Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything has a lot of interesting material in it. As I am far more likely to be the Dungeon Master rather than a player, I thought I might share with you a few thoughts about the new material in the “Dungeon Master’s Tools” chapter.
Note that I am deliberately excluding both Group Patrons (Chapter 2) and the new magic items of Chapter 3. Many DMs will find those inspirational and great additions to their campaign. However, I have limited space here, and we will only look at those aspects covered in the “Tools” chapter.
Session Zero
I have been using Session Zeroes for a while now, and this is something that I thought the Dungeon Master’s Guide explained.
It appears not. Well, not in this much detail, anyway.
Session Zero is all about setting the common ground between you and your players as to what sort of campaign you expect to run. I do not know if any Session Zero has ever got everything right – campaigns are brilliant at diverging from expectations. However, this is the time to start the process.
This section covers some of the main points you should discuss at the beginning of the game, including party composition, the social contract, and the style of campaign you are planning. It is not a new thing. We have been talking about Session Zeros in Dungeons & Dragons, using that name, for most of two decades, but as a reminder for experienced players and an introduction for new players, it is good to have here.
I look forward to seeing it incorporated into a future version of the Dungeon Master’s Guide!
Sidekicks
The idea of sidekicks is commendable: an uncomplicated character that you or a player can run during a game in addition to the player characters. Sidekicks first appeared in the D&D Essentials Kit, but they reach their fullest expression here.
In theory, the primary use of a sidekick is to flesh out the party – perhaps there is only one player, or maybe the party needs a healer.
Unfortunately, the implementation of the spellcaster sidekicks, in particular, is problematic. While the sidekick counts as a full character for balancing encounters, a spellcaster sidekick gains spell slots as a half-caster. At level 20, they only have 5th level slots. At level 10, only 3rd level slots.
I have been using a spellcaster sidekick as part of our D&D Essentials campaign. We are now about 10th level, and the sidekick is not pulling their weight. I believe it will only get worse in the higher levels.
I am dubious at the complexity of the process of creating a sidekick (which means layering abilities onto a CR ½ monster), but I have not done used those rules yet.
Overall, I am disappointed by this section. It has a lot of promise, and still works at low levels, but has balance problems later on.
Parleying with Monsters
I have written more about this in my “Negotiating Desires” article from a few days ago.
Short version: Good idea but may need more work. Providing a structure for determining monster goals that the players can help fulfil is good, but I would prefer more discussion on discovering them than “they can research them”.
Environmental Hazards
The book covers three types of environmental hazard: Supernatural Regions, Magical Phenomena, and Natural Hazards.
All of them give a lovely selection of options to the DM for spicing up their game.
Of course, they do require your campaign to enter an appropriate region. That gives me a little pause with the supernatural hazards; I think I will find the magical phenomena easier to integrate.
The section on natural hazards is very brief and presents Avalanches (first seen in Rime of the Frostmaiden) and some additional rules for falling into a body of water. It also suggests over twenty spell effects that you can use to represent natural hazards. I adore this idea, as it makes things easier to run consistently.
Puzzles
The final section gives thirteen intriguing puzzles that you could use in your Dungeons & Dragons adventures. Each has a difficulty rating from Easy to Hard, and their presentation is exceptional. Each puzzle has hints and advice for adapting it for different solutions. Several come with handouts or brilliant art.
If you like puzzles, you are in for a treat. These are very clever, and between the hints and the presentation should be a joy to run.
I have two caveats about this section.
The first is their inclusion in this particular book. Tasha’s is a book that a lot of players will want to get. So, there is a fair chance that your players end up reading them – which renders them useless in a game. A puzzle is only interesting if the solution is not known.
The second is that there are groups for whom puzzles are terrible. People playing in a foreign language have no hope of understanding any of the language puzzles. Then there are players for whom puzzles bring them out of the immersion. Puzzles are, by their very nature, aimed more at the player than the character. I would dearly have loved a section discussing the problems with puzzles.
Now, despite those caveats, these are good puzzles. If you have a group that enjoys the challenge, you will find much to entertain them.
So, is Tasha’s Cauldron Essential for the DM’s Toolkit?
I caused somewhat of an uproar on Twitter recently by saying that I thought Tasha’s was a book that a DM could skip.
The reason I said that was not because the material is inferior – it is of high quality for the most part – but rather because the material tends to be rather specific.
When I look at Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, I see a lot of material that helps run the game, applicable in a wide variety of situations. In contrast, Tasha’s is far more about providing inspirational material than techniques for running the game.
So, if you are a DM and you are unsure about purchasing the book, then consider what it covers and whether these are topics about which you wish to learn more. It also has, as previously mentioned, a selection of 47 magic items (including magical tattoos) and a patron system that might help you formalise your campaign structure.
As a player book, I think it is excellent. I am more reserved about its general use for DMs, but I am sure that many will find it of great use.