Essential Books to Play D&D For Players

October 12, 2021

Dear Readers, as many of you may know, I am a huge fan of Dungeons and Dragons. I am also, as many of you know, a fan of dndbeyond.com, the online D&D 5e toolset.

And yet, I still love the physical books. I own several.

This got me thinking: if I were advising a new player, what books would I say are absolutely necessary?

Here is my list, in order:

Player’s Handbook

This book is absolutely necessary for anyone wanting to play D&D. It contains information on character classes and abilities, not to mention the rules for generating characters, equipment lists and functionality, and more.

It also contains the rules on skill uses, combat rules, and the list for most of the spells available in the game.

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

It cannot be stressed on how awesome, let alone needed resource this is.

This book is where the better character generation guidelines are found. The ability to do a custom origin cannot be understated.

It contains a veritable trove of additional character subclasses, feats, and spells. It also includes a new(ish) character class called the artificer, bringing the Eberron class to being Adventurers League legal.

Absolutely worth the buy.

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

There are a lot of helpful things in this book! In addition to many additional feats and character subclasses, it contains a good spell-list addition, with some more than helpful spells.

It also adds in a helpful list of character name suggestions, which, while the PHB has some, is lacking.

Volo’s Guide to Monsters

A lot of character race options are found in here. The aasimar, firbolg, goliath, and tabaxi, all very popular player races, are found in here.

So Dear Readers, that’s my list. What do you think? Would you add anything to your essential player list? Let me know in the comment section below.

Until next time, Dear Readers…

DnD meme: A Rogue rolls a natural 1 on a chest opening attempt. David Tennant looks surprised, quoting,

Wizard, hands cupped, conjuring a fireball. Text:

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