Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn

by Wizards of the Coast

Genres: Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Role Playing Games, Fiction, Forgotten Realms

192 pages, Hardcover

Published November 11, 2025

About the author

Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC /ˈwɒtˌsiː/ or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. Originally a basement-run role-playing game publisher, the company popularized the collectible card game genre with Magic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s, acquired the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game by purchasing the failing company TSR, and experienced tremendous success by publishing the licensed Pokémon Trading Card Game. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Renton, Washington in the United States.[1]

Wizards of the Coast publishes role-playing games, board games, and collectible card games. They have received numerous awards, including several Origins Awards. The company has been a subsidiary of Hasbro since 1999. All Wizards of the Coast stores were closed in 2004.

Reviews

[Nigel Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is a good guide, but could have been better. The new sub-classes and backgrounds are good, as well as the feats. The guides to factions and deities are useful, but the regional guides are poor. I still have my 3.5 guide and in that even minor areas get at least half a page, but in this version they get little more than a paragraph, if they are mentioned at all.

[Messorem Animarum · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tip: for a far superior and more interesting Forgotten Realms experience, buy any of the guides or the superb boxed sets from the D&D 1E, 2E, or 3E eras.

Hasbro and WoTC have neutered the Forgotten Realms, stripping anway all that made it unique and rendering it no more than a bland, flat, corporate mush.

Gone is the evocative flavor and tone that Ed Greenwood created. Gone is the sense of adventuring in a distinct fantasy world with verisimilitude.

Replacing this is political correctness, reflecting the preferred leftist politics of Hasbro, WoTC and their Seattle area home. Seattle is now literally led by a Socialist. The Forgotten Realms reflects this, infested with all manner of DEI, in both writing and the absurd art.

As the icing on the cake of disappointment, the included poster map contains font so tiny as to render it nigh-unreadable to anyone more than a few inhes away from the map.

Fare thee well Forgotten Realms. It was nice knowing ye.

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some fun subclasses and new Circle Magic mechanic, but too short for the amount they charge.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My full review can be found at https://www.enworld.org/threads/a-dee...

[Luna's Little Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.
I'm new to D and D, this was interesting and overwhelming to read. So much information, I'm sure I'll return to this in future.

[Andy Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nifty compendium finally giving some info about locations beyond the sword coast. I especially liked the cheese bag table.