The best DnD books in fifth edition

Every single Dungeons and Dragons player needs access to the DnD Player’s Handbook. Whether you’re a player creating your first character or a Dungeon Master reminding yourself of a rule, this is the tome at the tabletop RPG’s core.

While we might nitpick about some ways in which the book is arranged, for the most part it’s fairly well-organized. The book takes you through the basic character creation process first, and then it follows this with more complex play rules like DnD multiclassing and 5e feats.

After that comes a big chunk of rules text, covering stats, adventuring, combat, spellcasting, and conditions. Lastly, you’ll get an overview of D&D’s main setting and religions. It’s a pretty long read for a beginner, but you’ll need to know most of this stuff to fully enjoy D&D.

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is a perfect expansion to the Player’s Handbook. With additional subclass options and class features, this helps players build more unique characters, allowing a huge array of new and different DnD character builds. Some of our favorite DnD subclasses can be found here, including the Celestial Warlock, the Divine Soul Sorcerer, and the Gloomstalker Rogue.

For Dungeon Masters, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything also expands on simpler mechanics like sleeping, falling, and tool proficiencies. A suite of options for downtime activities and unique combat encounters aims to help DMs flesh out their campaign. There’s also a host of new spells and DnD magic items that are sure to please players on both sides of the DM screen.

A few campaigns are in the running for ‘best adventure of all time’, but we think that Curse of Strahd takes the cake. Its story, setting, and characters are so memorable that they’ve been revived in multiple editions of D&D. Plus, it’s one of the few campaigns with genuine replay value, even after you’ve learned all its spoilers and secrets.

The adventure is a game of cat and mouse between you and the module’s titular villain, Strahd von Zarovich. Strahd is D&D’s most famous vampire, and he rules a domain of darkness, intrigue, and monsters – as well as an actual physical location called Barovia. By the end, you’ll determine whether you or Strahd is the killer cat or the preyed-upon mouse.

Not everything in this campaign is perfect. There’s some outdated writing and imbalanced encounters that an experienced DM should definitely adapt. Fortunately, Curse of Strahd has a dedicated community online that can help make the job easier.

The DnD Monster Manual is basically the ABC of DnD monsters. From the Aboleth to the zombie 5e, and everything in between, you’re bound to find something vicious and/or surprising to throw at your players. It’s an enjoyable bit of worldbuilding to read, and it can inspire a host of possible adventures for your players.

Complete with terrifying pictures and easy-to-read stat blocks, the Monster Manual is crucial to rounding out combat encounters and spicing up your game. We’ve heard experienced DMs refer to the Monster Manual as ‘the true DM’s Guide’, given how much more useful it is as a reference book.

In recent years, D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast has begun publishing themed anthologies of adventures as well as standard single-campaign books. Candlekeep Mysteries was the first, but Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is by far our favorite.

Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel offers an entire landscape of colorful and unique settings to explore. Each adventure is written by a BIPOC D&D writer who uses their real culture as inspiration. The stories these adventures tell have range and depth, and they’ll stick in your memory for a long time to come. As a fan of DnD one shots, we love to see more options in this department.

Read our Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel review here.

If you ever wished D&D was set during an industrial revolution, Eberron: Rising from the Last War is a fantastic sourcebook to check out. It’s not quite as popular as Greyhawk or The Forgotten Realms, but Eberron remains one of the most enduring DnD settings. Plus, the book is stuffed with great RPG ideas, regardless of whether you plan to use them in an Eberron campaign or not.

Eberron: Rising from the Last War is full of quirky treats, like airships and unique weapons. It also gave D&D the wonderful Artificer 5e class and the robotic Warforged race. With a setting-specific take on character creation, a location gazetteer, and advice on running Eberron adventures, you’ll have everything you need to get started. This setting feels unlike any other, and provides so many brilliant additions to any campaign.

With even more subclasses to choose from, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything brings a whole lot more flavor to character creation. The subclass options really blur the lines between martial and spellcaster classes – so, if you get a kick from being both a caster and a DnD Fighter, you’re going to love the versatility that Tasha’s Cauldron brews up for you.

With feats that encourage you to dip into other classes and custom origin rules that allow you to switch the stats of base D&D races, Tasha offers a lot to players who value customization. There’s also some handy advice for DMs who want to improve their puzzles, NPCs, and session zeroes.

However, the amount of reprinted material – plus some shallow sections – leave the cauldron feeling a little more ‘empty’ than ‘everything’ at times.

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight grants you a rare chance to visit the Feywild, a whimsical plane of Fairy pacts and magical Hags. While every fairy tale has a dark edge, this campaign is mostly lighthearted. It comes with a vibrant cast, a carnival, and something else that makes it stand out from the crowd – the option to play out an entire campaign without fighting.

Obviously, this won’t appeal much if you love the strategy of a D&D battle. You can fight your way through the Feywild, and it’ll still feel satisfying, but this campaign feels designed for more social roleplayers.

If you’re planning to DM this one, you should also be prepared to put a lot of work into prep. Without clear guidance and more detailed character motivations, parts of the adventure lack the structure needed to drive the story forward.

Read our The Wild Beyond the Witchlight review here.

Exploration and dungeon crawls are cornerstones of classic D&D, and both play a major role in Tomb of Annihilation. This campaign ties together two old-school adventures with an overarching setting and story. Admittedly, the story is a little underdeveloped, but the gameplay itself is excellent.

The first section of the book sees you exploring the remote jungle island of Chult. You’re searching for the titular Tomb, but you don’t want to get there too soon. Inside is a brutal crawl that’ll TPK all but the most cunning (and appropriately leveled) adventurers. Better figure out your way around the island first – and deal with any threats that might linger on the surface.

If you and your pals love a one-off adventure, then 2021’s Candlekeep Mysteries is an essential book to add to your tabletop RPG shelf. It’s a great little anthology of 17 standalone adventure modules, all centering on Candlekeep: the Forgotten Realms’ foremost enclave of magical learning and the setting‘s biggest, most famous, most mysterious library.

Each adventure is specifically designed to be played over one to two sessions, and each is tuned to a party of a different character level, from 1 to 16 (with two level-four adventures, just because). Every module begins with the party finding a strange book that kicks off a quest with its own distinct story and theme, running the gamut from light-hearted romps to one of the best horror DnD one shots ever written.

We won’t spoil any of them, but there’s a huge amount of fun to be had here, as well as some of modern DnD’s best steps forward in diversity and representation.

Read our Candlekeep Mysteries review here.

If you’re a fan of the smash hit D&D ‘actual play’ series Critical Role, you can always check out the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount. This book has tons of stat blocks and character concepts directly from the show itself.

The first three chapters provide a dense history of Wildemount, covering everything from the land’s DnD gods to the political factions you might encounter. If you’re new to the IP, you might not appreciate this as much as a veteran Critter, but you’ll have more than enough info to play a campaign in the setting.

After that come a range of character options and introductory adventures. The quality here is hit-and-miss, with reprinted races and encounters that cater a little too much to people who’ve never played D&D. However, the hits hit hard. Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount features some of the most broken subclasses we’ve ever seen, the flying Aarakocra, and some excellent magic items.

Wizards of the Coast has been releasing fifth edition adventures for ten years now – that’s enough time to consider its early successes ‘classic campaigns’. If you’d like to play something more recent, we’d seriously recommend Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. This high fantasy war epic returns to a classic D&D setting, with approachable lore and strong storytelling that’ll win over a new generation of Dragonlance fans.

Shadow of the Dragon Queen takes place during the War of the Lance, an earth-shaking political event in the nation of Solamnia. You’ll play your part by attempting to defeat Lord Soth, a death knight in thrall to Tiamat. While there’s a few lulls along the way, the story of this campaign is excellent overall, offering a nuanced but still-epic war story that’s sure to satisfy fantasy fans of all ilks.

Read our Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen review here.

Acquisitions Incorporated brings the office-style humor of Penny Arcade’s actual play series to Dungeons and Dragons. If you’ve ever enjoyed an episode of The Office, you’ll grasp the gist of this book quickly – even if you haven’t seen Penny Arcade’s previous content.

This delightful, game-expanding tome explores a satirical Dungeons and Dragons take on ordinary life in late stage capitalism, asking hard-hitting questions like:

• What if you only adventure as your nine to five?
• What do vacation days look like on a dungeon crawl?
• Does this quest come with a dental plan?

After explaining the concept, Acquisitions Incorporated presents rules for creating and expanding a franchise. Everyone gets different roles to perform in the organization, and some colorful background and class options further cement the capitalist comedy schtick.

After that, you’ll get a decent six-episode adventure to play out. This is a book that cares much more about roleplay and downtime than crunchy combat, but if you fit the job description, you’ll find a lot to love here.

Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is the adventure printed in Wizards of the Coast’s 2022 starter set. Many seasoned players will feel attached to the old starter set – and its adventure, Lost Mines of Phandelver – but if you’re new to D&D, we think Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is the better place to start.

The box contains everything you need to learn how to play Dungeons and Dragons, and the materials are top-quality. Pre-written characters come with motivations that make them feel like part of the world, and a streamlined rulebook eases you into the mechanics.

The adventure itself is filled with intriguing characters and locations, which showcase what a well-written campaign can look like. It manages all that without overwhelming the DM with too much information. You get less actual content to play with than the old starter set, but the design better reflects what D&D looks like today – and where it’s going next with One DnD.

Read our Dragons of Stormwreck Isle review here.