Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Hi, I think the Blizzard content has been added under the wrong category.
It's listed under official sources rather than Partnered Content.
Since it's published by Wizards of the Coast, it's not "partnered content".
pronouns: he/she/they
It is Collab Content, and not from any Official D&D Source or Lore. Published by Wizards of the Coast or not, it is content created by a third party aka Blizzard. It should be in the "Partnered Content" As should ALL Universes Beyond content or whatever the hell they are calling it.
WoW is not D&D. It is WoW, it is owned and created by Blizzard. NOT Wizards of the Coast, and should remain separate and should be labeled as Partnered Content.
NO OFFICIAL UPDATES of Pre-existing Subclasses should be included in 3RD PARTY/COLLAB content. They should ONLY be in 1st Party Content that takes place in the OFFICIAL D&D Worlds. A Person shouldn't have to purchase an Unofficial Book, in order to play the updated version of an Official Subclass.
"Not getting cut into bloody littles slices, That's the key to a sound plan."
That makes sense to me as well. But I think they're inconsistent about it. World of Warcraft and Acquisitions Inc are official content, but all the Critical Role stuff is partnered content. If it's just about who published the book, Critical Role's Call of the Netherdeep and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount should be official content (although Tal'Dorei Reborn should be partnered content since it was actually published by Darrington Press). But I just tested creating a character with 5E/5.5E official content enabled and partnered content disabled, and all the World of Warcraft and Acquisitions Incorporated options were available, but none of the Critical Role options from any of their books were available.
It's not created by blizzard. It's created by wotc based on Blizzard's video games.
It's not like this book exists instead of a different book that would've had those same updates. It's an additional book. Those updates would not exist until some unknown future time.
If you don't want to buy the book, you get to be in the same scenario as if it had never existed.
Your opinion doesn't have any impact on the book's classification. It's an official book, end of story.
And yet, as ApplePaladin pointed out AND several people have pointed out in the Discord when the subject has come up. There are Official Books that were published by WotC, that have content from Non-WotC sources that are not considered Official content. That do not appear unless you have Partnered Content Enabled. Which means they are not Official, they are Partnered. So WHY is this book, which is made from content not owned by WotC. Aka Any and all Lore involving WoW which is owned by Blizzard. NOT ALSO the same case. It is made from content not owned by WotC just like those books, it is published by WotC just like those books. And yet THOSE books are Partnered Content that have to be toggled, because their content is owned by a 3rd party. So This book should be as well, as WotC does NOT OWN WoW, Blizzard does. Therefore OFFICIAL content owned by WotC Should not be reprinted in it, such as the updated Swashbuckler Rogue and Drunken Master (Mystic Brews) Monk. Things like that should only be reprinted in books where all the content is owned and produced solely by WotC.
"Not getting cut into bloody littles slices, That's the key to a sound plan."
It's not about the contents or publisher, it's about the development team. This was made by an internal team specifically for 5.5e D&D. Critical Role is the closest partnered content to being official books, but is ultimately still classified as partnered content in the builder (though the books are classified as official in the Library, which means one of the two is a bug on the site).
And as for what should or shouldn't be reprinted in it, that's just, like, your opinion, man. I'm personally glad to see the updates for them, plus the Holy Paladin and Elements Barbarian (both new subclasses) are considered officially usable in organized play.
Why?
Not all DMs allow things from all books. There are plenty who don't allow anything not from the Established Worlds. There are/have been dozen's of posts and conversations about Groups where the DM doesn't allow stuff like Theros, Ravnica, or Wildemount. Even the books that are less specific on Origins like Spelljammer, because they are not Faerun, Eberron or Dragonlance. By attaching subclasses that originally came from books in those settings, to a book that has nothing to do with Official Lore/Worlds. In this case WoW, that are meant to be the updated 5.5 versions of those subclasses. Alienates people who would play the updated classes, but can't because a DM will take one look at "WoW" and automatically say "No". Especially if they get a DM who doesn't allow Legacy/5e content and only take the updated 5.5e. Its just a bad call all around.
I personally am not the biggest fan of WoW, nor do most of the players or people I know. Truly the ONLY reason anyone I play D&D with, or have played with in the existence of 5e has any interest is the Updated Subclasses. I WILL also admit, that I do like some of the things in this book (Staring at you Professions/Crafting. And who doesn't love more Magic Items/Spells). But I really only I picked it up for my players, mostly because of the Updated Sublasses. As they are Subclasses that are popular among several groups I play in or have played in, and I want to make sure they have access to them. And I didn't want to spend hours "homebrewing" the for my players to use.
If the updated subclasses had been published in any book that was even remotely tied to Faerun, Eberron, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Ravenloft or even had some kind of tie into Spelljammer. I would have bought the book without a second of hesitation from myself or any of the groups I play in. But because it is tied to something outside of what has pretty much all established Official Lore/Worlds. I just don't see HOW it could be seen as anything other than Partnered Content. I view the other upcoming books, cept Dark Sun cause that has been around before in the same light. I would be making just as much a fuss about this situation even if it was the Star Wars book or a Collab with any IP that I do enjoy.
HELL If they had release these updated Subclasses, and pretty much anything in this book as "Hey this is a new world, with new stuff that follows and was entirely made by us" and not the situation of "these update Subclasses, and everything in this book was created as a reference to an existing IP owned by an entirely different corporation/entity" I would also be 1,000,000% down and would have bought it without hesitation or making a fuss.
BUT because it is a Collaboration Product, using content that was not created by WotC (yes I get the WotC design team worked on it. Cool.) but because the content itself, the Species, the Subclasses, basically everything is WoW and not D&D. I just can not see how it could be anything other than Partnered Content. Especially with the thing mentioned earlier on a few books that were also Official WotC books that are considered Partnered Content. Despite being Official Release.
Yes that gets me flack, yes people are gonna be like "But its published by them" that doesn't change the fact, that all those NPCs and Monsters and everything else in that book, that are Owned, Trademarked and Copyrighted by Blizzard and not WotC. Which means the book, and the other upcoming Universe Beyond or whatever they are being called, like Star Wars. Should be classified as "Partnered Content" because they are. WotC did not create them.
Edited to say what parts of the book I personally found interest in.
"Not getting cut into bloody littles slices, That's the key to a sound plan."
1: That isn't WotC's fault or responsibility, that's session 0 talk. Invalid point.
2: The subclasses and a few of the feats are all-purpose, regardless of where they were printed. The decision of whether or not to buy it is yours.
3: "I just don't see HOW it could be seen as anything other than Partnered Content." It's called being wrong.
4: Still a personal decision for you that doesn't have any bearing on the topic.
5: It's still called being wrong. Also, while WotC and CR collaborated for the release of the book/books discussed, CR content was never officially owned by WotC, even when they printed it.
6: No, because partnered content is a tag designed for projects not developed by WotC. Your feelings don't change that.
Again: if this book didn't exist, there'd be no other book in its place with those classes. If your DM doesn't allow legacy stuff, you'd still have no access to the subclasses.
Ultimately, if this is a problem for you, it's a problem not because WotC published it, but because your DM is being unreasonable.
But also, DMs don't have to allow all classes/subclasses/species/whatever just because WotC published them. They are allowed to curate to what is appropriate to their game. If they're running Dragonlance, one would expect them to restrict things to Dragonlance stuff. And if you disagree, you have to either persuade them otherwise, deal with it, or not play.
I think the most sensible way to handle this would be to add a third top level category. The first one would be for purely WotC stuff; the second for WoW, Star Wars, Acquisitions Incorporated etc.; and the third one for actual third party content.