Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is a supplement to the 5th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide was written by Joseph Carriker, Brian Cortijo, and Jeremy Crawford, and was published by Wizards of the Coast with Green Ronin Publishing in 2015.[1] [2] On book's development process, Steve Kenson, Lead Designer of Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, said "we had to balance rooting those options strongly in the Realms – and the Sword Coast, in particular – while also making them as broadly useful to D&D players as possible. Too much one way and you lose the unique character and style of the Realms that make it such an appealing setting; too much the other and the Adventurer’s Guide would only be useful to those looking to adventure in the Realms".[3]
In Publishers Weekly's "Best-selling Books Week Ending November 16, 2015", Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide was #18 in "Hardcover Nonfiction".[4] The book was a Judges’ Spotlight Winner at the 2016 ENnies Awards.[5]
Jonathan Bolding, for The Escapist, highlighted that the book fails to meet its $40 MSRP — "Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, taken as a whole, is not a very good roleplaying game book. It's a 20-page whirlwind tour of thirty-some years of Forgotten Realms history and geography, a kinda-useful 40-page whirlwind tour of the Sword Coast region. The rest of the book is 60 pages of mostly-superfluous descriptions of what standard D&D characters are like in the realms, with scattered nuggets of game mechanics customizing specific classes, a few alternate racial mechanics, and a trove of backgrounds. None of these sections particularly excels".[6]
Alex Lucard, for DieHard GameFan, also highlighted the cost of the book and wrote "what you’re getting here is extremely overpriced for the page count. [...] The book basically assumes you are a long time D&D veteran and expects your memories and previous Forgotten Realms releases to fill in the gaps – which is not cool. [...] The Sword Coast deserved a lot better than this, especially for the price you pay. This book is my first real disappointment with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition and unless you want some of the new PC options or are a completionist, this is a very easy pass".[7]
In a review of Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide in Black Gate, Howard Andrew Jones said "this a wonderful campaign sourcebook, and a great inspiration for game masters. Two thumbs up."[8]