D&D: WotC Releases New 5.5E Errata – Spell Nerfs, Monster Buffs, And ‘Hidden’ Clarification
Well it’s here folks, the first official batch of errata/updates for the core rules of 5.5E now that all three books are out.
Wizards of the Coast posted a batch of 5.5E errata today. It was only a matter of time, now that all three core rulebooks have hit and been out for a while. And many of the changes aren’t surprising.
There are nerfs to spells that were definitely a little overtuned (don’t worry, they’re still good, in many cases), as well as some clarification that I wouldn’t have thought necessary for the Hide action, as well as a few buffs to some of the monsters in the manual.
All told, it’s not game-shaking. But hopefully, these errata will help put some arguments at the table to rest rather than give rise to many more.
WotC Releases 5.5E Errata
You can find the full list on D&D Beyond. WotC takes you through the errata in the April-June Changelog for D&D Beyond. Obviously, the books aren’t going to have the text change, but you should know that the changes found in the core rules errata are the most up-to-date changes out there. The way the game is intended to be played by the creators.
You are, of course, free to ignore any and all of this. But. Here are a few of the big differences.
From the Player’s Handbook, perhaps the biggest nerf is to the spell Conjure Minor Elementals, which now drops from 2d8 per spell level above 4 to 1d8 per spell level above 4, which is still good.
I can see why WotC has made these changes – many similar spells like Conjure Elemental and Conjure Fey have similarly seen their scaling downgraded from 2dX to 1dX per spell level. Still potent, but not so potent that you can just start deleting encounters (which, for the record, I’m a fan of, so I might still use the old version at my table because I like the high-powered feel of it).
The other big change is to spells like Shapechange and Polymorph, which granted big pools of Temporary Hit Points. One of the big things about THP is that, technically, they stay until they are removed by damage, unless otherwise specified.
So people were using Polymorph as a way to theoretically amp up your pools of temporary hit points and have them stick around for a day or more – this is no longer the case, now the THP vanish when the spell ends. Again, probably a good change.
Hide Gets an Update
One last bit of Player’s Handbook errata worth calling out, a change to the way Hide works:
“In the second paragraph, ‘you have the Invisible condition’ is now ‘you have the Invisible condition while hidden’. In the third paragraph ‘the condition ends on you’ is now ‘you stop being hidden’.”
WotC intends to clarify that hiding doesn’t make you magically Invisible, only that you’re Invisible (game rules-wise) while actually being hidden. As for the other books, the tweaks are mostly to things like monster to hit bonuses or the occasional spell casting frequency. So you’ll want to consult the full list to be sure.
Stay tuned for more errata as people keep finding busted things!
