Here's what's new in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide!

[Socko525]

Hey all, just wanted to throw out there that I just finished uploading a video detailing what's new in the SCAG, so if you're interested take a look!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zop_WSJMuKI

[BladeWing81]

They did it! they made the caster monk we wanted in the 4 element monk but failed horribly BUT NOW!! NOW we have the sun soul (Dragon Ball) monk! Haleluya!

[Corran]

Very informative video, thanks for sharing! Btw, could you please provide a link to the video about that witch-hunter class you mentioned? I would very much like to take a look at that. Again, great job and thanks for uploading!

[BladeWing81]

now we just need someone to torrent the book, already have it pre-purchased.... but I can't wait for Nov. 9th

[Kane0]

Thanks for the primer! Will definitely be ordering this one.

[eastmabl]

Very informative video, thanks for sharing! Btw, could you please provide a link to the video about that witch-hunter class you mentioned? I would very much like to take a look at that. Again, great job and thanks for uploading!

I am unsure whether there's a witch hunter class in SCAG, but this is the witch hunter that's been making the rounds to help advertise the new Vin Diesel film: http://geekandsundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Witch-Hunter-Class-FINAL-4.2.pdf.

[1Forge]

How much dies this cost? And is it worth it if you don't play in the sword coast or other WOTC settings? I dont know elemental evil felt like it did more...

[FatherLiir]

How much dies this cost? And is it worth it if you don't play in the sword coast or other WOTC settings? I dont know elemental evil felt like it did more...

I think it's around $35 Dollars.

There are sidebars within to detail other WoTC realms like Greyhawk but I think even if you don't use any of them It's a great guide into world building down to the smaller details. It covers Pantheons of gods, cities, culture, geography, racial attitudes and history. That's about 3/4 of the Book.


The other 1/4 is more crunch stuff. Your Undying Patron for Warlocks, your Oath of the Crown Paladin, The Bladesinger Wizard school, the Dragon Ball Z Monk, a dozen different background choices for character building and new spells for Sorcerers, Warlocks and Wizards.


The EE Player's Compendium was and is a great free resource adding all crunch to the game. This is less crunch and more fluff, but the crunch is still there.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Thanks very much. Don't suppose you could make a handy list for those of us without the patience to watch a half-hour long video? Or so I can wave the list at people, I like waving lists at people.

[FatherLiir]

Thanks very much. Don't suppose you could make a handy list for those of us without the patience to watch a half-hour long video? Or so I can wave the list at people, I like waving lists at people.

I have no List. I do have a very long Thread Link at Enworld that does pretty much the same thing.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471045-New-SCAG-Info-Someone-Got-The-Book

There are some repeats, but it gives some decent summaries about the new classes, some of the new Cantrips, and more of the lore, recent history of FR post Sundering.

[EvilAnagram]

Just got this tonight! Currently picking glue off of the edge (bit of a binding problem)

Basics

Extensive fluff for Faerun
Extensive fluff for all races
Class specific fluff to fit into Faerun
New backgrounds
Melee cantrips!


Racial Crunch

Duegar Dwarven racial option in case you wanted magic that fails in sunlight
Ghostwise Halfling racial option in case you wanted telepathy
Svirfneblin: exactly as they were in Elemental Evil!
Half-Elf variants replace Skill Versatility with one of several elven features.
Tiefling variants that replace specific features



Class Options

Barbarian Battlerager: This dwarf-only option involves dressing yourself up in spikes and hugging your enemies to death. No, seriously.
Barbarian Totem Warrior: New totems!
Bard: Bards get new instrument options, and nothing else.
Cleric of the Arcane: The art totally looks like Dorian from Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was an extremely disappointing game. It's a single-player MMO, with all of the terrible, formulaic combat and none of the social interaction. Anyways, this option is awesome if you want to permanently have great wizard spells prepared. And you do.
Druids: No real class changes, but it introduces the concept of Moonwells.
Fighter Purple Dragon Knight: Some of the Warlord features Battle Master doesn't have.
Monk of the Long Death: Vampiric touch, Frighten, orc racial power and ungodly strong death attack.
Monk of the Sun Soul: Way of the Elements, but slightly weaker and less ki-intensive
Paladin Oath of the Crown: Swear an oath to the local monarch. I'll have to cover this in depth in my Paladin guide, but you basically act the part of a noble knight.
Rangers: Rangers get nothing and like it.
Swashbuckling Rogue: You probably read this already, but you get to be Errol Flynn. Gain easier Sneak Attack and dance in and out of combat while making jokes and charming your enemies.
Storm Sorcerer: Be Ororo Munroe. You probably saw the preview.
Warlock Undying Pact: Make a pact with Vecna for necromantic spells, protection from the undead, and healing for yourself. Plus, you can do a neat trick with severed limbs.
Wizard Bladesinger: Restricted to those with Elven ancestry, this melee path trades in your school for Int bonuses to AC, concentration Con saves, and damage, plus damage reduction, light armor proficiency, and less important stuff.

[Kane0]

Rangers: Rangers get nothing and like it.

Soon dot jay peg

[Nishant]

I already pre-ordered his :)

My brother is gonna freak when he sees Goku-Monk.

[djreynolds]

Just looked at SCAG, another acronym,

Barbarian gets two new cool archetypes, dwarf battle-rager and spiked armor, Uthgardt, tired of these guys.

Wizard gets blade singer, pretty cool

Swashbuckler, awesome, that's all, hope that's enough

Ranger........... nothing, just a picture of Drizzt looking awesome and you can never be this cool so multiclass quick

Paladin, another oath, as if vengeance wasn't cool enough

Sorcerer, storm guy cool

Fighter- purple dragon knight- Could be cool, definitely team orientated. But just stuff they had and fluffed.

Cleric-arcane- now we're talking. I want more than just a fireball and they delivered

Warlock- another confusing archetype that kicks butt

Druid- I didn't look, still crying over ranger

Races- new pictures and half-elves can get stuff they don't need, I liked it when they stunk, bearded elves, white-bearded half-drow with magic, Tanis Half-Elf with a white beard could be very cool

[EvilAnagram]

I think we need to take a moment to appreciate the art in this book. So much of it is absolutely gorgeous.

Then there's the elf on page 140. Now we know that even elves can botch plastic surgery.

[BladeWing81]

Monk of the Sun Soul: Way of the Elements, but slightly weaker and less ki-intensive

Can you post the spell details please? I want to start making this character before I start out of the abyss.

[Socko525]

Wow guys, sorry for not getting back to you all earlier, I hadn't realized how many comments there were!

I'll be going through and responding to everyone shortly. Thanks again for the support and positive feedback!

[eastmabl]

Can you post the spell details please? I want to start making this character before I start out of the abyss.

Against board rules to post full spell/ability descriptions. One could post a summary of the rules, however.

[GlenSmash!]

Great List EvilAnagram! But don't forget the Mastermind Rogue.

[PoeticDwarf]

Thanks for this :D

[Tanarii]

Opinion time. Fluff and crunch.

Races
Dwarves: Shield dwarves are Mountain and Gold dwarves are Hill? I could have sworn the PHB had that back to ... nope I was just wrong. Well that blows. Gold dwarves are exceedingly uncommon, and Mountain Dwarves are one of the worst races.

Halflings: Could you make halflings any less desirable to play with that picture? They pretty much cemented the Lightfoot = Kender, Strongheart/Stout = Hobbit divide.

Dragonborn: This new and decidedly in D&D race is being pushed into extinction. Good.

Half-elf variants: poorly balanced. Half-elves were already the most overpowered race, barring Human (variant). Giving them the ability to swap 2 skills for a elf feature of choice is too much. And putting Drow Magic on the table is just ridiculous. Look forward to lots of half-Drow in your power gamer campaigns.

Tieflings: another not really DND race that they've struggled to leverage into the game. This one they're reconciling the difference between historical 'touched by demons' Tieflings and 'looking like a demon' Tieflings by adding an event called The Mark of Asmodeus. Lame.

Classes:
Barbarian: fluff calls out several North groups other than Uthgardt and shield dwarves to be Barbarians, which is great. Personally I like the seafaring Raiders ... Vikings anyone? But then they added the Battlerager just for dwarves, and Uthgardt-inspired totems. Tbh it's not as bad as my whinging makes it sound. The Battlerager is silly, but dwarves needed a mechanically sound alternative to Berserker. And Uthgardt absolutely needed more varied Totems, it's their entire schtick.

Bards: great detailed fluff on what it means to be a Lore Bard in the realm. Valor bards aren't give much beyond mention that they are common as skalds ... But that's already why I love them so much, so I didn't need much fluff there. Love me some Vikings. Also touches on the Harpers and the Blackstaff schism.

Clerics: realms clerics get so much fluff in this book it's crazy. Religion *defines* the Realms more than any other factor. "Magic in the Realms" is 1/2 a page. "Religion in the Realms" is 22 pages, giving information about every main pantheon God. Obviously, that's for every character, not just clerics ... And the three paragraph cleric fluff makes that clear. But clerics are the ones that the Gods have touched with their divine power. Arcane domain does a good job of giving your cleric a wizard feel, giving two wizard can trips (buffed at 8), and lots of 'utility' domain spells. Detect magic, nystuls aura, magic circle, arcane eye.

Druids/Rangers: some fluff talking about who they work for ... This is a crime given how integral they are to the North. Otoh I haven't finished reading the detailed info about the lands of the north, which is half the book. So Rangers and Druids may get detailed and helpful info throughout the book already, and I just haven't gotten to it yet.

Fighters: purple dragon knight in a book about the Swordcoast & the North, thanks guys, but how about something, yknow, relevant?

Monastic Orders: fluff is a compilation of all greatest Realms Hits. If you played Neverwinter Nights you'll know them all. Long Death gets a Tradition which would make Grimgnaw proud. Sun soul is a blaster monk, basically extending your unarmed attacks to 30ft range, and giving a few AoE attacks later on.

Paladins: they've obviously decided Paladins need to be PALADINS .. all realms Paladins use the same set of virtues regardless of Oath, on top of their oath virtues. Some of which makes no sense for some oaths. Why would a vengeance paladin care about Kindness, protecting the weak and granting mercy? It's an extensive list of 13 virtues too, which has the potential to wash out the differences in flavor between the oaths.
Oath of the Crown is a fantastic Crown Knight feel. They give several Swordcoast specific orders, but IMO it's also going to fit Cormyr like a glove. It's a small unit/party helper, unsurprisingly.

Rogue: two new archetypes. And they're amazing! Mastermind is the perfect social skill monkey counterpart to the thief's dungeon delver. And the swashbuckler is that twf dex-based combatant the PHB was so sorely lacking ... But then they crowbar in the Charismatic fluff as Cha-based (ie required) crunch. /sigh

Sorcerer: storm sorcerer! 'Nuff said.

Warlock: detailed list of possible patrons for PHB warlocks. Which is good ... I'd been thinking in terms of fiend/fey/Far-realm like Gods granting their power up to this point. Which was clearly just my brain having a massively stupid hiccup. ;)
Undying Patron is pretty lame, both fluff wise and Feature wise.

Wizards: that sun elf pic! Seriously ... it really is plastic surgery gone wrong! :)
The fluff for wizards is short and focuses on non-Swordcoast groups: Cormyr war wizards and Red Wizards of Thay.
A new Tradition for elves, Bladesinging ... Clearly Eldritch Knights, the ultimate Elven Gish, isn't Elven Gishy enough for the Realms. The huge feature they get is Int bonus to Con saving throws while Bladesinging. They also get extra attack. But unlike Eldritch Knights, they don't get a way to cast and fight, making it kind of pointless. Other than OAs they aren't likely to actually use those blades, and after 10th level when they can reduce damage as a reaction, they won't be making OAs.

New cantrips for Sorcs, Wizards and Warlocks: Booming Blade, Green-flame Blade, Lightning Lure and Sword Burst.
Eldritch Knights and Pact Blade Warlocks are in heaven. Finally, something to make a GISH gush.

Backgrounds: this section basically boils down to Swordcoast/realms specific reworking of the PHB backgrounds. The new features are really thematic to the background as a general rule, and fairly broad/powerful within their fluffy areas of influence. One particularly interesting call-out is the Far Traveler. It's for people that want to play someone from really far away and exotic, like Zakhara or Kara-Tur.

Man, I got a little carried away. Edit: added some spoilers to cut down the length.

[georgie_leech]

Barbarian Battlerager: This dwarf-only option involves dressing yourself up in spikes and hugging your enemies to death. No, seriously.


Tsk. Everyone knows about Drizzt, but everyone forgets about Thibbledorf Pwent and his band of Gutbusters!

[EvilAnagram]

Great List EvilAnagram! But don't forget the Mastermind Rogue.

How could I forget?? You multiclass a Mastermind with a Battle Master and you've got yourself a Warlord!

[mephnick]

A moment of silence for the ranger, please.

I assume they're not abandoning it and just have no idea what to do with it, but really? Nothing?

[DireSickFish]

A moment of silence for the ranger, please.

I assume they're not abandoning it and just have no idea what to do with it, but really? Nothing?

No mechanics for the Ranger, Bard or Druid. But they each have a fluff section. I'd like to see more options, but if they didn't feel they had a good subclass rocking and ready to go then better to leave them out.

I'm in agreement with you that I don't think they have any idea what to do with Ranger specifically.

[Estralita]

A moment of silence for the ranger, please.

I assume they're not abandoning it and just have no idea what to do with it, but really? Nothing?

My guess is that their overhaul just isn't ready yet. The UA giving the potential Ranger redux was only two months ago, and only contained the first 5 levels. All the other classes just had new archetypes building off the existing chassis. Not ripping up the entire class and starting over.

[eastmabl]

Re: the Ranger.

It's acknowledged that most people don't like it as a class. If you put together a subclass for a class that most people don't like, it's like stacking poop on top of a pile of poop.

[BlackestOfMages]

very interesting and informative guide :smallbiggrin:

[Falco1029]

I'm very disappointed that the Storm Sorcerer lost out on their bonus spells and didn't get anything else to replace it at 1st level. I get that the bonus spells made it more potent than the core ones, but I was sort of hoping they were going to be developing along the lines of upping the base and maybe later giving options to improve the corebook ones. At the very least, they could have gone the Warlock route of 'X spells are now on your spell list, but you gotta learn them normally', though even that doesn't quite seem like enough to me.

[FatherLiir]

I'm a little upset there was no full Mystic released with this, but that's me being Greedy. I'm a sucker for all things fluff or crunch with 5e so I'm very happy with this all together :smallsmile:

[MaxWilson]

At 11th level, Monk of the Long Death can spend 1 ki point (no action cost required, not even reaction) in order to drop to 1 HP instead of 0 HP. Put that together with the monk's fantastic save proficiencies and rerolls at level 14, and a good AC, and the Monk of the Long Death is nigh-unkillable. Especially combined with his capstone (never run out of ki), and his 3rd level ability to reap temp HP just like a Fiendlock (monk level + Wisdom temp HP on a kill within 5').

Interesting, no? I think I'd still rather play a Shadow Monk but it's a very intriguing ability.

[Socko525]

I'm very disappointed that the Storm Sorcerer lost out on their bonus spells and didn't get anything else to replace it at 1st level. I get that the bonus spells made it more potent than the core ones, but I was sort of hoping they were going to be developing along the lines of upping the base and maybe later giving options to improve the corebook ones. At the very least, they could have gone the Warlock route of 'X spells are now on your spell list, but you gotta learn them normally', though even that doesn't quite seem like enough to me.

I too was bummed to see this, but just to clarify it was replaced with the ability to speak and understand Primordial and all of its sub-dialects (Aquan, Aruan, etc.) It's no bonus spells/permanent mage armor (from Draconic sorcerer) but it's something

[Socko525]

At 11th level, Monk of the Long Death can spend 1 ki point (no action cost required, not even reaction) in order to drop to 1 HP instead of 0 HP. Put that together with the monk's fantastic save proficiencies and rerolls at level 14, and a good AC, and the Monk of the Long Death is nigh-unkillable. Especially combined with his capstone (never run out of ki), and his 3rd level ability to reap temp HP just like a Fiendlock (monk level + Wisdom temp HP on a kill within 5').

Interesting, no? I think I'd still rather play a Shadow Monk but it's a very intriguing ability.

Agreed, while I like shadow monk better options like Long Death just help to show how glaringly weak other options (like Four Elements) are.

[Falco1029]

I too was bummed to see this, but just to clarify it was replaced with the ability to speak and understand Primordial and all of its sub-dialects (Aquan, Aruan, etc.) It's no bonus spells/permanent mage armor (from Draconic sorcerer) but it's something

They had Primordial in the playtest, too, which automatically covers the sub-dialects. They basically just removed the spell bonus without giving anything else.

[DivisibleByZero]

They had Primordial in the playtest, too, which automatically covers the sub-dialects. They basically just removed the spell bonus without giving anything else.

I'm glad they did.
The Sorc's balance with metas is that they know less spells. They know less spells, but they can do much more with the spells that they do know.

Granted, at our table we think that Sorcs were designed a bit too safely with regards to spells and sorcery points, and have houseruled a few minor changes, and one of those changes was with bonus spell lists.
The UA Sorcs each having 2 bonus spells per level (through five) was too much.
The PHB has slightly too few.
We split the difference.
At our table, depending on subclass, each Sorc gets two bonus spells (including the PHB subclasses, who we created lists for). They can choose one of those spells to learn for free, and the other gets added to their spell list if they want to learn it via normal means (some of them are normal Sorc spells in one or both cases, and for these they basically just choose one of the two to learn for free).

But for an all or nothing approach for the two bonus spells? I prefer nothing. All was too much.

[Malifice]

Looking at Sorc 5/ Paladin 12/ Fighter/ 3 who makes extensive use of (extra attack) + quickened (Booming blade/ GFB).

With the mobile feat.

Two attacks + action surge two attacks + Quickened booming blade + Haste attack all with improved divine smite. Smite and blow superioirty dice if needed. All attacks at advantage (thanks to vengance paladin)

Then walk backwards and wait.

Core of the build (extra attack, quicken spell, mobile feat and booming blade) online from 8th level.

May use a polearm and take polearm master for the lols.

Original build was EK 7 (for war magic attack+cantrip at will) Paladin 6 (juicy saves + smite) and Draconic Sorcerer 7 (+Cha to damage with GFB and quicken/ twin for twinned GFB's or two attacks + GFB in addition to at will attack+GFB)

[Mith]

Not going to have time to check this video out for a bit, but do people recommend getting SCAG as supplementary material for a non FR setting?

[DracoKnight]

Not going to have time to check this video out for a bit, but do people recommend getting SCAG as supplementary material for a non FR setting?

YES! I read through it the other day, and they actually have a lot of stuff that can be easily ported over. Especially since they give you guidelines for all of their other published settings :D

[Falco1029]

I'm glad they did.
The Sorc's balance with metas is that they know less spells. They know less spells, but they can do much more with the spells that they do know.

Granted, at our table we think that Sorcs were designed a bit too safely with regards to spells and sorcery points, and have houseruled a few minor changes, and one of those changes was with bonus spell lists.
The UA Sorcs each having 2 bonus spells per level (through five) was too much.
The PHB has slightly too few.
We split the difference.
At our table, depending on subclass, each Sorc gets two bonus spells (including the PHB subclasses, who we created lists for). They can choose one of those spells to learn for free, and the other gets added to their spell list if they want to learn it via normal means (some of them are normal Sorc spells in one or both cases, and for these they basically just choose one of the two to learn for free).

But for an all or nothing approach for the two bonus spells? I prefer nothing. All was too much.

I disagree. Metamagic is balanced with the Wizard's own class features. The wizard has an extra archetype feature, arcane recovery, spell mastery, signature spell, and one of the best ritual casting abilities in the book. That on its own might not quite match up with metamagic, but when you then factor in the fact that the Wizard can prepare spells, has far more many spells prepared than the sorcerer will ever have known (from 4-5 vs 2 at 1st level, to 25 v 15 at 20th), and has a far, far superior spell list to the Sorcerer, the balance easily tips to the Wizard. I hardly think that adding 9 spells over time to the Sorcerer's Spells Known tips it in the other direction, especially since they're not always the most useful spells. Though, I'd have preferred one per spell level, rather than 2 up through 4th and a 5th.

And as a note, while Sorcerer's great for multiclass, I don't think that 'worth dipping' is a feature worth lauding (not your point or anything, just mentioning it after seeing other discussions here about sorc multiclass builds).

EDIT: As a note, my own preferred fix to the Sorcerer is to give him the Wizard spell list, the ability to regenerate some sorcery points with a short rest starting right at 2nd level, and to give something equivalent to spell mastery (which would work outside his normal spells known list, thus ultimately putting him at 17ish). Then he wouldn't need bonus spells, really, especially if he took the ritual caster feat. But since they can't go back and remake the core sorcerer at this point, the best fix is to go in the opposite direction and give him better spell choices for the origins.

[DivisibleByZero]

I'd have preferred one per spell level, rather than 2 up through 4th and a 5th.
Did you actually read what you quoted?
That's literally exactly what I said our table did.


EDIT: As a note, my own preferred fix to the Sorcerer is to give him the Wizard spell list, the ability to regenerate some sorcery points with a short rest starting right at 2nd level, and to give something equivalent to spell mastery (which would work outside his normal spells known list, thus ultimately putting him at 17ish). Then he wouldn't need bonus spells, really, especially if he took the ritual caster feat. But since they can't go back and remake the core sorcerer at this point, the best fix is to go in the opposite direction and give him better spell choices for the origins.
I also said that we made a few tweaks. One of the other tweaks was SP that refresh on a short rest (but less than what's listed on their table).

[Falco1029]

Did you actually read what you quoted?
That's literally exactly what I said our table did.
Oh, I misread what you said. I thought you meant they got JUST one spell, and then added ONE spell to the potential expansions, like, period, not per level. That's a bit more reasonable, my bad. But either way I meant up through 9th, anyway.



I also said that we made a few tweaks. One of the other tweaks was SP that refresh on a short rest (but less than what's listed on their table).

With actually getting spells and then an expansion each level, and then also getting sorcery points refreshed each short rest, I agree that that would work well for the Sorcerer.

Either way it comes down to the Sorcerer needing a bit more oomph, at least compared to the wizard and bard (who has a bevvy of features and then can grab spells from anywhere), and that does sound like a reasonable way to do it. Sorry for any miscommunication on my part.

[MaxWilson]

Not going to have time to check this video out for a bit, but do people recommend getting SCAG as supplementary material for a non FR setting?

That's how I thought of it when I bought it. Now... I'm kind of meh about that decision, but at least my curiosity is satisfied. There's really only three pages worth of material in the whole book that interest me (new cantrips, Monk of Long Death, and Bladesingers) although I would probably consider letting my players use some of the other material if they wanted (Oath of the Crown paladins, Undying warlocks, or radiant energy monks; not Purple Dragon fighters).


Agreed, while I like shadow monk better options like Long Death just help to show how glaringly weak other options (like Four Elements) are.

I'm not so sure that Four Elements is weak per se--having access to 2x Fireball per short rest at level 11, or 2x Stoneskin (no material components required), really isn't bad when you put it together with the base monk chassis. There are people who multiclass barbarian for less reason than that.

It is however kind of limited and unattractive on paper. I wouldn't mind hearing from someone who's played a high-level Eternal Mountain Defense monk in practice--maybe it was a blast. I can imagine that being a fun solo campaign actually. (I can imagine almost any monk as a fun solo campaign.)

Still, I feel like a Monk of Long Death who casually ignores all the arrows sticking out of his body (temp HP and Mastery of Death) while staring down enemies (Hour of Reaping: 30' fear aura) would be more fun to play in a party, at least for me.

[BladeWing81]

I'm not so sure that Four Elements is weak per se--having access to 2x Fireball per short rest at level 11, or 2x Stoneskin (no material components required), really isn't bad when you put it together with the base monk chassis. There are people who multiclass barbarian for less reason than that.

Oh yes It is, a level 1 spell like burning hands or water whip should not cost 2 ki points, I basically never casted anything until lvl 5 so that I could not die by being hit by every other minion. use it once in a big fight then just attack and use Dodge or flurry of blows until you're out of ki. if WotC could at least have step of the wind without ki cost

[Mith]

Away from books, so I do not know what this change would do, but what would happen if you changed ki points to work somewhat like the spel point progression?

0 lvl = 1 ki/encounter
1 lvl = 1 ki
2 lvl = 3 ki
3 lvl = 5 ki
etc.

Would that break to much? Basically any ki abilities that work on level of a cantrip will just be temporary spent, and hopefully balanced out by limited application and the fact that you still do not have a huge ki pool from what I recall.

[AlHazred]

I mean, I love this book. It's got some great options, and for some reason absolutely no time was spent statting out NPCs. It's necessary fluff and useful crunch.

But I can tell how hungry people are for more 5E stuff: it's already been fast-tracked through and is already legal for Adventurers League games. That process normally requires at least two weeks or so!

[Vogonjeltz]

•Half-Elf variants replace Skill Versatility with one of several elven features.

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure the book contains an error here. It says 'or' when it doesn't make any rational sense unless the conjunction used were 'and'.

[DivisibleByZero]

Away from books, so I do not know what this change would do, but what would happen if you changed ki points to work somewhat like the spel point progression?

0 lvl = 1 ki/encounter
1 lvl = 1 ki
2 lvl = 3 ki
3 lvl = 5 ki
etc.

Would that break to much? Basically any ki abilities that work on level of a cantrip will just be temporary spent, and hopefully balanced out by limited application and the fact that you still do not have a huge ki pool from what I recall.

At our table, a Monk of the Four Winds gets bonus Ki equal to his Wisdom modifier. That solves it.