Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun is an extensive player-facing book that brings the Forgotten Realms to life, serving as one-half of the most extensive campaign setting materials released by Wizards of the Coast for D&D 5th Edition. The new book serves as a strong template as to how Wizards of the Coast should present future campaign setting materials, providing not only a veritable smorgasbord of player material, but also surprisingly deep dives into the lore of Faerun. While these deep dives don't reach the depths of some of the splatbooks released during 2nd and 3rd Edition, this presents the Forgotten Realms as a vibrant and rich setting that's far more than generic fantasy.
While a more extensive review will be coming from EN World soon, here's our first thoughts on the new book after a readthrough:
D&D's New Design Ethos On Display
One of my biggest criticisms of the 2024 Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide was that they over-stripped the lore from the game. Although the intent was to provide as few barriers for players to create their own vision of characters and worlds, it was deflating to see elves, dwarves, and other core species watered down to generic and uninspiring forms.
However, this approach makes a lot more sense when presented next to Heroes of Faerun. Instead of leaning away from any defining characteristics, the book leans into the different cultures and ethoses of all the core races. In the Forgotten Realms, aasimar are a rarity, tieflings are persecuted in Elturel due to the events of Descent Into Avernus, and Lolth-worshipping drow enslave surface dwellers. There's still wiggle room in case a player wants to make a character that askews one of these generalities, but there's a lot more detail about the core species (both in the Character Species section and the Guide to the Realms book) than I expected.
Beyond the character species, you can see how the ethos has shifted from the previous Fifth Edition. The Player's Handbook and other core rulebooks are a "lean" core, with obvious gaps in lore meant to be filled by these new campaign setting books. It extends beyond lore as well - the setting specific backgrounds, spells, and even subclasses go a long way in building out robust Forgotten Realms characters that Fifth Edition generally lacked.
Underwhelming Subclasses But Strong Feats and Backgrounds
In terms of the actual player material, I was disappointed by the subclass material but loved the feats, backgrounds, and spells. The Banneret continues to be one of the most underwhelming martial subclasses available. While Wizards abandoned the original Purple Dragon Knight concept from the UA due to the purple dragon knights not actually having or riding dragons (something, ironically that Heroes of Faerun depicts multiple times via artwork), reverting back to the original 5th Edition design was incredibly disappointing. A few other subclasses simply didn't move the needle with me, although I admit I'm usually sitting behind the DM's Screen, so I could be missing some of the appeal. My favorite subclasses were the Oath of the Noble Genies Paladin subclass and the Winter Walker Ranger, both of which seem very flavorful.
While I found myself underwhelmed by the subclasses presented in the book, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of other player-facing material in this book. They really made Heroes of Faerun feel like a true player-facing book instead of a book with a smattering of player material and then a bunch of setting lore. There are 16 backgrounds, 34 feats, 19 spells and the brand new Circle Casting mechanic (which truthfully doesn't feel like something players will use very often.) I can't remember another campaign setting book that had this much player content in it, even in the boxed sets that contained books solely focused on player content.
One small thing that I wished we would have seen in this book is more lineage options related to species. Heroes of Faerun tries to explain that sun elves and moon elves are "culturally distinct" but I feel like there was probably room to include lineage options that present alternative options to the ones we see in the Player's Handbook. I don't see much of an issue saying the sun elves would have distinct magical abilities from moon elves or more generic high elves and I feel like it would be another way D&D could make these player-facing books feel more distinct and additive.
One of the Best Forgotten Realms Books In a Long Time
As someone who came into D&D with Fifth Edition, I've always found Wizards' presentation of the Forgotten Realms to be underwhelming. This was the marquee world, the place where all of Fifth Edition's adventures (until more recent years) took place. And yet, despite the overwhelming number of new members, we rarely got a book that actually showcased what the Forgotten Realms was. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide was a joke, and the campaign books usually featured slivers of the world as opposed to a full-fledged presentation of what this world was about. There was just a weird understanding that everyone knew what the Forgotten Realms was and that mentality (which extended far past the era when Wizards was catering solely to pre-existing fans) made the Realms feel like generic fantasy.
Heroes of Faerun corrects this with gusto. Even though this is the player-facing book, there is a ton of new information that I (a D&D veteran that owns every Fifth Edition book) never knew about. If I were a new player, I'd love having this book and would probably insist on trying out a Forgotten Realms campaign. This book showcases how the Forgotten Realms is anything but generic fantasy and honestly, something like this book was long overdue.
