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 really hate half-elves considering how popular they have always been with players.
I don't think they hate half-elves at all. They tried several ways to make it work and attempting to please the most people possible., given that there were plenty of people raising concerns about the previous status quo. But even if this current solution is the most crowd-pleasing (and there's no public-facing evidence that it is), that still leaves a lot of people unhappy.
 

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Except that a couple of weeks ago he announced that he was going to write another Eberron book (not this one— he had his patrons vote between a couple of topics). Sometimes people have reactions in the heat if the moment and settle down after a while.
And, I mean, that was 2 years ago.
 

I don't think they hate half-elves at all. They tried several ways to make it work and attempting to please the most people possible., given that there were plenty of people raising concerns about the previous status quo. But even if this current solution is the most crowd-pleasing (and there's no public-facing evidence that it is), that still leaves a lot of people unhappy.
When you've got a large audience, it's impossible to make everyone happy. There's just too many conflicting tastes. So you've got to choose what to prioritize.

Do you count your demographics and try to make the largest one happy? Do you try to be inoffensive and minimize the number of unhappy people? Or do you make a judgment call on who deserves to be happy, deciding who in your subjective opinion has good taste and who has bad taste?

This decision is equal parts creative and business, and as customers we have a poor view of both sides.
 

I don't think they hate half-elves at all. They tried several ways to make it work and attempting to please the most people possible., given that there were plenty of people raising concerns about the previous status quo. But even if this current solution is the most crowd-pleasing (and there's no public-facing evidence that it is), that still leaves a lot of people unhappy.
Specifically calling them out to make a point that they are distinct from half-elves seems to be rubbing salt in the wound.
 

There is an article about the book from some outlet (I think comicbook.com) that mentioned the artwork is of SUBCLASSES, suggesting the unknown guy in a trench coat is a 5th Artificer subclass we have not seen yet.
I sure hope the Archivist is returning. IIRC, it was the most popular Artificer subclass. It was my favorite and they turned it into the most boring Wizard subclass (Order of the Scribes).
 

Specifically calling them out to make a point that they are distinct from half-elves seems to be rubbing salt in the wound.
The Khoravar date back to 3.5 eberron. If anything it's calling them off as distinct so that eberron GMs are not saddled with endless inappropriate FR lore being dumped into their game by well meaning players & FR superfans. Going beyond that it also makes for more room to make the eberron race options fit their eberron lore mechanically
Here is a little blurb about them
Is there a particular culture and history for Khorvaire elves among other regions, such as in cities or the Five Nations? How did it come to be that those elves left their Valenar and Aerenal roots, to the point that half-elves were in large enough numbers to be considered their own distinct race (Khoravar)?

As the Undying Court rose to power, there were always elves who opposed it and chose to leave Aerenal to explore other opportunities. There was a greater wave of migration following the eradication of the Line of Vol. The Vol bloodline was the only one that was exterminated; her allies had to choose exile or to swear oaths to the Court, and many chose exile. While others, like the Phiarlans, were disturbed by the conflict and left of their own accord. That was 2,600 years ago. So there are places like House Phiarlan and the Bloodsail Principality where elves maintain a unique culture, but many of these immigrants fully integrated into their nations. A typical Brelish elf is Brelish first, elf second. Elves in Thrane are likely to be devoted to the Silver Flame; it’s just that an elf elder devoted to the Flame might have personally known Tira Miron. But the short form is that elves in Khorvaire could trace their roots back to followers of Vol or immigrants driven by curiosity, but for most those roots are long buried and they have assimilated into the local culture.

Meanwhile. the reason half-elves are considered their own distinct race is because they ARE their own distinct race. Most Khoravar are children of Khoravar, and their original elven ancestors could be buried so deeply in their family trees that they don’t even know who they were. Khoravar are more fertile than elves, and so over the course of thousands of years, they’ve spread more rapidly.


I'm not sure which book(s) mention them, and I'm not going to search through them to find references, but I suspect that races of eberron has a noteworthy section devoted to them.
Personally I'm hoping that the unannounced book is one with mechanical changes to the rules like 3.5's phb2/unearthed arcana books or 2e's player options combat & tactics.
 
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