Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

To start: this is not a full setting book like in editions past. Even with the most successful launch in DnD history, 5E's development team is down to around eight people, meaning they have to contract out - to Green Ronin Publishing in this case - and it shows: this is a strangely placed product, not a full setting book, not a low-priced addendum. The writing is great (and mostly in-character as a variety of people from the Realms), the art is okay. It's laid out well and the book quality overall is fine. Who is this for?: DMs. Players who love to roleplay in the Realms will want to pick this up as well, but the main thrust is for DMs. How are the new Subclasses?: Great and balanced (except for min/max fanatics who will inevitably complain). All the options are full of flavor and RP potential, and the permissive notes regarding the racially locked options - Battlerager and Bladesinger - give new DMs license to apply these subclasses however they want and not fall into the newbie trap of "only RAW." There are a few pages in the back about how to apply the new rules to different DnD settings (Greyhawk, Eberron, Dragonlance) and your own settings. There is no new content for Druids, Rangers, and Bards, although they, along with the rest of the classes, are given a write-up regarding how they work in the Realms. Races?: Yep! A few new races and new variants for existing ones. I was hoping for a more in-depth treatment of Aasimar, but alas. The only note here is the Winged Tiefling variant is probably too good. Each race is given a thorough review and discussion of its place in the Realms. New Spells?: Four new melee cantrips for Wizards, Warlocks, and Sorcerers. Eldritch Knights and Bladelocks rejoice! Setting Information?: Plenty of it (and most of the book). Deities and nations are given a good overview. Events have moved on since 4E's often-odd developments, which will probably enrage Realms purists regardless of what it says. For someone starting out in 5E or coming into the 5E Realms with an open mind, it's perfectly fine. As a note, all maps in the book are "setting-realistic" maps, meaning they are drawn as though someone in the Realms created them. Overall, it's a solid Realms book until WoTC can release a full campaign setting book in the future. If you're a player that loves to RP or a DM to a Realms game (or loves to use official rules in homebrew), this is a great buy.

This is a great supplemental book for both players and DM's. A DM will get much more use out of it, but players can also enjoy the additional options that make up about 1/3rd of the book. These options are racial options, new subclasses, new backgrounds, a couple spells, and a bit more. They are also all pretty good choices, feel balanced, and make great additions to the game. The other 2/3rds of the book are lore. It is a ton of information on the Sword Coast, including cities, areas, maps, etc. This is good for players looking to have some details in their background relate to real places in the world, but is more useful for DMs as a reference guide. I have personally used it as a source when writing some homebrew adventures, as I am not super creative, so instead of making my own world/universe I just put players into the Forgotten Realms. This allows me to draw from the SCAG as a guide when players want to travel to a new location, or I need information on a setting I am using. Even if the town or area only has a few paragraphs of information, this has helped me as a starting point to expand the town and fill in details. Maps also help keep a sense of direction and continuity for travel times and locations of the players. The other great use of this book is as an addition to some of the pre-written official adventure books. I personally have run both the Lost Mines of Phandelver adventure, as well as Hoard of the Dragon Queen, both of which are set in Faerun/Sword Coast. This book has been great as a second source of information on locations that are mentioned or a part of these adventures. When the adventure books dont give any details or enough information on a place the players might encounter, I have used the SCAG to help me stick to continuity and fill in the details. Overall this is a great supplemental book for DMs and some players.

As someone who was dragged back into tabletop gaming after a 20-year hiatus by D&D 5th Edition, I have devoured each new release, enjoying the core books as well as the story arcs. The thing that I’ve been missing, however, is a straight-up sourcebook; as both player and DM, one of my favorite occurrences is when characters think outside the box that a pre-defined story with preset goals. I want the story to go where players lead it, and that requires either an enormous amount of improvisation on the DM's part, or a resource from which the DM can draw liberally. Filled with tons of character customization options and solid information on this part of the Forgotten Realms, there’s enough material here to provide almost limitless story hooks for a DM.The only problem I can foresee is when my party gets a look at this book, they will almost certainly regret not having some of the subclass/race options available to them when they created their characters. While part of me is itching for WotC to revisit other campaign settings (*cough* Dark Sun *cough*), I have to admit that the focus on the Forgotten Realms has really enabled them to flesh out the world in a highly satisfying way.

I'm going to attempt to explain why this book has gotten great reviews from some and terrible reviews from others. The answer is simple: some people are buying this book thinking it's something that it's not. I'll sum it up, then go into more detail. DON'T buy this book if: 1) Your campaign is not set in the realms or if your version of the realms largely ignores the canon in exchange for creative freedom. The Players' Handbook has enough info for both of these types of DMs, both on the Realms and on generic or non-realms settings. 2) You're doing it just for maps. The maps are each available to purchase for a couple of bucks from the artists' storefronts, in both printed and digital form. 3) You're looking for an exhaustive campaign setting. This is not a campaign setting. This book is for both DMs and Players, and includes 5e lore on major cities and settlements, deities, races, classes, etc, for a huge area. If it were that detailed, this book would need to be several volumes at minimum. 4) You're a player looking for custom classes. The class options are merely new paths for existing classes, albeit some of them might make the class feel wholly different like the swashbuckler rogue or bladesinger wizard. Still, they are class options. DO buy this book if: 1) You're running a 5e Forgotten Realms campaign, and want to stay true to the canon for the most part. This book is pretty good at showing where the realms stand in 5e without getting so detailed it puts a ton of constraints on your campaign. Still, as I mentioned before, if you like to go totally off canon, a huge portion of this book will be useless to you. 2) Players who are in a 5e Forgotten Realms campaign, and want to learn the lore without reading hundreds of novels or wiki articles. 3) Players who are in a 5e Forgotten Realms campaign that want to fit their character into the lore so it doesn't feel generic and out of place. Now if you find yourself among the listed groups who might enjoy this book and aren't familiar with the Realms, there are several typos on the Neverwinter map. You can easily find a 4e map of Neverwinter on the internet if you want to see what the places are really called versus what appears to have been some bad autocorrect changes (Moonstone Mark, Clock Tower, Bluelake District [errors] vs Moonstone Mask, Cloak Tower, Blacklake District [correct]). If you're still interested in the book, the book supplies a great deal of knowledge about what is currently happening in the Realms since the Second Sundering, a time for which there is little information on wikis and the internet (that will change with time, but currently, this book is great if you want to know who is the Waterbaron of Yartar, or whether or not a particular deity is alive again). Wizards of the Coast is rolling back a lot of the unpopular lore changes from 4e, so the 5e Realms feel a lot like 3/3.5e Realms, albeit over a hundred years later. The sections on race supply mostly Realms-flavor for your character, which some people feel is useless. I, personally, enjoy this sort of thing, as not everything needs to be a game mechanic or enhancement. There are more in depth looks at sun and moon elves for instance, and a list of rarer elf types such as the winged Avariel. There are also two new races for this supplement, the duergar and the svirfneblin (which overrides the one in the Elemental Evil pdf). The classes don't all get new paths, but all have a lore treatment, and the ones that do have been criticized for not being completely new classes. I feel like the playtesting required for new classes would have delayed this book until next year sometime, and the lore is something a lot of DMs wanted now. The bladesinger wizard is the standout here, allowing you to make a melee wizard and there are several new cantrips to go along with it (or the new warlock option). The book also contains a lot of information on the Realms deities, having lists of all the deities including the non-human deities like Moradin, Brandobaris, and Correlon Larethian. Each deity has a short write-up and a picture of its symbol. These are not exhaustive histories of each deity, but rather the basics and how that deity fits in post-Sundering. The wiki is a good place to look up older info, or if you have older campaign setting books. There are also many pages detailing various towns and cities in the extended Sword Coast area (because the Sword Coast specifically refers to only a portion of what this book covers) as well as the major city-states along the Sword Coast (Luskan, Neverwinter, Waterdeep, and Baldur's Gate). The book also includes brief overviews of areas well beyond the borders of the Sword Coast, as most people of the realms would have heard at least basic info on these more distant lands. Overall, as a reader of the FR novels who DMs a group set in 5e Forgotten Realms, this book was exactly what I wanted. I've read a lot of the negative reviews and what they all have in common is the expectation for this book to be something that it's not and wasn't advertised as, and these people are mostly deducting points for their own lack of due diligence before buying. Admittedly, I too bought the book blindly, but since I hadn't played in 20 years since 2e and just having recently started a 5e campaign, I wasn't spoiled by the dozens of FR sourcebooks for 3e and 4e and expecting this one book to encompass all of that. If you have all of those books already, you can use this book to show you what has changed and how that information is relevant to the 5e setting. I give this 4 stars, because the book was rushed and there are a few minor errors (the only ones I found that might actually affect play is the name errors on the Neverwinter Map).

I was hesitant to buy this release based on some of the reviews but finally decided to pull the trigger. Being a new DM, and also new to the 5E rules, I needed some background lore to fill my current and future campaigns. Not being familiar at all with Faerun or the Sword Coast when I began a few months ago, this book seemed like the only official publication that was going to give me that so I finally bought it. After having just read through it from cover-to-cover, and having very tempered expectations, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with it's content. This book provides a general background on all of the cities and towns up and down the Sword Coast and the West including the island nations off the coast. It also provides additional races, sub-races, and sub-classes along with new backgrounds none of which are in the Player's Handbook. There is also an extensive chapter on the gods worshipped by the peoples of these areas. I came away with a lot more background filler for my campaigns whether they be the WotC published variety or my own Homebrew. So, despite the low page count compared to the other official WotC publications, I feel like I got my money's worth for around $30. However, if you are already well familiar with Faerun's Sword Coast, you may only feel like you benefit from the new racial, class, and background information though it may still be useful to you as a quick reference on background lore.

As a Forgotten Realms fan, I give it an overall A+. The book gave a much craved update on the Post-Spellplague Realms, but did so in a very minimalist fashion. I'll always crave more details, naturally, because I love the Realms, I'll readily admit that. And while the book met every promised expectation I had from the promotional campaign and preview, some areas were met in a cool but "I'm trying to wow my teacher and barely meet the assignment's requirements at the same time," manner. On the other hand, that minimalist approach leaves the world open for me as a DM to create whatever material I want to fill in those gaps. As for the crunch, I love the options. The Backgrounds are great, and I love the Classes, especially the Bladesinger. The Battlerager Armor is a nice addition, as well. Overall, the book is a must have for anyone wanting to play in the current Realms. If you're playing your own game, the book can provide some nice options, and great lore to inspire you in your own world building efforts, but you're just not going to get the full sticker price value out of it if you don't care about the Realms-specific content. For those reasons, as I said, I give it an A-. Not because anything within its covers is bad, but because it is really only worth full price to a Realms fan, IMO.

Im one of the new-old D&D players. I played 1e, then stopped and have now returned to D&D with what I think is its best iterration: 5th edition. This book is a setting compendium, covering pretty much everything you need to tell adventures in the most iconic part of the Forgotten Realms, the Sword Coast. This book coincides with the release of the video game Sword Coast Legends, and is meant to be its table-top counterpart. The book covers extensive regions of the Forgotten Realms, from Icewind Dale to Tethyr, and from the Sword Coast to the Sea of Fallen Stars. It has the only published to date list of the entire Forgotten Realms pantheon of goods, with a brief entry on each, as well as finally introducing the Arcane domain for such deities as Azuth, Mystra. Expanded backgrounds, class templates, such as the Purple Dragon knights, and elven Bladesingers, as well as side bars on many Faerunian subjects, such as rare elven sub races and Tiefling variants. If you are a DM, like me, then this book is indispensible if you plan on making the Forgotten Realms the home of your D&D campaign. I hope to see more expanded areas of the Realms, like Zakhara and Kara-Tur, (both which are mentioned in this book).

Okay so, this is a really great book for running a game in the Forgotten Realms, but it's definitely not the first thing you should buy after the three core books. This book should only be bought when you either have Volo's, Xanathar's, and Mordekainen's Tome of Foes already purchased and want every last character option, or when you're running the Lost Mine of Phandelver or some other campaign set in the Forgotten Realms and want to give it more life. Think of it as a part 1 where any sourcebook set in the Forgotten Realms is part 2. Yeah it sucks that you end up spending on two or more books to get your money's worth from this one, but this book can really help you bring a Forgotten Realms campaign to life. Take the Lost Mine of Phandelver, run it, chain it into Out of the Abyss, run that, and by then this book will have paid itself off many times over.

Tradução do disclaimer que acompanha o Manual do Aventureiro de Fogotten Realms. Renúncia de Responsabilidade: a Wizards of the Coast não poderá ser responsabilizada por qualquer ação realizada por entidades nativas, ou que atualmente habitem os Reinos Esquecidos, incluindo lordes necromantes de magocracias remotas, magos residentes de todos os Vales, mas especialmente do Vale das Sombras, rangers drow empunhando uma ou mais cimitarras e acompanhados por uma ou mais panteras, magos insanos que morem em vastas dungeons acessíveis através de poços no meio de uma taverna, beholders que liderem carteis criminosos, e qualquer um que tenha a expressão “Muitas Flechas” no nome. No evento de um catastrófico encontro com qualquer uma dessas entidades, culpe o seu Dungeon Master. Se isso não funcionar, culpe Ed Greenwood, mas não diga para ele que fomos nós que mandamos. Ele conhece mais arquimagos que nós. O Guia do Aventureiro da Costa da Espada é o primeiro material da 5ªEd focado em descrever o mundo de campanha de Forgotten Realms atualizando a informação sobre as mudanças, sempre cataclísmicas, que afetam a vida de Faerun. O livro está no meio do caminho entre um guia de setting e um manual do jogador, podendo ser aproveitado tanto por jogadores como mestres: ele apresenta informação de timeline, regiões, cidades e NPCs, mas sem aprofundar demais e dando poucos detalhes; e também contém mais informação e detalhes úteis para criar personagens, mas sem o crunch a que estávamos acostumados na 4ªEd. Não espere encontrar aqui combos e manobras matadoras para tornar o seu personagem uma máquina de massacrar orcs. Mas o texto trabalha detalhes de classes como rangers e druidas, por exemplo, permitindo caracterizar melhor e de forma mais consistente essas classes e a forma como elas se inserem no mundo. O conjunto é ameno e convida à leitura sem pressa, dando margem para a imaginação preencher os espaços sugeridos pelo texto com o que acharmos mais adequado, complementando com o material oficial que vai sendo lançado na iniciativa transmídia da Wizards of the Coast: manuais, jogos, romances, videogames e artigos como os da Dragon+, o app para celulares (Android e IOs). Na verdade, segue em muitos aspectos o conceito do Ed Greenwood Presents: Elminster’s Forgotten Realms, uma visão geral e descontraída do mundo, livro publicado no finzinho da 4ªEd e reunindo a memorabília de décadas de trabalho e rascunhos. Com capa dura e umas boas 160 páginas coloridas e ricamente ilustradas, o livro percorre os reinos, descrevendo rápidamente suas regiões e reinos mais importantes, reserva mais ou menos duas páginas de detalhes às principais cidades estado: Neverwinter, Waterdeep e Baldur’s Gate da Costa da Espada, com mapas urbanos e características. Dá uma ideia geral e atualiza informação sobre a Heartland, as terras interiores entre a Costa da Espada e o Lago do Dragão, incluindo algo sobre a Terra dos Vales, Cormyr, Sembia; atualiza o Norte, da Marca Argêntea, a Espinha do Mundo e o Reino de Muitas Flechas. Até o sul, saberemos pouco do que acontece além dos arredores de Baldur’s Gate, Faerun volta a ser um mundo medieval e o que sabemos dependo do que os viajantes contam… sabe-se que o reino mágico de Halruaa está se reerguendo e seus barcos fantásticos voltam a singrar os céus, mas só são rumores que despertam muita incredulidade, até os aventureiros chegarem lá para ver com seus próprios olhos. O distante oriente é… bem… distante, pouco se sabe sobre o que há depois das vastas planícies da Horda, e se a lendárias Kara-Tur realmente existe vai depender do que o mestre decidir. O mesmos acontece com as imensidões do Mar Sem Rastros, poucos se aventuram a navegar além das ilhas sagradas de Evermeet e menos ainda conseguem voltar para trazer notícias das terras na outra margem. Sem esquecer, é claro, o temível Underdark, onde cedo ou tarde os heróis vão ter que se aventurar com os terríveis perigos que isso envolve, mas os detalhes dessa região ficam para a campanha Into the Abyss, ambientado nas profundezas do mundo e seus horrores. Todo o texto do livro é enriquecido com fantásticas sidebars que detalham alguns pontos interessantes como a economia dos Reinos, variedades locias de raças jogáveis como meio-elfos e Tieflings, a situação política das cidades estado, a estrutura urbana de Menzoberranzan… Nesse aspecto, o livro vem muito a calhar porque Faerun sofreu mudanças perceptíveis que podem passar batido só olhando para o mapa, nem falemos do fim de Myth Drannor, evento que me deixou mais abatido que qualquer outra coisa… Faerun mudou outra vez, a terra se curou das feridas do Cataclismo mágico de um século atrás, mas coisas estranhas aconteceram no interim, novos deuses se elevaram, outros cairam e a terra mudou: as distâncias parecem maiores, regiões desapareceram e outros novas surgiram com novos mistérios para explorar que intrigam até os mais sábios. Temos muito conteúdo para jogadores, dificilmente alguém vai poder dizer que falta descrever uma classe para adequá-la melhor a uma determinada região dos Reinos, o mesmo pode-se dizer sobre as facções: cada grupo de poder tem muitos detalhes para desenvolver suas intrigas e trabalhar em conjunto ou lutar para avançar seus propósitos, desde os Harpistas até os Zentharim. Temos o panteão atualizado das divindades de Faerun, com os novos e antigos deuses e seus próprios conflitos permanentes junto com orientações para seus seguidores. Da mesma forma, aguardam doze novos Background para personalizar os heróis, desde City Watch (que tal trabalhar tentando manter aventureiros na linha?), passando pelo Uthgard Tribe Member com o seu desprezo pelos almofadinhas da cidade; ajudando a encaixar os heróis de forma mais consistente no mais ricos dos mundos de Dungeons and Dragons. https://danielcenoz.wordpress.com/2016/03/13/sword-coast-adventurers-guide-resenha

Une encyclopédie immédiatement utile pour mener dans les royaumes oubliés. Les informations sont claires et directement utilisables. On est loin du remplissage. Il permet d'ajouter de la "viande" sur les "squelettes" présentés dans les diverses campagnes de la gamme. Un outil bien pratique.

Excelentes ilustraciones y un gran complemento al set de reglas

I have really enjoyed reading this book. It is a grower, at first I thought it didn't have much of interest but whenever I've dipped into it over last year or two I've found something I liked. I am someone who has played in the FR for a long time but never read any novels or got my head around the complex history and geography. This book was perfect for me as it sets everything out very clearly and in an engaging fashion. The chronicle style chapter two is my favourite, and also the longest in the book. This tells stories of the different locations from different characters' perspectives. There are also some fun rules as a bonus but don't buy it if rules are all you are after. The duergar and svirfneblin sub-races are very cool though, as is the swashbuckler sub-class.I hope this review was helpful to you and happy gaming.

Back in the hey day of 2nd edition as published by TSR, when the company was producing some of the best general GM's guides to ever be printed, this would have been a soft-cover book of about $12 in cost. In today's market, $20 is not out of the question for this. However, Wizard's of the Coast has decided to put it in a hardcover book which inflates the cost significantly. As to the content, it is about 150 odd pages of information regarding the current status of the realms. While much of the damage done to the setting during the period of the 4th edition is attempted to be fixed, there's a lot of stuff that just cannot be undone without making Faerun into, as one person of my acquaintance has put it, the "Marvel comics of D&D" by which they mean introducing the revolving door of resurrection and reincarnation. As to mechanics, the book does contain a number of extra options regarding character creation. This includes sidebars on variant Tieflings and Half-Elves, the Duergar subrace, the Oath of the Crown paladin archetype, The Long Death and Sun Soul monastic traditions, the purple dragon/banneret martial archetype, the bladesinger wizard tradition, the undying warlock pact, the arcana cleric domain, the battlerager barbarian path, two new spirits for the totem warrior barbarian path, the mastermind rogue archetype and four new cantrips for wizard/sorcerer/warlock lists. The book also contains the Storm Sorcerer, Swashbuckler and Deep Gnome entries, however these were already available for free via Unearthed Arcana download. As neat as they are, I have to admit to being a little disappointed when I purchase a product that pads it's pages with material that the company provides for free elsewhere. I feel that Wizards of the Coast and a number of other major RPG publishers are making the bad choice of following Games Workshop's example of inflating its prices as a sign of its supposed elevated state in the hobby. However, this is creating an artificial gate that is blocking a significant number of people who would purchase the book if it were cheaper. I know for my perspective that I would not have paid the price tag if this had not been received via a gift certificate. I also have to say that the choice not to provide ebook options feels like a poor choice on Wizard's of the Coast's part. It's not going to prevent pirating at all, googling D&D shows that the 5e books have already been scanned and put up as a pirated PDF as it stands. Choosing to do no electronic releases has done nothing but push people who would have spent $8 to $10 on a PDF because they can't afford the $20 to $50 hardbound books towards getting pirated copies. Again, the hard-bound print only choice presents a cost-related gateway preventing the acquisition of a new audience. If this were an $8 PDF or a $15 softbound book it would easily rate a 5-stars in my opinion. In addition that would allow a much larger portion of the population to be able to afford the product.