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.


white dragon ed kwong.jpg

green dragon.jpg

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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

They did fine with Radiant Citadel, but the Concord Worlds aren't trying to clean up sometimes tone-deaf takes on non-Western European settings from the late 1980s and early 1990s. If WotC wanted to spotlight those areas of Toril again, I think it'd take a willingness to essentially start fresh with a similar approach.
I thought even Radiant Citadel had some kerfuffles upon release. Something about "savages" if I recall correctly.
 

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Kalastar aberrations,
Ya know, when the Spelljammer books came out, I noticed the Psurlon monster stat block, had some similar traits to the Kalashtar race features. And I remember saying to myself that the traits of a playable Aberration race in 5E seems like it would fit with what the Kalashtar had.

And since this is coming out BEFORE the FR books, but AFTER the MM with the Gith changed to Aberrations, well it makes sense that the Kalashtar would be our "first ever" playable Aberration PC option.
 

There are no new developments in Eberron. It’s always set at zero year (10 years after the Great War). Any changes have always been that way.
Nitpick: That's only true until WotC decide otherwise.

Regarding this book: it's a maybe for me. On the one hand, I really like Eberron, and consider it the one setting that they've done well in 5e. I would like to see more. On the other hand, I've opted out of the 2024 ruleset for the time being, so don't really have any use for this book.
 

Changeling Fey
Probably, but hopefully not. If they are fey, they need some racial trait that lets them ignore Detect Evil and Good and other abilities like that. The intrigue of changelings is mostly lost if wide-magic Eberronians can just cast a low level spell to reveal them.
Warforged Constructs
I’m in the minority, but I love Warforged being Humanoids instead of Constructs. Partially because I think undead Warforged are the coolest thing ever, but also because in lore they have living vine-like wood inside their bodies, and other living components. They’re not purely constructs in the same way that Golems, Helmed Horrors, and Autognomes are.
Kalastar aberrations
I doubt it. Maybe for the Inspired because of their lore of being magebred by the Quori.
Shifters monstrosities
Maybe. I’m open to it. Shifters have always been my least favorite Eberron specific race, so I hope they get something more interesting mechanically and lore wise.
 



I am absolutely not saying there's no place for them, just that there's no upside for WotC.
Oh, there's an upside. People would buy them, WotC would make money. They'd just have to be willing to plant their feet at the "there's no such thing as bad press". But I don't think they have the fortitude for that, they seem to want to be everybody's friend, even when there's already people T'ed off about other things they've done.

I just don't know how big the overall desire is - even some of the 2E green historical books weren't very popular.
 

Oh, there's an upside. People would buy them, WotC would make money. They'd just have to be willing to plant their feet at the "there's no such thing as bad press". But I don't think they have the fortitude for that, they seem to want to be everybody's friend, even when there's already people T'ed off about other things they've done.

I just don't know how big the overall desire is - even some of the 2E green historical books weren't very popular.
It definitely feels liek a space where a 3PP could have a very successful book that WotC wouldn't roll out of bed for, income wise.
 

I am looking forward to the new Eberron book the most. The other books do look interesting, but I don’t like the Forgotten Realms and don’t really need a bunch of Dragon adventures. And Eberron’s one of my favorite settings.

Fingers crossed about the new Artificer. The UA had some good things, but not enough IMO. Hopefully they ditch the “random potions” idea for the Alchemist and fundamentally change how that subclass works.

I don’t have much of an opinion on how Dragonmarks are implemented. I know some fans were upset about anyone being able to get Dragonmarks in 4e, but to me the racial restriction doesn’t matter much. The Dragonmarked houses’ role as monopolistic entities works as effectively if they’re all one race as if they allow anyone in. The point is the economic dominance they have, not what species their members belong to.

I’m interested to see what they do for the Khorovar.

I imagine most of the backgrounds and feats are for the Dragonmarked houses. Maybe they’ll take a Ravnica approach give one background per house. I wonder if they’ll work in the renown system for the Dragonmarked houses. Hopefully there are some unique non-Dragonmarked feats and backgrounds.

I wonder if Eberron’s goblinoids will have fey touched, or if they’ll make them mechanically different to fit Eberron’s lore better.

Hopefully this book will have more Demon Overlord and Daelkyr stat blocks that we haven’t seen before. I was always disappointed that we only got two of each in Rising from the Last War. Bel Shalor, the Hidden Sun, Kryzin, Orlassk, and others would be cool to see.
 

I don’t have much of an opinion on how Dragonmarks are implemented. I know some fans were upset about anyone being able to get Dragonmarks in 4e, but to me the racial restriction doesn’t matter much. The Dragonmarked houses’ role as monopolistic entities works as effectively if they’re all one race as if they allow anyone in. The point is the economic dominance they have, not what species their members belong to.
This. they are cyberpunk megacorps, for all intents and purposes.
 

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