 12 core classes - both the usual new subclasses (every class gets at least two) but also alternate default class features.
Many of these alternate features involve swapping out choices you made at character creation for new choices at higher levels, like cantrips or proficiencies. While certainly player-friendly, it's strange in-universe for a character to "forget" a skill in favor of a new skill, especially once they get to higher levels. (This is especially noticeable with the bard, who can swap out their specialized expertise - akin to someone instantly forgetting everything they learned about repairing cars but suddenly becoming an expert in French literature.) I would have rather this had been of the "work it out with your DM" flavor, instead of becoming a built-in class feature. Fortunately, these are only options.
Other notable alternate features include giving the default fighter many of the abilities of the Battle Master subclass, and what amounts to a complete rework of the ranger - resulting in a class that's undeniably more effective, but loses much of its flavor as a terrain specialist and monster hunter. However, there are also a number of less radical but very useful changes here and there... so I'm sure DMs with an eye towards homebrew will find something to their liking. They also provide some general new options for fighters and warlocks, which are definitely useful.
As for the new subclasses, that section also shows mixed results. (A handful of these subclasses were also reprinted from other books, though as that moved all but one of them out of the Magic: The Gathering sourcebooks and into general D&D canon, that's a good thing.) While Xanathar's included many previously missing fantasy archetypes in its selection, Tasha's selection seems a lot more specialized and esoteric.
Some of my favorites included the barbarian's Path of the Beast (turn all monster-y when you rage); all three druid options (including the Circle of Stars, which I was prepared to dislike); both monk options (although the Way of the Astral Self is much more anime than traditional fantasy material); the paladin's Oath of Glory (basically being dedicated to your own awesomeness); the warlock's Genie patron (you even get your own itty-bitty living space); and the wizard's Order of Scribes (you get a very useful spellbook).
However, there are many let-downs here, such as the bard's College of Creation (you get to make animated objects... and not much beyond that) and College of Eloquence (mechanically potent but very little to actually do with eloquence); the cleric's Peace Domain (more like a "teamwork" domain, and it also includes combat boosts - a peace cleric should be a pacifist) and Twilight Domain (you protect against threats in the night, much too specialized); the fighter's Rune Knight (you can use the magic of runes, but the powers are all tied to D&D's giants); the ranger's Fey Wanderer (not very distinct from the fey subclasses we already had); the sorcerer's Clockwork Soul (actually pretty cool, but an odd fit as a sorcerer option, should have been a warlock); and the warlock's Fathomless patron (felt redundant with the Great Old One patron).
Several of these weaker entries felt like mechanics in search of a theme to justify them, or the result of mashing together two other options into one (for example, Twilight Domain and Rune Knight). It's also strange that so much effort was spent on unusual options, when we're still missing basics like elemental spellcasters.
The chapter ends with a selection of new feats, most of which fill in useful gaps in the game.
This chapter also uses the opportunity to introduce psionics into 5th edition - one psionic subclass each for fighter (Psi Warrior, basically a Jedi), rogue (Soulknife), and sorcerer (Aberrant Mind), and two psionic feats (Telepathic and Telekinetic). All of which are fine, just not suited to all campaigns.
Chapter 2 - Group Patrons: Originally from Eberron: Rising from the Last War, these rules basically provide frameworks for a campaign beyond "we're adventurers for hire". The many suggested patrons include academies, criminal syndicates, and religious orders. Lots of good material in here.
Chapter 3 - Magical Miscellany: This chapter provides several new spells, and a bunch of new magic items (an area that was overdue for attention). One important set of new additions are spells for summoning creatures, something underrepresented in 5th edition so far. It's a little disappointing you can only summon one creature at a time, but it's still good to have. Many of the new magic items are utilitarian, clearly intended to benefit specific spellcasting classes, but that's not unwelcome. They also add a new category of magic item, magic tattoos, which are fine, and some cool new artifacts.
Chapter 4 - Dungeon Master's Tools: An assortment of useful things for DMs, including:
- Guidelines for a "session zero" for your campaign - common DM advice online, but good to have outlined for novice DMs (and those who don't troll the internet for such advice)
- Rules for sidekicks (originating in the Essentials Kit), allowing you to have fun support characters or just play much simpler characters yourselves
- Rules for parleying with monsters (and also which skills can provide information about monsters, thank you)
- Supernatural hazards, such as haunted regions
- Magical phenomena, such as magical storms
- Natural hazards, such as avalanches
- A section on how to handle puzzles, with several sample puzzles (I actually thought the "easy" puzzles were more challenging and less intuitive than most of the "hard" ones)
None of these seem like essentials for the game, but all should be very useful.
Other random observations:
- As a long-time D&D fan, I also appreciated the call-outs to classic settings sprinkled throughout, including Basic D&D's Mystara setting, Ravenloft (hi, Azalin), and what appears to be the first canonical connection between Eberron and the larger D&D multiverse. Those, plus the discussion of travel to other worlds and the plot-device dream of the blue veil spell, make me hopeful that more multiversal stuff is on the way in the near future.
- There sure were a lot of tieflings in the character options section. (The influence of Critical Role's Jester, perhaps?) Also, interestingly, a few orcs but no half-orcs, and distinctly paler drow. (hide spoiler)]There's a lot of useful material in Tasha's, though it's actually the DM material that is more broadly useful - the player options are interesting, but many won't fit into every campaign. Folks who were expecting this to be a massive game-changer for D&D will also be disappointed. Still, while this isn't quite an essential buy, it's worth checking out. (A-)
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