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July’s big bundle o’ rules, aka the July Drop, has arrived on D&D Beyond, bringing the para-elemental planes and new fighting styles with it.
D&D Beyond’s July Drop is here, and with it come the sweltering, oozing, smoking landscapes of the para-elemental planes. You’ll find four “new” monsters and maps as well as a bunch of new fighting style feats that give players better options, especially if your whole party is coordinated. It’s available now on D&D Beyond, where else, and just as a reminder, now they’re shareable; so if you are in a campaign with someone with a Master-Tier Subscription, you still have ways of checking out what they do.
D&D Beyond’s July Drop
There are two big chunks to the July Drop. First up, four new weapon-focused feats, including two new fighting styles: Pack Fighting, Prone Fighting, Shifting Combatant, and Tactical Combatant. As well as three new magic items.
On the whole, these are interesting enough feats, not necessarily “must-takes” but they certainly open up some interesting doors for parties willing to coordinate a little. Let’s take a quick look at Pack Fighting, which gives you a +1 to melee attacks and damage rolls as long as at least one of your allies is within five feet. If that ally also has Pack Fighting it becomes a +2. For both of y’all. Like I said, interesting doors. Especially if you get access to multiple Fighting Styles in your campaign.
Prone Fighting, on the other hand is all about fighting from Prone, which isn’t something I think I’d ever go out of my way to pick. Because it’s just that being knocked prone doesn’t grant advantage to your enemies or disadvantage to you; extremely situational.
The other two feats, Shifting Combatant and Tactical Combatant are General Feats that you have to be at least level 4 to claim. But they provide much more broad abilities. Shifting combatant lets you do what most people who push enemies around on the battlefield want to do anyway: when you slam one creature into another, they are possibly knocked prone. Plus you get a benefit whenever you jump around, which is kind of cool. It’s a very swashbuckler-y kind of Feat, and I really like the play it encourages. And of course, you get to increase Strength or Dex by 1 just for grabbing it.
Tactical Combatant, on the other hand is a little more for characters that love a good fight. I’m not sure I get what makes it tactical, but it definitely makes anyone who takes this feat feel a lot more resilient and reliable in combat. With this feat, you can give yourself a pool of temporary hit points whenever you hit someone with a weapon; it works once per fight, basically. And as a little extra bonus, in addition to increasing Strength or Dex, you get a floating 1d6 bonus you can use whenever you fail an Ability Check that refreshes once per Rest or when you roll Initiative.
All in all, I really like these feats. The WotC team really seems to be sinking their teeth into the meat of the new rules. I’m so excited to see what else they come up with. But this is just one chunk of the D&D Beyond July Drop.
Para-Elemental Planes
The other big chunk of the July Drop on D&D Beyond is the return of the para-elemental planes. Although don’t call it a comeback, because they’ve been here for years. Or rather, they’ve been mentioned in the DMG and elsewhere in references. But it’s nice to see official stat blocks for some of the para-elementals.
If you’re unfamiliar, the para-elemental planes, and the para-elementals thereof are what you get at the borders of the “cardinal” Elemental Planes. Where the Plane of Air and the Plane of Fire collide, you get the para-elemental Plane of Ash, for istance. Or where Earth and Water collide, you get the para-elemental Plane of Ooze.
The “diametrically opposed” elemental planes don’t have their own para-elemental planes, yet, but with each plane you’ll find a variety of elementals. The various mephits are one expression of these kinds of things, but in the new July Drop, we get four proper Elementals, at least taxonomically speaking.
There’s the Mud Elemental, the Magma Elemental, the Smoke Elemental, and the Ice Elemental. They’re all CR 6 and come with their own special weaknesses and strengths that make them interesting tactical combatants. Again, nothing so game-shaking that it feels like you’re missing out for not having a D&D Beyond subcscription, but as a bonus to people who have it? And can share it with their friends? These are great!
Find all these i the latest Drop for D&D Beyond!
Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]
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