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

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.
I actually don't like this version of the greater marks, because it ties the higher-level abilities to classes. Say you have the Mark of Handling, giving you power over animals. In 3e, the Least mark gave you calm animal, charm animal, or speak with animals. Upgrading to Lesser got you dominate animal or greater magic fang, and Greater got animal growth or summon nature's ally V. So, the 5e equivalent would be to become a druid, or possibly a beastmaster ranger... but those all come with a whole host of other abilities. The Mark of Handling shouldn't let you call lightning or heat metal or rusting grasp. I mean, sure, you could play a druid and just not use those abilities, but that's a pretty severe nerf. Druids in particular also come with quite a bit of other baggage in being a guardian of nature and such. But that's not what the Mark of Handling is about. It's not about befriending animals – it's about commanding them, and in the long term changing them (3e even had a template for animals that had been bred by House Vadalis to be harder better faster stronger). You're not in harmony with nature, you are telling nature to sit down and shut up because I'm the one in charge, Balinor-damn-it.

Further, it means you can't combine them with other classes. One of the neat things about 3e dragonmarks was that you could use them to add some magic that would normally be outside your wheelhouse. You could be a wizard with the Mark of Healing, adding some healing to your repertoire. Or maybe a fighter with the Mark of Making, fighting beside your Warforged buddy and then healing them afterward. If higher-level Marks are restricted to being class abilities, all of that goes away.
 

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Yes, after the trilogy/FR2 - Moonshae supplement TSR put a "lock" on development of the Moonshaes. I'm trying to find the source, but it discussed that there couldn't be Dungeon or Dragon articles written based in it, and there were restrictions on usage by the RPGA - I think only a special group was allowed to run official events based in it, as I recall. It and Sembia were supposed to be reserved for development in home games - though I think for 3E Sembia at least got some development.

I don't even know if it got any coverage in 3E.
I just looked, in the 3E FRCS, Sembia got about 3 pages of content, while the Moonshae Isles got 2 paragraphs. Whether there was any more throughout the other 3E FR books I have no idea.
 

If the October book isn't a campaign-length hardcover adventure book, it'll be the first year for more than a decade that there isn't one.
I would be elated if this were the case. I personally don't like the amount that WotC puts out. Some here and there is fine, but I'd rather see the product slots go to something else.
 

It sounds like they are getting the full species treatment while they figure out how they are handling species mixing rules. Which is fine, since Eberron half-elves were essentially a unique species rather than humanXelf.

It does seem like orcs are taking up the half-orcs role in House Thraask though.
My personal opinion is that I've never felt orcs and half-orcs are distinct enough to necessitate two distinct species blocks anyway; I can use "orc" stats for an orc with a human parent easily enough.

And outside of the Jhorash'tar, most orcs on Khorvaire are depicted as mixing pretty freely with humans anyway. Most orc populations are really "orcs+humans+lots of half-orcs".
 

I like what I'm hearing about the new starter set - something that allows for easy entry into the game.

Really curious how they'll handle all the "humanoids" given the recent changes/reclassifications to other monster types. Given it's in a future take on KotB, I'm guessing the caves are now mostly populated by monstrosities, aberrations, and the like. Oh, and those fiendish gnolls of course...
 


Odds of eberron book containing any new lore/setting stuff or it just being a stripped down version of Rising from the Last War, with maybe more character options?
It's not even a stripped down version, the description says it is a companion to Last War: that means they expect people to still buy Last War and use these mechanics alongside it. Sort of a DLC patch.
 



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