I was introduced to the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide (SCAG) a year or so ago when we played Curse of Strahd. Our DM suggested a cantrip from the 2015 sourcebook for my Eldritch Knight’s spellbook. SCAG is a 5e sourcebook for the Forgotten Realms/Faerûn D&D setting, which I was somewhat familiar with, from reading several of the novels. So naturally, I decided to see what else SCAG had to offer for the next time I played D&D. After skimming it at the time, I recently decided to give it a more thorough read through.
The first two chapters cover the geography, religions/pantheons, and history of this region of Faerûn, and overall were the most entertaining to read, since the writers have some talent for narrative. Each area (Lords’ Alliance, Dwarfholds, etc.) was discussed by a different character–such as a local, former prisoner, or adventurer–which gave extra variety. These “guides” may have been from various novels, but I didn’t recognize any of them.
The other chapters cover the more mechanical setting aspects. Chapter 3 covers the D&D races as they are in the Forgotten Realms setting. This chapter also includes setting-specific subraces. Many of these don’t have new racial traits mechanics. Instead, a Player’s Handbook subrace is “reskinned” for the Realms. For example, the Shield and Gold Dwarves use the traits of Mountain and Hill Dwarves respectively. All of the standard D&D races are available. Each non-human race has a section detailing its pantheon. (Chapter 1 only has lists of those.)
Next up in Chapter 4 are the standard classes as they appear in the Realms. Each class includes at least one new class feature, a few more than one. Note that some of these, such as the Barbarian’s Battlerager Primal Path, may be too setting-specific to easily be adapted for other campaigns. Others are restricted to certain races, like the Battlerager. (This chapter includes my new favorite cantrip and several others, all focused on battle magic.) I learned a couple new tricks from these class write-ups. Did you ever think a diplomat or courtier would be a Rogue? I didn’t.
Finally, Chapter 5 presents a dozen new Backgrounds to round out your PC. Again rather than create new crunch, or reprint, players are referred to existing PH Backgrounds for many traits and motivations. A final paragraph for each write-up covers the likeliest bonds. I was pleased that almost all of the new Backgrounds would work for any setting with little to no alterations. The Faction Agent and Urthgardt Tribe Member would be hardest to export successfully, in my opinion.
Speaking of exporting SCAG class features, the writers do make it as easy as possible with an Appendix focused on utilizing them in other published D&D worlds (Dragonlance/Krynn, Ebberon, Greyhawk/Oerth), as well as “Homemade Worlds.” Each of these four sections has a short (1-3 paragraphs) discussion for each new SCAG feature that requires adaptation. Only features needing changes are listed, so not all sections will cover every class and feature. This seems to work pretty well and some effort is put in to suggestions for all new features, even if some–Battlerager in particular–might be a bit of a stretch. As I called out above, Battlerager, even when opened to non-Dwarves, isn’t easy to translate, but they do give it a try, suggesting it as a Background for a warforged (Eberron) or pit fighter PC.
Overall, SCAG is a pretty good supplement. The cantrips are available to any arcane spellcaster who wants to expand their spellbooks with offensive magic with unlimited uses. Even casual gamers who would rather read about Faerûn will enjoy the first two chapters, as well as the bibliography on the publication page. Dungeon Masters looking for hooks can mine those as well. The writers have deliberately left lots of outright hooks, as well as plenty of vague sections so DMs can fill in the blanks and alter Forgotten Realms (if using the setting) to their liking.
Linda Whitson
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