Link to part 1
I don’t especially care about the SAC's formatting, title, or the opening blurbs on rules, errata, and rulings; as such, this list does not point out the many changes to those sections. It points out what I would consider major changes, that is, when new questions are added, or when old ones are either removed or significantly changed (what is significant is subjective, so there are many changes this list ignores). This list was made by hand using the links found in Thomas Markov's answer.
Sage Advice Compendium Major Changes Versions 2.0 - 2.7
2.0:
[NEW]
- How do I tell if something in the game is magical?
[CHANGED]
- Does the Trance trait allow an elf to finish a long rest in 4 hours?
[OLD]
The intent is no. The Trance trait does let an elf meditate for 4 hours and then feel the way a human does after sleeping for 8 hours, but that isn’t intended to shorten an elf’s long rest. A long rest is a period of relaxation that is at least 8 hours long. It can contain sleep, reading, talking, eating, and other restful activity. Standing watch is even possible during it, but for no more than 2 hours; maintaining heightened vigilance any longer than that isn’t restful. In short, a long rest and sleep aren’t the same thing; you can sleep when you’re not taking a long rest, and you can take a long rest and not sleep.
Here’s what this all means for an elf. An elf can spend 4 hours in a trance during a long rest and then has 4 additional hours of light activity. While an elf’s companions are snoozing, the elf can be awake and engaged in a variety of activities, including carving a lovely trinket, composing a sonnet, reading a tome of ancient lore, attempting to remember something experienced centuries before, and keeping an eye out for danger. The Trance trait is, ultimately, meant to highlight the otherworldly character of elves, not to give them an edge in the game.
That all said, if you’re the DM and you decide to let Trance shorten an elf’s long rest, you’re not going to break the game. You are making a world-building choice if you do so. You’re deciding that elves, on a global scale, are ready to reenter a fight before anyone else, that they heal faster than most humanoids, and that they regain their magical energy faster. Such a choice would make sense in a world where elves are the dominant race, where they not only live longer than others, but also recover faster.
[NEW]
If an elf meditates during a long rest (as described in the Trance trait), the elf finishes the rest after only 4 hours. A meditating elf otherwise follows all the rules for a long rest; only the duration is changed. [This answer has been altered as a result of a tweak to the rules for a long rest, which appears in newer printings of the Player’s Handbook.]
- Does the “when” in the Eldritch Knight’s War Magic feature mean the bonus attack comes after you cast the cantrip, or can it come before?
[OLD]
The intent is that the bonus attack can come before or after the cantrip. You choose when to take a bonus action during your turn, unless the bonus action specifies when it must take place (PH, 189).
[NEW]
The bonus action comes after the cantrip, since using your action to cast a cantrip is what gives you the ability to make the weapon attack as a bonus action. That said, a DM would break nothing in the system by allowing an Eldritch Knight to reverse the order of the cantrip and the weapon attack.
[REMOVED TEXT]
- If you use Great Weapon Fighting with a feature like Divine Smite or a spell like hex, do you get to reroll any 1 or
2 you roll for the extra damage?
The main purpose of this limitation is to prevent the tedium of excessive rerolls. Many of the limits in the game are aimed at inhibiting slowdowns. Having no limit would also leave the door open for Great Weapon Fighting to grant more of a damage boost than we intended, although the potential for that is minimal compared to the likelihood that numerous rerolls would bog the game down.
[ADDED TEXT]
- Can a Circle of the Moon druid speak the languages it knows while in the form of an elemental?
A literal interpretation (RAW) of Wild Shape could reasonably lead you to think that transformed druids can speak only languages that appear in an elemental’s stat block, but the intent (RAI) is that druids retain their knowledge, including of languages, when they transform and can speak the languages they know if an adopted form can speak.
- How does the Lucky feat interact with advantage and disadvantage?
If a DM wants advantage and disadvantage to play their normal roles even when the Lucky feat is used, here’s a way to do so: roll two d20s for advantage/disadvantage, roll a third d20 for Lucky, eliminate one of the three dice, and then use the higher (for advantage) or lower (for disadvantage) of the two dice that remain.
- Can a blinded creature make an opportunity attack?
Creatures with blindsight are an exception to this rule, because that ability lets those creatures “see” within a certain radius.
- What happens if a druid using Wild Shape is reduced to 0 hit points by disintegrate? Does the druid simply leave beast form?
That’s the literal interpretation of the rules (RAW). In contrast, the intent (RAI) is that a druid isn’t considered to be at 0 hit points for the purposes of an effect like disintegrate until the druid’s normal form is reduced to 0 hit points.
- Is the breath weapon of a dragon magical?
- Is it fueled by the use of spell slots?
[REMOVED]
- How many additional attacks can a barbarian get while using Frenzy and the Great Weapon Master feat?
You get only one bonus action on your turn, no matter how many are granted by Frenzy, Great Weapon Master, and other features. See the “Bonus Actions” section in the Player’s Handbook (p. 189) for more about how bonus actions work.
- Can spiked armor be used as a weapon only by battleragers? Can you make a primary attack with it or just a bonus attack?
In the Forgotten Realms, only battleragers are trained to use spiked armor effectively as a weapon, and only via their class features
- With Brutal Critical and a greatsword, does a barbarian get to roll an additional 1d6 or 2d6?
If you have the barbarian’s Brutal Critical feature and score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you get to roll one additional damage die when rolling the weapon’s damage. It’s one die, no matter what weapon you’re using. For example, if the weapon normally deals 1d8 damage, you roll 3d8 (1 for the weapon, 1 for the critical hit, and 1 for Brutal Critical). If the weapon normally deals 2d6 damage, you roll 5d6 (2 for the weapon, 2 for the critical hit, and 1 for Brutal Critical).
- Does the Dueling fighting style apply to the battlerager’s spiked armor attacks?
The Dueling feature applies to a melee weapon wielded in one hand. Spiked armor is worn, not held.
- In the Bladesinging Arcane Tradition from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, is Bladesong compatible with two-weapon fighting?
Nothing in the Bladesong feature is incompatible with wielding two weapons.
- Can you confirm that the bladesinger’s Intelligence bonus to AC is supposed to stack with other AC bonuses?
A bonus always gets added when the game instructs you to add it, unless you’re already receiving the bonus from a game feature with same name. Don’t confuse a bonus to AC (such as +2) with an AC calculation (AC = 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Constitution modifier). AC calculations don’t stack with each other. Bonuses do.
- Would the Archery fighting style bonus for fighter and ranger stack when multiclassing?
You can’t take the same Fighting Style option more than once.
- Is standing up from prone considered moving?
Standing up costs movement but moves you nowhere. When the game refers to you moving, it means moving some distance. It doesn’t mean making a gesture or standing up in place. To move while prone, you crawl or use magic (PH, 191).
- Can you confirm that a readied grapple would also stop the target’s movement if successful?
The grappled condition does, indeed, reduce a creature’s speed to 0.
- What happens if a grappled creature (or the grappler) teleports via Benign Transposition, Shadow Step, or another effect?
The grappled condition ends if an effect removes the grappled creature from the reach of the grappler (PH, 290).
- If I gain resistance from multiple features, does it grant me immunity?
Multiple instances of resistance don’t add together. Either you have resistance to an instance of damage or you don’t (see PH, 197). No matter how many things give you resistance to the damage you’re taking, you get to apply resistance to that damage only once. The same is true of vulnerability.
- Do you get a turn after rolling a 20 on your death saving throw or does your turn end as you stabilize?
You make a death save when your turn starts. If you roll a 20, the 1 hp you gain lets you then take your turn.
- If a spell has a longer casting time, do you have to complete its time requirement in order to successfully cast the spell?
See the “Longer Casting Times” section of the Player’s Handbook (p. 202) for how such casting times work.
2.1:
[NEW]
- If my Eldritch Knight casts true strike and has the War Magic feature, is the attack granted by War Magic made with advantage because of true strike?
- The dart is not classified as a monk weapon, yet a monk gets 10 darts as starting equipment. Why is that?
- Can a monk of the Way of the Four Elements replace Elemental Attunement with another elemental discipline?
- Can the rogue’s Reliable Talent feature be used in conjunction with Remarkable Athlete or Jack of All Trades?
- Can Empowered Spell affect all the rays of a scorching ray spell, or just one?
- Can my sorcerer use Twinned Spell on a spell duplicated by the casting of a wish spell? And if so, how many sorcery points does it cost?
- Can a character wield two heavy weapons with the Dual Wielder feat?
- Does Polearm Master let me make an opportunity attack against a target that is being forced to approach me?
- Does the benefit of the Savage Attacker feat apply to additional effects like the rogue’s Sneak Attack or the paladin’s Divine Smite?
- Surprise rules work for two opposing sides. What happens with surprise when a third group of combatants sneaks up, hidden from the melee, and ambushes?
- My rogue/wizard can get a bonus action to Dash by using Cunning Action, and I can cast expeditious retreat on myself to get a bonus action to Dash. Do I get two bonus actions to Dash?
- Can a readied action occur during an enemy’s triggering action, such as between its first and second attacks when it uses Multiattack?
- With two-weapon fighting, can I use both attacks (normal and bonus) to shove a creature?
- A dragon uses a breath weapon against me. I succeed on the save, and I have resistance to the damage. Do I take only one-quarter of the damage?
- Can a non-Battle Master attempt to disarm someone?
- When casting a spell that affects multiple targets, such as scorching ray or eldritch blast, do I fire one ray or beam, determine the result, and fire again? Or do I have to choose all the targets before making any attack rolls?
- Does the blinding smite spell deal extra radiant damage on every successful attack I make while I’m concentrating on the spell, or only on the first one?
- If the heroism spell is cast on a character that is already frightened, does it remove the frightened effect?
- Since resting identifies magic items, and the identify spell doesn’t spot curses, what is the role of the identify spell?
- If you grapple or shove an enemy creature, does that end a sanctuary spell cast on you?
- The wording in Tasha’s hideous laughter implies that the incapacitated effect applies only if the target is made prone. Is this right?
- If a shadow rolls a critical hit, does it reduce the target’s Strength by 2d4, as well dealing the extra necrotic damage?
2.2:
[NEW]
- Which spell scrolls can bards understand—spells from the bard list only, or spells from the bard list plus spells from Magical Secrets?
- If my Battle Master fighter provokes an opportunity attack and it misses, can I use Riposte?
- When a monk uses Empty Body, does the invisibility remain in effect after the monk attacks?
- Can my paladin use a smite spell along with Divine Smite? As in, I cast wrathful smite, hit, then use Divine Smite on the same attack?
- Elemental Affinity improves one damage roll of a spell, not multiple rolls? So with scorching ray, I don’t add my Charisma modifier to each ray that hits?
- Does the Eyes of the Rune Keeper invocation work on magical runes?
- For the Shapechanger feature of the School of Transmutation, does polymorph need to be prepared if I only want to cast it without using a spell slot?
- The Dungeon Delver feat talks about searching for traps at a normal or slow pace. Where’s the rule on this?
- How does the Sentinel feat work against an enemy that has Fancy Footwork or the Mobile feat? Does the character with the Sentinel feat still get the opportunity attack?
- What happens after 20th level? Is there a cap to character levels?
- Say I grapple you, then I drop prone. Are we now prone together?
- Is the chill touch spell intended as a way of foiling any creature that has Regeneration?
- What happens when a jump spell gives a creature a jump distance greater than its walking speed?
- I find it confusing that the mage armor spell is named that when it doesn’t count as armor.
- What kinds of things count as “nonmagical trinkets” for prestidigitation?
- Do the effects of storm of vengeance stack? Or do the effects change each turn?
- The bite attacks of ghouls and ghasts don’t appear to have proficiency bonus added in. Intentional or mistake?
- Do air, fire, and water elementals suffer any penalties for fighting or using skills while they are squeezing into a space that’s 5 feet wide or less?
- Can an earth elemental grapple with a creature and then pull it underground and leave it there to die?
- Does the lich’s Disrupt Life ability affect animated objects and other constructs?
- Is there a limit to the number of creatures a vampire can charm at once?
- If my character is attuned to an instrument of the bards and casts charm person while holding it, does the target make its save with disadvantage?
- If a rogue with the Assassinate feature uses a vorpal sword, isn’t the surprise attack an instant kill?
2.3:
[NEW]
- Can a dragonborn sorcerer with a draconic bloodline have two different kinds of Draconic Ancestry?
- Do the benefits from Bardic Inspiration and the guidance spell stack? Can they be applied to the same roll?
- Is the intent that a bard gets to know the number rolled on an attack roll or ability check before using Cutting Words, or should they always guess? If used on a damage roll, does Cutting Words apply to any kind of damage roll including an auto-hit spell like magic missile?
- Can a bound and gagged druid simply use Wild Shape to get out? It’s hard to capture someone who can turn into a mouse at will.
- Can a monk use Stunning Strike with an unarmed strike, even though unarmed strikes aren’t weapons?
- The Shield Master feat lets you shove someone as a bonus action if you take the Attack action. Can you take that bonus action before the Attack action?
- Is there a hard limit on how many short rests characters can take in a day, or is this purely up to the DM to decide?
- Using 5-foot squares, does cloud of daggers affect a single square?
- The stinking cloud spell says that a creature wastes its action on a failed save. So can it still use a move or a bonus action or a reaction?
- What actions can monsters use to make opportunity attacks? Are Multiattack and breath weapon actions allowed?
- Does a creature with Magic Resistance have advantage on saving throws against Channel Divinity abilities, such as Turn the Faithless?
[CHANGED]
- Can the rogue’s Reliable Talent feature be used in conjunction with Remarkable Athlete or Jack of All Trades?
[OLD]
For a rogue/fighter or a rogue/bard, Reliable Talent does work along with Remarkable Athlete and Jack of All Trades. Even though you add only half your proficiency bonus when using one of those two features, that’s enough to qualify for Reliable Talent.
[NEW]
No. Each of these features has a precondition for its use; Reliable Talent activates when you make an ability check that uses your proficiency bonus, whereas the other two features activate when you make an ability check that doesn’t use your proficiency bonus. In other words, a check that qualifies for Reliable Talent doesn’t qualify for Remarkable Athlete or Jack of All Trades. And Remarkable Athlete and Jack of All Trades don’t work with each other, since you can add your proficiency bonus, or any portion thereof, only once to a roll.
- If the damage from disintegrate reduces a half-orc to 0 hit points, can Relentless Endurance prevent the orc from turning to ash?
[OLD]
If disintegrate reduces you to 0 hit points, you’re killed outright, as you turn to dust. If you’re a half-orc, Relentless Endurance can’t save you.
[NEW]
Yes. The disintegrate spell turns you into dust only if the spell’s damage leaves you with 0 hit points. If you’re a half-orc, Relentless Endurance can turn the 0 into a 1 before the spell can disintegrate you.
- What happens if a druid using Wild Shape is reduced to 0 hit points by disintegrate? Does the druid simply leave beast form?
[OLD]
The druid turns to dust, since the spell disintegrates you the instant you drop to 0 hit points. That’s the literal interpretation of the rules (RAW). In contrast, the intent (RAI) is that a druid isn’t considered to be at 0 hit points for the purposes of an effect like disintegrate until the druid’s normal form is reduced to 0 hit points.
[NEW]
The druid leaves beast form. As usual, any leftover damage then applies to the druid’s normal hit points. If the leftover damage leaves the druid with 0 hit points, the druid is disintegrated.
[REMOVED]
- Why does the errata change X and not Y?
The errata for the first printing of the Player’s Handbook sparked a number of questions. Why did we make the changes we made? Why didn’t we make other changes? Did we change certain things, such as Empowered Evocation, because they were overpowered?
The answer to such questions is straightforward: we fixed mistakes in the text. The errata fixes text that was incomplete or off the mark in the original printing of the book. In the new edition, the errata process is strictly for the correction of such things. Rebalancing and redesigning game
elements is the domain of playtesting, Unearthed Arcana articles, new design, and possible revision later in the edition’s life span.
We play the game often, and we regularly review Twitter posts, Reddit discussions, website forums, survey results, emails, and customer service reports about the game. You have concerns about the contagion spell? We know about them. You feel the Beastmaster is underpowered? We’ve had our eye on that subclass for a while. In fact, we have a long list of things in the game that we keep an eye on and that we expect to experiment with in the months and years ahead.
But that experimentation is unrelated to errata. Corrections—that’s what errata is about. If you read the errata document and think, “We were already playing Empowered Evocation the way it appears in the errata,” then the errata process is working as intended. It’s not intended to be filled with new design surprises. It’s meant to repair spots where we forgot to tell you something, where we inadvertently told you the wrong thing, or where some of you grasped our design intent and others didn’t, as a result of the text’s not being clear enough.
Fifth edition now belongs to the thousands of groups playing it. It would be inappropriate for the design team to use errata as a way to redesign the game. When we come across something that is more of a redesign than a correction, we put it into a queue of things to playtest and possibly publish at a later date. We’ll let you know if a redesign is around the corner!
- The Dungeon Delver feat talks about searching for traps at a normal or slow pace. Where’s the rule on this?
The final benefit of the Dungeon Delver feat refers to a nonexistent rule (from the 5E playtest). Ignore it. We’ll cut it in a future printing of the Player’s Handbook.
- If a character has levels in more than one class, do the character’s cantrips scale with character level or with the level in a spellcasting class?
Cantrips scale with character level. For example, a barbarian 2 / cleric 3 casts sacred flame as a 5th-level character.
- Do contagion effects kick in immediately, or do they kick in when the target fails the three saving throws?
The effects of the contagion spell’s disease activate after three failed saving throws. When the spell attack hits, it effectively infects the target with a magical disease that requires a little bit of time to take effect before plaguing the target for up to a week.
- If my character is attuned to an instrument of the bards and casts charm person while holding it, does the target make its save with disadvantage?
No, at least not because of the instrument. An instrument of the bards provides this benefit only if it is used as a spellcasting focus in the casting of a spell that causes its target to become charmed. Because charm person doesn’t have a material component, the instrument has no effect on the spell.
2.4:
[NEW]
- Can my sorcerer use Twinned Spell to affect a particular spell?
2.5:
[NEW]
- How long do a shifter’s temporary hit points last?
- Does all magical darkness block darkvision?
- What is the timing of Flash of Genius?
- Which action is used to activate a Spell-Storing Item?
- Can an artificer dismiss one of their infusions on an object early?
- Does using College of Valor’s Combat Inspiration add to the damage of an attack count as a damage die for purposes of critical hits?
- If a Grave Domain cleric casts a spell that restores hit points to multiple creatures and one of those creatures has 0 hit points, does the spell restore the maximum number of hit points to all targets of the spell?
- Can the Disarming Attack maneuver disarm a creature of a shield it has donned?
- Can a paladin use Divine Smite when they hit using an unarmed strike?
- Does a Monster Slayer ranger’s Supernatural Defense feature apply if a creature damages the ranger, thus causing the ranger to make a Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration on a spell?
- Does the Thief’s Use Magic Device feature allow them to use spell scrolls?
- Can a Thief use Fast Hands to use or apply poisons?
- Can Minor Conjuration create a copy of a book, complete with all its text, if the wizard hasn’t seen all the text?
- Can a School of Divination wizard on the Ethereal Plane use Portent on a creature that the wizard can see on the Material Plane?
- For a wizard to cast a ritual spell contained in their spellbook, do they need to read from the book or use it as part of the ritual?
- The frightened condition says “while the source of its fear is within line of sight.” Does that mean you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks even if the source is invisible but you have a clear line to its space?
- Does casting a spell while taking a short rest interrupt the rest?
- Are natural weapons considered weapons?
- Can I make an attack with one weapon, then draw a second weapon with my other hand and qualify to use two-weapon fighting?
- If I’m concentrating on a spell and I cast another spell that requires concentration, when does my concentration on the first spell end?
- Can I cast animate dead on the humanoid-shaped corpse of an undead creature such as a zombie or a ghast?
- Does casting animate objects during a time stop spell end the time stop?
- Can a creature under the effect of compelled duel teleport more than 30 feet away from the caster?
- Can conjure animals summon a swarm?
- Does counterspell target the caster or the spell you’re trying to counter?
- If a wizard with Inured to Undeath spends Hit Dice to raise the hit point maximum of a homunculus created by the create homunculus spell, does it still decrease the wizard’s hit point maximum?
- When you dismiss the familiar you conjure with the find familiar spell to its pocket dimension, can it take any objects it’s wearing or carrying with it?
- When a creature successfully saves against guardian of faith and takes 10 radiant damage, how much damage does that count against the total amount of damage the spell can deal? Is it 20 because that’s how much it dealt or 10 because that’s how much the target took?
- Misty step doesn’t say the caster can bring worn or carried equipment with them. Are they intended to leave everything, including their clothes, behind?
- What happens to objects brought inside and left inside Mordenkainen’s magnificent mansion when the spell ends?
- If a creature under the effects of polymorph takes enough fire damage to revert to its true form and that form has fire resistance, does the true form take the full remaining damage or only half due to resistance?
- Can a creature under the effects of polymorph have other spell effects on them, or are those game statistics also replaced by the those of the beast form?
- What happens if I’m polymorphed or Wild Shaped into a creature with fewer than 100 hit points and then I’m targeted by power word kill?
- Can I hand a shadow blade to another PC? It only says the blade dissipates as I throw or drop it.
- If a spellcaster is affected by slow and takes two turns to finish casting a spell, what happens if their target has moved out of range or out of sight?
- If you are affecting a target with telekinesis and an ally put you inside Otiluke’s resilient sphere, can you continue affecting the target or other targets with the existing telekinesis spell?
- If two creatures are under the effect of tether essence and they are both damaged by an area effect such as a dragon’s breath, do they each take the damage twice?
- Since game features of the same name don’t stack, does that mean a target can’t be affected by a shadow’s Strength Drain more than once between rests?
- Does a gauth’s Devour Magic eye ray end a creature’s attunement to an attuned magic item the ray affects?
- Can a creature that burrows grapple a target and drag them into the ground by burrowing?
- Can a hydra use Reactive Heads to make multiple opportunity attacks against one creature at the same time when it provokes?
- Does the ring of the ram use spell attacks or weapon attacks?
- When using a rope of entanglement, do I keep holding one end in my hand, or does the entire rope wrap around the target?
- Can a sphere of annihilation enter a Leomund’s tiny hut?
- Can you gain the magical bonus of a +2 shield if you are holding the shield without taking an action to don it?
- If a character hits a monk with a dwarven thrower and the monk uses Deflect Missiles, does the hammer return to the attacker first, or can the monk catch it?
2.6:
[CHANGED]
- Can a paladin use Divine Smite when they hit using an unarmed strike?
[OLD]
No. Divine Smite requires a melee attack using a weapon. The rules don’t consider unarmed strikes to be weapons.
[NEW]
No. Divine Smite isn’t intended to work with unarmed strikes. Divine Smite does work with a melee weapon attack, and an unarmed strike can be used to make such an attack. But the text of Divine Smite also refers to the “weapon’s damage,” and an unarmed strike isn’t a weapon. If a DM decides to override this rule, no imbalance is created. Tying Divine Smite to weapons was a thematic choice on our part—paladins being traditionally associated with weapons. It was not a game balance choice.
- Can I cast animate dead on the humanoid-shaped corpse of an undead creature such as a zombie or a ghast?
[OLD]
No. Animate dead targets only the corpses of creatures that have the humanoid creature type.
[NEW]
When animate dead targets a corpse, the body must have belonged to a creature of the humanoid creature type. If the spell targets a pile of bones, there is no creature type restriction; the bones become a skeleton.
2.7:
Various changes to formatting and errata sections.
Link to part 1