D&D 5E Which Official D&D Books Are Your Favourite?

[Morrus]

There have been over 30 official D&D 5E hardcover books (not counting numerous boxed sets, PDFs, etc.) released since the game launched in 2014.

Which ones stand out to you? You can choose as many as you like from this poll. It might be books you love because of the theme or content, adventures you played through, rules books you find really useful. What are your favourite D&D 5E hardcovers?

For the purposes of this poll, we're only including the official hardcover books -- not boxed sets, PDFs, etc.

We're also not including the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, or Monster Manual, as I'm going to go ahead and assume the core books are no-brainers.

Let's find out what our favourite D&D books are!

 

[delericho]

Picked Eberron as the best overall. "Curse of Strahd" is the best of the adventures, but suffers in comparison with the original. The next best, IMO, is "Rime of the Frostmaiden".

I didn't pick either Volo's or Mordenkainen's guides, as I don't particularly care for either as a whole. However, the sections on new monsters are great. (Similarly, I'm guessing "Monsters of the Multiverse" is a winner, though I don't own it.) Finally, "Storm King's Thunder" is not a particularly good adventure, but I really like the concept, think it makes for a great setting guide, and has some really good dungeons in there.

Also, wasn't there a compiled volume of the "Tyranny of Dragons" campaign? Shouldn't that be on the list?

 

[TerraDave]

Glad to see TftYP and Saltmarsh getting some early appreciation. Strahd will do well, deservedly so. All favorites

Volvos and the first Mordenkainen were pretty good, Xanathar’s alright and Tasha’s ok, but none are faves. The rest I don’t know and or don’t care.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Xanathar's, TftYP, and SCAG are my top three outside of the core books.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I'm somewhat ashamed, but my favorite one is still Princes of the Apocalypse. Non-sensical dungeon crawling in elemental-themed fun-house dungeons just hits my nostalgia like a truck, as a 90's kid who fell in love with heroic fantasy playing Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda.

 

[Retreater]

As a forever DM (as far as 5e is concerned), I don't really spend a lot of time with the player-facing option books. My primary contact is with the core rulebooks and adventure modules. Even the monster books I don't really use because monster stats are in the adventures, or if I write my own adventures, I usually use the standard creatures or make my own.

 

[el-remmen]

Ghosts of Saltmarsh. That's it.

The other ones are fine or just nor for me.

 

[Ancalagon]

Xanathar has the best cover of 5e IMO. Since I have not read all these books, I can only judge them by thei cover (and I have read Xanathar too ha)

 

[JEB]

Volo's and Xanathar's are definitely my top two sourcebooks for 5E. Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes didn't work as well for me, but otherwise it's a solid #3 behind them. I also voted for SCAG - even though the book has issues, I have a weird fondness for it, maybe because it was the first non-core sourcebook for 5E (unless you count EEPC).

Ghosts of Saltmarsh is my favorite adventure book(/mini-setting/seafaring sourcebook), with Out of the Abyss next in line (like SCAG, I suspect I like that more than most), and Yawning Portal further behind that.

I actually haven't sat down and properly read a fair number of the others - just skimmed enough to know what's in them - so it doesn't seem fair to rank them as favorites or not yet. (There are also some I have fully read and didn't list as favorites, but trying to stay positive.)

 

[GreyLord]

Unearthed Arcana (1e), Fiend Folio (1e), Monster Manual II (1e), Dragonlance Adventures (1e), OA (1e)...Combat Options (2e), Forgotten Realms (1e), Forgotten Realms Adventures (2e).

But my all time favorites are probably the Rules Cyclopedia and the B/X and BECMI rulesets.

Obviously as it's 5e I voted on the poll, but those aren't my favorite "official" D&D books which are currently released and available. The ones I wrote above are some of them and you can actually buy them from Dungeon Masters Guild!!!