I was really excited to read this one.
I picked it up because I heard that it did interesting things with character creation, and that it provided a leg up for the Ranger core class. It does all this and more. First, character creation.
Lots of options here for customization. Unlike previous books, which provided generators and tips for adding flavor, there are numerous mechanical options here. When I heard that TCoE would allow players to mix and max race options, I was afraid that it would open the door to illogical powergaming, without respect to lore. While powergaming is definitely an option, as it always is, the lore is still intact. For instance, if you wanted to build a wizard in the past, then it was recommended to go High Elf, Tiefling or Human to get a bonus to Intelligence. A dwarf wizard would always be inferior for lacking that, which discouraged roleplay possibilities. Now, with TCoE, a player can officially state that "my dwarf character was more studious than other dwarves, and so he is more intelligent, but he's not quite as hardy as other dwarves." There is no official way for non-dwarves to get explicitly dwarfish racial abilities, like their poison resistance, so that is reassuring.
Also on the same subject, is the idea of changing class features and even archetypes mid-campaign. I'm a dungeon master, and so I've had my share of players who want to change things up about their character or even start a new character. I've struggled to find ways to accommodate those requests within the story. Again, I'm a lore guy. I want to keep things consistent and make sure that those things have an in-universe and lore-based reason. This book helps with that by providing mechanical ways to allow and, at the same time, regulate character changes. It also has fun lore-based reasoning examples.
Next is the Ranger core class update. All the classes received new archetypes or other options, but the Ranger is the only one that got a total overhaul. Seriously, these aren't additional features so much as they are replacement features. I understand that there is some disappointment over how the official overhaul isn't as powerful as the Unearthed Arcana, but I feel that is to be expected. In my experience, UA is always really powerful and then it gets toned down for official rules after playtesting.
Finally, Sidekicks. The last thing in my review is going to be about the rules for sidekicks. I'd like to do more, but I'm trying to keep this review short (ish). Sidekicks/pets/etc. have long been on the fragile end in 5E. There's a lot of roleplay potential in them, and interesting character build options for them, but they're only viable at the lower levels. These new rules make them more viable, because they can level up with the PC and gain other benefits. I say this from a place of experience. In my home game, a player befriended a pseudo-dragon, and I used these rules to make the tiny creature less squishy.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Tasha's Cauldron of Everything " an A+
Click here for my next book review: The Irregular at the Magic High School - light novel volume 1
Click here for my previous book review: The Trials of Apollo - the Hidden Oracle (read for fun)
Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.
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