The 10 Best Dungeons & Dragons Books (Updated 2022)

1. Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

When it comes to choosing your next sourcebook after getting comfortable in Dungeons & Dragons 5E you really can’t go wrong with Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Brimming with new content designed to be easily integrated into the foundation set by the starter books, Tasha’s is a perfect supplement to expand or tweak your game without completely upending what you already have. While it may not provide anything earth-shattering for your D&D world, it makes up for that with new items and options in spades.

One of the bigger draws with Tasha’s is the addition of the Artificer, a class not found in the three starting books. Designed around the balance of magic and ingenuity, the Artificer plays as a sort of arcane inventor. They allow the player to focus spell casting through objects and machinery, build necessary tools, and even wield firearms (at the DM’s discretion). There are some who have picked up Tasha’s for the new class alone.

Outside flashier additions like Artificer, there is a fantastic variety of new spells, items, and tweaked rules and class options to tinker with. Feeling a rule or a facet of a class from the starter books is impeding play? Revised rules and alternative options are provided for classes such as Ranger, Druid, and many others. With the new content present in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything classes and encounters that had grown stale or static in a campaign have the chance for a breath of new life.

Read More

• An expansive new set of options and rules to build from D&D’s starter books
• A new class to play alongside new subvariants for previously released classes
• Added character customization options for players to sink their teeth into
• More items, magic and otherwise, for DMs and players to include in their games

• Number of Pages: 192
• Genre: Roleplaying
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

2. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Much like the similarly named Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is a supplemental sourcebook meant to further flesh out the base game of Dungeons & Dragons with a broad selection of new options. Xanathar’s Guide takes the approach of DLC rather than an expansion, but manages to provide enough new content to feel relevant, if not required.

A major draw for players in Xanathar’s Guide will be the increased character options it provides. New subclasses, new racial features, and a heap of new toys to play with in the form of spells and items are bound to attract the D&D players who have gotten comfortable with the game’s starting material. The two Everything supplements give more freedom to the players to fine-tune their adventurers and create the heroes or scoundrels they specifically want.

As for DMs the character options can also help with NPC creation, but the real points of interest for running the game are the newly tweaked rule options, clarifications, and provided tables for quick references during play. Having more in the toolkit is essential for DMs, especially the further into a campaign they get, but having easy-to-reference tables provided in the book pushes Xanathar’s Guide past the finish line. On-the-fly decisions and unexpected improvisation are constants in Dungeons & Dragons, so quick help guides are a great boon to the beleaguered DM.

Read More

• Further expand play with new rules and tools for both DMs and PCs
• Revisited rules from the base game allow more options and flexibility
• Examples, tables, and charts designed to give DMs fast access to necessary tools
• More spells, feats, subclasses, and more

• Number of Pages: 192
• Genre: Roleplaying
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

3. Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount

Critical Role‘s immense success and influence can not be understated, especially when talking about the explosive growth in Dungeons & Dragons‘ player base over the past few years. Few internet properties, especially those focused on tabletop roleplaying games, can claim even a fraction of the success that Matthew Mercer and his crew at CR have managed to accrue since starting as a humble webshow on Geek & Sundry. In Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount that success comes back around to its source, with Matthew Mercer contributing his homebrewed content that built the show to published D&D supplements.

Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount is dense with details, giving readers access to lore and locales from across the continent that contained Critical Role‘s second campaign. Not only is there an excitable amount of lore to read and play off of, but there is plenty to do mechanically as well. NPCs and items abound, as with most D&D books, but new class and character options tailored specifically to the setting give even more choice to players eager to craft the perfect hero. Once the characters are set, Wildemount provides a great set of plot hooks and starter adventures to get the party established in its world.

With all that being said it should be noted that Wildemount does not provide any singular, guided adventure through its setting. It has smaller adventuring content to get players in and rolling, but focuses mostly on worldbuilding. The story itself is, by and large, up to the DM. The other major caveat is, that while the setting and content available are top-notch, if you lack investment in Critical Role then you may want to wait on this book and snag another supplement first. If Wildemount is on your radar, however, then don’t dely and grab a copy! You won’t regret it.

Read More

• Brings the world of Critical Role into your personal campaign
• New subclasses, spells, monsters, items, and other options for players and DMs alike
• Contains starter adventures and character backgrounds to help establish a campaign in its setting
• Fleshed out new settings to adapt or play in as is

• Number of Pages: 304
• Genre: Roleplaying
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

4. Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

If there is one thing that Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden provides, it’s atmosphere. The included adventure takes place in a frozen valley, dotted with towns and encampments that Icewind takes great care in bringing to life through its content and questing. The setting is a sandbox, open to player exploration, but brimming with enough personality and things to do to avoid fostering disinterest. That being said, that open design can also lead to moments of unintentional meandering if the DM isn’t careful, so it is imperative to make sure that plot and quest hooks have decent visibility for the party. The variety of possible routes the adventure could take in Icewind Dale lead to multiple endings, and along the way are a great variety of mechanics and monsters for players to encounter as they trudge through the tundra.

One potential downfall with Icewind Dale comes in the form of its extremely uneven balancing. Multiple players and DMs have brought up moments of bizarre difficulty spikes and disappointing instances of potential challenges bottoming out. This is likely thanks in part to the adventure’s use of the Milestone XP system for leveling player characters. While the Milestone system is brilliant for campaigns with fairly structured, semi-linear narratives, here it seems to run into some friction with the more sandbox-style of the design. Newer DMs who don’t have a natural feel for dolling out levels based on milestones may end up accidentally allowing their players into areas tuned far too high or low for their stats and abilities. This issue can be solved with some tweaking and homebrewing, and the setting is well worth the price of admission, but if the potential DM is still getting a feel for the game, this module might be best visited later on.

Read More

• Adventure designed for characters up to level 10
• New locales and narratives for DMs and players alike
• A selection of new spells, items (magic and otherwise), treasures, and more
• Provides rules for adventures set in colder climates

• Number of Pages: 319
• Genre: Roleplaying
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

5. Eberron: Rising from the Last War

Eberron: Rising from the Last War is a book brimming with possibilities. Expanding Dungeons & Dragons 5E past the realms of medieval and high fantasy into the worlds of steampunk, noir, and science-fantasy, Eberron is one of the most robust options available for players seeking to branch out from the base game.

Magitech constructs, rocketing airships, and strange science-fantasy cityscapes are just a taste of what awaits eager players in Eberron. There are new races to explore and monsters to tackle, alongside the first official release of the Artificer class in the 5th Edition. There is a caveat to Eberron’s version of the Artificer, and that is that Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything contains the most updated form of the class, along with subclass options. If you’re looking to pick up Rising from the Last War with the Artificer in mind, that will be a particularly important consideration.

The world and options provided for D&D groups in Eberron: Rising from the Last War are rich in themselves, but also provide the tools necessary to expand a homebrewed campaign world into the realm of science-fantasy. For those looking to explore past the realm of fantasy, maybe looking to cook up something steampunk or JRPG inspired in a home game (Final Fantasy‘s airships, anyone?), Eberron is a brilliant option.

Read More

• Expands the world of D&D with new lands and adventures
• Brings noir, steampunk, and magitech to D&D
• New races, subraces, monsters, and more
• Provides a campaign in new lands for players and DMs to explore

• Number of Pages: 320
• Genre: Roleplaying
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

6. Mordenkainen Presents: Multiverse of Monsters

Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse is a bit of a unique case among the other Dungeons & Dragons books listed in this guide. While most others provide original content or updated and official releases for previously released test content, Monsters of the Multiverse mostly treads old ground. Collecting a variety of monsters and playable races from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, Multiverse provides a fabulous option for those who have yet to add the previous monster books to their collection, but is a harder sell for those who have.

The major appeal of Multiverse is its nature as a compilation. It provides an easily accessible, concise collection of content that had previously been scattered between various other books. Instead of fretfully bouncing between sourcebooks, this release aims for ease-of-use. In addition to its core goal of compiling disparate content, Multiverse also updates that previously released content with rebalances to stats and abilities, new lore, and new artwork. These updates are meant to bring D&D 5E’s content together, making things more easily integrated with one another, but have met some resistance from players who enjoyed the previous iterations of the collected creatures.

At the end of the day, if you don’t own Volo’s Guide or Mordenkainen’s Tome, then this is a fantastic addition to your growing tabletop library. If you already own them though? It might be best to buy another sourcebook first, then revisit the Multiverse later.

Read More

• A compiled selection of monsters and fiends, collected from previously released 5E supplements
• Collects over 30 playable races, many of which were previously scattered in other releases, for easy reference
• Updated lore, stat blocks, and more

• Number of Pages: 288
• Genre: Roleplaying
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

7. Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons

So, you enjoy D&D, but you found the dragon content in base Dungeons & Dragons to be surprisingly lacking. Maybe your DM didn’t think to include dragons as much as you were hoping, or maybe you just crave more draconic content in general. Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons is the D&D supplement to ease that pining for wyrms to slay and to satisfy your need for scaled compatriots to battle alongside.

This supplement is all dragons, all the time. Draconic options are provided for players to create new adventurers, and dragon lore is expanded upon for DMs seeking to inject the classic creatures into their next session. One of the outstanding portions of Fizban’s is, of course, the dragon bestiary. This expansive tome-within-a-tome explores a grand variety of slithering beasts and majestic wyrms, providing stats and lore and a treasure trove of inspiration for campaign crafting. New maps and rules sets round out the experience for good measure.

New player options are a bit limited in comparison to other supplements, making this one definitely a DM-leaning affair. The hyper specific focus on dragons and nothing else makes this one of those books that is brilliant to have on hand, but hard to recommend as the very first piece of content to snag after getting comfortable with the base game experience. Fizban’s provides a glut of content, content which may be wonderfully pertinent depending on your campaign, but its breadth is narrow, so keep that in mind before grabbing it instead of something else.

Read More

• Introduces draconic options for players to build their characters with
• Contains a dragon bestiary
• Includes maps and other tools for DMs to craft new adventures with
• Expanded lore on dragons and their history, including the story of Bahamut and Tiamat

• Number of Pages: 224
• Genre: Roleplaying
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

8. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is one of those D&D source books that just oozes atmosphere. It lacks any sort of coherent adventure to follow or singular module to work from, instead focusing on the joy of creation. Van Richten’s Guide is a how-to guide overflowing with macabre personality, and it doubles as the toolkit used to follow that guide. It includes fantastic options for players seeking to create a character on the spookier side of things, but truly shines in the content it provides for DMs. Monsters, locales, potential plot hooks, and open conversations on how to DM heavy topics without overstepping boundaries or overplaying your hand are some of the many aspects of Van Richten’s Guide that make is such a fantastic addition to anyone’s D&D collection.

Of course, while it provides a wonderful array of tools and ideas, what it does not provide is any sort of concrete adventuring module. This book is more of a Halloween-drenched sibling to the starting books, rather than something along the lines of Eberron. Those looking for a more structured adventure into the world of Ravenloft should pursue the Curse of Strahd book instead. There has also been some pushback to the more self-aware approach in Van Richten’s Guide. Content that has been brought forward from older books has been revised to cull hateful or insensitive writing, which has rubbed some of the more stubborn members of the player base the wrong way.

Ultimately, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is better for the changes and is one of the most interesting, thematically strong tools a DM can have in their library.

Read More

• A variety of tools to help craft tense, horror-themed settings for D&D adventures
• Optional rules for further expanded DM flexibility
• New options for players to craft characters with gothic and horror-themed backgrounds
• Bestiary of even more ghoulish monsters than other D&D books provide
• A selection of different settings and styles of horror to help craft the perfect nightmare adventure

• Number of Pages: 256
• Genre: Roleplaying
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

9. Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Looking for rules to help create a swashbuckling pirate adventure? Or maybe just interested in revisiting a classic adventure from a classic D&D edition? If the answer to either of those questions is “Yes!” then the Ghosts of Saltmarsh supplement is the book to add to your tabletop library.

Ghosts provides a wonderful selection of adventures, including classics reworked to function with 5th Edition’s rules, that can be played on their own or integrated with other campaigns. Tied together by nautical themes, the adventures here are fun and varied while still fitting with one another fairly well. With some of the older adventures there are design hiccups that have unfortunately traveled forward in time with them, but for the most part the conversions are watertight.

For DMs the included rules sets for marine adventures are one of the strongest aspects of Ghosts. Everything from stat blocks for naval vessels to combat and navigation on the open ocean is covered, giving DMs the tools they need to craft oceanic escapades of their own. Whether crossing a vast sea in a preexisting campaign or designing a new game from scratch aiming to tap into the romance and horror of the high seas, Ghosts of Saltmarsh contains some essential content for D&D groups hoping to flesh out their worlds.

Read More

• Nautical themed adventures and locales
• Provides new rules pertaining to ships, sea travel, and more
• Tuned to allow play from level 1 all the way to level 12
• Collects classic D&D adventures from previous editions and brings them forward

• Number of Pages: 256
• Genre: Roleplaying
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

10. Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus

For fantasy tabletop and video game players alike, Baldur’s Gate stands as one of the most recognizable, iconic settings available to explore in Dungeons and Dragons. Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus gives DMs and players not only that beloved fantasy cityscape itself, but also the hellfires of Avernus to explore and (hopefully) survive. Included in Descent is a full campaign running through these strange locales, complete with well-realized NPCs, monsters, items, and lore for the eager DM to utilize and the eager player to interact with. As the city teeters on the brink of literally being swallowed by hell, players will chug through the early levels in Baldur’s Gate, before dropping into Avernus itself and taking part in an absurd war of demonic trickery and Mad Maxian war machines.

If there is something to stay your hand before picking up Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus it is likely to be the sometimes rough pacing, a problem that shows up particularly when trying to get the party through those the early levels so that they can get into the core of the experience. That pacing, while not a deal breaker, can lead to some lackluster feeling plot hooks as the game attempts to convince the player characters to risk their lives and engage with the grander narrative. With the right tweaking on a party-by-party basis by clever DMs that pacing issue won’t be too much of a hurdle to pass.

If a trip into hell and the challenge of pacing doesn’t scare you, then Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus might just be the next grand endeavor for you and your band of intrepid adventures.

Read More

• Module contains a full campaign that runs from level 1 to level 13
• A strongly realized, 5th Edition take on the Baldur’s Gate setting
• New items, NPCs, and more for players to sink their teeth into
• Adds vehicular content in the form of the “Infernal War Machines”
• New rules for DMs including rulings on demonic hierarchies and contracts

• Number of Pages: 256
• Genre: Roleplaying
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast