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D&D's World of Warcraft Book Swaps Out Core Class Features

issues ttrpg  2026-09-25

Issue #013 · Week of September 25, 2026

This Week’s Verdict

The crossover machine keeps grinding: World of Warcraft subclasses that quietly rewrite class features, a Dragonlance world book that arrived by way of an actor’s social feed, and a redesigned Bahamut whose stats live in a comic book. Meanwhile a British convention finally said the quiet part out loud about AI. A normal week, then, which is to say a strange one.

Releases & Announcements

The headline item remains Dungeons & Dragons’ upcoming World of Warcraft book, due November, which Wizards of the Coast has begun previewing. Per EN World, several of the new subclasses do more than bolt on abilities; they swap out classic class features for new ones, which is a bolder design choice than the usual reskin. The same publisher’s redesigned Bahamut will have his stats printed in an upcoming D&D comic, because that is apparently where god statblocks live now.

On the setting front, Weis, Hickman, and Joe Manganiello confirmed a Dragonlance world book for the D&D Icons line, with an update suggesting the timeline sits alongside the original Dragonlance Chronicles. Games Workshop is producing a Necromunda TTRPG as a companion to the skirmish game, and Paranoia has a new adventure pointing its satire at social media influencers, which is either brave or redundant.

Pricing news for the ledger-keepers: Paizo raises Pathfinder and Starfinder prices on October 1st. Modiphius is running a warehouse clearance with hardcovers of Dune and Star Trek Adventures at rock-bottom numbers, so the two events roughly cancel out if you shop carefully.

Rules & Errata

Thin week for official errata, so we take our rules content where we find it. Sly Flourish published an initiative variant, Elective Action Order, adding another option to the pile alongside the standard D&D d20-plus-dex method and Shadowdark’s approach. On the table, a solo Shadowdark player noted the system’s sensible design of applying the Constitution modifier to hit points only at first level, which strips out the stat’s usual outsized importance.

The community also supplied a genuine 5e rules question worth flagging: whether a character dropped to negative hit points well past their maximum (the example given was -19) still rolls death saves. The 2014 rules answer, for those keeping score, is instant death when negative damage exceeds your hit point maximum, no saves involved. A useful thing to know before your BBEG connects.

The Community

The sharpest real news is UK Games Expo finally banning AI from the convention, a ban that extends to merchandise, clothing, and art. That decision landed the same week Free League kept insisting it wanted human illustration, and it stands in tidy contrast to the WoW crossover economy above.

Elsewhere, the usual and the useful. Sly Flourish warned against chaining detrimental effects like stun-locking or mass-sleeping your monsters. A dice.camp poster asked the perennial question of whether “5e is best” people have played anything else, which is a fight as old as the hobby. Cubicle 7’s long-quiet C7d20 5e variant got a public “does anyone remember this” prod, the answer to which appears to be a shrug. And Pelgrane Press dropped a new Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff episode titled “Mad at Gary,” which is a mood as much as a topic.

On the Horizon

Crowdfunding is where the money is this week. Free League’s The One Ring Bestiary and Gondor campaign is nearing two million, offering both updated original rules and 5e support plus the obligatory cloth maps. The Griffon’s Saddlebag books 3 and 4 cleared $900k with a week left and a shot at seven figures. Underground Oracle Publishing launched Creature Companions Expanded, a Tales of the Valiant sourcebook for adventuring with (or as) a creature companion. Pulp Hummock Press is funding The Overlords of Steel for OSE, and EN World’s crowdfunding roundup catalogs the rest, from cooking monsters to Jane Austen.

Conventions worth marking: Dragonmeet in London is expanding toward three days within two years, while AireCon in Harrogate is running its stated final edition next March. Lucca Comics & Games turns 60 with a heavy RPG lineup, including the first translated Daggerheart expansion from Critical Role and more Manganiello-led classic D&D. And an Underdark sourcebook appears to be brewing behind recent Unearthed Arcana playtests, which would give Bahamut somewhere darker to be.

Resources

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