D&D 5E The Minsc and Book product

[Zaukrie]

It's sort of by WotC.

It's published by WotC via DMsGuild (like for example any of the much shorter products they've put out to benefit the Extra Life charity, or like the Wayfinder's Guide). But it doesn't look like anyone on the WotC RPG team worked on it. Instead, its lead designer was James Ohlen, who was one of the folks responsible for the original Baldur's Gate I & II games. He released a DMs Guild setting guide / adventure based on those games through DMs Guild a while back ("Heroes of Baldur's Gate")—then got hired by WotC in their video games division. I wonder whether perhaps this new book, seemingly a follow-up to "Heroes," was already under independent development by Ohlen and then the decision was made to release it "by" WotC since Ohlen was now a WotC employee.

Still, this is interesting—to my knowledge it's the first ever new book-length product (albeit half the length of a regular WotC 5e book) that WotC themselves has released on DMsGuild with a print-on-demand option. I wonder if a door is opening...

His Heroes PDF is great. Very great. I even recommend it in the product I published about the area.

 

[Weiley31]

Oh snap Aribeth, from Neverwinter Nights 1, is flipping in this!

 

[Urriak Uruk]

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Fairly large book for charity (155 pages), but not a full sized book either.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Also... stats for Baalzebul and Mephistopheles?!? Hell yeah!

 

[darjr]

Is the art from that sketch in it? If not I'll bet this is a 'related' product. Maybe.

 

[Demetrios1453]

So, it looks like something if a follow up to the previous BG DM's Guild product, although this one would be just fine to use on it's own, especially if you're adventuring in the Baldur's Gate or Amn areas. But even if you're not, there's still a lot in there that can be useful for any campaign, especially lots monster and NPC stats (still in the old format, but that's no huge deal. I wonder if they'll update the PDF with the new style as it's official).

The most notable thing are all the stat blocks. Lots of BG game characters with stats (many carried over from the previous product), including Jon Irenicus and Bodhi, both of whom are suitably high-CR foes.

The monster section has a lot of monsters, both general and FR-specific, that haven't been updated to 5e yet. There's a nice selection, although the phaerimm seem to be a bit weaker than in earlier editions (I'll have to take a closer a look at that later). Gibberlings, tasloi, sirenes, bebeliths, and demodands are all here, among others. Again, many, but not all, were in the previous product, but this makes them more "official".

But the Campaign Foes section - wow! Several big-name D&D creatures now statted up, including Baalzabul, Mephistopheles, Pazuzu, and more. There's even two forms of Bhaal!

 

[Demetrios1453]

Is the art from that sketch in it? If not I'll bet this is a 'related' product. Maybe.

No.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Is the art from that sketch in it? If not I'll bet this is a 'related' product. Maybe.

Just bought it myself (hey, it's charity).

It does not use the Boo sketch, so theoretically this book uses that cover for an eventual release for LGS (you can already order hardcovers now). But I suspect that cover is not for this, and instead they are just fun cross-promotion.

The book is also made by the folks who made the previous Baldur's Gate DMs Guide book (forgetting it's name now), and this book actually reuses some art from there. Still, they made this under WotC's umbrella, and there is a lot of entirely new material here.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

One thing I don't like while reading this; it doesn't just reuse art from Heroes of Baldur's Gate (which I don't really mind)... it also reuses art from Odyssey of the Dragonlords. There are a couple of NPCs that use art from that book, and although it is great art, they're dressed as Greek heroes. It clashes with the rest of the book, and although someone who hasn't seen Dragonlords may not notice (or just be confused) it really doesn't fit well.