D&D 5E Planescape, Bigby, Phandelver and the Deck of Many Things: Covers & Details Revealed!

The covers of the upcoming D&D books — including Planescape, Glory of the Giants, and the Deck of Many Things have been revealed.

• August 15th -- Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants ($59.95)
• August 15th -- The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons ($39.95)
• September 19th -- Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk ($59.95)
• October 16th -- Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse ($TBA)
• November 14th -- Book of Many Things ($TBA)

Coming August 15th with two variants. Lore about giants, 76 stat blocks, feats, and a giant subclass.

3 hardcovers in a boxed set-- 96 page guide to Sigil, 64-page bestiary, and 96-page adventure, along with a poster map and DM screen. Coming October 16th.

224-page adventure for levels 1-12, poster map, 16 new monsters. Coming September 19th.

66 illustrated cards, 192-page book with lore, character options, magic items, and monsters, 80-page card reference guide, all in a slipcase. Coming November 14th.​

These Are Dungeons & Dragons' New Products For 2023

New books for the fantasy role-playing game include Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, and a look at the legendary Deck of Many Things.

themessenger.com

 

[Azzy]

So, we've had Fizban's and now Bigby, covering dragons and giants: I could see a book like that covering, say, Fiends and their Realms.

I would love it if they drew inspiration from 3.5e's Fiendish Codices.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

So, we've had Fizban's and now Bigby, covering dragons and giants: I could see a book like that covering, say, Fiends and their Realms.

I would love it if they drew inspiration from 3.5e's Fiendish Codices.

I would be all for that, especially if they can give some decent attention to the yugoloths, gehreleths, and other non-demon/non-devil fiends. I love me my Fiendish Codices, but we really needed a Volume III.

 

[Parmandur]

I would be all for that, especially if they can give some decent attention to the yugoloths, gehreleths, and other non-demon/non-devil fiends. I love me my Fiendish Codices, but we really needed a Volume III.

The more I think on it, a Bigby/Fizban style approach to Outsiders in general would juat make sense: the audience foe a detailed gazateer of locations in Mt. Celestia, Mexhanus, or Gehenna seems relatively small, but a book with magic items, PC options, Adventure building material, and more out there Monster stat blocks...thst could work, and work for a lot of tables who aren't looking for a Planescape, Sigil experience for that matter...so would make sense as a seperate, if complementary, product from Planescape.

 

[Azzy]

I would be all for that, especially if they can give some decent attention to the yugoloths, gehreleths, and other non-demon/non-devil fiends. I love me my Fiendish Codices, but we really needed a Volume III.

Alright, that's three of us—let's go storm WotC's HQ and demand that they make this.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The more I think on it, a Bigby/Fizban style approach to Outsiders in general would juat make sense: the audience foe a detailed gazateer of locations in Mt. Celestia, Mexhanus, or Gehenna seems relatively small, but a book with magic items, PC options, Adventure building material, and more out there Monster stat blocks...thst could work, and work for a lot of tables who aren't looking for a Planescape, Sigil experience for that matter...so would make sense as a seperate, if complementary, product from Planescape.

Huh, that could actually work well. "X's Guide to Celestials" covering the Upper Planes, "Y's Guide to Fiends" covering the Lower Planes, and "Z's Guide to Elementals" covering the Inner Planes. That misses the Transitive Planes as well as Mechanus and Limbo (I guess we could have "W's Guide to Fey" cover the Feywild though), but still covers the vast majority of things. Given that fiends tend to need far more coverage than celestials just through sheer numbers, just throw Limbo and Mechanus into the Upper Planes book (they're a single layer each, so it won't take up too much room) even if they don't technically fit...

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if fiends are the theme of our next monster book. They and undead are probably the two most likely choices going on popularity alone.

I also agree with the earlier comments that the descriptions of the remaining outer planes aren't necessary for a Planescape book, and just concentrating on Sigil and the Outlands is perfectly fine. Although they definitely could deflect any potential complaints by saying "We intend to cover the other planes in upcoming products", whether it be a proper Manual of the Planes or just in monster books as speculated above. Also, I have a feeling that briaur will be a player option, but was just not playtested as it's going to be very similar to the PC centaur. And that glitchlings are just rogue modrons with another name, presumably to deflect any potential confusion with the rogue class.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Bariaur is easy to design, it's basically just pick some traits from Centaur and pick some traits from Satyr. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't in the book, they weren't anywhere as popular as Tieflings and Githzerai from the core book, and later when Aasimar, Genasi, Rogue Modrons and Githyanki became players options they also overshadowed the Bariaur. Bariaur might be more popular than Nathri or Nethlings though.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I imagine glitchlings with ordinary humanoid body proportions because modrons can't wear classic armours and clothing.

Maybe there is space for ardlings in Planescape.

I wonder why nothing has been said about bariaurs when these were one of iconic species in the setting.

I say it again. The planemarket Union from 3.5 Epic Levels should be updated and returned. Maybe these could become the new home of the exiled factions.

I miss the paragenasies from Dragon magazine, and what about Abysall and Athasian genasi? Why not planar dragonborn?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I imagine glitchlings with ordinary humanoid body proportions because modrons can't wear classic armours and clothing.

Maybe there is space for ardlings in Planescape.

I wonder why nothing has been said about bariaurs when these were one of iconic species in the setting.

I say it again. The planemarket Union from 3.5 Epic Levels should be updated and returned. Maybe these could become the new home of the exiled factions.

I miss the paragenasies from Dragon magazine, and what about Abysall and Athasian genasi? Why not planar dragonborn?

There is also the issue that modrons are not permitted to have free will, and rogue modrons are hunted.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I imagine Glitchlings are like Moderns that came out weird in a humanoid shape and not 100% devotion to law like they should have.

 

[Maxperson]

They have half again as many pages as the Spelljammer equivalent book to work with, and don't have page after page of ship statblocks and schematics eating up their page space.

The portion of the 2e Planescape Campaign Setting - Sigil and Beyond booklet covering Sigil was only about 25-30 pages (just the city, not the Factions).
The portion of the 2e Planescape Campaign Setting - Sigil and Beyond booklet covering the Outlands was about 35 pages.
The 2e Player's Primer to the Outlands was itself only a 32 page book.
The 4e DMG2's section covering Sigil was only about 35 pages or so, with around 15 or so dedicated to a short sample adventure.

They could dedicate one-third of the book (32 pages) each to covering Sigil and the Outlands and be more or less on par with previous material covering those subjects, and still have 32 pages left over to cover character options and the Factions. That seems like a pretty reasonable way to allocate the page space they have to work with and still cover the material they need to cover.

By contrast, the portion of the 3e Manual of the Planes covering the Outer Planes is ~65-70 pages by itself, and if we add in the Inner and Transitive Planes it's closer to ~110 pages - and that's without bringing the Feywild, Shadowfell, and Far Realm into the equation. They'd have to double the existing page space - or worse, trim EVERYTHING down to the bare bones - to even remotely make it fit.

We can always want more - as I said previously, I would still very much like to get a proper 5e Manual of the Planes - but with the page space they have to work with on this product, limiting the scope to Sigil and the Outlands seems like the correct decision to me.

But here's the thing. The original Planescape boxed set didn't give us enough of any of those things, either. The major difference between then and now is that then we got planes of law, chaos, conflict, a supplement on Sigil alone, one for the inner planes, etc. They finished the setting later on. WotC refuses to do that for 5e. We are almost 8 years post The Sword Coast and we still don't have a single additional area for the Forgotten Realms, their biggest and most popular setting.

What they are doing in the Planescape product coming out soon is going to be woefully insufficient to cover the Planescape setting, no matter how many pages are devoted to Sigil and the Outlands.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Nahtri could be potentially interesting antagonists, the raiders who attack your stronghold, but they are too "plain" as characters.

Nethlings PCs would be interesting be were created by "reverse engineering" and useful to help in the "building" of demiplanes.

Spikers are perfect if you want a "evil specie" but tired always with tielflings. Let's remember they can't wear heavy armour. The fact is they should can choose the option of retractable spikes, like feline claws, or they would destroy clothing they used, and the intimate contact too dangerous to breed a new generation.

Quoms from 4th Ed could return. A plot hook could among them someones proclaims to be the "reincarnation" of their killed deity. But they can't agree about who is the true and original goddes Lakal. Maybe they aren't true reincarnations but something like the warlocks with the "memory" of Vestiges. Or maybe they are compiling the wrong pieces.

I guess Larian Studios after Baldruc Gate III will be working in Planescape Torment III, recycling a lot of things of the software but adding a lot of new ideas to the lore.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

But here's the thing. The original Planescape boxed set didn't give us enough of any of those things, either. The major difference between then and now is that then we got planes of law, chaos, conflict, a supplement on Sigil alone, one for the inner planes, etc. They finished the setting later on. WotC refuses to do that for 5e. We are almost 8 years post The Sword Coast and we still don't have a single additional area for the Forgotten Realms, their biggest and most popular setting.

What they are doing in the Planescape product coming out soon is going to be woefully insufficient to cover the Planescape setting, no matter how many pages are devoted to Sigil and the Outlands.

I mean, setting aside the fact that I'm more than half convinced a new Forgotten Realms guide is in the works for the 50th anniversary next year, every single FR adventure module they've released in 5e also serves as a mini-gazetteer for the region it's set in.

It's far from perfect, but it's hardly nothing.

 

[Maxperson]

I mean, setting aside the fact that I'm more than half convinced a new Forgotten Realms guide is in the works for the 50th anniversary next year, every single FR adventure module they've released in 5e also serves as a mini-gazetteer for the region it's set in.

It's far from perfect, but it's hardly nothing.

I don't run premade adventure paths, so it is nothing. I can't be expected to buy a ton of adventures that I'm not going to use the vast majority of just to get a few pages about an area of the Realms.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Planescape always struck me at TSR’s attempt at the the nihilistic campaign setting found in White Wolf’s World Of Darkness, but “kiddified” and stalking off in its own direction. (DiTerizelli even did artwork for Werewolf).

Addendum - I feel like Sigil and Babylon 5 have a lot of similarities and possibly story beats.

Oh snap! Now I gotta do a fantasy Babylon 5!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

honestly, the giant book seems to be the only one of interest for me, might have to jump ship to something else.

Does anyone else know what is out there?

So many things my dude. The One Ring (easily hacked to general low magic high fantasy), LevelUp for more crunchy D&D, many 5e clones in the works by various companies, there an Irish myth 5e based game I can’t recall the name of that looks cool…

Heck I’m working on a game that uses elements of Aetherpunk, gaslamp fantasy, science fantasy, planetary fantasy, and others for a sort of “science fantasy cartoons” vibe.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Have you tried to find an online game? That may be a way to ease into it. My advice would be to play the game and not worry if you’re doing it “right” or if you have the perfect fit. D&D to me is about the community more than anything, but you need to play to enjoy that community.

Good luck!

honestly I swear what ever I want is not avablible plus I have damn thin walls

 

[Incenjucar]

honestly I swear what ever I want is not avablible plus I have damn thin walls

The answer is gnome.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't run premade adventure paths, so it is nothing. I can't be expected to buy a ton of adventures that I'm not going to use the vast majority of just to get a few pages about an area of the Realms.

I mean, not only has WotC expected that, it's what people have done. It's a business model that's lasted a decade, without much indication they are going to shake it up.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh snap! Now I gotta do a fantasy Babylon 5!

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, mix it up with Planescape...boom, Babylon 5.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

honestly I swear what ever I want is not avablible plus I have damn thin walls

My point was don’t play what you “want,” just play. I think you are to hung up in finding what fits and losing out in the enjoyment of playing.