D&D 5E What is Your Favorite WotC 5E Setting Book, and Why?

[THEMNGMNT]

There are definitely some solid setting books out there. But I'm gonna go with...

Storm King's Thunder.

Unpopular opinion!

While the adventure has structural flaws, it has some awesome set piece dungeons that feel truly epic. It also has a solid gazetteer of the North that does two things well: 1) It rounds out the woeful Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide 2) It presents a living, dynamic world filled with Easter eggs from previous adventure paths. Reading it reminded me of an old Marvel comic where Spider-Man might be swinging through Manhattan with the Fantastic Four fighting Doctor Doom in the background.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Wildemout is pretty good for its utility. I first fell in love with the Taldorei book from GR when I saw the few quest hooks for each location! The setting itself is pretty generic, but the book is pretty well built. Its okay to have 2-3 page on a country or city in your setting, but please give me some ideas of something adventurers might want to do in that place!

 

[Bolares]

Its okay to have 2-3 page on a country or city in your setting, but please give me some ideas of something adventurers might want to do in that place!

This is what I love about exploring Eberron (from keith baker, on the DM's guild). Not only it gives a lot of adventure hooks, but basically every entry has a "why is this usefull" paragraph explaining why it's there and how to use it in game...

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

This is what I love about exploring Eberron (from keith baker, on the DM's guild). Not only it gives a lot of adventure hooks, but basically every entry has a "why is this usefull" paragraph explaining why it's there and how to use it in game...

Exactly. The varying world building table and the great Patron tables are very useful tools.

I'm pretty sure VRGtR is also pretty good, I heard it built in the same way. I adore horror stuff but wont run this kind of game for my players; I'm a little too intense in my horror

 

[delericho]

There are definitely some solid setting books out there. But I'm gonna go with...

Storm King's Thunder.

Unpopular opinion!

While the adventure has structural flaws, it also has some awesome set piece dungeons that feel truly epic. It also has a solid gazetteer of the North...

Yeah. For all its faults as an adventure, SKT still has a lot to recommend it. It's actually the big adventure book I have had most use of.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Yeah. For all its faults as an adventure, SKT still has a lot to recommend it. It's actually the big adventure book I have had most use of.

I wish they take the SCAG and bolt on it the gazetteer of the North from SKT. With that list of possible quest hooks + revamped subclasses, this might make a great book.

They could even go like Wildemount and throw a few 1-3 adventures in there, going as far as reusing the intros of Avernus, Dragon Heist and Storm King. They are not really related to the rest of their campaign anyway.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yeah, I grew up on D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, Clash of the Titans, and later the Odyssey and Illiad, so I knew nothing about Theros the setting, but it nails the feel of all those old legends. And yes, the new mechanical parts of it are so creative, so flavorful, and easily used in other D&D games. The piety system alone, for example, can immediately transform a campaign.

I thnik theros did some really good work, not only presenting a greek setting, but with thesupernatural gifts, piety system and mythic monsters. It layed a lot of groundwork and gave us a lot to strip for parts in non theros games...

 

[twincast]

Eberron.

Because Eberron, duh.

Seriously, though, it's executed really well.

That said, the MTG ones are great, too.

 

[FriendlyFiend]

I found Eberron and Ravenloft are both really good. I've known Ravenloft since I6 and had various of the box sets and manuals up to 3rd edition but I think the 5e take might be my favourite of all - just the right amount of information to inspire me as a DM without constraining me. I missed out on Eberron first (and second) time around but found Rising from the Last War both intriguing and inspiring - just what I want from an unfamiliar setting.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Wildemout is pretty good for its utility. I first fell in love with the Taldorei book from GR when I saw the few quest hooks for each location! The setting itself is pretty generic, but the book is pretty well built. Its okay to have 2-3 page on a country or city in your setting, but please give me some ideas of something adventurers might want to do in that place!

Though I voted for Wildemount I will agree the setting is definitely more generic than something like Eberron. It does have the pluses of a very comprehensive setting book and being only a few years old, whereas the other fairly generic fantasy setting of 5E, the Forgotten Realms, has decades of content and a lot of areas that haven't been touched on at all in 5E yet (though, when taking the adventure books into account, the Forgotten Realms does have more locations that are covered in-depth).