Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is the newest sourcebook for the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons and it’s full of new options, rules, subclasses, spells, and magic items for use by both players and DMs. A big theme in the expansion is adding more player choice and versatility to the mix in the form of new optional rules and ideas to help flesh out player characters. One of the new groups of magic items for allow for Wizards to add new spells and flavor to whatever school of magic they prefer, and the new Wizard spellbooks are as varied as the spellcasters who may wield them.
A hallmark of any good DnD campaign is magic, it both suffuses many worlds of the DnD multiverse and grants PCs access to powerful attacks and useful utility spells. At the cornerstone of magic in these worlds are Wizards, inveterate seekers of magic and students of the arcane. A player may choose to create a Wizard with a wide range of motivations, but at the center of a Wizard’s quest is the acquisition of new spells and magic items. TCoE adds a new set of spellbooks for Wizards to obtain that offer strong new spells and are created with certain thematic choices in mind.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything offers new spellbooks for Wizards to obtain throughout their journey that accentuate one of the different schools of magic where they may focus. The spellbook is an integral feature for Wizards in DnD that gives adventuring Wizards a place to store not just their already known spells, but also can (for a cost) record new spells found throughout their journey and can serve as a sort of magical journal. A Wizard is only as powerful as the knowledge they possess and the spellbook operates an in-game representation of that knowledge and how it can grow along the course of a campaign.
The new spellbooks offered in TCoE all come with different spells and different themes, some of them are not even books at all. Each one of these new items is aligned with one of the many schools of magic that a Wizard may be focused on, and the spells contained within reflect that as well. Alongside the different spells contained, each spellbook has a set of charges each day that can be used for some new and quite useful effects like allowing a Wizard to swap out the spells they have prepared or using the book itself as a focus for spells. The ability to change prepared spells on the fly is especially useful as usually a Wizard must choose a certain set of spells selected each day to have those available in lieu of the entirety of the magic they know.
Another useful thing about the different items is that while the Wizard is holding it, they have access to a group of cantrips that they might not otherwise have available. This helps expand the Wizard’s utility even more than just the regular spells. Having access to even more of the infinitely usable cantrips can help the Wizard guide their less studious companions through a situation that may require a bit more finesse than just bashing through a gang of goblins.
The different spellbooks available for players to obtain in TCoE are as varied as the character backgrounds of the Wizards who attune to them. But there are some things ubiquitous to all of them. Each spellbook has three charges, 1d3 (a die that may not actually exist) of its expended charges are recovered at the start of the following day. Each book has the ability for a Wizard to use one charge to replace a spell they have prepared with one already in the spellbook, this is especially interesting considering that players may still have added new spells beyond the ones that were already included in the item. Also each book can function as an arcane focus while it is held, eschewing the need for a pouch of magical components. Many of the books also provide bonuses for making magical attacks based on their individual rarity.
The most simple of the new spellbooks is the Arcane Grimoire. It grants bonuses to spellcasting ability and expands the strength of spells that can be replenished using the Arcane Recovery feature that lets Wizards regain some of their expended spell slots. Properly managing resources are often a part of advanced combat tactics in DnD and this ability goes a long way in helping. The Arcane Grimoire makes a great early magic item for a DM to give an aspiring Wizard as well, since it isn’t preloaded with powerful spells.
The other books all focus on different schools of magic and much like the new magic tattoos in TCoE are all described in a way to help flesh out a general theme that a player might be going for with their Wizard. The Alchemical Compendium is full of Transmutation spells and its metal fittings are described as being in transition between materials as if the previous owner hadn’t finished turning the lead into silver. Its pages are filled with several powerful Transmutation spells like Flesh to Stone and its charges can be expended to change objects into other materials instantly (although it can’t increase their value). And the Atlas of Endless Horizons is depicted as being lined with silvery inscriptions similar to maps of the Outer Planes and is full of powerful Conjuration magic for Wizards to magic.
Much like the new Sorcerer Shards, the new spellbooks vary in rarity and power. The Crystalline Chronicle is one of the more powerful items and is itself not actually a book. The crystal orb functions as a spellbook though, and contains some Abjuration spells. Part of what makes the Crystalline Chronicle so useful is that unlike the other new books players can swap out their prepared spells for ones of any school of magic. The other spellbooks require that the new prepared spell be of a specific school tied to the spellbook. And the Chronicle allows a gold-challenged Wizard to ignore up to 100 gold required for components at the cost of one of its 3 charges.
There are a few other spellbooks in TCoE with similar abilities as the aforementioned ones. The Astromancy Archive is an intricate brass or golden disc that functions as a Divination spellbook complete with the ability to affect the rolls of creatures around the player. The Duplicitous Manuscript is full of Illusion magics but appears to others as a raunchy romance novel and allows a conniving Wizard to reinforce the illusions they weave. Scorched parchment bound together creates the Fulminating Treatise, which provides Evocation spells and the ability to empower them with extra damage. There is a spellbook in TCoE to fit each and every subclass available to the Wizard and can go a long way in helping them along their journey for arcane knowledge in Dungeons and Dragons.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is available in both digital and physical formats.
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