D&D Adds Two New Books to 2025 Slate, Including New Eberron Book

Wizards of the Coast is adding two Dungeons & Dragons books to its 2025 slate, including Eberron: Forge of the Artificer in August and an unnamed mystery book in October. Eberron: Forge of the Artificer will include the revised Artificer class, several new backgrounds and feats, and revised Eberron species, including the “classic” species that previously appeared in Eberron: Rising From the Last War and the new Khoravar species. The design team for Eberron: Forge of the Artificer includes James Wyatt (who worked on the original Eberron line), with original Eberron designer Keith Baker consulting on the new book.

The Forgotten Realms Player's Guide will introduce circle-casting, a new way to cast spells. Full details on the new mechanic was not revealed, but it will involve multiple spellcasters working together to amp up a spell or give it additional effects. One example given was making a spell's effects permanent instead of having a temporary duration.

While no other details were provided for the October mystery book, EN World received a host of new details about the rest of D&D's 2025 slate during a press visit to Wizards of the Coast's new office headquarters last week.

Dragon Delves - July 8, 2025 Release Date

The previously unnamed dragon anthology is called Dragon Delves and will feature 10 short adventures, each of which features a different type of chromatic or metallic dragon. Three campaign options will be provided in the anthology to link together the adventures. Not every adventure pits players against dragons, especially as the adventures range from Level 1 to Level 12. The adventures are described as being relatively short and utilize the prep-style seen in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. There's also an art section showcasing dragon art from across 50 years of D&D material.

Dragon Delves also noticably departs from Wizards' in-house style for D&D. Each adventure features art by a different artist, with the artists each providing their own style instead of conforming to the "fantastic realism" typically found in D&D books. Artists in Dragon Delves includes Luke Eidensink, Dominik Mayer, and Ed Kwong, with example pieces seen below.


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Eberron: Forge of the Artificer - August 19, 2025 Release Date
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Eberron: Forge of the Artificer serves as a "companion" book to Eberron: Rising From The Last War, with looks at different parts of Eberron that wasn't explored in the previous rulebook. The book will include new backgrounds, new bastion options tied to Eberron, and expanded rules for airships. The book also includes some changes/evolutions of Eberron lore. Notably, dragonmarked houses are no longer "species-locked" with characters able to join the houses later in life. Dragonmarks are also being made into feats as opposed to having a separate subsystem.

As a note, lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford specifically noted that the Khoravar are being considered a new species and distinct from half-elves. Crawford noted that this change came from Eberron lore itself and reflects how the existing lore of D&D is influencing the mechanics.

While the book won't include a full campaign, there are three chapters presented as campaign "options" with sample adventures. The three chapters, titled Sharn Inquisitives, Dragonmark Intrigue, and Morgrave Expeditions are organized using the methods explained in the Dungeon Master's Guide and include several sample adventures.

At one point, Eberron: Forge of the Artificer was described as a "Xanathar's Guide to Everything" book, but specific to Eberron. The book will also have a different page count and price point than typical D&D rulebooks, although no further details were given.



Heroes of the Borderland Starter Set - September 16, 2025 Release Date

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Heroes of the Borderlands is a return to the Keep in the Borderlands, although "time has passed" since the original adventure module. The physical starter set will also contain several new innovations designed to make playing D&D easier for beginners. Notably, the starter set includes numerous new components including "tiles" that players mix and match to create new characters. The tile system was described as one of the quickest character creation systems ever for new players, short of giving them a pre-generated character. The Starter Set will also include support for having multiple DMs run the campaign.

Forgotten Realms Player's Guide - November 11, 2025 Release Date

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The Forgotten Realms Player's Guide will feature new backgrounds, feats, and 8 new subclasses. The 8 new subclasses will be revealed today as part of an Unearthed Arcana (found here). Instead of rehashing existing subclasses, at least some of the subclasses are inspired by different parts of the Forgotten Realms. For example, the bard subclass is inspired by the Moonshae Isles, while the genie-themed paladin is focused on Calimsham.
The eight subclasses are:

  • College Of The Moon (Bard)
  • Knowledge Domain (Cleric)
  • Purple Dragon Knight (Fighter)
  • Oath Of The Noble Genies (Paladin)
  • Winter Walker (Ranger)
  • Scion Of The Three (Rogue)
  • Spellfire Sorcery (Sorcerer)
  • Bladesinger (Wizard)

Forgotten Realms Adventure Guide - November 11, 2025 Release Date

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The Forgotten Realms Adventure Guide will contain deep dives on five different parts of the Forgotten Realms, each of which are meant to focus on a "different kind of fantasy." The five areas include the Moonshae Isles, Icewind Dale, the Dalelands, Calimshan, and Baldur's Gate. Each area will have short adventures for DMs to run or help launch a campaign.

When asked whether the Forgotten Realms would have any changes, Crawford said that some areas of the Forgotten Realms would have new developments, particularly in areas where Fifth Edition hasn't touched before. Additionally, Baldur's Gate 3 will be referenced in the artwork of the Baldur's Gate section and there would be some other nods to the game in that section as well.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

I know, doesn't make it less of a silly name. I'm sure WotC will force Wyatt/Baker to make them mechanically different in some needless way yes.
5.0 half-elves were actually a pretty good model for Khoravar, with their story being that of being a bridge between the races/species and therefore getting proficiency in Diplomacy (as opposed to the Tanis outcast story).

As for dragonmarks... I don't have a problem with houses having members/employees of various species, but I'm not really OK with the dragonmarks itself showing up wherever. There's some good lore related to how the different marks relate to their "home" species, like how Kundarak were the ones guarding the ancestral dwarven halls, or how Phiarlan were the cultural memory of Aerenal.
 

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I'm likely experiencing D&D burnout or fatigue, but nothing that WotC is releasing sounds very appealing or exciting. It all feels very 'been there, saw that'.
This was pretty much my reaction to the news as well. I don't see my group having any interest in running or playing an Eberron campaign, or having need for a starter set. Seeing as I usually write and run my own adventures, Dragon Delve doesn't have much appeal but might fall into the wait and see category. The mystery book might be good, guess we'll have to see what it is, perhaps an undead book.
Wow, covering the Moonshaes? That area has been off-limits for development since the book trilogy! Curious to see what this book will actually contain.
Did TSR/WotC officially make the Moonshae Isles off limits for further development or is it just that it never got updates after the trilogy of novels and the 1E sourcebook? I'm glad that the Dalelands and Calimshan are getting an update in the Adventure Guide, but I could do without the Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate and would rather see another area that's never really been detailed get the attention, like Nimbral or Plains of Purple Dust.

As far as WotC sample adventures mentioned in the Eberron book, if the ones of in the new DMG are an indication of what to expect, no thanks, they left much to be desired.
 




So the Eberron Khoravar are a separate species, rather than a hybrid species of human and elf.

It seems D&D is emphasizing the meaning of the term "species" as something that normally doesnt reproduce. Thus "half races" are generally phasing out, except for rare magical events that make the unusual hybridization possible.
 

Keith's new book on DMs Guild-- 'Frontiers of Eberron - Quickstone' include their version of the Lesser Dragonmark origin feat and might be the basis or foundation of what they are going to include in the new WotC book.

His book also states the following (regarding the "more powerful" dragonmarks the game has usually included in previous editions):

The powers granted by the Lesser Dragonmark feat only reflect the basic gifts of the mark. An adventurer could attribute class abilities to their dragonmark, or describe spells cast as channeled through the dragonmark. A Cleric with the Life Domain and the Mark of Healing could describe casting Healing Word or Raise Dead by using their mark, and a Storm Sorcerer with the Mark of Storms could say that they use their dragonmark to channel elemental power. Likewise, NPCs with dragonmarks could have spell-like abilities reflecting the greater powers of their dragonmarks.

So rather that make more powerful feats to keep having to take, their solution was to just say a player could narratively attribute class mechanics to their dragonmark. Which I'm all for personally-- when I ran an Eberron game I had a player who was a Cannith Mark of Making house member and who chose to play an Artificer (and thus most of their artificer abilities we featured as their mark manifesting)... and I had a player with an Aberrant dragonmark that played a Sorcerer, and whose subclass I made up as an 'Aberrant Dragonmark Sorcerer' with all their sorcerer's magic coming from their dragonmark as well.
 

I assume the dragonmarks not being "species-locked" means they aren't presented like subraces this time, not a 4e style player entitlement thing. Hopefully this also means that using most of your dragonmark abilities isn't locked out to non-spellcasters. I do wonder how the Mark of Finding will be handled this time.

As for the Eberron specific species, I hope they let Shifters use all the beast forms, there's really no reason to limit them to a single one now.
I assume the Marks are background feats.
 



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