Tasha's Cauldron of Everything Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• Lots of full colour art (as we have come to expect of this edition). Really, keep this coming.

• The puzzle section is well done. Actually, can we get an addition Dungeon Master’s Guide with extra traps, maps, items, and puzzles like this?

• The patron section is also well done. What this does is provide more information for making quest givers and patrons for the party. This is particularly useful for new players, since more experienced ones would come up with this naturally.

• The idea of the sidekicks section is also nice. It’s a form of non player character that can join a party, and is specifically made to be easier to play than normal. I like this idea, and it provides some mechanics out of the box for giving your fighter that squire they always wanted. And how to level them up. It’s easy enough getting them a guard, but harder to find a balanced way to have them level up with the party. There is one caveat I’d add. See the cons section.

Could Go Either Way

• Class options in might not be well liked, by Dungeon Masters in particular. Some seem to make previous options look more useless, and don’t provide fixes to existing ones. Rangers in particular get the worst of this treatment.

• This book is rather short. At 192 pages long, I wish it was longer.

Cons

• The sidekicks made using the rules provided seem to be significantly weaker than a normal player class. This is in theory fine, since you might not want them to outshine the main characters. Well, except it also mentions some players could prefer playing the simplified character. In this case, the player could feel significantly weaker later in the campaign and may need to swap to a full character class later. Regardless, they are treated like a character for calculating encounter difficulty... which doesn’t seem right especially at higher levels. It’d probably be fine if there’s not many in the party, but if every player has one I imagine it’d throw off the calculation heavily.

• No PDF*

* Denotes nitpicking.

The standard cover for Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

The alternative cover for Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

Introduction

So, I’ve got a bit behind with these. To catch up I’m going to try to do a shorter format for some books. I may also bring this format back for books that I have less to say about. That said, I do expect to go back to normal some time in the future. The way I’d describe Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is as part a Players Handbook Addition, and as part a Dungeon Master’s Guide addition. The new class options play to the players side of the screen along with the new spells, and the new items, sidekicks rules, help on social contracts and session 0, negotiating with creatures, magical phenomenon, natural hazards, and puzzles all play to the Dungeon Master’s side. So what do I think?

New Player Options

Just over 1/3rd of the book is dedicated to new sub classes for existing player classes and new player class (artificer). I generally think this is the weakest part of the book. Part of it is I don’t think they’ve balanced new options and even some of the old ones as well as they could have, or should have. Also for my own sanity I typically make players consult with me for any options outside the Player’s Handbook. However, there’s also another 12 pages of new spells, which I’m more happy to see. This is because they’re easily limited, and also give the Dungeon Master more options to play with. After all, our enemies don’t have to be perfectly balanced one on one to be part of an engaging encounter.

New Dungeon Master Options

This is where the book really excels. As previously mentioned it includes new items, sidekicks rules, help on social contracts and session 0, negotiating with creatures, magical phenomenon, natural hazards, and puzzles. Just over half the book is dedicated to these.

Of particular note is the sidekick rules. I love the idea, and I think we’ve all at one point or another given the players an NPC that will travel with them. I also like that it allows a new Dungeon Master to quickly have stats at the ready for a new ally. It also allows each player to have two characters, one less complex than the other as not to outshine their main character. What I don’t like is how this ties into encounter design. They’re treated as full player characters, but in terms of pure combat prowess they really don’t match up past level 1. This is seen most obviously at level 20, where they have a 5^th level spell at most. Yes, some classes follow a similar progression, but they get other abilities in return. That doesn’t really happen here. The more such characters are in an encounter, the worse the problem becomes. One probably won’t affect the balance too much unless the encounter is already balanced on a knife’s edge. However, if half the party is? I think they’d feel it.

The puzzles are also a nice touch. I also like how they take the time to mention ways to customize the puzzles. This helps with both fitting into the theme, and even though it may seem obvious such options can be easily missed. The ways to customize the puzzle also sometimes mention ways to increase the difficulty of the puzzle, which again is very helpful. Handouts are also provided to make them easier to run. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if they had a book in the future that is just half full of puzzles.

The magic items are well illustrated, and interesting ones are included. Again I wish there were more. However, I also wish they stopped adding items that increases a spell’s DC. Spells can already target a creature’s weak stats, and there aren’t as many ways to raise DC resistance as armour class. Previously, very early in the edition, magic items would increase the to hit of spell attack rolls, but raising DC was not done.

The other options tend to be on the smaller side, but they’re also welcome. They also don’t overstay their welcome, but are interest reads and the sort of inspiration I hope to find in books targeting Dungeon Masters. The exception is that the social contracts and session 0 sections probably won’t have much for more experienced Dungeon Masters. Really, I do wish there was more.

The Art and Book Build Quality

The high quality and quantity of art remains. My complains about maps being black and white are also not present, as no maps are included. I still wish more of the art was in my preferred realistic style, but that’s also consistent from other books. The covers are still great, and the quality of my books was good as well. The quantity also there, with many of the items having their own illustration. However, as always, if you’re in the store make sure to check for damage and to ensure the book has a good binding. If you’re ordering online, you won’t have the same chance.

Price

As usual the price is $49.95 in the States. You can check the MRSP here, or your local game store. They could have a deal. I do think this one is on the short side unfortunately. I wish they went back to the length of the core books.

What I felt was Missing

Some sort of new maps would’ve been nice. I always appreciate them as a Dungeon Master. The part about customizing spells should really be added to the basic rules, and/or new editions of the Player’s Handbook. It’s short enough to fit, but powerful enough that I think new players and Dungeon Masters could benefit.

Free Stuff

Nothing to see here.

Summary

In general what’s here for the Dungeon Master’s side of the screen is solid. I like what there is. And even if I won’t use the tables for natural hazards, I can still use the rules provided for events such as avalanches. Really, I just wish there were more events, more puzzles, more magical phenomenon, and more in general. That probably speaks to how much I liked that section. It’s almost like a light addition to the Dungeon Master’s Guide. I say light as that was a 300+ page tome. That said, I’m less wowed by the new class options. Though this remains consistent with my previous opinion of new class and subclass options in other books. If you liked additional options provided in previous books, you might like this too. It's a bit more extreme in the power department than some of the earlier ones in my opinion. Other than that, it’ll come down to the price vs. the page count and content.

Dungeon Master's Screen Wilderness Kit Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• The art on the outside of the screen is really gorgeous.

• Having rules within a screen like this is extremely useful during play. Many people build their own screens for this reason.

• Some of the cards are exceptionally useful. They cover things such as conditions, and even some healing potions.

Could Go Either Way

• The interior of the screen is basically the same as the ones previously released, including the art on it for conditions, which are also found in the Player’s Handbook.

• The cards provided come in perforated pages you need to break. This isn’t the same kind of cards some of the previous card packs provided. The addition is nice, but you may want a better material.

• The normal price could be a bit steep, especially since many people made their own custom screens by now.

• It’s a Wilderness set. I’d have liked a large map for forest battles, and maybe another environment on the other side (maybe snow). This sort of thing is more useful to me than pages from the rule book, and infinitely re-usable. This is especially true if the map is big enough so you can start in a different area.

Cons

• The box to keep the extras inside seems really flimsy. I wish they’d be some better way to keep them together provided.

Contents of package. Not a bad package at all.

Introduction

And so we have another screen product for this edition of D&D. There is value in a good D&D screen when playing in person (remember what that was like?), and I personally like to see more experimentation. Here, we see this in the form of additional goodies thrown in like status cards, item cards, and a hex page for overland travel. As the name suggests, wilderness and travel are aims of this product. It’s hoped all of this combined helps out in these areas of play. Does it? Yeah, it’s better in this regard than the previous one I looked at. However, it’s not without it’s problems. So let’s jump into the specifics.

The Screen Itself

I’ll go into this more, but the art here is a real standout. The outside of the screen looks very impressive. The inside of the screen has tables and rules ready to be referenced. It contains conditions like the screen from the core rules gift set, but the actions in combat have been removed. In their place are rules for travel, foraging, tracking, prices for services including travelling and lodging, weather, tables for damage by level range and DCs, object DCs and hitpoints, skills and associated abilities, extreme weather (cold, heat, wind), exhaustion, spell concentration, suffocating, jumping, light by light source, visibility depending on time of day, obscuring rules, cover, and encounter distances based on terrain. In general, I think this is a far better collection of rules for more experienced Dungeon Masters. These rules often come up once or twice a campaign, or once or twice in an arc of 5 sessions plus. Combat on the other hand usually happens at least once per session and much more often if dungeon crawling, and as a result is ingrained into the minds of the Dungeon Master. If something is forgotten, it’s something that wasn’t included in the table anyway like improvised weapons, or how bonus action spells force the action to only use a cantrip spell at most. That said, the original screen on its own would be more useful to a new Dungeon Master that hasn’t had those combat rules memorized. However, what they did this time is provide separate handout pages. And this takes us to our next section.

Additional Resources

They almost feel laminated, and contain some other helpful things such as condition cards, some additional wilderness rules and a table for random encounters (meant to be on the Dungeon Master’s side of the screen I think), and a sheet with the actions in combat. I like this since players would often need to see the actions in combat as well. And we Dungeon Masters often don’t want players to see the inside of our screen, filled with our rules, which we might change at a moment’s notice, and notes. As a result of these considerations, I think this a big improvement over the earlier screen. There are some other sheets for rules such as chases would players would also want to see. If anything, I’d have liked to see even more pages for different important aspects of the game. The way the packaging doubles as a folder for these pages is also a nice touch. In general, it’s well designed, though it’s flimsy paper and wouldn’t be able to take pressure very well unless everything is loaded inside.

There’s a sheet to track resources like food and water. Included is also sheets with cards that are used for conditions. They’re in perforated sheets, and need to be broken apart. These generally feel much cheaper than decks they sold before that were a similar idea. However, I think it’s good that they included it. They also included a hex map for travel which has numbers for easy navigation. I don’t think I’d trust to write on it with dry erase markers, but using tokens and putting them on the map would work well, and if you note the location of things on the map you can rebuild it before the game starts rather easily. It’s a nice addition. There is also a fold up container thing for the cards which is probably the cheapest part of the set. It feels flimsy, and I wish they came up with a better way. Though in honestly I’m not sure what that better way would be.

The outside cover of the screen is beautiful. I wish the books had more art like this.

The Art and Book Build Quality

To start off, the art on the outside of the screen is truly amazing. I wish all of the books used this style. It’s simply jaw droppingly beautiful. The inside of the screen has a bit of art for conditions and temperature, but they’re black and white simpler drawings. For reasons of being usable and not distracting I don’t mind this. However, it’s a definite step down from the outside. And finally the additional resources/pages included have no art on them at all. They’re quite packed so more art probably wouldn’t fit, and it’s a nice bonus.

As mentioned before, the fold up card holder thing is a bit disappointing and feels flimsy. I don’t think it’d last for very long in use. The pages themselves feel treated with something glossy on the outside, almost giving them a laminated feel. I’m glad they put the effort in there. The outside and inside of the screen feels like other Dungeon Master screens we’ve previously had. They aren’t glossy in the same way, and feel more like the hard cover of a book. That said, the card is sturdy and it stands well. One of the bends was strange in my screen though compared to the other two, which were very neat. The paper popped out a bit, but it seems to work well in use. Unfortunately, these packs are sealed in plastic so you’ll be at the mercy of luck. You can’t look for a better copy like you can with the books. 

Price

For the suggested retail price of this product, you can check here. It’s $24.99 at normal price, which can seem a bit steep, especially if you didn’t need a screen.

What I felt was Missing

It would’ve been nice to have a few more sheets of additional resources. Perhaps with the maps from the early core books? Tactical maps have largely been ignored in this addition unfortunately, though many players and Dungeon Masters I’ve talked to like using them.

Free Stuff

Nothing to see here.

 

The set from another angle.

Summary

In general, this is a good screen and additional resources. The art that’s here, and particularly on the screen, is amazing. The additional resources are a good addition, and the organization within the screen is an improvement the earlier screen. However, if you didn’t need a screen this won’t be the thing that converts you to using one. I’ve played with a Dungeon Master before who liked to walk around the room, especially with new players so he could help them out. I played with another you didn’t like to take up the space. If you wanted a screen though, this is a good choice. I think it’d really come down to if you think the price is worth it.