I was pretty excited for Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything because there would be psionics in it! And there was, sort of. Well. Oddly enough it, other things also excited me (like the Artificer), even though I kind of find them a little meh. But it was an interesting enough read, especially with the puzzles at the end. I could have come up with those puzzles myself, so I was ambivalent on their inclusion (when we could have had more psionics instead).
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is a sourcebook for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition that adds new spells, class options, artifacts, and sort of adds new monsters in the form of spells. It takes its name from the legendary witch Tasha, also known as Iggwilv.
Okay so the very first thing is – psionics! I loved the psionic additions, that there were psionic subclasses for the Fighter, Monk, Rogue, and Sorcerer. I had hoped we’d get a psionic subclass for every class, but that would be pushing it a little, I suppose. I also hoped that we’d get a psionic class all by itself (hey, if we can have an Artificer class, why not a Psion class right?). But you know what – we’ve officially got Psionics in the game (and not just as an Unearthed Arcana addition). I’m happy.
So, about that Artificer. It now has a subclass called the Armourer… which gives you armour, a la Iron Man. You can shoot lasers from your chest, emit dampening fields and just generally do Iron Man kinda things. I was quite astonished at the flavour and blatant homage and I hope we’ll get more Avengers style subclasses. How about a Spider-Man themed one, eh?
The magical artifacts in the book were also interesting, fairly obscure things that I’ve never read about before. That alone made it pique my interest. Not only were they quite rich in flavour and story possibilities, some were also fairly powerful. But of course, there’s a downside to great power, and I like how there are many detrimental effects that balance out the benefits. I want that Mighty Armour of Leuk-O, though.
The spells were all right, though I wish they had more psionic ones. But the Summon XXX spells were… I don’t get it. You summon a spirit version of whatever XXX is, but why would you? What’s the point? Why give such a neutered option in the first place? The Summon spells were quite awful and felt like filler to me. We could have had more Psionics, and since we don’t really have any hope of seeing psionic powers as a system of its own, spells are the only way we’ll ever get them.
And for a book named after Tasha… where are Tasha’s stats? I know it’s not a monster book but come on! Didn’t we at least deserve some form of Tasha to fight? I mean we got all the Summon spell stat blocks for those rubbish spirits. Surely Tasha could have gotten a two-pager (or four, I don’t mind a lair version) for us to peruse? Sadly, no. Maybe in a future adventure, I guess.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything was a pretty inspirational read and contained good amounts of crunch and fluff. The most exciting thing for me was the inclusion of psionics, and I hope future sourcebooks and adventures will build upon that. I’ll be throwing some things at my players soon!
Rating: 4.0/5
This is an original article on marcusgohmarcusgoh.com.
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