Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
4 out of 5 rating for Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
The first real sourcebook for 5e doesn't disappoint. At around 150 pages for $40, it seems a bit short for the price, but what's there really packs a punch. About two-thirds of the book is setting material, including a wondrously detailed section on the state of the gods and religion, detailed updates and profiles of major locations and factions, and more. There are a few peeks outside the Sword Coast itself thrown in, too. The last third is character options, and the only place the book stumbles a little. The options that are presented are all pretty great — they clearly set out to fill holes mechanically while presenting options that tie well to the setting, and I have no complaints. However, the lack of options for bards, druids, and rangers — now the only three classes with only two available subclass options — is disappointing. Balance in general seems good — I can imagine using any of the new options, but there are none that are so powerful I'd feel at a disadvantage for not using them. The changes to the previously-playtested Storm Sorcerer and Swashbuckler show Wizards' continued commitment to the playtest model, and each is better for it (though not all players will agree). The racial and cultural restrictions on some of the new subclass options also might not sit well with some AL players. Still, overall it's a great book that gives us a much-needed update on the best-known section of the Realms while somewhat satisfying players' urges for new options without succumbing wholly to feature creep.
The first real sourcebook for 5e doesn't disappoint. At around 150 pages for $40, it seems a bit short for the price, but what's there really packs a punch. About two-thirds of the book is setting material, including a wondrously detailed section on the state of the gods and religion, detailed updates and profiles of major locations and factions, and more. There are a few peeks outside the Sword Coast itself thrown in, too. The last third is character options, and the only place the book stumbles a little. The options that are presented are all pretty great — they clearly set out to fill holes mechanically while presenting options that tie well to the setting, and I have no complaints. However, the lack of options for bards, druids, and rangers — now the only three classes with only two available subclass options — is disappointing. Balance in general seems good — I can imagine using any of the new options, but there are none that are so powerful I'd feel at a disadvantage for not using them. The changes to the previously-playtested Storm Sorcerer and Swashbuckler show Wizards' continued commitment to the playtest model, and each is better for it (though not all players will agree). The racial and cultural restrictions on some of the new subclass options also might not sit well with some AL players. Still, overall it's a great book that gives us a much-needed update on the best-known section of the Realms while somewhat satisfying players' urges for new options without succumbing wholly to feature creep.
Serpine
Explorer
4 out of 5 rating for Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
This reminds me a great deal of the 2e Forgotten Realms Adventures hardcover from 1990. The size is about the same as the older book, it is also early in the lifecycle of the edition, and the vast majority I will read for amusement / getting more fulfillment from novels but never actually use in my custom campaign world. There is a lot of FR campaign material, covering more areas then I expected thanks to relatively sparse art. The wall of text level just skimming through made me a little sleepy actually. The detail of a lot of the signature areas is sufficient that I'd be able to use it well if I was running games in the setting, and the data on deities is about right to cover the major ones. The only big problem with the deities specifically is a general problem so far in this edition: Tons of gods, and far to few released domains to divvy up among them: The one new one in this book is still just a drop in the bucket. The game material in the back is solid and doesn't seem game breaking on the surface. The stuff recycled from the UA pdfs definitely has had the benefit of a few balance passes. I love the new paladin / fighter builds as they fill some armored tanking / warlord niches that were lacking so far in 5e. I'm not happy about stat block declared race / class build restrictions on a couple of builds (even if it says it can be ignored both in the blocks and the other worlds campaign info) but otherwise its all a nice range of new options that should be useful in most campaigns. I would definitely have appreciated an actual new bard college (raid the old Complete Bard's Handbook for something, sheesh) and druid circle so all classes got a new build though. The backgrounds are intentionally covering older ground in more specialized ways, but the features are different enough to provide variety to them or as substitutions in existing backgrounds. The new race variants are cool, though I'd have liked full write-ups for ghostwise halflings and aasimar rather then just small side bars. In summary, not regretting the purchase as it has sufficient good stuff, though I certainly wouldn't have minded a higher percentage of rules to fluff.
This reminds me a great deal of the 2e Forgotten Realms Adventures hardcover from 1990. The size is about the same as the older book, it is also early in the lifecycle of the edition, and the vast majority I will read for amusement / getting more fulfillment from novels but never actually use in my custom campaign world. There is a lot of FR campaign material, covering more areas then I expected thanks to relatively sparse art. The wall of text level just skimming through made me a little sleepy actually. The detail of a lot of the signature areas is sufficient that I'd be able to use it well if I was running games in the setting, and the data on deities is about right to cover the major ones. The only big problem with the deities specifically is a general problem so far in this edition: Tons of gods, and far to few released domains to divvy up among them: The one new one in this book is still just a drop in the bucket. The game material in the back is solid and doesn't seem game breaking on the surface. The stuff recycled from the UA pdfs definitely has had the benefit of a few balance passes. I love the new paladin / fighter builds as they fill some armored tanking / warlord niches that were lacking so far in 5e. I'm not happy about stat block declared race / class build restrictions on a couple of builds (even if it says it can be ignored both in the blocks and the other worlds campaign info) but otherwise its all a nice range of new options that should be useful in most campaigns. I would definitely have appreciated an actual new bard college (raid the old Complete Bard's Handbook for something, sheesh) and druid circle so all classes got a new build though. The backgrounds are intentionally covering older ground in more specialized ways, but the features are different enough to provide variety to them or as substitutions in existing backgrounds. The new race variants are cool, though I'd have liked full write-ups for ghostwise halflings and aasimar rather then just small side bars. In summary, not regretting the purchase as it has sufficient good stuff, though I certainly wouldn't have minded a higher percentage of rules to fluff.
Xaelvaen
Stuck in the 90s
5 out of 5 rating for Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
By the page count, the guide might seem a bit pricey, but in all honesty, it feels well worth the cost for me. The information is simple, but enough to give you a rundown of how 5e is affecting Faerun. No, its not by any means a complete campaign guide for Faerun, but its very rich. The maps are quite interesting; most of them are drawn with minimalism in mind, as though drawn from the hands of an actual Faerun citizen. I really like the feel this gives the guide. So, a quick conclusion: Do I hope they make a full-blown Faerun campaign book and not just rely on this guide? Yes. Does that detract from the quality of this guide? Not at all.
By the page count, the guide might seem a bit pricey, but in all honesty, it feels well worth the cost for me. The information is simple, but enough to give you a rundown of how 5e is affecting Faerun. No, its not by any means a complete campaign guide for Faerun, but its very rich. The maps are quite interesting; most of them are drawn with minimalism in mind, as though drawn from the hands of an actual Faerun citizen. I really like the feel this gives the guide. So, a quick conclusion: Do I hope they make a full-blown Faerun campaign book and not just rely on this guide? Yes. Does that detract from the quality of this guide? Not at all.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
3 out of 5 rating for Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
It's a solid good product if you're big into FR lore, which is most of the book, or if you're currently playing in the Sword Coast (such as playing through WotC adventures). For anyone interested in it mainly for the character options, it's pretty anemic. The options themselves are solid enough, though the backgrounds chapter is of note: many of them are outright improvements on PHB backgrounds, and few of them have the usual charts for ideals/bonds/flaws/traits that the PHB backgrounds have (they direct you to the PHB for creating these, when they're lacking, which is most of the time). The FR lore itself is pretty high-level, and suffers from the perennial problem of the Forgotten Realms in that it is very generic - little to loot or inspire. If you've got the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, you own a better lore reference already, aside from some timeline updates of primary interest to the canon aficionados. As an intro and a casual reference, the book does its job, and there's some interesting character options in here (my favorite: the Long Death Monk, a kind of necrotic monk that contemplates and gets power from death), but nothing transformative or must-have. For me, this is a book that, aside from a character or two, will probably be mostly shelf decor. And $40 for ~5 pages of material isn't a great return on investment. Still, it might be a good purchase at the group level, if you're playing through the WotC adventures - a group of 5 buying one would reduce the price to $8 each, which still seems a little high, but maybe more feasible if you're not just looting it for character ideas.
It's a solid good product if you're big into FR lore, which is most of the book, or if you're currently playing in the Sword Coast (such as playing through WotC adventures). For anyone interested in it mainly for the character options, it's pretty anemic. The options themselves are solid enough, though the backgrounds chapter is of note: many of them are outright improvements on PHB backgrounds, and few of them have the usual charts for ideals/bonds/flaws/traits that the PHB backgrounds have (they direct you to the PHB for creating these, when they're lacking, which is most of the time). The FR lore itself is pretty high-level, and suffers from the perennial problem of the Forgotten Realms in that it is very generic - little to loot or inspire. If you've got the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, you own a better lore reference already, aside from some timeline updates of primary interest to the canon aficionados. As an intro and a casual reference, the book does its job, and there's some interesting character options in here (my favorite: the Long Death Monk, a kind of necrotic monk that contemplates and gets power from death), but nothing transformative or must-have. For me, this is a book that, aside from a character or two, will probably be mostly shelf decor. And $40 for ~5 pages of material isn't a great return on investment. Still, it might be a good purchase at the group level, if you're playing through the WotC adventures - a group of 5 buying one would reduce the price to $8 each, which still seems a little high, but maybe more feasible if you're not just looting it for character ideas.
WayneLigon
Adventurer
2 out of 5 rating for Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
I caught a look at the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide at the FLGS today, and I was disappointed enough to cancel my pre-order. It's a terribly thin book for the flagship world for D&D, with very little in the way of crunch everyone can use. I'd expect a guidebook to BE mostly fluff, of course, but I was very surprised at how little actual game material was in here, especially considering this is likely the only FR book we're likely to get. My biggest disappointment, though, are the maps. Any game world needs clear workable maps and this provides nothing useful. The big beautiful faerun map we've been teased with is probably fantastic as a poster and something beautiful you'd use as a wall decoration. It's much less appealing when part of it is crushed down to a single page, the artistic embellishments making it almost unreadable and certainly of little value to gaming. The city maps are useless jokes, done in a smeared sepia-and-black that I suppose was supposed to come off as 'old paper' but really just looks like someone spilled coffee all over the art. The city blocks are smudgy and run-together - most of the Waterdeep map is just one big jumbled mess, with the addition of some large useless labels obscuring huge parts of the city map, while other parts are just solid black blobs - certainly nothing like the clear maps we had in the 2E book.
I caught a look at the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide at the FLGS today, and I was disappointed enough to cancel my pre-order. It's a terribly thin book for the flagship world for D&D, with very little in the way of crunch everyone can use. I'd expect a guidebook to BE mostly fluff, of course, but I was very surprised at how little actual game material was in here, especially considering this is likely the only FR book we're likely to get. My biggest disappointment, though, are the maps. Any game world needs clear workable maps and this provides nothing useful. The big beautiful faerun map we've been teased with is probably fantastic as a poster and something beautiful you'd use as a wall decoration. It's much less appealing when part of it is crushed down to a single page, the artistic embellishments making it almost unreadable and certainly of little value to gaming. The city maps are useless jokes, done in a smeared sepia-and-black that I suppose was supposed to come off as 'old paper' but really just looks like someone spilled coffee all over the art. The city blocks are smudgy and run-together - most of the Waterdeep map is just one big jumbled mess, with the addition of some large useless labels obscuring huge parts of the city map, while other parts are just solid black blobs - certainly nothing like the clear maps we had in the 2E book.
Michael Long
First Post
5 out of 5 rating for Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
I think this is a great resource and highly recommended.
[http://tribality.com/2015/11/09/sword-coast-adventurers-guide-review/]
I think this is a great resource and highly recommended.
[http://tribality.com/2015/11/09/sword-coast-adventurers-guide-review/]
Last edited:
Americancyco
First Post
2 out of 5 rating for Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
too much fluff
too much fluff
Similar Threads
AD6_gamerati_skyscraper
Upcoming Releases
-
April 16 2024 -
May 31 2024 -
June 3 2024 -
June 4 2024 -
June 18 2024 -
July 16 2024 -
September 17 2024 -
October 1 2024 -
November 12 2024 -
February 18 2025
