How would you rank the existing 5E books?

[H_H_F_F]

Meaning, what order would you buy them in for someone you wanted to get into the game?

PHB obviously comes first, and then MM, and the DMG. After that, though... Is Xanathar's more important than Volo's? How does SCAG compare to MToF, or FToD?

[Xihirli]

DMG does not make the list for me. Half the rulings in there have been overridden by the later stuff and the other half aren't followed in the published WOTC adventures. Tasha's racial traits aren't the first sign that the writers at WOTC haven't read the DMG and neither should you.
I don't need to read another 350-some-odd page book to get permission to make stuff up, which is functionally all the DMG does if you're keeping the same things WOTC writers are.

And if I'm trying to introduce a person to the game, why am I showing them the monster manual instead of throwing cool monsters at them? You want them to have the player focused books, and if they want to play a goblin you open to only that page of Volo's.

So in order:
PHB

DISTANT second: If I am introducing them to the game, I see no reason to rush them into a second book. Frankly all they need to read in the PHB is the race they want, the class they want, the weapon(s) they want, and the Actions in Combat lists just so that they know roughly what's an action and what isn't for planning out their turns. Everything else will boil down to "when I ask for a check, roll your d20 and add the number next to the word I say."

So distant second: Xanathar's. If they've expressed a desire to use variant rules on their class because they didn't like what they picked, maybe Tasha's, but if they haven't then that can come way later. It's way too much going on at once to bog down the game explanation with "but if you don't like all of the rules we just learned, we can burn them and use these instead."

Frankly, I'd probably stop here or even at the PHB. If they grow to love the game and start looking for other books, more power to them, but I've already completed my mission of introduce them to the game. But if they then ask which books I'd recommend, I probably would go, in order:

Volo's Guide to Monsters. It's my favorite one. I like reading it.
And then only if you are dissatisfied with the system as-is: Tasha's. And if you want to DM, Volo's is a good supplement to the Monster Manual.

Fizban's sounds fun but I haven't even gotten it for myself, so throw it in the pile with Mordenkainen's where "I can't recommend it enough that I own it."

And DMG does not make the list. I challenge you to give me a single page of that thing that matters.

[H_H_F_F]

Thanks for your input!

Just to clarjfy this isn't someone I'm DMing for. It's someone who's played with me last time she was in my country and wants to get into playing and DMing herself.

[Xihirli]

I'd still recommend playing first. Makes it easier to get a handle on the system.

[Zhorn]

Xihirli has probably summed it up the best already.
Introducing someone to the game: PHB and call it a day.

Everything else is pretty much "only if they are intending to DM" and even then how they intend to DM will shift what books would ever be needed.
I'm a very by-the-books type and I think there's a lot of valuable design info in the DMG and MM. But if a DM decides to in their games give out +bonus magic items like candy and shoot for larger-than-recommended values on bonuses and modifiers for the tier the adventures are set in, then don't bother with any additional books. If the by-the-book values are going to be ignored, just do your own thing and don't spend the money.

Last game I was a player in the DM was throwing out packs of greater zombies, orogs, werebears, 7th level spells, every named NPC with more class levels than the party, and having a road thug debeading an entire necklaces of fireballs on a single PC all in tier 1.
There were a lot of player deaths and free reincarnations.
I did not stick around.

The point being their ownership of the books didn't translate in game, and they would have been better off saving their money since they were just going to do their own thing anyway.

[NRSASD]

So you have a friend who wants to DM? Get them the Player’s Handbook (PHB) and an intro module, like Lost Mines of Phandelver or the essentials kit. The Monster Manual is a close second.
As mentioned, the Dungeon Master’s Guide is not as helpful or necessary as in previous editions, so it’s certainly not critical like it used to be. I still think it has a wealth of information for the new and inexperienced DM, like magic items and loot tables. Plus a lot of text that can be summarized as “remember, as the DM you can do anything if you want.”
Following that, it depends on what you want. If you want more Monster Manuals with a dash of PC options, I’d get Volo’s and Mordekainen’s in that order. If you want more class options and spells with a dash of DM help, I’d get Xanathar’s and Tasha’s in that order. My personal favorite of these four books is Volo’s, because the monsters are great and the races are strong and thematic without being overpowered.
Sword Coast Adventurers Guide is neat, but it hasn’t aged well. A lot of its options are either wimpy or silly strong, rarely in between.
Hope this helps!

[Naanomi]

DMG has a small handful of things that are useful... The base magic items spring to mind

[pwykersotz]

I like the DMG. It's a good tinkerer's toolbox. But yeah, first time DM, not unless they are already a bit obsessive about the hobby. It doesn't really teach you how to DM. You can get magic items and the like from the SRD.

For a new DM? Other than PHB and MM, Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. It teaches things like practical ways to prep without breaking your schedule, which is invaluable when you're starting out (at least it has been for some of my friends). Other than that, stay away from supplements at the start. I'd say you should run a handful of games at least before branching out.

[stoutstien]

I would go a far as to say you could get away with the free basic rules for a good long while. by the time you have a solid hold of those you could answer this question yourself.
No reason to feel pressured to dump money into a hobby until you can see if you will get the return you want first.

Also check your local public library. Some have copies in network thanks to better sharing/inventory management and shipping options.

[Psyren]

I would get them the Player Bundle: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/marketplace/bundles/player-bundle)

PHB
XGTE
TCoE
SCAG

Not only is it discounted vs. buying them all separately, that will get the vast majority of player build options (subclasses, spells, feats etc) as well.

[Tanarii]

As a DM, I rank them as:

PHB
DMG (DMs should be required to read Chapter 8 and pass a written test before running a game.)
MM
Volos (minus playable race rules)
Xan (minus Hexblades)

TBTSNBN doesn't exist, so obviously it can't be on a list. :smallamused:
Fizbans I haven't looked at yet so can't place it.

[loki_ragnarock]

If your friend is looking to DM for the first time:

Player's Handbook
MM
DMG
Lost Mines of Phandelver, advising to try to run it pretty straight.
And then probably Storm King's Thunder as something to segue into with the guidance that they'll want to tinker with it, maybe with a link to the various reddit threads about doing just that.

The player option splats are bunk and hokum.

[TyGuy]

Play 1-3 sessions with zero purchases, using free SRD & friends' materials.

If 5e is fun and a new player wants to jump in, PHB.

As time passes or if the passion is high, XGtE. It's a nice-to-have, but far from crucial.

Before committing to DM'ing a person should try it with friends' materials (DMG & MM) if possible. If not, try a one-shot with monsters from the PHB/ SRD.

If a newbie is committing to DMing, the rank depends.
If the player has low exposure to 5e, DMG then MM.
If the player has high exposure to 5e, MM them DMG.
The DMG is a handholder and muse more than an instruction manual, thus the situational ranking.

Those are all I would bother suggesting to someone new to 5e. The rest will be easier for them to figure out for themselves after moderate involvement in the hobby.

[H_H_F_F]

Play 1-3 sessions with zero purchases, using free SRD & friends' materials.

If 5e is fun and a new player wants to jump in, PHB.

As time passes or if the passion is high, XGtE. It's a nice-to-have, but far from crucial.

Before committing to DM'ing a person should try it with friends' materials (DMG & MM) if possible. If not, try a one-shot with monsters from the PHB/ SRD.

If a newbie is committing to DMing, the rank depends.
If the player has low exposure to 5e, DMG then MM.
If the player has high exposure to 5e, MM them DMG.
The DMG is a handholder and muse more than an instruction manual, thus the situational ranking.

Those are all I would bother suggesting to someone new to 5e. The rest will be easier for them to figure out for themselves after moderate involvement in the hobby.

Excellent flow chart. Thanks!

[T.G. Oskar]

And DMG does not make the list. I challenge you to give me a single page of that thing that matters.


DMG has a small handful of things that are useful... The base magic items spring to mind

That's the first. Then again, magic items might not mean anything to you, so there's that.

Also: Oathbreaker and Death Domain Cleric haven't been reprinted, as they're meant to be "villainous" options. Oathbreaker is strangely pretty solid, particularly since it adds your Charisma modifier to damage rolls for yourself and perhaps a Necromancer's minions, and its capstone isn't bad.

Also: Poisons. Yeah, people bash on poison damage and how nearly all monsters have advantage on saves or immunity to the poison condition, but that'd imply a lot of battles aren't done with humanoids or beasts.

Also: customizing monsters. I mean - the guidelines are pretty all around and settle for "try to get close to what we do with some of the monsters", but it gives you a way to work out your encounters when the published monsters aren't enough.

Thing is, if you're not creating your own homebrew world/campaign, or customizing an existing one, you might not find a lot of utility with the DMG. XGtE acts as an expansion and rework of some of those rules (mostly the random encounter tables and the downtime revision), of course, which lends credence to your point, but it's still a valuable resource.

I mean: how many people would rank SCAG anything but the bottom tier? Is the SCAG more useful than the DMG, then? (In my case, not exactly, but it still has some worth for the content that hasn't been updated, including the Oath of the Crown.)

[Warder]

I mean: how many people would rank SCAG anything but the bottom tier? Is the SCAG more useful than the DMG, then? (In my case, not exactly, but it still has some worth for the content that hasn't been updated, including the Oath of the Crown.)

I rank SCAG pretty highly. Certainly not top tier, but it's a pretty good book for doing what the title suggests: creating a character from the Sword Coast. The book is very player facing and details the kinds of things a player character from the Sword Coast might know, and doesn't stray (far) into spoiler territory. I get that if you have little interest in the Forgotten Realms it's not a very useful book, but I certainly wouldn't call it bad. Like, I think the Eberron & Ravnica books are pretty good even if they're useless to me.

[Rafaelfras]

I rank SCAG pretty highly. Certainly not top tier, but it's a pretty good book for doing what the title suggests: creating a character from the Sword Coast. The book is very player facing and details the kinds of things a player character from the Sword Coast might know, and doesn't stray (far) into spoiler territory. I get that if you have little interest in the Forgotten Realms it's not a very useful book, but I certainly wouldn't call it bad. Like, I think the Eberron & Ravnica books are pretty good even if they're useless to me.
I like SCAG very much also, but my biggest wish for 5e would be a forgotten realms setting guide similar to the one we got in 3.0.
That book is still one of my favorite books from all time.
Also I don't get all the hate the DMG gets over here. I would totally indicate it for a second after the PHB. Specially if you intend to make your own world. It has good advice an building dungeons and cities, NPCs and custom monsters, and how to structure your adventures and campaigns. In my table I use it most often for magic itens, vehicles, planar effects (I love then and use then always, plus it has a short description of the planes in case you need something quick) and the lingering injuries rules.

[Bjarkmundur]

The monster manual. Nothing hypes you up for playing than looking at all the cool creatures of the game. It also gives you a reall Pact of the Tome feeling: "I am the Dungeon Master, and this is the book I summon my monsters from!"

I really love the Basic Rules adventures on DMsguild, like Horror at Havel's Cross and Not a Creature was Stirring and A Most Potent Brew. They're One-Shots with just maybe an hour of prep time each.

Starting DMing can get REALLY tricky, there are so many resources I feel are almost necessary to have figured out. I think there's a giant Reddit thread somewhere. I should maybe make a thread of all the things I use to make my life easier....

[Psyren]

And DMG does not make the list. I challenge you to give me a single page of that thing that matters.

I assume there's an unspoken "to me" at the end of that sentence, in which case you'd be correct as only you can determine what matters to you.

I agree with your basic point that everything in the DMG is mutable (and may even be less than helpful) for an experienced DM like yourself. But WotC doesn't just make books for experienced DMs/groups. (In fact, I'd argue that some books are designed primarily for less experienced hobbyists, and the DMG is one of those.) And even among the ones who are sufficiently experienced that they can start modifying or setting aside rulings/suggestions from the DMG, having a common language of parlance for discussing rules interpretations and any proposed changes is valuable - even just within one's playgroup, never mind checking ideas against the broader D&D-playing hivemind.

[Kvess]

As a player, my top recommendation is the Player’s Handbook. It has all but one of the core classes, and apart from the Beastmaster Ranger and Four Elements Monk subclasses, all the options in the book are perfectly playable as is. It’s really the only book you need.

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything has interesting options for all classes, and is great for anyone who is bored with options in the PHB. Next on my list is Volo’s Guide to Monsters, which is a weird mix of Monster Manual expansion and ‘monster race’ options for players.

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything has great subclasses, republished the Artificer from Eberron, and includes optional rules and tweaks to make some of the less powerful core classes stronger. But some of the options are unbalanced (especially the Cleric Subclasses) and not to every table’s taste. I’d recommend it to someone who is more familiar with 5e and knows what they are doing.

The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide had cool options that were republished in other books, but contains a lot of lore about the most well-known parts of Faerun. Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes has a ton of lore about the lower Planes.

If your friend is at all interested in being a DM, I’d strongly recommend looking at the Waterdeep: Dragonheist campaign. I had a great experience running it, and it led to me forming my longest running gaming group. The only issue is the adventure prompts in the second chapter take a bit of work to flesh out.

[Argis13]

The DMG also has rules for resolving social interactions, (p 244) and they're actually okay. They aren't "comprehensive social combat." But so many people ignore them, and think that "insight is a lie detector" and "30+ on a persuasion check is a 'nearly impossible' result, and therefore turns any NPC into your best friend for life!"

It's actually decent. I like it.

[Witty Username]

I would rate the DMG lowest of books I own, it is not well organized and pulling useful info from it is a pain.

It would probably be highest to lowest:
PHB
Xanathar's
MM
Tasha's
Volo's
Mordenkeinen's
Eberron
Ravnica
Van Rickten's
Theros
DMG

And I am leaving out the couple modules I got cause I haven't used them yet.

[yellowrocket]

I'll echo the PHB. If you're going to get ANYTHING that's it. But with the free stuff online and some libraries if you like paper copies you can start there.

If you want to DM and haven't played a lot, DMG is a VERY useful tool with the tables, suggestions, guides to design, and other info. Now it's a tool, and an easy to use one at that, but if they aren't going to use it it's not worth the investment. If they want a different world it's probably not worth it. But if you're like me and you tend to stick close to the printed math for balance, it's good to have.

The rest are all great if you need more. But bandits and simple casters are easy enough to make on the fly if you stick to humanoids.

[Snowbluff]

I would get them the Player Bundle: (https://www.dndbeyond.com/marketplace/bundles/player-bundle)

PHB
XGTE
TCoE
SCAG

Not only is it discounted vs. buying them all separately, that will get the vast majority of player build options (subclasses, spells, feats etc) as well.
I agree with this, I like character options and deals. I feel like the options in SCAG are kind of deprecated because of Tasha's, however.

I rank SCAG pretty highly. Certainly not top tier, but it's a pretty good book for doing what the title suggests: creating a character from the Sword Coast. The book is very player facing and details the kinds of things a player character from the Sword Coast might know, and doesn't stray (far) into spoiler territory. I get that if you have little interest in the Forgotten Realms it's not a very useful book, but I certainly wouldn't call it bad. Like, I think the Eberron & Ravnica books are pretty good even if they're useless to me.

This is probably another reason why SCAG is on the bottom of the totem pole for me. If I'm interested in tidbits about the setting, I usually refer back to my old 3.0/3.5 books. However, I tend to run my own settings, so I usually pull details and inspiration from books like Lords of Madness and Libris Mortis Digest instead.

[Yakmala]

PHB
MM
XGtE
TCoE
SCAG
VGtM
MToF
DMG
WBtW / FToD
Various Forgotten Realms Adventure Hardcovers.
Old School alternates to Forgotten Realms such as Eberron and Ravenloft
...

Skip a ton of spaces

...

Any hardcover book based on one of the MTG universes.

[dafrca]

PHB

...

Skip a ton of spaces

...

Any hardcover book based on one of the MTG universes.

Truth for me is, I do not mind the MTG books as reading material for fun. I just do not want to run a D&D game in their world/setting. :smallsmile:

[Oramac]

I'd say it depends on whether the person in question wants to play or DM.

If play, I'd go PHB > TCoE or XGtE > Volo's > everything else.

If DM, it's be: PHB > [insert published adventure here; I prefer Storm King's Thunder] > MM > Volo's > TCoE or XGtE > everything else.

[Sception]

For a first time player, PHB's overwhelming enough, so I would start and stop there.

The one exception is if the new player has a clear vision for what they want their character to be and that vision is clearly better expressed by later race or class concepts. If a new player comes at me with something like "I want to play a catboy magitech engineer" then yeah, I'll break out volo's for tabaxi and tashas for battlesmith artificer and custom origin rules to swap tabaxi's stat bonuses to better fit the artificer class.

But I generally find that to be the exception for new players, and even when they do appear it's usually better to try to make their concept work with the PHB alone where possible, because, again, that's already a pretty overwhelming book for a new player to absorb and internalize.

I love later books - volos, xanathars, tashas. But they're more valuable for players who have already engaged a fair bit with PHB content and want to try something different.

[KorvinStarmast]

Core, Xanathar's, Volo's, SCAG

[J-H]

PHB
DMG
MM
XGTE
Optional: Tasha's

Reasoning: You can run a low level game using monsters from online or creatures from the back of the PHB.

[Psyren]

Truth for me is, I do not mind the MTG books as reading material for fun. I just do not want to run a D&D game in their world/setting. :smallsmile:

I'd play a Ravnica campaign! It was definitely my favorite setting of the post-Dominaria era.

Kamigawa would be fun too, especially if I could stir in some Rokugan elements.

Lorwyn, Mirrodin, and Zendikar - meh.

[Sception]

I'd play a Ravnica campaign!

It really is a great setting. Especially if choose to set the game in the period of the first block, or even predating that, back when all the guilds still more or less functioned in their originally envisioned roles - either largely benevolent or at least not overtly hostile to life and civilization on the world-city. It's easier for a campaign to let players freely choose whichever guild best fits their character, and for whatever eventual campaign antagonists who appear to be surprises, if you set your game before the Orzhov had degenrated into a protection racket mafia, before the Golgari had been completely taken over by their apocalyptic death cult subfaction, etc etc.