The New Forgotten Realms Player Guide (Everything We Know So Far)
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
It’s been almost 40 years since the first official Forgotten Realms publication was released for Dungeons & Dragons. Since then it’s gone on to become one of the most popular campaign settings of all time, spawning hundreds of Forgotten Realms novels, toys, video games, trading cards and of course, DnD game books.
Now, it looks like we’ll be seeing even more of the Realms in the coming year. That’s because at this year’s annual D&D Direct event, Wizards of the Coast announced that a new Forgotten Realms Player Guide would be coming in late 2025. The book will feature new subclasses, feats and backgrounds, and is designed to be a companion piece to the DM-focused Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide that will also be released around the same time.
So just what can fans of Faerûn expect from this new DnD sourcebook? Below, we break out everything we know so far.
What is the Forgotten Realms Player Guide?
As the name suggests, The Forgotten Realms Player Guide will be designed primarily for DnD 5e players (although there will be plenty for Dungeon Masters to dig into as well) and will contain a gazetteer-style overview of key locations in the Realms along with new rules options, including:
- New Subclasses
- New Feats
- New Backgrounds
- New Spells (including a new type of spell)
- New Faction details (with background information on how players can join groups such as the Harpers and Zhentarim)
Notably, all of the material will be fully compatible with the new 2024 Player’s Handbook and 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, which should be interesting given that subclasses, feats and backgrounds have been dramatically overhauled within the new DnD 5e rules.
What previous Forgotten Realms Player Guides are available?
Over the years, Wizards of the Coast (and their predecessor TSR) have released a number of dedicated player’s guides for the Forgotten Realms, including:
- Forgotten Realms Adventures (2e): Released in 1990, the book offered a ton of information on numerous locations (including maps on almost every page), along with gods, monsters, NPCs and new spells.
- Player’s Guide to the Forgotten Realms (2e): Published in 1993, the book offers a detailed overview of key locations, factions and NPCs. The goal is to provide players with a solid understanding of the history and geography of Faerûn.
- Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide (4e): Published in 2008, the book was designed to help players create a Forgotten Realms character using the fourth edition rules and included new feats, powers, paragon paths and introduced the swordmage class.
- Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide (5e): Published in 2015, this book presented players with new options for subclasses and spells in addition to offering a high level overview of the popular Sword Coast area.
When is the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide coming out?
The Forgotten Realms Player Guide is scheduled for release in Late 2025. You will, however, be able to access the book several weeks earlier if you pre-order the digital and physical bundle via D&D Beyond or pre-order a physical copy of the book from any local game store that is enrolled in Wizards of the Coast’s DnD early access program.
How much is the Forgotten Realms Player Guide?
Wizards of the Coast has not yet confirmed a price for the new player guide, but it will likely retail for around $50 USD (which is comparable in price to similar Forgotten Realms products such as recent titles like Phandelver & Below and Vecna: Eve of Ruin).
What other tie-in products will be available?
Currently, Wizards of the Coast has not confirmed whether there will be any tie-in products. It’s likely, however, that we’ll see tie-in miniatures from WizKids, which usually produces exclusive monster and NPC miniatures for m ajor DnD sourcebooks. It’s also possible that we’ll see an exclusive limited edition version coming from third-party publisher Beadle & Grimm’s, which also often releases tie-in products (for example, recent DMG Premium Map Pack, which is a tie-in to the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide).
It’s also likely that the new Forgotten Realms Player Guide will integrate with the upcoming DnD virtual tabletop (also known as Project Sigil), which is currently in open Beta testing. The book will also likely be available on all major VTT platforms, such as Foundry and Roll20.
Final Thoughts
For the past few years, the majority of Wizards of the Coast DnD 5e books have been geared more towards Dungeon Masters. So it’s great to see new content that’s focused more on players, particularly for a campaign setting as popular as the Forgotten Realms. It’ll also be interesting to see just what options are available, as this book represents the first instance of new subclasses, backgrounds and feats to use the new DnD 2024 rules.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with more information as it’s made available. In the meantime, below is the D&D Direct 2024 video, timestamped to the discussion on the new Forgotten Realms Player Guide.
See Our Complete D&D Book Coverage
Visit our D&D Books page for more reviews of the latest novels and game books.
Ollie Delano is a Staff Writer who lives in Chicago, Illinois where he majored in Journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He’s been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 10 years and currently plays in a weekly game group where he rolls way too many natural 1s and chugs way too much Mountain Dew. His favorite D&D campaign setting is Eberron and his favorite character to play was a Tiefling rogue named Draxiss who enjoys both literal and figurative backstabbing.
