What D&D Books Should You BUY? (2023)

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Smashing together all 3 starter sets into one sandbox, and running it in Cairn is an EPIC campaign.

Return of the Lazy DM is probably the single best thing I used when learning to DM the game. It's also system agnostic and will work with almost anything.

Of course he donated his old D&D books to his high school. Just an absolute class act. You rock, Bob.

The best thing about strahd is the roleplaying possibilities. Being able to used your villan and his home as many times as you like is a really refreshing experience.

Can confirm, the Eberron book is well laid out and easy to use.

The two books currently helping me the most are the Midgard Worldbook by Kobold Press and from a couple of years ago Eberron Rising from the Last War. Big thick setting books with lots of places and lots of details seem to let me fill out campaigns forever. They build this rich tapestry I can come back to again and again.

I was sad to not see Fizban's Treasury of Dragons mentioned at all here. Definitely one of my favorite books as a DM, giving me a ton of ideas for how different types of dragons work within the world. Also the new dragonborns.

I think all the shoutouts to third party content really made this video a great one for people of all different familiarity leveled. Well done!

For the Tome of Beasts, Kobold Press just released a new updated version of the Tome of Beasts 1. All four of the books are great but I'd probably start with that one if you don't have any of the Tomes of Beastes.

I would also like to add that Xanathars backstory tables are really fun to roll on if you have no idea what kind of character you want to play. Or just want some inspiration, and I do agree that Tashas, while having some really powerful character options (Bladesinger and Twilight/Peace domain clerics, we're mainly looking at you), they dont really add much else to the table. Van Richtens is a good guide on how to make a villain.

Genuinely i think Griffon's Saddelbag has been one of the best additions to my game. I know it's just magic items, but the inspiration I've gotten from that book, both for adventures, npcs and artifacts are immense.

Tell Displate they should be printing battle maps for different combat environments.

Cairn + The Perilous Wilds make for a fantastic, low cost and low page count combo.

I think you're absolutely right about Witchlight. If you write/run any homebrew adventures, it's worth the read even if you never run it, to get some insight into encounter design that might be different than the traditional styles

I'm really excited about looking into the Agnostic: TTRPG Prep Method booklet by Map Crow. It's designed to help people, with too many books, use those books to create a 1-3 session adventure. They could be RPG books or just like any random book. It looks super cool.

A friend and i came up with a concept called a " Game grimoire " in which each person make their own collection of rules that they use, drawn from official materials and supplements. It is best to get a bunch of people who all have different supplementary materials and you spend a few days and order the rules in the way you want them. the down side is collating them and coppying them into your notebooks takes a long time. But at the end, you reduce a stack of books into a smaller stack of books with the rules and classes / subclasses you use most. This is also a great way to collect all the spells scattered through out the offical book, and have the rules or items. These game grimoires are very useful for DMs with rotating players who have characters from everywhere.

Really appreciate your input, Bob. Give Ravnica a try; I've been in love with it ever since the first Magic expansion on the plane, been running a campaign in Ravnica since early 2023, and my players (most of them non-Magic players) love it as well. It's a great setting for urban adventures and faction intrigues.

Only 2 minutes in and just wanted to say your video editing skills are as equally good as your thoughts and perspectives, which is to say really enjoyable!

I am so glad you are having everyone post what resources they enjoy or use the most. I have yet to buy a si gle physical D&D book and am always on the fense since thw options are vast and I mainly GM for ICRPG. Besides the ICRPG Master Edition rulebook, i also find myself referencing Untold Encounters of the Random Kind by Loke when im brainstorming for my next session. It's system agnostic but has explicit conversion instructions for 5e. It is a 340 page book of tables, art, descriptions and situations. Its a little hard to find but has generated more story hooks/seeds than I ever would have come up with on my own.