Big changes are coming to the Adventurers League rulesets! Beginning with the Masters and Historic campaign documents releasing over the next week, character creation and development will no longer be constrained by the “PH + 1” rule. (Our current Seasonal Campaign guidelines will remain in effect for the duration of the Plague of Ancients storyline.) These new guidelines aim to balance player agency over their character’s rules options with rules that are intuitive and easy for DMs and players to communicate.
Why these changes? We’ve listened to feedback from the community and consulted with the D&D Studio. Originally, the “PH + 1” rule was established to maintain character balance, since new rules options were only being playtested with the assumption a player only possessed a Player’s Handbook. However, as we’ve seen, most players use rules unfettered by these constraints.
As a result, we’ve broken our rules options down into a few categories: big rules expansions, specific world rules options, and some assorted digital-only supplements that have been released over the years. Our big rules expansions that are meant as player-facing options for broad use across all sorts of different D&D campaigns are now open for you to pull what you want to give you a much wider array of choice. Other options are more specifically linked to certain campaigns, as the source material informs their use.
Because of the impact these changes have on existing Masters and Historic characters, effective today, players may rebuild their characters using all options made available to them in those campaigns. The Seasonal Campaign will update to this new system when the next storyline begins later in the year. We look forward to seeing how these updates influence the characters our community creates and the stories they tell, with hopes that these rules are easier to access and understand.
The D&D Adventurers League Team
Player Option Overview
A reminder: Player options are rules (usually races, classes, subclasses, feats, spells, and backgrounds) that are specifically positioned as a player-facing option in a given product. Material that is clearly a part of the Dungeon Master’s purview is not allowed.
Our community will be able to choose from player options in the following resources in any campaign:
Player's Handbook
Volo's Guide to Monsters
Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
For campaigns set in the Forgotten Realms (Seasonal starting next season, Masters, Historic), the following will also be legal:
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
For each Seasonal Campaign, the following will also be legal:
Player options published in the associated hardcover adventure
For the Masters and Historic Campaigns, the following will also be legal:
Genasi and aarakocra from Elemental Evil Player's Companion
Tortles from the Tortle Package
Locathah from Locathah Rising
For the current Alternate Campaign (Oracle of War), the following will also be legal:
Player options published in the associated setting product (Eberron: Rising from the Last War)