Welcome to Faerûn, a land of amazing magic, terrifying monsters, ancient ruins, and hidden wonders. The world has changed since the Spellplague, and from this arcane crucible have emerged shining kingdoms, tyrannical empires, mighty heroes, and monster-infested dungeons.
The Forgotten Realms Player's Guide presents this changed world from the point of view of the adventurers exploring it. This product includes everything a player needs to create his character for a D&D campaign in the Forgotten Realms setting, including new feats, new character powers, new paragon paths and epic destinies, and even a brand-new character class never before seen in D&D: the swordmage!Contents[]
This is, along with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, the most recent release of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Unlike the Campaign Guide, which focuses on lore (commonly refered as "fluff") and background information for so-called "dungeon masters" game referees and storytellers to use, the Player's Guide, or FRPG, focuses on "crunch," that is to say, information immediately relevant to the game such as new player races, a new class, new paragon paths, and a number of other materials for players to make use of in their game.
The book does contain a small amount of lore, though only what each player is expected to know, such as details on the nation from which their character hails as well as basic details on each of the races, etc.
The book is organized into seven chapters, as follow:
- Introduction — This brief foreword lets players in on the basics of the setting, detailing ten things that each player should know about the 4th edition variant of the Realms.
- Races — This chapter introduces the new player races the drow and the genasi, while also giving background details for playing the major player races dragonborn, dwarves, eladrin, elves, half-elves, halflings, humans, and tieflings as well as less common devas, gnomes, goblinoids, goliaths, half-orcs, lycanthropes, orcs, shades, and shifters.
- Character Classes — The new class debuting in the FRPG, the swordmage, is detailed here, along with a new pact for warlocks and a number of paragon paths, as well as a new epic destiny - the Chosen.
- Backgrounds — This chapter gives background information on a number of locations from which player characters are likely to hail, including gameplay bonuses acquired from these origins.
- Feats — New feats for the FRPG, including channel divinity feats for the Realms' gods.
- Rituals — New rituals unique to the FRPG, such as analyze portal, purge spellplague, or Simbul's conversion.
- Almanac — A collection of various details on the Realms for players to read, including a list of Faerûn's greater deities, a cultural summary, an introduction to the Realms' cosmology, and an explanation of timekeeping in the Realms.