D&D 5E Planescape, Bigby, Phandelver and the Deck of Many Things: Covers & Details Revealed!

The covers of the upcoming D&D books — including Planescape, Glory of the Giants, and the Deck of Many Things have been revealed.

• August 15th -- Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants ($59.95)
• August 15th -- The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons ($39.95)
• September 19th -- Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk ($59.95)
• October 16th -- Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse ($TBA)
• November 14th -- Book of Many Things ($TBA)

Coming August 15th with two variants. Lore about giants, 76 stat blocks, feats, and a giant subclass.

3 hardcovers in a boxed set-- 96 page guide to Sigil, 64-page bestiary, and 96-page adventure, along with a poster map and DM screen. Coming October 16th.

224-page adventure for levels 1-12, poster map, 16 new monsters. Coming September 19th.

66 illustrated cards, 192-page book with lore, character options, magic items, and monsters, 80-page card reference guide, all in a slipcase. Coming November 14th.​

These Are Dungeons & Dragons' New Products For 2023

New books for the fantasy role-playing game include Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, and a look at the legendary Deck of Many Things.

themessenger.com

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I don't run premade adventure paths, so it is nothing. I can't be expected to buy a ton of adventures that I'm not going to use the vast majority of just to get a few pages about an area of the Realms.

The fact that I've never been a Dragonlance fan and thus have never purchased Dragonlance supplements in past editions doesn't change the fact that they exist.

Sure, you don't have to buy Rime of the Frostmaiden if you're not planning on running the adventure as written, but it's still the best official 5e resource on Icewind Dale, and precisely because its focus is narrower, it goes into far more depth on the region than it gets in either SCAG or the 3e FRCS book.

I get it, I like big, thick, wide-ranging setting guides as much as anyone, but adventures modules contain setting material too... They always have.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, mix it up with Planescape...boom, Babylon 5.

Fair. Prolly get some useful stuff from The Rock if Bral, too.

Planescape could provide “dangerous weirdness”, though I’ve never loved the setting.

Then again, I never loved Spelljammer, either, and I’d be taking it all and using it to make my own thing, anyway.

 

[Incenjucar]

WotC is literally not allowed to produce the kind of lore of yesteryear, so it's best to just get into the habit of using the old stuff and converting as needed. We'll get some 5E-style crunch here and there, but the massive lore dumps will not happen again.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Glitchlings in the playtest had a Natural AC as part of their racial/species ability, so generally not having armour that fits them, is not a problem for them, so it doesn't matter if they're cube-shaped or humanoid-shaped at earlier levels. Magic Armour since at least 3.5e just tends to change it's shape to fit who's wearing it, or be easily adaptable to fit the user since it's, well, magical.

 

[Parmandur]

The fact that I've never been a Dragonlance fan and thus have never purchased Dragonlance supplements in past editions doesn't change the fact that they exist.

Sure, you don't have to buy Rime of the Frostmaiden if you're not planning on running the adventure as written, but it's still the best official 5e resource on Icewind Dale, and precisely because its focus is narrower, it goes into far more depth on the region than it gets in either SCAG or the 3e FRCS book.

I get it, I like big, thick, wide-ranging setting guides as much as anyone, but adventures modules contain setting material too... They always have.

From comments WotC staff like Perkins have made in the past, the Venn diagram overlap between customers who want Setting material and who want Adventure material is extremely high. Clearly, there are people who only want one or the other...but as far as product development is concerned, not enough to justify splitting the product lines for WotC.

 

[Parmandur]

Fair. Prolly get some useful stuff from The Rock if Bral, too.

Planescape could provide “dangerous weirdness”, though I’ve never loved the setting.

Then again, I never loved Spelljammer, either, and I’d be taking it all and using it to make my own thing, anyway.

The player options and bestiary are probably helpful for any sort of gar-out game, and the Advrbbook may have some good maps and such to repurpose.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The player options and bestiary are probably helpful for any sort of gar-out game, and the Advrbbook may have some good maps and such to repurpose.

Great point.

The Gate Towns might be good standing for “the one settlement on this weird world we probably have no business trying to settle on” or “the orbital station town around the burning gas planet” type stuff.

 

[Stormonu]

Fair. Prolly get some useful stuff from The Rock if Bral, too.

Planescape could provide “dangerous weirdness”, though I’ve never loved the setting.

Then again, I never loved Spelljammer, either, and I’d be taking it all and using it to make my own thing, anyway.

Yeah, throwing in Spelljammer ships for the various "space" races vessels would be helpful for a Babylon 5-style Planejammer game.

Elves as Mimbari?
Gith as the Narn?
Mind Flayers as the Centauri?
Neogi as the Drazi?
Celestials/Arcane as the Vorlons (Though a Dabus as Kosh would be cool)?
Tanar'ri/Baatezu/Yugoloths (perhaps different subfactions) as the Shadows?
Technomages as Warlocks?
PsiCorp as Sorcerers vs. Wizards or an excuses to make a psionic class? I mean, you have to have a Bester foil, right?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

But here's the thing. The original Planescape boxed set didn't give us enough of any of those things, either.

and the original Planescape setting was complete with the intial box set. All future books that expanded on it were just that, expansions.

 

[Maxperson]

I mean, not only has WotC expected that, it's what people have done. It's a business model that's lasted a decade, without much indication they are going to shake it up.

I very much doubt people in any great numbers have shelled out $50 for a few pages of setting, throwing away the adventure portion. I'm going to need hard proof of your claim.