While I'm going to try to grab the physical copies at my local game store when they come out in two weeks, I saw that yesterday, pre-orders for Heroes of the Forgotten Realms (and Adventures in etc.) were available and those of us with Master Tier subscriptions get to access them now.
I got the Heroes book - mostly I intend to stick with physical media, though I've got to say that I really tend to use online, digital versions of the content even if I have the book because I run D&D on my laptop (the game I DM I also run online, making this quite natural). But when it comes to character options, I really like to have it all in D&D Beyond for my own character sheet purposes.
5E veterans are no strangers to the Forgotten Realms, which has served as the default setting for 5E, the major published adventures from Tyranny of Dragons through Icewind Dale (I think?) being almost all FR-set adventures (Curse of Strahd isn't, obviously being a Ravenloft one, though I think it assumes you're getting there from the Forgotten Realms, and Descent into Avernus also starts off in Baldur's Gate).
While I doubt that WotC would like the comparison to be drawn, this two-book set is arguably the 2024 update to Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, a book that is primarily known for giving us some of 5E's worst subclasses (but also a few really good ones and the best cantrips for Bladesingers, Valor/Sword Bards, Arcane Trickster Rogues, and Eldritch Knight Fighters).
Still, despite the many, many adventures set in the Forgotten Realms, some of which have extensive "Gazeteers" with lore that's not there specifically for the adventure but just to flesh out the location (not to mention Baldur's Gate 3 and Honor Among Thieves,) SCAG was the closest we got to an actual campaign setting guide. I think these books aim to serve that purpose.
I've only got the Heroes volume, which I've got to say, feels like it has most of the parts of a setting guide, if perhaps a little thin. The approach here is less "here's a chapter on every neighborhood in Waterdeep" and more a broad overview of the continent (or at least the northwestern part of it, which includes everything from Thay to Icewind Dale, as well as the Moonshae Isles off the coast).
Naturally, as the Heroes book, this is the one with character options. There aren't any new playable species (the ones in the PHB are more or less "the ones you find most often in the Forgotten Realms" anyway) but we get some new subclasses, backgrounds, feats, and spells, as well as some factions with renown tracks, some new items (some magical, some actually mundane), and a new gameplay system called Circle Casting.
Getting more backgrounds is definitely welcome: while I think you're still better off using old backgrounds to pick your own ability bonuses and origin feats, we at least have more to choose from so you'll be more likely to get the things you want. Several of these also have new feats, whose power I'm not totally sold on (I'll need to do a closer look).
Obviously, the thing that always gets me excited is new subclasses, and there are eight of them.
Three of these subclasses are returning: the Knowledge Domain Cleric (last seen in the 2014 PHB), the Banneret Fighter (last seen in SCAG as the Purple Dragon Knight,) and the Bladesinger Wizard (seen both in SCAG and revised in Tasha's, making it the most published subclass in 5E, I think).
The new subclasses we got are the College of the Moon Bard, the Oath of Noble Genies Paladin, the Winter Walker Ranger, the Scion of the Three Rogue, and the Spellfire Sorcery Sorcerer.
At a cursory glance the one that excites me the most is the Noble Genies Paladin, which is the only Paladin subclass that strongly encourages you to go with a Dex build. The Bladesinger also looks, if anything, even more powerful than it was before (again, cursory glance) with the ability to use Intelligence for weapon attacks (I think I'd still go with a finesse weapon because you'll benefit from Dex for your AC).
While in testing they made a Purple Dragon Knight that actually had a purple dragon companion, the Banneret is now much more similar to the SCAG version of the subclass, at least thematically. Now, I always considered the SCAG PDK to be the most boring subclass in all of 5E. The Banneret is still built around sharing basic Fighter features with the party, but I need to take a closer look to see if this one is better (at the very least, it might give the Champion some competition for simplest subclass).
Now, Circle Casting:
One of the tricky things with a system like 5E is how one handles a "great working of magic." In fantasy stories, a big, important spell is often a real project to undertake, rather than something you can just invoke with a couple magic words.
Circle Casting doesn't give you fully new magic to perform, but it does allow you to alter spells with the help of your friends: multiple spellcasters (those with the Spellcasting or Pact Magic features) can contribute their Magic Action to boost your spell and provide it with some enhancement: you might increase the range of a spell (enormously significantly: 1000 feet per secondary caster) or distribute concentration, so that as long as one contributing caster maintains concentration, the spell remains in effect. You can also expand the area of a spell (again, more per contributing caster) or extend the duration (how would you like a Divine Favor that lasts 24 hours? You'll need seven friends, but you can do that). You can also use this to carve out safe areas within an AoE spell, or reduce the cost of material components that are consumed by spells (in theory, with enough people, you ought to be able to reduce it to 0).
This is a really interesting knob for players to turn in their spellcasting: the range extension, for example, would allow for you to send Fireballs at a fortress miles away, and it also means that a lot of those spells that would be really good to cast pre-combat, like Conjure Minor Elementals, but often can't because of their short duration, can now last long enough to get them up and running before you get into a fight and allow you to use your action on other things.
Furthermore, some of the new spells that are presented in the book have special bonus options for how you can alter them with circle casting. As an example, the 4th level Bard/Cleric/Warlock spell Doomtide, which normally creates a mind-wracking fog that is both darkness and deals psychic damage, and also reduces targets saving throws, can be Circle Cast with a minimum of 5 secondary casters and a new material component, and doing so makes the range 1 mile and the duration indefinite (with no concentration required) as long as none of the casters cast it again, with this requiring a 3rd level spell slot from each secondary caster.
I believe that you'll still be able to get your chosen secondary circle casting effect on top of the indefinite duration and range extension (the most likely one to pick would be Expand, which, with a minimum of 5 casters would mean you're turning that 20-foot sphere into a 70-foot radius sphere, which is gigantic.
I feel like Circle Casting probable deserves its own post, which might reiterate some of the stuff I've blabbed about here.
Anyway, it's been over a year since the new PHB came out, so a book with new character options is a welcome thing. Forge of the Artificer was meant to be out by now, but we'll have to wait a bit longer for that (though not incredibly long, I think - I believe it's due in early December, which is just over a month from now).
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