Welcome to Theros!

Welcome to Theros! Mythic Odysseys of Theros is the latest Dungeons and Dragons sourcebook, and it’s available now on D&D Beyond. Due to COVID-19, the book’s physical release has been delayed until July 21st, but you can get it digitally right now in the D&D Beyond Marketplace. Inspired by Greek mythology, Theros is a setting originally created for Magic: The Gathering, now beautifully realized as a setting for D&D adventures. Theros is filled with petty and powerful gods whose whims affect mortals on a daily basis, mythic monsters more powerful and terrifying than any the worlds of D&D have seen, and divine gifts that mark your characters as heroes destined for greatness. Yet for all these epic qualities, Theros is also a world filled with quieter moments of love, storytelling, and community. The three poleis of Theros are hubs of culture and philosophy, and are perfect places for heroes to have quieter adventures in-between adventures of mythic proportions.

Read on to learn what you’ll find in Mythic Odysseys of Theros, and decide for yourself if this brand-new D&D sourcebook is something you want to share with your gaming group. Remember: if your Dungeon Master has a Master Tier subscription, every source that anyone in the group owns can be shared throughout the entire group!

Chapter 1: Character Creation

Mythic Odysseys of Theros begins with a bang by giving you and your players a slew of new character-creation options, as well as lore that helps players understand their characters’ place in the world of Theros. Of course, there are brand-new races for you to choose, including the leonin, the lion-like race of Magic: The Gathering fan-favorite Ajani Goldmane, and the satyrs, who feel perfectly at home in a world inspired by Greek mythology. Other races in this book are centaurs and minotaurs which first appeared in Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, and the tritons, whose lore in Theros is quite different than that presented in Volo’s Guide to Monsters.

You may have seen the two new subclasses in this book available as playtest content on D&D Beyond last year. Now, the bardic College of Eloquence and the paladin Oath of Glory (previously Oath of Heroism) are now official character options! The College of Eloquence is perfect for bards who inspire friends and fracture their enemies’ resolve through oration and rhetoric. The Oath of Glory is suited for paladins that seek fame through heroism, imbuing them with peerless personal strength and the ability to inspire their allies with their heroic deeds.

Most exciting, however, are the Supernatural Gifts: fragments of divine power that set your character apart—perhaps from birth, if you are the child of a god, or perhaps because you accepted divine power from a god in order to complete a great quest. These gifts are broad in scope, ranging from the gaining a Heroic Destiny that gives you a story goal and provides game mechanics that make you a death-defying hero, to making you Nyxborn, a being of Theros’s divine realm of Nyx incarnate, with story details and game mechanics to match. If your group wants to play characters that are powerful and unique from the very beginning, these Supernatural Gifts are a great starting point.

There’s more in this chapter too, like the new Athlete background and guidance on how to give your characters the heroic drive that propels them to mythic glory.

Chapter 2: Gods of Theros

Just like the gods of Greek myth, the gods of Theros are active participants in the lives of mortals, and are to be feared as much as they are beloved and respected. These gods are beings of cosmic power that are as likely to be patrons of your characters as they are to be villains of your campaigns.

Fifteen gods make up the pantheon of Theros—too many to detail here, but simply hearing the number should give you an idea of how detailed you can make the web of divine politics in your campaign, should you wish. Beyond “mere” divine intervention, life in Theros is influenced by the gods’ clergy, whose oratory and philosophy can rouse the pantheistic people of the land to unified action for good or for ill.

Many Theran heroes dedicate their heroism to a single god. Many clerics are obviously dedicated to one single god, but even fighters or rogues may say a prayer to one single god that they view as their divine benefactor before an adventure. Devout characters may start tracking their Piety, a score first suggested in the Renown section of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, but fully developed into a new form of character advancement in Mythic Odysseys of Theros.

The gods of Theros are detailed in full in this chapter, but this concise list gives a little taste of the fifteen gods of the Theran pantheon. Of course, if you wished to use Mythic Odysseys of Theros to run a game set in a magical, myth-inspired version of Ancient Greece, it is simple enough to combine these gods’ descriptions with the Greek Pantheon presented in appendix B of the Player’s Handbook.

  • Athreos, god of passage
  • Ephara, god of the polis
  • Erebos, god of the dead
  • Heliod, god of the sun
  • Iroas, god of victory
  • Karametra, god of harvests
  • Keranos, god of storms
  • Klothys, god of destiny
  • Kruphix, god of horizons
  • Mogis, god of slaughter
  • Nylea, god of the hunt
  • Pharika, god of affliction
  • Phenax, god of deception
  • Purphoros, god of the forge
  • Thassa, god of the sea

Chapter 3: Realms of Gods and Mortals

This chapter describes the brass tacks of any campaign setting: the cities and geography of the world! Like any good gazetteer, this chapter describes Theros and its three core poleis in enough detail for you run your own campaign in—but not such excruciating detail that you feel confined by what’s been written.

The three poleis of Akros (a warrior city-state with clear Spartan influence), Meletis (a city-state of philosophers and warriors with an undeniable Athenian influence), and Setessa (a polis that lives in harmony with nature) make up the majority of Theran civilization, and this chapter expounds on the similarities and differences between the three. This level of detail makes it easy to involve the heroes in faction politics, allowing these mortal conflicts to provide a change of pace from the mythic battles that they’re sure to get involved with.

Beyond these three poleis, this chapter also describes the wilderness of Theros which teems with monsters. But don’t be fooled; just because this wilderness isn’t “civilized” by the standards of the poleis doesn’t mean it’s without people and cultures worthy of your characters’ respect. Countless humanoid settlements exist beyond the poleis, and people like minotaurs, satyrs, centaurs, and the lion-like leonine may be allies or enemies on your adventures.

Divine realms are also described here, for your adventures may take you from the firm earth of Theros to the stars of Nyx, the uncharted seas at the edge of the world, or even into the Underworld itself.

Chapter 4: Creating Theros Adventures

When you’re the Dungeon Master, it can be hard distilling so much valuable setting information into a single session of D&D. This chapter is here to help, giving you advice on how every single one of the gods could be a patron or an enemy of your players’ heroes, with quests, monsters, and adventure locations to help you make your own unique adventures. Specific guidance is even given on nautical or Underworld adventures, for those special times that your characters leave the trustworthy soil of Theros to venture into the unknown.

Also, this chapter contains a one-shot adventure called “No Silent Secret,” just in case you need something to jump-start your campaign.

Chapter 5: Treasures

No D&D book would be complete without treasure, and no Greek myth-inspired story would be complete without magical artifacts! There are eight new magic items in Mythic Odysseys of Theros, ranging in power from the ricocheting two-birds sling to the legendary Pyxis of Pandemonium.

But of course, there’s more than eight paltry items in this book. They just happen to be more marvelous than even legendary items. Five new artifacts are provided in this chapter as well, giving your heroes the power to wield weapons of the Theran gods themselves, like Dekella, Bident of Thassa, or Ephixis, Bow of Nylea. These artifacts are powerful weapons to be sure, but they are also tools that hold power over nature itself, and increase in power when wielded by devoted champions of the god that gifted it.

Chapter 6: Friends and Foes

The final chapter of Mythic Odysseys of Theros is a magnificent one, brimming with new monsters to endanger your players as they explore the lands of Theros. Many are brand-new creations, like the Phylaskia, guardians of the Underworld, or the anvilwrought creations of the forge god Purphoros. Others have appeared in D&D before, but come with new Theran incarnations to vex veteran players, like Nyxborn beasts, customizable Theran chimeras, the frightful ironscale hydra, new and fearsome harpies, and more.

Dungeon Masters looking for something more will be thrilled to discover Mythic Monsters that will challenge even the mightiest of adventurers. Three examples are provided in this chapter, the tragic spider-mother Arasta, the cruel master of gorgons Hythonia, and the dread kraken Tromokratis. Once these monsters are reduced to 0 hit points, they activate their Mythic Trait, granting them refreshed hit points, new powers, and access to fearsome Mythic Actions—new Legendary Actions that they can only use in their second, mythic phase. These Mythic Monsters promise dynamic battles that will push players to their limits.


James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon HeistBaldur's Gate: Descent into Avernusand the Critical Role Explorer's Guide to Wildemounta member of the Guild Adepts, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and other RPG companies. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his fiancée Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.

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