Review by C.J. Bunce
For anyone who loves R.A. Salvatore’s Legend of Drizzt novels, the recent Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie, Baldur’s Gate, heroes Minsc & Boo in the comic books and card games, or my own favorite adventure, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, Wizards of the Coast is introducing two new “expansion books” this month. Building on decades of stories in the Forgotten Realms, the first of these books is for players ready to create new characters in D&D’s Fifth Edition. Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn (just released and available now here at Amazon) fleshes out the revised 2024 core rulebooks with eight new subclasses, new spells and magic, more factions, a Whole Earth Catalog-inspired gear catalog, an encyclopedic primer on the gods, and probably the most detailed map of Faerûn yet.
Let’s dig into the new supplement, and come back tomorrow as we look at Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms: Adventures of Faerûn (available here) a new guide for DMs.
In brief, Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn is the ultimate player’s guide for D&D campaigns taking place in the Forgotten Realms. It consolidates stories and characters from all media while also serving as a connection between previous adventure settings in Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, Tomb of Annihilation, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and Candlekeep Mysteries, and more. And this book isn’t the end of the story, as DnDBeyond offers three digital supplements to this book: Astarion’s Book of Hungers, Lorwyn: First Light, and Netheril’s Fall.
What does this supplement/expansion add for you as a player? It begins with a detailed overview of the species of Faerûn, the continental setting of the Forgotten Realms. It includes some new backgrounds and feats. That’s followed by a fantasy version of a Fodor’s Travel Guide, educating players on the culture, languages, money, and geography of Faerûn’s key regions.
The next big section describes the pantheon of Faerûn’s 42 gods, all for players to use in deciding who their member of the next fellowship of venturers will follow, shaping their character and what they view as important.
Aurora’s Whole Realms Catalog isn’t quite the Sears or Penney’s Christmas Catalog, but does offer up some good visuals and corresponding pricing–everything from a covered wagon to a prosthetic limb, Aurora has it.
In the chapter on magic you’ll find the new collective spell called Circle Magic (not to be confused with Sparkle Motion), plus some new spells. New Factions include The Order of the Gauntlet and Emerald Enclave, including respectively some nifty armor designs and some creature allies. And inside the back cover os that great pull-out map of Faerûn by Mike Schley.
The books follow a new overall design and as with past volumes you can choose the standard cover (art by Billy Christian) or gameshop cover (art wih a new style by Dominik Mayer).
Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn is available now with standard cover here at Amazon, and the alternate cover edition (shown above) available here, both also available at your favorite game shop. Learn more about the partner release of Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms: Adventures of Faerûn tomorrow here at borg. For more fun pick up the add-on Laeral Silverhand’s Explorer’s Kit here at Amazon:
Also released this past year: the new Monster Manual (reviewed here), the new D&D adventure Dragon Delves (reviewed here), Welcome to the Hellfire Club board game (reviewed here), the latest Dungeons & Dragons Starter Kit (reviewed here), the Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons board game (discussed here), The Warriors and Wizards Compendium for young adventurers (reviewed here), two campaign journals (discussed here), a coloring book (discussed here), and a 50th anniversary edition of Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana (reviewed here).
