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Nerdarchy > Dungeons & Dragons  > Adventure Hooks  > Wild Beyond the Witchlight Whisks 5E D&D Adventurers to the Domain of Delight
5E D&D wild beyond the witchlight alternate cover

Wild Beyond the Witchlight Whisks 5E D&D Adventurers to the Domain of Delight

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During a press briefing earlier this week Wizards of the Coast shared lots of details about one of the three new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books slated for release in fall 2021. Wild Beyond the Witchlight takes adventurers from the Witchlight Carnival to the Feywild and is designed for 1st-8th level characters. This book comes with a poster map showing the carnival on one side and the Domain of Delight Prismeer on the other. Chris Perkins, senior story designer for Dungeons & Dragons, revealed some whimsical secrets about the first official 5E D&D Feywild adventure so let’s get into it.

Time for 5E D&D Feywild adventure

Wild Beyond the Witchlight is designed to launch from any world or campaign setting by the very nature of the Witchlight Carnival itself, which travels the planes on an eight year rotation. Characters from any world might encounter an opportunity to visit the carnival where they’ll learn the rules of the Feywild before traveling there through a mysterious Fey Crossing.

The Witchlight Carnival has ties to The Carnival, a Domain of Dread from the Ravenloft setting. Mr. Witch and Mr. Light are the pair of shadar-kai elves seen on the standard cover image by Taylor Jacobson and the owners of the Witchlight Carnival. But before this they owned The Carnival until they made a bet and swapped ownership with the eladrin holy warrior Isolde to whom they gave the corrupted and sentient holy avenger Nepenthe. The deal was the swap until they met again and after all their time owning the whimsical Witchlight Carnival they don’t want to ever go back.

Time is the central theme of the adventure, which Perkins explained is important to the Feywild. I imagine Mr. Witch and Mr. Light feel the pressure of time when they’ll have to return to their previous lives weighing upon them and time in the Feywild is wonky to begin with. The large poster map included with the book even incorporates the time theme through interactive tools like a time tracker and mood tracker to reflect the status of the Witchlight Carnival as the story moves forward.

The poster map is one of the coolest features and while I usually don’t go in for all the extras with any product releases I already preordered the whole Adventure Kit bundle for this one. What sold me wasn’t so much the individual items included in the bundle — which are really cool by the way — but rather the design approach Perkins described. All the challenges in Wild Beyond the Witchlight can be overcome without combat for one thing. Players can certainly experience everything the adventure has to offer in the classic D&D style of exploring dungeons, overcoming obstacles and slaying monsters but the designers took special care to include guidance for solutions that don’t require violence.

“It’s easier to get through this adventure with a smile than a sword.” — Chris Perkins

During the meeting Perkins cited several inspirations for Wild Beyond the Witchlight including old fairy tales, L. Frank Baum’s Oz series and Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. And the theme of time is reflected in more than the adventure itself too. Nods to D&D history and lore are sprinkled throughout the book like an homage to the 1980’s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon one attendee noted looks suspiciously like a certain amusement park ride. Adventurers may even run into a handful of classic characters like Warduke, Kelek and Strongheart. I’ve incorporated these and many others into my own adventures and I’m incredibly thrilled to see them appear in 5E D&D in any way.

Once adventurers travel through a Fey Crossing the Feywild they’ll discover Prismeer, a Domain of Delight. These are the Feywild’s version of Domains of Dread and as soon as Perkins mentioned this I was hooked. Of course there’s whimsical counterparts to the Shadowfell adjacent Domains of Dread! Archfey, not Darklords, rule these realms and characters will find themselves at the Palace of Hearts Desire central to Prismeer. Lots of colorful characters await the heroes like the treant treehouse Littleoak and Star, the displacer beast kitty who’s also Wild Beyond the Witchlight’s mascot. (Star is the adorable feline visage on the book’s alternate cover art by Hydro74.)

New 5E D&D character options in Wild Beyond the Witchlight

There’s not a whole lot of character options in Wild Beyond the Witchlight but there are a few worth noting. Characters who grew up in the Feywild can choose the Feylost background option while those who work at the Witchlight Carnival can take the Witchlight Hand background and be whimsical carnies. There’s no new subclass options, feats or spells I’m aware of but the harengon (rabbit folk from Unearthed Arcana 2021 — Folk of the Feywild) and faeries from the same document become official 5E D&D material when the book releases. Owlfolk Feyfolk developed in the Owlin you’ll learn about in Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos while the Hobgoblin of the Feywild Feyfolk were mentioned briefly by Jeremy Crawford who alluded to a connection with a future product.

  • The first official D&D adventure set primarily in the Feywild, the Plane of Faerie
  • The Witchlight Carnival, by which the characters enter the Feywild, can be dropped easily into any campaign setting
  • Players can create characters using one of two new races presented in this adventure, faeries and the harengon (rabbit folk)
  • Two new character backgrounds are included: the Feylost (for characters who grew up in the Feywild) and the Witchlight Hand (for characters who work at the Witchlight Carnival)
  • All encounters in the adventure include a non-combat option, allowing players to think and roleplay their way through the adventure
  • The adventure features the return of Warduke, Strongheart, Kelek and other classic D&D characters from the 1980s

Wild Beyond the Witchlight releases on Sept. 21, 2021. You can preorder the book through Amazon and help out Nerdarchy here.

Check out the gallery below for additional images shared during the press briefing and check out these other posts for news about more 5E D&D announcements from D&D Live 2021.

*Featured image — Wild Beyond the Witchlight is a wickedly whimsical adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game. Once every eight years, the fantastic Witchlight Carnival touches down on your world, bringing joy to one settlement after the next. Its owners, Mister Witch and Mister Light, know how to put on a good show. But there’s more to this magical extravaganza than meets the eye! [Images courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

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Doug Vehovec

Nerditor-in-Chief Doug Vehovec is a proud native of Cleveland, Ohio, with D&D in his blood since the early 80s. Fast forward to today and he’s still rolling those polyhedral dice. When he’s not DMing, worldbuilding or working on endeavors for Nerdarchy he enjoys cryptozoology trips and eating awesome food.

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