New Errata for PHB, MM and DMG out.

[ThePolarBear]

Here is the link.

I might have missed something or another thread, but i've not seen anything at a glance.

Still have to read through the changes, but noticed this little pearl:

[New] Polearm Master (p. 168).
A second sentence has been added to the first benefit: “This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary attack.
Both instances of “or quarterstaff” have been changed to “quarterstaff, or spear.”

Found anything else interesting?

[Waterdeep Merch]

Paladin smites now scale up to 6d8, meaning there's finally a difference between 4th and 5th level slots!

[PhoenixPhyre]

They fixed some monster stuff, including giving purple worms proficiency to hit, as well as bumping bear (both brown and black) attack bonuses by 1.

[JackPhoenix]

Dungeon Delver no longer gives you resistance against traps, you won't get the penalty to passive Perception for traveling at fast pace.

Acid Splash can't be used against unseen targets.

Contagion imposes poisoned condition until the disease takes hold, making it usable in combat once again.

Simulacrum is construct

[MaxWilson]

Hooray! Stunning Strike is now usable for grappling/shoving shenanigans, as is logical. Monks are now officially good grapplers and I can eliminate a house rule.

The changes to Contagion are interesting and good. Contagion is now both clearly written and pretty good.

[OvisCaedo]

This is rather amusing after an earlier stance on Contagion was "it's so clear how it should work that we decided we didn't need to errata it". Still, I rather like the new version; clear AND useful for anything not immune to it. This means that, with a hit, you can pretty reliably inflict the poisoned condition for three rounds regardless of the enemy's saves or even legendary resistance.

Of course, you have to hit, and they have to not be immune to a very commonly resisted condition... But still.

Not sure what the Disintegrate change in wording is supposed to clarify, though. I assume instant death interactions, but is this any clearer?

[Pex]

You can now use a spear for Pole Arm Master.

[MaxWilson]

You can now use a spear for Pole Arm Master.

Technically you could already do that by using a spear as an improvised quarterstaff... but now you don't have to improvise.

[Foxhound438]

Like not actually a big deal, but why did it ever not apply to spears? Anyways, spear and shield is now going to be the "new cheese" that lives along side of qs+b (and I will continue to endorse both). quarterstaff still has the advantage of being able to use shillelagh, as well as the few magic item options for quarterstaffs. Are there any specific magic spears in the book? I don't remember seeing any in the DMG, but maybe from campaign books or something?

hard nerf to contagion, no longer can you apply flesh rot immidiately with an attack roll, if I read it right.

sleet storm concentration break clarified to be a Start of Turn effect, before it was kind of hard to tell when it was supposed to happen

divine smite buff, but who the hell is using their spell slots on that? It's certainly more than a minor thing for various multiclasses.

very slight buff to ranger's companion getting to dodge for free, as well as magic damage at a point, making crab ranger pretty okay- you tell crab to stand next to an enemy, then do your normal thing, then it dodges on its turn and can make an opportunity attack with a grapple. HP scaling is still bad as hell, but they're getting better.

The rest of the new PHB stuff seems to be just minor clarifications and whatnot.

Everything in the MM looks like stat corrections to make things line up properly

I don't have a DMG handy, but it looks like scrolls containing bonus action spells no longer require an action to use, so that's nice.

[Naanomi]

Dungeon delver change makes it a much better feat... makes me want to redo my ‘passive perception king’ as a moon Druid instead of an Inquisitive Rogue

[ToastyTobasco]

Yay slight paladin buff! Also looks like the Beastmaster got a bit of a buff.

[gloryblaze]

Paladin smites now scale up to 6d8, meaning there's finally a difference between 4th and 5th level slots!

Not quite, by my reading - the previous "to a max of 5d8" clause is still in there. They just appended "to anmax of 6d8" to the very end, after the sentence about doing bonus damage to fiends and undead. When the feature is read in its totality, I think a normal divine smite still does 5d8 max (with a 4th or 5th level slot), while a smite against a fiend or undead will do 6d8 with a 4th or 5th level slot.

[JackPhoenix]

Not sure what the Disintegrate change in wording is supposed to clarify, though. I assume instant death interactions, but is this any clearer?

As I read it, you can now use half-orc's Relentless Endurance and similar abilities to avoid being disintegrated.

[Foxhound438]

Not sure what the Disintegrate change in wording is supposed to clarify, though. I assume instant death interactions, but is this any clearer?

my guess would be that zealot barbarians being at zero and being disintegrated might have been argued to be fine because they weren't "reduced" to zero if they were already there, so this is killing that argument. Same for if you decide to dust someone that's just down and at zero to end pop-up healing. Both cases seem like ways to murder your players from the dm seat, but it could be relevant the other way around too.

[Foxhound438]

Not quite, by my reading - the previous "to a max of 5d8" clause is still in there. They just appended "to anmax of 6d8" to the very end, after the sentence about doing bonus damage to fiends and undead. When the feature is read in its totality, I think a normal divine smite still does 5d8 max (with a 4th or 5th level slot), while a smite against a fiend or undead will do 6d8 with a 4th or 5th level slot.

I think you're right, looking at it again, since it's "appended to the last sentence". So this one's not a buff, just a clarification.

[Trustypeaches]

Eternal Mountain Defense (p. 81). “11th Level Required” has been changed to “17th Level Required.”
Water Whip (p. 81). “A bonus action” has been changed to “an action.”

Truly, the nerfs we all needed

[gloryblaze]

As I read it, you can now use half-orc's Relentless Endurance and similar abilities to avoid being disintegrated.

It might also prevent you from dusting transformed druids - it reduces your animal form to 0hp, so it would work by the old wording, but it does not leave you with 0hp, as you immediately rollover into humanoid form hp.

[OvisCaedo]

Truly, the nerfs we all needed

Those aren't marked as new, though I don't know WHEN they came out.

[Daphne]

as well as bumping bear (both brown and black) attack bonuses by 1.

This makes Moon Druid even better at low levels, an unnecessary change imo.

[JackPhoenix]

It might also prevent you from dusting transformed druids - it reduces your animal form to 0hp, so it would work by the old wording, but it does not leave you with 0hp, as you immediately rollover into humanoid form hp.

Yep, realized that a bit too late and was about to post the same thing when I've noticed you've ninja'd me.

[Kaliayev]

Exhaustion (p. 291). The following
sentence is appended to the last
paragraph: “Also, being raised from the
dead reduces a creature’s exhaustion
level by 1.”

I suppose it's now better to let someone die than use greater restoration to reduce a level of exhaustion?


Does anyone have a better grasp of the history behind "your spells" to "your x spells?" As best I can tell, the SAC's magic initiate entry has been citing the latter phrasing for three years, and they finally decided to errata the PHB so the SAC entry makes sense.

Simulacrum is construct

Well, the spell is cleaner now, not that it isn't still a mess.

Not quite, by my reading - the previous "to a max of 5d8" clause is still in there. They just appended "to anmax of 6d8" to the very end, after the sentence about doing bonus damage to fiends and undead. When the feature is read in its totality, I think a normal divine smite still does 5d8 max (with a 4th or 5th level slot), while a smite against a fiend or undead will do 6d8 with a 4th or 5th level slot.

This is correct.

How long until a PHB with these changes is on the shelf? These smite changes are a wee bit of a mess to read.

[stoutstien]

Welp buff druids, couldn't add " while weilding in two hands to pole arm Master, and .. actually a good fix for contagion.

[No brains]

[New] Sanctuary (p. 273). The final
sentence now reads, “If the warded
creature makes an attack, casts a spell
that affects an enemy, or deals damage
to another creature, this spell ends.”

Sanctuary Spirit Guardians has been patched out. Rest in pepperoni, untouchable leprechaun gang leader.

[New] Exhaustion (p. 291). The following
sentence is appended to the last
paragraph: “Also, being raised from the
dead reduces a creature’s exhaustion
level by 1.”

It's too bad Berserker and Zealot are mutually exclusive, otherwisde a Zealot Berserker could just die and shed their exhaustion for free.

"Take a rest man!" "I'd rather die."

[Foxhound438]

hold- HOLD ON EVERYONE

let's get to the real questions here:

If I have PAM and throw my spear, can I use my bonus action to cause the spear to fall out of the target and land on their toe for 1d4+mod damage?

[ThePolarBear]

Sanctuary Spirit Guardians has been patched out. Rest in pepperoni, untouchable leprechaun gang leader.

I wonder why not "fixing" Invisibility too. I mean, it's not an AS BIG of a problem if the Dragonborn breathes or the Cleric has Spirit Guardian up, but it could have kept a consistent wording.

"Take a rest man!" "I'd rather die."

And spend a lot of time resting to recover from all the other penalities - like -4 to many rolls OR an unexpected race change, just to go on 5th level spells.

----

I can't find any word on the supposed change on the wording for rests and elves, but i might have missed them. Someone has a "new" printing and can find something somewhere? It's one year more or less that we have a Sage Advice Compendium entry citing an errata that's not there...

[OvisCaedo]

hold- HOLD ON EVERYONE

let's get to the real questions here:

If I have PAM and throw my spear, can I use my bonus action to cause the spear to fall out of the target and land on their toe for 1d4+mod damage?

Hmm. It looks like despite the qualifiers to get the bonus action don't specify melee attacks, it does specify that the bonus action attack has to be a melee one. So I guess you could throw it at someone, and then run up to them and bonus action fumble the flat end into their shin as you pick it up?

[ATHATH]

Do note that although Find Steed now grants a two-way telepathic connection, Find Greater Steed still grants the old one-way telepathic connection.

[Exocist]

Is anyone else reading the beastmaster changes and thinking "Really?" (Though what did you expect?)

In the third sentence of the second para-graph, “Dodge,” has been deleted. After that sentence, this one is added: If you don’t issue a command, the beast takes the Dodge action.

The original text is this

The beast obeys your commands as best as it can. It takes its turn on your initiative, though it doesn’t take an action unless you command it to. On your turn, you can verbally command the beast where to move (no action required by you). You can use your action to verbally command it to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Help action. Once you have the Extra Attack feature, you can make one attack yourself and you can command the beast to take an Attack action.

Which makes the revised text this

The beast obeys your commands as best as it can. It takes its turn on your initiative, though it doesn’t take an action unless you command it to. On your turn, you can verbally command the beast where to move (no action required by you). You can use your action to verbally command it to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage or Help action. Once you have the Extra Attack feature, you can make one attack yourself and you can command the beast to take an Attack action. If you don’t issue a command, the beast takes the Dodge action.

Which means that you also have to not command the beast to move in order for it to automatically take the dodge action right? So the beast is still pretty much useless.

Not to mention no changes to HP means it gets killed by any AoE, and not changing the time required to get it back mean it is a more-than-long-rest resource.

[NaughtyTiger]

About half of the errata are the exact opposite of JC's "works as designed"

[8wGremlin]

Some spell shenanigans have been closed down:
now all spellcasters have had "your spells" changed to 'your <insert class here> spells" this stops some odd magic initiate wordplay tricks.