D&D 5E What 5E Books Should I Buy First

[Reynard]

The attached poll is a list of the books for 5E that I do not own. I feel like bolstering by library, so I figure I would crowd source the order in which to get them. Note that I limited folks to 3 answers just to avoid folks voting for all of them. If it isn't on the list I either own it or am not the least bit interested.

By the way -- use whatever criteria you think and explain in the comments if you desire.

 

[Weiley31]

If you get the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space set, make sure you have the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book.. The ship/crew rules are in Saltmarsh.

 

[delericho]

The only one on that list that I'd really consider a worthwhile purchase is the Essentials Kit, and even then it's not really for experienced players.

 

[Reynard]

If you get the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space set, make sure you have the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book.. The ship/crew rules are in Saltmarsh.

DAMMIT! I forgot Saltmarsh.

Also -- they didn't reprint the rules for ship in Spelljammer?

 

[Burnside]

Went with Tasha's and Mordenkainen's which are just universally useful whatever your 5E plans are. Third pick was a crapshoot but I went with Radiant Citadel since in another thread you had expressed interest in short-form adventures and most (not all) of the ones in that book are good.

I would recommend Wildemount, Theros, and Ravnica in that order as very solid setting books but the primary usage is if you really want to run those settings (with a couple of caveats: Theros has some fun new mechanics that are transferable and is a good toolkit in general for running a classical mythology based campaign, and Wildemount has the Heroic Chronicle idea which is a great tool for backstory generation). Strixhaven is weaker than these three, and also as much an adventure campaign as a sourcebook (and not a great one).

Tyranny of Dragons is imo a somewhat maligned and underrated campaign, but still in the bottom half of official campaigns.

Essentials Kit is going to offer you nothing you don't already have at this point, and the included adventure, Dragon of Icespire Peak, is weaker than both Lost Mine of Phandelver and the new Dragons of Stormwreck Isle (in the new Starter Set). It does have the sidekick rules, but a more developed version of them also appears in Tasha's.

I'm still reading Spelljammer. My impressions: monsters good, player races fine, ship rules bad/underwritten, adventure is quite fun but skeletal & requires DM work to fix plot holes (shocker).

Re: Saltmarsh. It's quite good and I love the Saltmarsh setting. As an adventure collection I think Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is better as I think Danger at Dunwater and The Final Enemy are unplayably bad, and Salvage Operation and Isle of the Abbey are unremarkable. However, the other 3 included adventures and all the supplementary material is good to great.

 

[Weiley31]

DAMMIT! I forgot Saltmarsh.

Also -- they didn't reprint the rules for ship in Spelljammer?

Nope!
The only thing they have listed for the Spelljammer ships are HP, Crew, Damage Threshold, Speed, Material(AC), the weapons listed on there, Speed, Keel/Beam, Cargo, and Cost.

The weapons are listed with their own Armor Class, Hit Points, Costs, and how Many actions it takes to use said weapons. That's it. No mention of helms/Sails(for ships that it makes sense for), or stuff like that.

COMPARED TO:

https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/UA_ShipsSea.pdf

Sailing Ship

Sailing ships are fast-moving designs focused on travel. Warships are slower but more heavily armed vessels capable of taking on more car...

www.dndbeyond.com

Not a single mention of stuff like Captain, Quartermaster, First Mate, Bosun, and other positions. There is a sidebar style box on pg.25 of the Astral Adventurer's Guide that states Shipboard Weapons are better for far away targets and when in close range, your PC's weapons/spells are better. Now, considering the Spelljammer ship weapons require more than one action to load/use, that makes sense...........................................Unless you have Acquisitions Incorporated/Ghost of Saltmarsh, which states that Ships can make THREE actions along as they have a high enough crew levels. Which means that using Shipboard Weapons won't "actually" be that annoying to use compared to how it was stated earlier.
Also: no Spelljammer ships have any ability scores. Not even STR/DEX/CON that ships usually have scores in. And of course, nothing is mentioned of stuff like Crew Quality scores, Downtime, Ship upgrades or even the possibility of a Mutiny.

Honestly, if it probably wasn't for the 64 page count, it's quite possible that the GoS ship rules would've been reprinted.

So yes, Ghosts of Saltmarsh will greatly enhance your 5E Spelljamming in a number of aspects.

 

[Weiley31]

Wildemount, Theros, and Ravnica

Ironically, the crossover books have some great stuff to cherry pick for your main 5E games too. So those three are good choices. Yes, I'd also say that even Strixhaven is good for cherry picking too. I low key think that Witherbloom's UA college features actually make some nice stuff to add to a Witch type character.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Unless you think you want to actually play in the settings you listed (or just want to read them for entertainment's sake)... I would say just go with the books that would have most universal usefulness-- Tasha's, Radiant Citadel, Monsters of the Multiverse.

Essentials Kit to me would only be truly useful if you were going to run Phandelver again so that you had more locations in the area to go to. But if you were going to do that... then I'd say to also pick up the 4E Neverwinter Campaign Setting, because that has even more locations north of Phandelver that will broaden the scope of a Phandelver campaign. Of course... we now know that if anyone actually wanted to run a fuller Phandelver campaign, they probably should wait until the actual Phandelver Campaign book gets released next summer, as it probably will have the Lost Mines and Icespire Peak adventures in it (plus who knows what other additional stuff Perkins adds to the area.)

 

[Retreater]

Tasha's to get more character options.
Monsters of the Multiverse to get the revised creature stats and race options.
The others I couldn't vote for, because campaign settings aren't my teacup.

 

[DEFCON 1]

...because campaign settings aren't my teacup.

But are they perhaps your teaspoon? Hmmmmmmmm?


(Don't ask, I have no idea what I mean with this comment, I just found it funny in my head, LOL.)