D&D 5E (2024) Here's The Covers of BOTH of November's Forgotten Realms Books

We've known for some time that in November, WotC will be releasing not one but two Forgotten Realms books--one aimed at players, the other at Dungeon Masters. Thanks to Game Informer, we now have a look at the covers of Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun and Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun. The article showcases more art, and is well worth checking out--and for those who want more, the print magazine has a full feature previewing the books.

 

[Weiley31]

Is this supposed to be Jaraxle? Looks a bit muppet-like for me but I Googled the name and found several shades of skin tone for him.

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Common for most modern day drow these days.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

I like the art; a considerable improvement over Dragon Delves’ covers (both of which I deeply disliked).

The character choice is puzzling, especially for Adventures in Faerûn. Is Valindra really that iconic to warrant taking up the full cover? I wouldn’t even place her among the top 30 most notable antagonists in the setting, but maybe I missed a Valindra fanclub somewhere. If I had to choose a Faerûnian lich for a cover, I’d choose Szass Tam or Sammaster. I’d also make them more lich-y in the art.

Heroes of Faerûn is better in this regard, and Minsc and Karlach are great choices from a marketing perspective due to BG3 (even if I personally don’t much care for the game). Vajra Safahr is fine, I suppose, though not the setting’s foremost wizard. She was also in the cover for the Monster Manual. Jarlaxle is the real puzzler here — would have been a better fit among the antagonists in the DM’s book, no?

I guess that would really depend on what the focus of these books is. Are these intended to have broad "all of the Realms" scope or are the character choices hints at a limited selection of cities or regions they're going to cover...?

 

[Scribe]

Is this supposed to be Jaraxle? Looks a bit muppet-like for me but I Googled the name and found several shades of skin tone for him.

View attachment 412081

Probably, looks real bad.

Karlach however...

 

[lall]

If I had to choose a Faerûnian lich for a cover, I’d choose Szass Tam or Sammaster. I’d also make them more lich-y in the art.

Boo. Hot lives matter.

 

[Vael]

Waiting on the alt-art covers, but these are fine.

 

[Parmandur]

1) Minsc AND Karlach?!

2) I haven't taken a close look at a lot of the recent books, but is that a pretty distinctive change to the trade dress?

In line with the recent books.

 

[Mercurius]

Well it has been awhile--maybe never--that I'd consider not buying a book based on the cover art, but here we are.

 

[pukunui]

Honestly, I think those covers are hideous. I do not like the art style or the graphic design. This new visual direction is really putting me off the revised game.

 

[The Soloist]

Will there be alternative covers?

 

[GarrettKP]

Will there be alternative covers?

The article doesn’t say one way or the other.