2025 was a time of transition for Dungeons and Dragons, a phase of teething as the dust settled on the core rulebooks of 2024. After fifth edition’s massive makeover, Wizards of the Coast spent this year establishing the game’s new normal. The outcome? Lots of big shake ups in design philosophy – though not all of them successful.
Now that we’ve had time to reflect, let’s take a look at each entry in this year’s DnD release schedule – and cast an eye towards what might be coming next. I say might, because Wizards of the Coast, oddly, still hasn’t announced its slate of products for next year.
Monster Manual
The 2024 rules overhaul was such a mammoth job that Wizards couldn’t quite squeeze it into a single year. Monster Manuals have previously been known as the ‘true DMs guide’, and I think this moniker is still appropriate. Solid stat blocks are the most helpful tool for Dungeon Masters, and there are plenty here to work with – complete with gorgeous art and logical advice for placing them in your world.
The Monster Manual demonstrates some power creep, but that was necessary given the extra oomph the DnD classes got in last year’s Player’s Handbook. Monsters are now typically less reliant on a single attack that’s obviously more powerful than the rest of their repertoire. Many have revamped spell lists, and they’re more liberally able to apply conditions. All of these tweaks give us a complex bestiary to work with, and one that’s more likely to challenge the capable D&D characters of 2025.
It’s heartening to see Wizards pay such close attention to the minutiae of encounter design. Unfortunately, I think the rest of the year’s offerings pale in comparisons – at least for anyone looking to DM D&D.
Dragon Delves
After February’s Monster Manual, we were starved of new titles until July. The summer brought Dragon Delves, one of the most beautiful books that D&D has ever produced. Here it became clear that quality art was a major part of D&D’s vision for the future.
Each chapter featured a different dragon, a unique art style, and its own themed adventure. While the visuals were flawless, the actual adventure writing was more hit-and-miss, with as many uninteresting hooks as there were exciting set pieces. My biggest criticism of D&D has always been the lack of detail its pre-written adventures provide, and things haven’t changed here. If anything, Dragon Delves is even less detailed than usual, because it had to make a lot of extra room for all those beautiful pictures. You win some, you lose some.
Heroes of the Borderlands
Wizards of the Coast has clearly taken note of what the competitor tabletop RPGs have been doing with their starter sets. Tactile, board-game-like, beginner-friendly tools for learning to play are certainly en vogue this year, and Heroes of the Borderlands is a great example of this in action.
Our most expensive starter set to date is also our most jam-packed. Character boards, spell cards, and glossy handouts galore. It pushes up the price of a starter set significantly, but for those that can afford it, I think it’s worth the price. Nothing gets a newcomer excited like shiny stuff – specifically stuff that’s designed to make the whole product easier to parse.
Content-wise, D&D isn’t so successful at pushing boundaries. That’s not to say that Heroes of the Borderlands is without good qualities, but it still falls prey to the usual flaws that prevent a D&D product from being truly brilliant. For every innovative new piece of play advice, every delightful NPC or encounter, and every interesting set piece, there’s an encounter where a lack of detail or attention make it comparatively bland.
If I had to put a number on it, it’s a 7 out of 10 – but I’ve grown very tired of giving D&D products 7s.
Stranger Things: Welcome to Hellfire
I’m always suspicious of IP crossovers, and the new Stranger Things starter set didn’t impress me much on a first read. Its dungeons are relatively simple, and it provides next-to-no narrative for its miniature campaign. In a post-Critical-Role world, where storytelling is a bigger draw to D&D than ever before, I didn’t think this starter set showcased what the system was capable of.
After a test play, I better understood the vision. The old-school simplicity of the dungeon crawl is a loving nod to Stranger Things itself, and it creates a welcoming space where newcomers, while maybe not blown away by its story beats, can play at becoming heroes without too much concern for complexity.
The art in this one remains wonderful (that department of Wizards continues to do an excellent job), though there’s less glamour than in Heroes of the Borderlands. That’s a good thing – it means there’s still a budget-friendly starter set on the market as D&D develops its new set of rules.
Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn and Adventures in Faerûn
These two books are clear companions, so let’s tackle them together. It’s been a long time since D&D gave its official settings some TLC, so these were the 2025 books I was most stoked to see. Efficiency always seems to be top priority at Wizards of the Coast, and that’s often meant that recent books have stripped lore and flavor in favor of maximizing rules content.
Heroes of Faerûn happily bucks that trend. There’s enough (genuinely strong and interesting) character options to satisfy players hungry for fresh rules, but we also get a compendium of gods, settlements, and factions. The writing isn’t quite awe-inspiring enough for every scrap of lore to inspire an adventure by itself, but it’s a darn entertaining read. I’d argue that any newcomer to D&D (particularly if they got here through Baldur’s Gate 3) should grab this sourcebook.
I’m less enthused by Adventures in Faerûn, sadly. Heroes offered something I’d long desired from D&D (details, man, details!), but with Adventures, we’re right back to square one. That ‘quantity over quality’ approach has once again reared its ugly head. This adventure book may boast of over 50 adventures and campaign frameworks, but they’re thin and often feel half-baked. There’s still some excellent setting writing in here, but it’s not enough to save the book for me overall.
Eberron: Forge of the Artificer
If you’re planning to play an up-to-date Artificer, you pretty much need this sourcebook. There are pros and cons attached to that fact, and how you feel about them might depend on your perspective.
This is a confusingly organized book that relies on the six-year-old Eberron: Rising From the Last War to flesh out its setting and key concepts. That’s a major con if you’re a total newcomer looking for one complete guide to this popular setting, particularly if you’re a DM who needs help fleshing out your world and adventures.
However, if you’re a player that’s just here for the new rules, the short page count and low price of this book are a serious plus – you get the essentials with minimal faff. And while there are a few stinkers among the feats and subclasses, most of those new rules are quality. This book isn’t for everyone, but it serves the select few fairly well.
D&D in 2026: What’s next?
2025 was a year of ups and downs. It was a time of experimentation, but also one where D&D fell back into many of its bad habits. But, hey, new year, new me. What’s next for D&D?
Honestly, we’re not sure. Wizards of the Coast hasn’t made a single announcement about the release slate of 2026. Given that, just a few years ago, the future year of products was announced by August, that has me a teensy bit worried.
Still, there are reasons to have confidence. After the departure of Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins earlier in the year, D&D has finally announced who’s spearheading its future. Justice Ramin Arman, formerly one of the strongest designers on the D&D team, announced in December that he would become the TTRPG’s new Game Design Director.
Arman has designed some of my personal favorite adventures for D&D in recent years, and he’s the lead designer for both of 2025’s starter sets – two of the most well-received products on the roster. That’s a sign of great things to come.
Plus, this year’s playtest documents have dropped plenty of intriguing hints. We’re still waiting to see where the many horror-themed subclasses D&D have been testing will end up, and a Dark Sun revival (something in high demand, but also potentially controversial) is all-but-confirmed. We’ve also got the Psion, an entirely new class, waiting in the wings to make their entrance.
A bright future could be staring us right in the face. Hopefully, it is. But, just as we need twinkling Christmas lights to boost our morale in the year’s darkest nights, things would feel a lot better if Wizards of the Coast could show us a sign. Give us a reason to believe, a shot of Christmas spirit. Please, let us know that, while 2025 may have been rocky, next year will be alright.
I’m still talking about tabletop RPGs, I swear.
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