Is Wizards of the Coast’s return to Lorwyn worth the price?
Lorwyn: First Light arrives as a 32-page digital-only supplement exploring the double realms of Lorwyn and Shadowmoor, released as part of the November 2025 set of ‘DLC’ alongside Astarion’s Book of Hungers and Netheril’s Fall. But unlike the other supplements, Lorwyn sits completely away from Faerun, a fey touched setting with a dark side – Shadowmoor that exists in constant night.
It’s a fascinating setting with enormous flavour potential, and First Light offers a little taste of that atmosphere. The question is whether that taste justifies its $14.99 price tag.
At a glance
- Excellent artwork that really captures Lorwyn’s warmth and Shadowmoor’s gloomy inversion
- Two interesting species options (Changeling and Rimekin) that lean into the setting
- Fun, evocative lore with some standout concepts (eclipsed Realms, wild magic pockets, shifting borders)
- A useful gazetteer with some limited hooks, plus handful of interesting stat blocks for enemies/npc’s
- Much of the material is reskins with very few monsters and not many new mechanics
- Adventures are thin and lack maps
- Existing species are barely differentiated from their standard counterparts
- Overall content volume feels far too light for the price
- Should have included actual Lorwyn subspecies and at least one proper adventure
What’s in Lorwyn First Light?
| Contents | Amount |
|---|---|
| Pages | 32 |
| Species | 2 |
| Backgrounds | 2 |
| Feats | 2 |
| Monsters | 8 (some reused) |
| Adventures | 2 (one shot’s |
| Gazetteer | Yes |
Frankly, it is a small supplement. The page count alone feels restrictive, and the content mix leans heavily on flavour over mechanics. Some inclusions are thoughtful, such as the shapeshifting Changeling and the atmospheric Gazetteer – while others feel more like placeholders. Many major Lorwyn species simply point you back to the Monsters of the Multiverse versions, and aren’t even here to refer to.
For a setting with such a unique identity, it’s disappointing to see much just refer to other source books.
How good is the content?
The Changeling is good but the Rimekin falls flat
The Changeling captures the playful trickster vibe of the plane, while the Rimekin’s cold-forged grimness reflects Shadowmoor’s desolation. Both species feel true to their Magic: The Gathering roots and bring evocative roleplay hooks to the table. The Changeling is far more useful as a player option, with a great first turn movement buff.
While the Rimekin is more half baked, offering a few scant spells baked in, but none of which will scale well or be that impactful
These are, without question, the strongest mechanical elements of the supplement. To some degree this is a shame as individually, they aren’t that unique or exciting.
Most other species options are just reskins
- Boggarts? Use the standard Goblin
- Flamekin? Use the Genasi
- Fairies? Use the existing Fairy stat block
The supplement very lightly touches on how these differ culturally or aesthetically, but mechanically, you’re left paging through another book. It feels like a missed opportunity – especially in a digital only product where page count isn’t restricted by printing costs.
Lorwyn and Shadowmoor have such distinct identities that bespoke subspecies for Kithkin, Boggarts, Merrow, Flamekin would have been expected here.
Two interesting origin feats with clear roles
The Child of the Sun and Shadowmoor Hexer feats both offer solid thematic value and meaningful mechanical perks.
The Child of the Sun gives access to faerie fire (a useful spell especially at low levels), while Hexer gives martial builds a damage booster in Hex without needing to invest in spellcasting.
The Hexer is stronger than it first appears – similar to Magic Initiate, with the advantage of granting a great spell not available through other origin feats. Both feat’s fill a clear niche, and neither feels overpowered.
Lore is strong, but not complete
The conceptual lore is great here. The shifting border between realms, the draining Eclipsed Realms, the personality warping transformations give DMs rich thematic material to work with. The Gazetteer is a good win with short, punchy entries, each with simple plot hooks that feel adventure ready.
But the supplement often stops just short of delivering fully. There are no regional maps, no village layouts and limited discussion of how larger societies interact. There’s flavour here and what’s there is great, but not enough structure for DMs to work with, which will force them to fill in the blanks themselves.
The art is excellent
If there’s one area where the book genuinely shines, it’s the art direction. Lorwyn’s lush, painterly sunlight contrasts beautifully against Shadowmoor’s dark gloom, and the character illustrations are really expressive. It sells the setting immediately. Of course there is a Magic the Gathering set releasing in January, and the supplement probably benefitted from art created for that purpose.
The monsters and adventures are underwhelming
You get a smattering of new stat blocks (some quite fun) but eight total foes (several of which are reuses) feels thin. Lorwyn teems with strange beasts in its original MTG incarnation, and First Light only taps into this a little bit.
The two sample adventures are serviceable as one shots, but they’re extremely bare-bones. No maps, quite minimal structure, and both hinge on simple ‘event interrupted by trouble’ narratives. They feel like outlines rather than finished adventures, and none of them land as a showcase for what Lorwyn/Shadowmoor offers.
A single fully fleshed out adventure would have served the supplement far better than two half made ones.
Overview
Lorwyn: First Light is a setting with loads of flavour, delivered in a way that often feels like the outline of a larger book. The strong art, atmospheric lore and engaging Gazetteer show how interesting Lorwyn and Shadowmoor can be. However the supplement consistently stops just short of real depth. With many species redirected to other sources, thin monster support, and adventures that barely qualify for a full session, the overall package feels too small to justify its price.
2/5 – A supplement full of charm and flavour, but not nearly enough substance.
Spotlight on the Forgotten Realms
Our latest guides on the Forgotten Realms books.
