Show Notes
In this episode of the RPGBOT.Podcast, we discuss the new Unearthed Arcana: Giant Options playtest material. We examine the new subclass and feat options with a critical eye, and offer opinions on what we like, what we don’t, what we hope will be changed, and what we might to see in future products.
Materials Referenced in this Episode
- RPGBOT.Podcast Episodes
- Articles from RPGBOT.net
- DnD 5e
- Other Stuff
Cover Image by Pexels from Pixabay.
Transcript
Randall 00:00
Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. I’m Randall James and with me is Tyler Kamstra.
Tyler 00:04
Hi, everybody,
Randall 00:05
And Ash Eli.
Ash Ely 00:06
Hey, guys.
Randall 00:07
All right, Tyler, what is happening?
Tyler 00:09
Well, we got something really big to talk about today.
Randall 00:12
Is it the DND movie?
Tyler 00:14
No. Can it be?
Randall 00:17
No? Yeah.
Tyler 00:19
So we just got a new Unearthed Arcana document. This time it’s giant options. And there’s some really cool stuff in here. So we’re going to take a look at it and see what we like, what we don’t, and you know, try and make some conjecture about the future.
Randall 00:31
I just got it. Okay. No, that’s fine. I liked that. That was great. It was good. Oh, all right. Well, I’ll open with I think I really like the Barbarian subclass path of the giant. And I’m looking forward to you destroying all of my hopes and dreams.
Tyler 00:50
I like it a lot, too. They did some really cool things in here for the first time. So we have a good option for throwing weapons for maybe the second time and old fifth edition, the first time being the returning weapon. Infusion for the Artificer. So you kind of get that Thor fantasy of throwing your hammer and having it come back to your hand. You also get to the like yeet people 30 feet into the air.
Ash Ely 01:16
Yeah I was gonna say that’s my favorite feature. It sounds great.
Randall 01:21
The part that I love about it in the game that I’m playing with Tyler right now I’ve seen how amazing it can be to have a Barbarian that grapples folks really well or can push people prone really well and then grapple them, and then let us just pummel on them. So I’m a Sorcerer. I’m not so good at the stabby things. But most of my stabbies come at the end of folks who Tyler’s currently grappling. Having said that the giant stature are part of giants havoc, allowing you to become large if you are smaller than large. And then later on allowing you to become huge. Feels really amazing, because I feel like the biggest limitation we’ve had isn’t what you’ve been able to roll. As far as the strength check. It’s been the rule that you can only grapple something one size larger than yourself.
Ash Ely 02:01
Yeah.
Tyler 02:02
That’s that’s definitely been a problem. Like we talked about on the podcast. Previously, the time I tried to leap into the air and suplex a dragon. Turns out it was too big.
Ash Ely 02:11
Oh, man.
Tyler 02:11
So I got to real quick convince our DM to let me use the climbing creature rules. Almost as fun.
Randall 02:18
No, not almost as fun. But this probably this would have been able to pull together right? Like if you can, if you can become large. And then I can twin spell, enlarge and reduce to make them smaller, or make you larger. At that point, we’ve got the grapple. We can do it. We can grapple anything, we can grapple the world.
Ash Ely 02:37
I love that. That’s That’s fantastic. That’s a fantastic idea. Yeah, I think it adds a lot of interesting. A new interesting choice to barbarians. As it feels like it fits really well with Barbarian specifically I think if they were to do it with Fighter, which I guess they kind of did with like the rune warrior. But this just, it feels more closely associated with giants. And I like that.
Tyler 03:01
Yeah, the Runite Fighter definitely feels like we’re gonna steal some giant culture here. And this feels like, I’m gonna like chill with my giant friends and get real mad, which I guess isn’t really chilling. But you know what I mean?
Ash Ely 03:15
Yeah. And it’s also kind of like, it’s kind of implied that you’re like, you could be related to giants in some way, maybe have giant blood in you, or maybe your half giant, which could be very cool. And an interesting character choice, I think.
Randall 03:29
Yeah, I really love the idea though, of like, not being like a Goliath, but instead being a gnome and taking this anyway.
Ash Ely 03:36
That’s fantastic. And I love it.
Randall 03:39
Like, the way that we’re building characters, like your race isn’t going to be as bad as penalizing. As far as strength or anything else goes, you’re not going to take, you know, you can always take the plus two plus one option, and you’re ready to go. So why not be unknown Barbarian who can turn huge on a moment’s notice?
Tyler 03:54
Yeah. One of the most annoying things about being small and 5e that you take disadvantage for using weapons with the heavy property if you’re small. If you rage and become large, you’re no longer small. So that’s no longer a problem for you. Carry around a great axe as a gnome, it’s great.
Ash Ely 04:11
I just realized that I just came to a realization reading the verbiage on this, that if you’re smaller than larger, become large. So conceivably, you could make some really interesting builds. If you were like a Pixie, let’s say your size tiny, and you just sneak into a place and then boom. It’s fantastic.
Tyler 04:34
Wizards has started doing interviews with Jeremy Crawford every time they publish one of these articles. So they talk about the thoughts behind the design. And they talk specifically about the mighty impel feature, which is the thing that lets you throw people 30 feet, and Crawford was very clear like yes, we meant for you to be able to throw enemies straight into the air to cause falling damage. So like I saw that feature I thought, I don’t know if they thought that through. Apparently they did. And I’m very excited about that. But I don’t know if they thought through, you can leap into the air and then throw things while you’re in the air. So you could like jump off the ground, throw things few more feet, jump into the air, grab something out of the air, throw it at the ground. So…
Ash Ely 05:15
You can spike a person.
Tyler 05:16
You sure can grab a ring of jumping, folks, it’s going to be great.
Randall 05:20
Okay, but wait, can you actually deal any additional damage than you could if you just threw them in the air 30 feet and let them fall?
Tyler 05:26
So if you jump high enough in the air and are still able to reach them, which as your size increases, you get reached as part of these features as well.
Randall 05:35
Absolutely, yeah.
Tyler 05:35
So that lets you reach further down to grab people further below you and you throw them to a space within 30 feet of you so if you’re higher up you can throw them higher into the air
Randall 05:46
Perfect, okay.
Tyler 05:47
So you can jump 10 feet you can now throw them 40 feet.
Randall 05:50
I love good no I love this this is this is what we’re doing. Yeah, yeah. All right, this is good.
Ash Ely 05:56
That’s just the entire character built, your entire character build you don’t use weapons you just spike people. I love it. Fantastic.
Randall 06:03
You’re the Incredible Hulk from the Avengers.
Tyler 06:07
30 feet of fall damage is more damage than a great axe and it knocks people prone.
Randall 06:12
Good. All right. So we hinted at it we have the ability now we have a thrown weapon, which rules is written you know as soon as it makes its contact it just immediately appears back in your hand. Of course you could flavor that that it’s like a Thor’s hammer. It’s a boomerang you know that flavor wouldn’t matter as long as you kind of maintained the benefit. Nobody can capture your weapon nobody can keep your weapon from you. It appears back in your hand. You get to add elemental damage type of your choice when you rage and so you know you can have you know finding these creatures I think it might be weak to fire if you’re playing Rhyme of the Frost Maiden like us it’s always fire just choose fire. That’s the right choice. All of this is pretty awesome. I want to put you on the spot. Would you change from path of the beast? Which is your current character subclass to path of the giant
Tyler 07:06
Ah, if I wasn’t so emotionally attached to my current character, like I would look at this as like a an equivalent level of fun, but I’m just having so much fun like with my character as a concept that I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Randall 07:22
Bear Grylls probably needs to stay is pattern the giant doesn’t it? Yeah. Yeah, Path of the Beast.
Tyler 07:29
Bugbear Grylls, the bugbear grilling survivalist.
Ash Ely 07:32
Oh my god, I love him already.
Randall 07:38
Every week, everywhere he goes, it’s Carnage and smoke sausage.
Tyler 07:41
Sure. Have you ever sat down that you got so angry? And have you ever gotten so angry that you sat down and grew gills I have?
Ash Ely 07:52
Oh my god.
Randall 07:55
He really binds us together.
Ash Ely 07:59
So next on the list is the Circle of the Primeval which is a Druid that has an animal companion, which is something that was pretty common thing to do in Pathfinder, but you don’t see it in five E. So this is I mean, you do see it with like circled a wildfire a little bit, but it’s not as explicit as is here. It is an interesting class, your companion seems pretty good. My biggest complaint about it is just let us have a large creature from the beginning. Just let us have a large creature. I don’t think it breaks a lot. But that’s that’s that’s just a little kid in me. I want to have a big dinosaur. I think conceptually it is. It is fun, you know that you’re connecting to the world before sort of humanity and mortals existed, which makes a lot of sense. And it’s a niche that hasn’t been really filled by Druids. That being said, I do find the class a little bit underwhelming. It doesn’t seem to have as much interesting things going on for it as some of the other it’s kind of essentially like a better Beastmaster Ranger I would say. But that’s just my opinion.
Tyler 09:11
Yeah, it’s using a lot of the same mechanics as the updated version of the Beast Master. So rather than having like, this is my animal companion Phil, you have a primeval companion that if it dies, you just spend a spell slot or disease wild shape. Yeah, wild shape and you get another one. They’re expendable, disposable pets.
Ash Ely 09:34
It uses wild shape to summon a companion but you can use a spell slot to at 14 level to like give it some extra stuff.
Tyler 09:41
Oh, yeah, that’s right. The let me spend an eighth bubble spell slot, give the same plus 40 feet of movespeed and just race across the country or spend a really high level spell slot .What if this thing’s attacks did 9d8 damage?
Ash Ely 09:58
Yeah, I would say the 14th level is the most exciting for sure. Yeah.
Tyler 10:03
Yeah. So there’s probably some room for improvement here. There’s a couple of rough edges like the rounded off to make this like not have huge power spikes. I think the mechanics are solid. And I like that they’re using wild shape as the expendable resource again, they started doing that in Tosh’s, as they add an optional class feature where you could use wild shaped cast, find familiar and like, yeah, it’s a good resource.
Randall 10:26
So I have a mechanics question for you. You have to use bonus, your bonus action to control your primeval companion. What is the bonus action economy like for a typical Druid?
Tyler 10:38
It’s generally pretty underused, not a lot of Druid spells are cast as a bonus action, the only one that comes to mind I’m sure there are more, but the only one that comes to mind immediately is Healing Word. There are a couple of subclasses that use their bonus action. But it’s like circle of spores, maybe circle of wildfire, and then circle of the primeval here has the option to command your companion with a bonus action. But there’s no core feature built into the Druid that uses your bonus action. So you could go your entire career is like a land Druid or whatever without using your bonus action once.
Ash Ely 11:13
I think the other thing about this that is a little bit worrying is it has the same issue that Beastmaster Ranger has, which is it kind of precludes you from doing multiclassing. Because you really GIMP yourself if you do that, because your companions, your companions health and stuff is based off of five times your Druid level, not your level your Druid level. And that is something that I wish they would go away from like move away from so that we could do multiclassing because whenever there’s a companion in a subclass, it’s always really tied to your specific Druid level, which I get why they’re doing it. I just it really limits your options I feel.
Randall 11:59
Yeah, there’s the extreme version of that where you’re a level 18 Fighter and you take two levels of Druid just to get this.
Ash Ely 12:04
Yeah, I realize it’s not a it’s not a perfect fit. There’s no perfect solution.
Tyler 12:14
There’s a bunch of subclasses that are super powerful that dip into for one or two levels, because their features are based on your proficiency bonus. So like a lot of the subclasses in Tosh’s get really good based off of just your proficiency bonus. So like yeah, one or two levels in the class to get the basic features. And then like way up at level 20 You’ve still got something just as amazing as if you had single classed and in whatever it was.
Randall 12:38
And so the answer to my question is that as a Druid if you’re taking this subclass, that is what your bonus action is for now. This is what you’re gonna use it for. Occasionally, you might choose to cast one of these rare spells that uses your bonus action. Most of the time you’re using it to control your primeval companion.
Ash Ely 12:54
Definitely 100%.
Tyler 12:56
So the last one, we got another Wizard and me as a big Wizard enthusiast, I’m very excited about this. The rune crafter Wizard. So what if instead of a Wizard that wrote words, you wrote single letters? Okay…
Randall 13:12
I can I don’t get it.
Tyler 13:13
I can see I haven’t seen the runes are not generally like a single letter for like that.
Randall 13:19
I’m familiar with the rune, I’m just not excited.
Tyler 13:21
Yeah. Okay.
Ash Ely 13:22
I am I’m with I’m with Tyler. I love the aesthetic of runes. Just super cool to me.
Tyler 13:27
Yeah. So the mechanics here look a lot like the sorcerer’s Metamagic feature, like you get a collection of runes, and you can spend, like you have a pool of uses of these equaled your proficiency bonus per day. And you could spend that to essentially do Metamagic. And, like the effects don’t line up perfectly with the existing Metamagic options, which is probably a good thing, honestly. But the fact that we’ve got kind of a similar mechanic, but this time for wizards, it’s pretty cool. And I like the way they did the theme.
Ash Ely 13:58
I think rune crafter, in my opinion, is the big winner of this Unearthed Arcana. They got a lot of really cool features. The fact that you can just give people temporary hit points, whenever you cast a spell is, is very good. I know that temporary hit points don’t stack but it’s still it’s just as fun. And then can we talk about the 10th level feature? I believe it or no, the sixth level? Excuse me sixth level feature, which is like downgraded legendary resistance. Yeah.
Tyler 14:30
Yeah, that one might be a little too strong. So it uses one use of your Runic empowerment, which you only get like proficiency bonus uses per day. So there’s a cost there. You’re not going to spam this constantly. But even so to just outright succeed on a saving throw for strength decks con like, those are generally the wizards biggest vulnerabilities. So that’s really really good. Yeah, like I’d be happy with that if it was just a reroll, like if you looked at and said, I’m going to spend one use my Runic empowerment to reroll the safe that I failed. I’d be super happy with that.
Ash Ely 15:06
Yeah, I think that’s what they’ll eventually move to is like either advantage or reroll because even just that is super strong. But the fact that is essentially like legendary resistance for your physical traits is very good. And it’s limited Yes, but it’s still so are legendary resistances and it’s it’s a really powerful ability. I’d be surprised if they don’t change it.
Tyler 15:32
As we all know wizards are famously very physically resistant.
Ash Ely 15:36
So true.
Randall 15:37
And for the Wizards of the Coast. I know what you think you heard Ash say just now what we’re actually saying is like, this is fine. We’re probably not going to take take this sub class just for this. You know, I’m going to like it’s a it’s a good write up. I think you did a good job here. Not too heavy, not too weak.
Ash Ely 15:54
Yeah, it’s perfect. Keep it like this. No complaints.
Randall 15:59
Okay, and then so we talked about right we have early on, you get the life rune, the War rune, the wind rune, life, you get to give temporary hit points, the War rune, you get to add a bonus to the next attack role for the target creature. So what is it, it’s I’m gonna read it aloud as opposed to something like through… War rune. When you invoke this rune choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you until the end of your next turn attack roles that target the chosen creature gain a bonus equal to half the level of the spell slot expended, rounded up minimum of plus one. I misread that when I first read that. Wow, yeah, okay, so choose one bad guy, and that everybody gets to beat on that and attack rolls that target that creature get a bonus equal to half the level of spell plus one.
Ash Ely 16:48
Yeah.
Tyler 16:49
Yeah, that’s real good.
Randall 16:51
That’s, that’s real good. Well, especially like when we like combined that thing. You know, combine that with a Monk, combine that with like any creature that’s going to make repeated attacks, where what balances their class is that they don’t actually hit that often. So you know, sure you get six opportunities to deal a damage except for now you’re hitting every single time.
Tyler 17:11
Yeah, so if you have people in your party with great weapon master and sharpshooter, like they’re Yeah, they’re going to really, really enjoy that. It’s a great way to focus something down. Yeah, the like, the effects of these runes are really, really good. And like I said, it’s limited to your proficiency bonus for long rests. But hey, look at that. It’s a second level feature. So you can dip into runecrafter or Wizard from another class and use this on whatever you want.
Ash Ely 17:38
Yeah, and then the 14th level, ability just throws out? Oh, gosh. It’s like, yeah, just an [garbled] rune. It’s a Save As if there was a definition of a save or suck spell. It’s this one, which is like, they have disadvantage on saving throws against your spells, they can’t go invisible. And basically, the next time someone attacks them, you also do 1d8 force damage,
Tyler 18:06
And it ends the effect immediately. The first one is disadvantage on saves against your spells. The second one is they can’t be invisible. And the third one is they take 1d8 damage at some point in the next turn, or in the next minute, and you have to spend a bonus action every round to keep it off. Why is that? There? Yeah, so bad.
Ash Ely 18:28
Yeah, that one’s that one’s kind of underwhelming, but the disadvantage against saving throws and forced invisibility? Not can’t go invisible is very good. Yeah, for a Wizard especially.
Randall 18:39
That’s why they call it a Woofle Curse. It’s very terrible. All right, I want to ask the same question. Opportunity cost of becoming a rune crafter versus any other Wizard subclass? Are you looking at this thing? This is a standout. This is something that you think, as written is going to be four star?
Tyler 18:56
Oh, that’s a good question. I’d have to give that one some more thought. Definitely, definitely three or four stars. The gosh, the two level dip into this thing is going to be awesome for a lot of spellcasters. I’ll have to give it some more thought and see how the final version comes out though.
Randall 19:15
Okay, cool. Cool. Awesome. All right. And then we had a giant box of feats. So there are 10 of them at all. They’re all slightly giant scenes, slightly primeval, elemental themed. Also runes, I guess what? Yep. Take your pick. Yeah, I guess generally, let’s talk about the shape of this right. So there are prerequisites. Most of them have a level prerequisite. The rune Carver adept counts on you taking the rune carver apprentice ahead of it. Yeah, I guess were there any standouts? Anything that was exciting to you?
Tyler 19:49
The rune Carver feats like the two feet feet chain, we can’t quite call it tree yet. I think it’s a really, really cool concept, but it’s… Trees have branches. Generally Yes. Like a very straight tree like a birch or something.
Ash Ely 20:07
Feat tower, feat tower.
Tyler 20:09
That’s so much better. I love that. Okay. A two feet feat tower. Yeah, I think you could roll these into one feat, and it would still just be okay. Like, yeah. Yeah. Magic initiate this is not.
Ash Ely 20:23
No.
Tyler 20:26
But like I love the theme. I love the idea here, this would be really cool way for classes to get access to spells from outside their spell list. Some of the spells on here are actually pretty good choices like you’ve got shield and Armor of Agathis. And goodberry, like there’s some good stuff on here. I just wish the feats did slightly more.
Randall 20:49
That’s fair. That’s fair. So I really liked ember of the fire giant for no particular reason. But we’ll talk about you know, for all the things that jumped out at me, I don’t know why this is something that did jump out to me. So one, you have resistance to fire damage, which is GM. Actually, I should, I should pause for a second. This was one of the two feats, one of the three feats that required you to be eighth level before you took it. So as you’re thinking about this, also think about, okay, I’m at eighth level, this is a feat that I’m taking versus a lot of everything else that we’ve talked about before the level, you know, so don’t be overwhelmed or underwhelmed. I don’t know which direction that goes. When you take the attack action on your turn, you can replace one of your attacks with a magical burst of flame, each creature of your choice within 15 feet of you that can see you must make a dexterity saving throw, on a failed save a creature takes fire damage equal to 2d6 plus your proficiency bonus and is blinded until the start of your next turn. That’s awesome.
Tyler 21:52
It really is, it’s kind of surprising that they have to be able to see you to take the fire damage.
Ash Ely 21:57
I think what they’re trying to do is that it’s not necessarily like you’re throwing out flame. It’s more like you’re causing flame to come out of their eyes. I guess that’s so requires sight? I don’t know. I don’t know I’m trying to defend Wizards of the Coast here, but I don’t know. It makes more sense. In my head.
Randall 22:18
We’ve had some fun conversations about line of sight versus line of effect. And I guess this is like reverse line of sight that you got to be able to see me to feel the effects of the thing that I’m doing to you. I like what you said though, yeah, like fire from their eyes, it’s gonna be great.
Ash Ely 22:31
Or maybe it’s like a stair sort of effect where them seeing you like your eyes light up, and that causes their eyes… where we’are in Elden Ring now. And you know, the flame of frenzy is the thing.
Randall 22:43
Yeah. As far as flavor goes, the fact that it does blind them until the start of your next turn. Yeah, at that point, it makes perfect sense. So for a lot of like mundane enemies, this is going to be fantastic. Because, like what what happens when an enemy is blinded, they effectively have disadvantage on all ranged or melee attacks, if they can even guess what cell you’re sitting in. Yeah, and then so DMs at home, you gotta be honest with your folks, I feel like we just had a good episode talking about how to do this.
Ash Ely 23:11
Mm hmm. For me, the one that kind of still stood out for me is Guile of the cloud giant. So for those who haven’t read it, it’s you can cast blur, once a day without using a spell slot or components. And when you cast the spell in this way, it doesn’t require you to maintain concentration on it, which is, in my opinion, very, very good. Because blur is one of those spells that is very useful, but no one ever uses because it requires concentration. And there are way cooler spells for you to use. But for wizards and stuff, especially like blur plus shield is really good. And then not even mentioning mage armor. You’d basically be unhittable, and if you were like, let’s say you were to grab this as a sword as sword singers or blade singer. That’s why this Thank you. Like you can basically be untouchable as as a Wizard lay of it would be. Yeah, there’s a lot of really fun builds that you could do with this. Plus the fact that you get proficiency. And well you get expertise in either deception or persuasion. It’s just icing on the cake for me. So that was a really exciting for you when I saw that one.
Tyler 24:32
Yeah, I really like the bet they split it between both a combat spell and a skill that you’re going to use outside of combat. Like it fits the theme of cloud giants really, really well. And yeah, that’s just a good feat.
Ash Ely 24:45
Yeah, definitely.
Tyler 24:47
I noticed some things are continuing some trends that we’ve seen in previous Unearthed Arcana documents, especially the two Dragonlance UAs that we’ve seen recently. Feats with level prerequisites and feat chains are still a thing in this. So it seems like the feedback on both feet chains and having like level locked feats must have been good. Otherwise, wizards would have stopped doing it. So it seems like they are moving more in that direction. And based on both what we’re seeing here and what they said in the the interviews, when they released the the UA, they’re making the feats that are locked behind a specific level more powerful than the ones that aren’t. So if you look at like ember of the fire giant and guile of cloud giant, those are both eighth level. And then if you compare that to like, outsized might, which doesn’t have a level of prerequisite, it’s like you get a skill proficiency, you get powerful build, and it’s hard to move you or knock you down. Great. Maybe like, I think they are leaning more into the idea that people really, really like feats, and don’t consider them an optional rule. And they want people to have access to feats at first level without having to be a very human again.
Ash Ely 26:05
Yeah, yeah. I like that they’re leaning more into feats, because it started out is really just sort of an optional feature. And now it feels like it’s becoming more a part of the game, which I like, I always like systems that allow people to customize their characters more. Yeah, no, I’m happy with this. Like, there are some feats that are very good. There are some feats, I could maybe use another pass.
Randall 26:30
And then I feel like like the last interesting part of that is just the opportunity cost of taking these feats versus whatever was regularly scheduled for you. And that’s, I feel like that’s a really high bar to clear.
26:42
Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Randall 26:43
I have one more question. Ash, yes. Tyler. Well, what are they writing? So if we look at like, like, what are the most recent Unearthed, Arcana that we’ve had? All right, we had the travelers of the multiverse, and we looked at it and we said, what are we gonna get? We’re gonna get Spelljammer we’re gonna get…
Tyler 27:07
May Dark Sun and then I was wrong. Yeah.
Ash Ely 27:11
Dark Sun would have been cool.
Randall 27:14
We had the Dragonlance material and lo and behold, there was Dragonlance although I feel like that was kind of a gimme. We had the dragons UA, we got Fizban’s. What’s happening? What did they do it.
Ash Ely 27:28
Tyler?
Tyler 27:28
Okay, so I’ve got two theories. There was an old like first or second edition campaign called against the Giants. And like, you might guess from the name, the enemies were giants. So option one, they’re bringing that campaign into fifth edition. I don’t think anyone has sold on that idea.
Ash Ely 27:52
I don’t think so.
Randall 27:53
Nobody at WotC’s actually aware of that campaign.
Tyler 27:57
If I remember right there were there were some problematic issues with colonialism in the in the campaign as well. So it’s probably best to leave that one where it was.
Ash Ely 28:06
Probably, yeah.
Tyler 28:08
So option two is they might be updating storm kings thunder. So we… we saw this with wrath of the Dragon Queen like they… it was originally published as two or three books, they republished it as an enhanced edition one book, it got the special edition cover with the cool Tiamat art on the front. Like very cool, they updated it. They did kind of the same thing with Curse of Strahd. So we got Van Richtons Guide to Ravenloft and then like the updated version of Curse of Strahd At the same time, you can buy it with a toy coffin it’s neat. So they might be doing the same thing with storm kings thunder… bring back giants we might get a like kind of tie in supplement that’s all giant and related options. And then maybe other plot hooks to explore other things with giants or it’s entirely possible that we’re just getting something new and giant themed.
Randall 29:04
It would be excited to get something like Fizban but for giants.
Tyler 29:09
Yeah, absolutely. Something going more into like giant personality and stuff would be kind of neat. We did get a little bit of that information in Volos guide to monsters which they’ve since like kind of walked back. It was like Hey, all red giants take slaves. And then once he has since moved away from that to not all x or y which we discussed on the Irrata 3.0 episode. So yeah, it’d be nice to see some more nuanced exploration of these intelligent and interesting creatures from all over the multiverse.
Ash Ely 29:09
Yeah. I think that is possible. But for my money I’m betting on storm kings thunder revamp, because, like Curse of Strahd Storm kings thunder was a really popular adventure that a lot of that had a lot of really good feedback, and it’s considered like a classic of fifth edition. So I think That’s probably the most likely is that there are probably trying to rework or update storm kings thunder, because, again, like I think that’s a really great, great supplement like a really great adventure, a lot of fun. And you could add some stuff there, like you were saying that would flesh out the giants to give them a bit more depth. So kill two birds with one stone with that one.
Randall 30:24
What’s been the typical delay? I’m trying to think through? Is it typically three to six months from the time that we get to UA to the time we actually get the published material, or at least an announcement of the material?
Tyler 30:33
Oh, that’s a good question. When did we get Dragonlance? I feel like it was February the Dragonlance UA?
Randall 30:40
Yeah, it was it was certainly this calendar.
Tyler 30:42
Yeah. And we’re not getting the book until like August
Randall 30:44
But it was announced.
Tyler 30:46
That’s true.
Ash Ely 30:46
Yeah.
Randall 30:47
And so that’s six months. So the reason I’m asking that question very specifically is, we know we have you know, whether it’s going to be 5.5, whether it’s going to be six, whatever it’s going to be we know we have that coming in what like 15 months now something like this.
Tyler 30:59
Yeah, mid. I think I said mid 2024. But I would probably expect it for the holiday season 2024.
Randall 31:07
Okay, that’s too far away. So I’m actually I’m gonna I’m gonna retract the thing I was about to say which is maybe maybe it’s storm kings thunder, but maybe it’s storm kings thunder with lots of new material. And by the way, this is you know, this is 5.5 this is six but that that sounds silly. I’m really hoping it is something like this Vance. I’m hoping that we get a new playable race option with what is either like a large humanoid are a small giant, They Might Be Giants.
Ash Ely 31:34
Yeah, for my money. I would love to see like a half giant or something like that. Or like maybe a playable ogre. That would be fun. I think I think large humanoid creatures, large, playable, large humanoids is something that you don’t see a lot of and could be very fun.
Tyler 31:52
Hey, WotC, give us large humanoid you cowards.
Ash Ely 31:54
Yes, please.
Tyler 31:56
I’m kidding. I know what it would do to the game. I understand.
Ash Ely 31:59
I’ve had large humanoids. That doesn’t break it that much. Okay.
Tyler 32:03
Go go visit a halfling village and then see what…
Ash Ely 32:06
Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. I didn’t say it was perfect.
Randall 32:11
But if the halflings all follow the path of the giant, they’ll just get huge themselves. They’ll take care of business on their own.
Ash Ely 32:17
There you go.
Randall 32:18
That’s the war that I want to see. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please rate and review us on Apple podcast and rate us on Spotify or your favorite podcast app. It’s a quick free way to support the podcasts and helps us to reach new listeners. You can find links in the show notes. You’ll find affiliate links for source books and other materials linked in the show notes as well as on RPGBOT.net, following these links helps us to make this show happen every week. Ash, I actually feel like you’re you’re really wift on my They Might Be Giants joke.
Tyler 32:45
I caught it.
Randall 32:47
It was good. You give me a hearty chuckle.
Ash Ely 32:49
Sorry, I missed it.
Randall 32:51
It’s okay.
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