While my video Buyer’s Guide has been extremely popular I thought it would be wise to have a text version of this guide here as well. I’ll do my best to keep this article updated as new products are released for 5th edition. Let’s get to it!
So, do you need a Dungeon Master’s Guide? Almost all DMs will need a Dungeon Master’s Guide. The DM Guide contains indispensable advice and rules for running an adventure or a campaign. But it also gives Dungeon Masters lots of tables needed to run a game. You need a Dungeon Master’s Guide to run your gaming sessions. Of course, you don’t need to use your Dungeon Master guide all the time. You can start a private conversation or create a group conversation with anyone who follows you. Anyone you do not follow can send you a Direct Message if: You have opted in to receive Direct Messages from anyone or; You have previously sent that person a Direct Message. Anyone in a conversation can send Direct Messages to the group. You'd need the find the AOB for the server in question, then you'd be able to find the address. If you want to find this dmg hack in other private servers here is. You’re no longer forced to do all your moving at the beginning or end of your turn. Break it up into 5 ft increments and use them when you need to. Just be sure you understand how opportunity attacks work (more on that below). One other thing about movement is the Dash action. This replaced the double-move common in previous editions. Easises way to do this is to get a banish timer, so you can rebanish immideatly after the mob breaks. Count Doom works fine. There is a big chance that you might die here, but at least try to take 1 out as all the other pylon pulls are just 2 pulls. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT FEARING THE ARCANE ELEMENTALS INTO THE TREE THINGS.
In this guide we’ll take a brief look at what has been released so far for D&D 5E, and then I’ll give some more detailed information about what I’d recommend people actually buy, depending on where they are with D&D.
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1. Playing for Free!
Wizards of the Coast has made the D&D Basic Rules a completely free PDF that can be downloaded from their website. This is a great way to try D&D without needing to spend a dime, and it’s a wise first stop for anyone considering trying the game.
You’ll get the basic rules (obviously) as well as character creation information for Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human races. For classes, you’ll get Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard. This provides fewer options than the Player’s Handbook, and there are also fewer backgrounds and spells in this document. Still, it definitely gives you enough variety to get started, and the classes and races are the most iconic in the game.
The PDF also includes a lot of tools for dungeon masters, including over 100 monsters and other creatures to populate your dungeons and towns.
The free PDFs can be downloaded here.
2. The Starter Set
“Everything you need to start playing the world’s greatest role-playing game”, is written on the box of this set and that claim holds true. Here’s what comes in the box:
- A rulebook for playing characters level 1-5
- A 64-page pre-written adventure (my favorite part)
- Five pre-made characters with character sheets
- One set of polyhedral dice
While the Basic Rules are good enough to get anyone going, the Starter Set is better for new players because of the inclusion of pre-made characters (character creation can be a bit daunting for new players) and especially the inclusion of the pre-written adventure module, entitled The Lost Mine of Phandelver. Coming up with an adventure and story is not out of the realm of possibility for a new DM, but people completely new to tabletop RPGs will benefit a lot from this high-quality pre-written module. When I was new to the hobby, pre-written adventures were the only way I was able to be confident enough to run a game.
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3. The Player’s Handbook
The Player’s Handbook (PHB) is the first of the three core books and it is the complete rulebook for playing and DMing Dungeons & Dragons. New DMs might be misled by the title into thinking this book is just for players. Not true! It is THE core rule book and if you’re going to buy one of the books, this one should priority number one!
The PHB has several more options for character race than are found in the Basic Rules, adding Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Tiefling, Gnome, and Dragonborn. For character classes, it adds Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, and Warlock. There are more backgrounds for characters, twice as many spells, and a lot more information that DMs and players will find helpful.
4. The Monster Manual
The second core book, Monster Manual (MM) is a massive tome of frightening creatures DMs can use to populate their game worlds. While the Basic Rules and the PHB do have a decent selection of monster and creature stats, this book has the motherload. Coming in at 352 pages, the Monster Manual is full of great art, vivid descriptions, monster ecology and more. I’d only recommend getting this if you are planning to DM, and if you are running the Starter Set you won’t need this yet as monster stats are included in the pre-written adventure.
Still, this is one of my favorite books on the shelf. It’s a delight to page through!
5. The Dungeon Master’s Guide
The third and final core book to be released was the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG). This book contains general considerations and tips for dungeon masters (DMs) as well as loads of tools to help DMs build their game own game world, create adventures and greater campaigns, and customize the rules to fit their own style and preferences. The book also contains about 75 pages worth of magic items for your game with detailed descriptions. While the DMG is likely the most optional of the three core books, I’ve found it invaluable, and as a fairly new DM I was glad I didn’t have to run games without it.
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UPDATE: If you are interested in buying all 3 core books, here’s a gorgeous set of all of them! Price fluctuates, but it’s usually about the same price as buying them all separately, but you get case and DM Screen too.
6. Published Adventures
While I absolutely love building my own game world and adventures with the aid of the DMG, I also find it comforting to know that there are pre-written adventure books for D&D for those times when the DM wants a guide. These books contain everything you need to run an adventure: setting information, storyline and quests, maps, and more. A few of my favorites are:
Out of the Abyss – An Underdark delve adventure full of Duergar, Drow, and worse!
Curse of Strahd – An epic vampire-themed adventure set in the land of Barovia.
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist – An urban caper and mad treasure hunt!
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage – A massive dungeon delve in one of the most iconic locations in Faerun: Undermountain.
Tomb of Annihilation – A run through the Junge island of Chult to uncover the mystery of a terrible curse.
There are about a dozen of these books now, but those are a few highlights. In order to run these, you will probably also want the Player’s Handbook and Monster Manual.
7. The Other Books
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There are quite a few other books that don’t fit the above categories. I’ll describe them all briefly, but I’ll start with my two favorites!
Volo’s Guide to Monsters – If you have the Monster Manual and are hoping to further expand your collection of beasts and foes, this books is amazing. It provides further lore and stat-block variety for some of the most iconic creatures in D&D, and a whole lot of creatures that are totally new to 5E. It’s great!
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything – For players this book expands the character options significantly with new subclasses. For DMs it provides a host of new tools as well. It’s great for players, and for DMs I’d recommend it after the PHB and DMG.
Others:
Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes – Another monster book, this one focuses on cosmic struggles, and mainly extra-planar creatures and high-level stuff.
The Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide – Setting info for DMs and some character options for players.
The Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica – A book for those wanting an entirely new setting, Ravnica is actually a popular world from Magic the Gathering. It’s beautiful and well-produced.
For this section we will imagine a few possible scenarios.
The new player wanting to run a game – Let’s imagine you don’t know anyone who plays D&D and you want to get started with your friends or family. If this is the case, I highly recommend the Starter Set. It’s cheap, and it has everything you need to get going in the game. Do you need it? No, you could just get the free Basic Rules, but then again, you would likely need a set of polyhedral dice and at that point you are already up to $5 (U.S.). In addition, the pre-written adventure will be very helpful for new DMs so that they can get a feel for how the game works before trying to write their own adventures. It’s a great adventure, and I think it will be a well-remembered classic in the not-to-distant future.
The new player wanting to join an experienced group – Let’s imagine you know people who play and you want to join in. If this is the case, you don’t really need to buy anything at first. Check out the basic rules free PDF, and read up if you feel like it. You might want to buy a set of dice (see links below). But chances are other players will have some for you, and a good DM will help you learn the rules as you play. Now let’s say you’ve played a couple times and you are liking it enough to know you are in. At that point I’d recommend buying the Player’s Handbook, so you can have all the rules and all the options in a nice glossy hardcover book with some great art. You don’t need it, but it’s a high-quality book that I can’t imagine you’ll regret owning.
The more experienced player/DM– Now, let’s talk about scenarios in which you might want to buy some of this other stuff. As I mentioned in the product description if you are going to be DMing (beyond the Starter Set, that is), you’re probably going to want the Monster Manual. The Basic Rules PDF has a decent amount of monsters already, well over 100 – but man I love my Monster Manual. While one could make a case that the DMG is a higher priority, I think it won’t be long before you’ll want more options for monsters than the free PDF gives you, so I think the Monster Manual makes the most logical sense for a second purchase after the PHB. The book is fascinating and a lot of fun to read or flip through. It’s a great coffee table book, if you don’t mind horrifying your guests with visage of a deadly Beholder.
As the has been stated above the Dungeon Master’s Guide is the most optional book of the core three. However, if you are feeling like you’d like more DM tools to help you build a world, run encounters, or want some of those optional rules, the DMG is full of practical advice and inspiration that I have found well worth the money.
What about the adventure books? These books are great fun, but if you have the Starter Set, I run the Lost Mine of Phandelver first. However, if one of the hardcovers draws you in and you have the money for it, go for it! Don’t forget that many (most?) DMs run adventure and campaigns of their own creation. It’s a lot of fun! It’s also worth noting that even if you don’t ever run the adventure within, I know many DMs who enjoy having the books simply for the ideas and inspiration they can give fortheir homebrew campaigns. I’ve heard mostly positive things about them, and hey, it’s another pretty hardcover book to add to the collection. I know it’s a matter of taste, but I’d recommend buying most of the other books before getting these.
HONORABLE MENTION – Related products you might want to check out.
- Polyhedral Dice
- D&D Spellbook Cards from Galeforce Nine
- The Dungeon Master’s Screen
- Miniatures
- A battlemat/map –
Or see my version here
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Since this and other similar questions get asked on a fairly frequent basis I have written up a quick guide which hopefully hits the salient points and which at the same time provides a reasonable synopsis of the position. Do let me know if I've missed anything of value. Assuming you think it's of value I'll sticky it in due course.
License considerations:
If you are a player then all you need is the demo license of Fantasy Grounds provided that the DM has an Ultimate license. If the DM only has a standard license then you will need a standard license too.
If you are a DM then having the Ultimate license will allow all of your players to join your game with only the demo license. If you have only a standard license then all of your players are going to need a standard license too.
The ONLY difference between a Standard and an Ultimate license is that with the latter players can join your game with only a demo license. There is absolutely no difference in the content included with either license. No 5e manuals (PHB, DMG, MM etc) are included in ANY license – they are all separate purchases.
What comes with the license?
With a demo license you can access the 5e SRD and basic rules (as from April 2018). This will allow you to create some basic characters with all of the limits that come with the SRD and basic rules (see below).
With a Standard or Ultimate license you get the 5th edition ruleset built in, the D&D basic rules and the 5e SRD. The ruleset is what allows you to handle a game of 5e D&D. It allows you to handle character creation, combat and a multitude of other things. However it is only a tool – it does not include content such as the PHB etc.
With the Basic Rules and the SRD you can create characters, encounters, treasures and everything else that you would need to play a game of 5e. However these modules are very much cut down versions of the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide and Monster Manual. You will not get the following with the SRD; for characters most of the archetypes, backgrounds, race options and almost all of the feats are missing. For NPCs many of them are missing, as well as all of the background information and all of the artwork. For the DMG; many magic items are missing; all of the dungeon creation and alternative rules are missing as well as all of the treasure tables and many other things.
What do I really need to play 5e?
First of all this depends on whether you are a player or a DM. As a player the only thing you need is a demo or Standard license as noted above. You need nothing else, but see the information on the PHB below. Whilst it isn't necessary for you to own this you might want to in order to create characters offline (provided you have at least a standard license).
As a DM this is a more difficult decision. The three core rulebooks – the PHB, DMG and MM have all been written and optimised for Fantasy Grounds. This means that many features in the FG versions are not available in the paper version. So for convenience alone the purchases are worth it. However here’s some further information on how each of the three volumes might, or might not, be for you.
PHB:
Primarily the PHB is concerned with character creation and the rules for actually playing the game. If you own the PHB then you can make it available to your players so that they can create their characters. Full drag and drop functionality means that players can drag a class, race, background and equipment into their character sheet and (almost) everything will be set up for them ready to play.
Note, however, that the character sheet is not a character builder so some manual intervention is required to get the best out of the character.
The drag and drop functionality links sections of the character sheet to the Player’s Handbook so the player (or the DM) can click on these links to open the relevant section. Of all three of the core rulebooks the consensus is that the PHB is pretty much essential for its ease of use and functionality.
MM:
If you are going to be creating your own campaigns (as opposed to purchasing adventures) as a DM then the Monster Manual will be a very desirable module to own. All of the NPCs are in there complete with background information and full colour artwork that can be shared with players. NPCs from the MM can be dropped into encounters and from there onto the Combat Tracker and onto maps. Each will have a token representing the NPC as well as all the statistics, attacks and defences of the NPC. When placed on the CT the NPCs attacks, spells and other abilities will show up on the CT and as DM you will be able to use those by simply double clicking on the attack, ability or effect.
If you plan to use only published adventures then the MM is perhaps less of a necessity since all of the NPCs in those adventures will come with it.
DMG:
The Dungeons Master’s Guide contains information on how to create worlds, dungeons, campaigns, NPCs, treasures and other rewards as well as detailed guidance on running a game and generally how to be a DM. It also contains many pages of magic items and a huge number of tables for rolling up random treasures, dungeons, personalities and a host of other things.
Whether you need any of this might also depend on whether you intend to make up your own adventures or run published ones. However even if you fall into the latter category the lure of those magic items is great – and with a single roll of a dice you can create a treasure parcel down to the smallest detail. If you roll a sword it will tell you what kind of sword; if you roll a scroll it will tell you what scroll you got; or what gem; or what armour or what potion.
Wherever possible the tables in the DMG have been optimised for use in FG like this. You roll once and if the table entry directs you to roll elsewhere then that roll is made too.
In summary then, the three core rulebooks are not essential but depending on how you run your game it could make life a lot easier, give your players a host of options, give you easy access to information and rules as well as cutting prep time by a considerable amount. It is worth mentioning also that if you have the time and inclination you could add all of the information into Fantasy Grounds yourself and create your own modules for personal use.