New D&D Book 2022

Wizards of the Coast has unveiled five new sourcebooks for D&D fifth edition at its inaugural “Wizards Presents” event, starting with Keys From the Golden Vault: an anthology focused on heists to be released in winter 2023.

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants follows suit, giving giants what Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons did for dragons last year; adding additional lore and monsters as well as player races tailored towards one of D&D’s iconic fantasy creatures.

Glory of the Giants

The 2022 D&D book lineup is packed with exciting new material. This includes the return of one of history’s biggest campaign settings, Planescape, as well as a book resurrecting an age-old adventure setting. And don’t forget about Book of Many Things, an expansion set to revolutionize rules with subclasses, feats, and spells galore!

The Book of Many Things is inspired by the legendary Deck of Many Things, which can either provide adventurers with benefits or doom them depending on what card they draw. It promises a wealth of new options for players and DMs alike; however, we’re curious to see how much of that will make it into the core rulebook.

Glory of the Giants, set for release in spring 2023, takes readers back to an ancient race known as giants that once ruled the world. Narrated by Bigby–a legendary wizard who first appeared in Greyhawk before becoming part of D&D’s mythology–this book explores this iconic race through their eyes.

Glory of the Giants, Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons companion book, offers an in-depth exploration into the history and lore surrounding giants. Additionally, it takes place on Albion Island – setting for Dark Shadows campaign series episodes.

This Heist-themed D&D anthology will feature separate adventures that revolve around capers, providing both DMs and players with plenty of entertainment to keep them engaged. The Amazon page for the anthology has just launched, so we should get some more specifics about what’s inside soon enough.

At Wizards Presents, the company unveiled some exciting new D&D products set to launch between November 2022 and Fall 2023. We had the chance to preview some of these upcoming releases and learn what exciting surprises Wizards has in store for D&D players.

Though we didn’t get to play any of these adventures, D&D players are sure to love them. Our favorite is Keys from the Golden Vault anthology; hopefully there will be more like it in the future!

Call of the Netherdeep

Call of the Netherdeep is an adventure set in Critical Role’s Exandria campaign setting that spans levels 3-12. It introduces new magic items and rival characters while featuring artwork depicting elements from the beloved show that fans have come to know and love.

The main plotline of the book revolves around a powerful entity that emerged from beneath Exandria and calls out for heroes to save him. Their adventure takes them from Ank’Harel in Ank’Harel to the Far Realm in search of this unsolvable being.

This is an admirably first attempt at a full-length campaign for the system. While some elements could use improvement, overall it’s quite strong.

One of the most captivating elements of this adventure is how each group faces off against a rival adventuring party throughout it. These rivals view the PCs as heroes, and their attitudes towards them can shape how events play out in each session.

Another unique element of this book is the corruption that affects a variety of creatures and characters. It can cause them to develop rashes, sores, or even crystal-like protrusions – an entirely different take on corruption that is typically found in D&D adventures.

It also allows the DM to include corrupted players in battles as an interesting twist on having all players involved in every combat. It’s something I’d definitely encourage more of!

In addition, this book features plenty of sandboxy exploration – always a welcome feature of D&D adventures. The first half is largely set inside a dungeon and while this may feel tedious at times, the concept remains captivating nonetheless.

The second part of the book is much larger, featuring multiple rooms for players to explore and roll skills/saving throws in order to progress. This makes the second half much more exciting than its predecessor – both thrilling and educational!

Volo’s Guide to Monsters

Volo’s Guide to Monsters is the definitive resource for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons monster lore, new character races and bestiaries. At 224 pages, this book serves as both players and DMs alike by providing insight into nine iconic D&D monsters plus seven additional playable races plus over 100 brand-new monsters – all in one massive volume that provides immersive storytelling.

This book is ideal for players, game masters and adventurers alike. The lore alone is impressive, featuring plenty of fantastical details that will immerse you in the D&D universe while giving your game more depth and texture.

The lore section of the book focuses on nine major groups of creatures, such as beholders, giants, gnolls, goblinoids, kobolds, hags, mind flayers, orcs and yuan-ti. This information can be invaluable for DMs as it gives them a way to develop their campaign further and ensure their group has appropriate enemies.

Another section of the book is dedicated to character races, featuring rules for 13 new playable races such as Firbolg, Goliath and Tabaxi. These characters can be used in a variety of games from traditional epic fantasy to horror-oriented adventures.

It also introduces six “monstrous” character traits, which can be used as modifiers to create characters who aren’t traditionally built. This is an excellent idea and something I wish had been featured more prominently in past books.

Although I have yet to obtain it, I cannot wait to give it a try and see what it has to offer! It would be wonderful if there were more non-campaign D&D supplements in the future – this one looks promising.

In addition to the new Lore chapter, this book also has a Monster Lore section which provides detailed information on the origins, dispositions and behaviors of nine iconic D&D creatures. This section includes descriptions, lore and lairs for beholders, giants, gnolls, kobolds, goblinoids, hags, mind flayers, yuan-ti and orcs alike.

This section of lore may be outdated, but it’s still useful to have. Even though it differs from the official mythology, it provides valuable information for DMs and players as they craft their adventures.

Tasha’s Guide to Everything

Over the last decade, D&D’s world has drastically shifted. More people than ever before are playing the game – many for the first time – and Wizards of the Coast has responded by creating a series of books designed to make it simpler for players and dungeon masters alike to get started with their games.

Tasha’s Guide to Everything introduces new rules that enable players to customize their characters, such as reshuffle racial attributes and adjust proficiency scores with tools, skills, and weapons. This represents a major departure from the old system which required you to play according to the race they were born with.

Another significant change is that the new edition will introduce a plethora of character options, such as new subclasses and feats. These can be tremendously helpful to gamers since they grant them more abilities than before.

This includes the Artificer class, which emphasizes crafting and allows players to play as medieval Iron Man characters. Other new classes and subclasses include Cleric of the Twilight Domain which grants strange psionic powers; Alchemist and Armorer as well.

There is also a vast selection of new monsters and magical items to help you start your adventure. Some are entirely brand-new, while others are updates to classic favorites.

No matter how much you may enjoy these changes, they do come with some serious drawbacks. The primary issue is that it grants too much freedom in the game – a similar issue to Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and Modenkainen’s Tome of Foes.

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is an important step forward for the game and promises to stir up many conversations, but it also has its shortcomings. Most notably, it encourages players to go wild when it comes to customizing their racial traits and proficiencies with tools, skills, and weapons. While this might be seen as encouraging players to go crazy when it comes to altering these traits or proficiencies, Tasha does have one major drawback: it encourages too much customizing.