D&D 5E Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is the fastest-selling Dungeons & Dragons book of all time

[Parmandur]

It’s got more player than DM stuff, but it’s oretty strongly a player *and* DM book, which IMO helps sales a lot.

And it’s just really good. I think what wotc knows that doesn’t show up on forums is that most players care more about how interesting stuff is than how mechanically we’ll built it is.

Stuff like “this is your life”, and the tables and ideas at the start of each class section just matter more than how balanced a given subclass is.

It's a book for everyone, and they put a lot of effort into finding out what people wanted to see in the game. Seems to pay off.

 

[pukunui]

At any rate, the sales will likely be interpreted as a vindication of their strategy up to this point.

That's what I'm afraid of ...

 

[Hussar]

Funny how in the UK, the book is "just outside the top 200" in books, but, in the US, it's (as I write this), number 92. For S&G's, I checked Amazon Canada, and it's, number 16 in books. Yikes.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I actually quite like the SCAG. To me, that book feels unfinished only insofar as it could have had so much more in it. Xanathar's feels unfinished because much of its content comes across as half-baked.

For all their talk about quality over quantity, I'm just not seeing it here. Xanathar's feels like a random assortment of stuff they felt was "good enough". Much like the monstrous races in Volo's. It felt like the designers just couldn't be bothered spending enough time getting them right, so they just slapped on a warning about them possibly being unbalanced and called it a day. A lot of what's in Xanathar's feels the same way to me.

I'd probably give the SCAG a B+, whereas I'd be inclined to give Xanathar's a B-.

Hm, I suppose. I just always felt like there was a pretty huge gulf in power with Swashbuckler and Bladesinger on one side, and Purple Dragon Knight and The Undying on the other, with most of everything else falling somewhere in the middle-low end. And even though I don't consider green flame blade or booming blade particularly powerful spells except on paper, people online don't seem to shut up about them so I've grown rather irritated with both spells.

I do agree that SCAG is better than Xanathar's, though.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's a book for everyone, and they put a lot of effort into finding out what people wanted to see in the game. Seems to pay off.

Definitely. And I would add that it’s also just a really good product. It fills the game with a ton of thematically engaging elements, and does so in a very entertaining package.
As for the mechanical content of the book, I think the options included are generally only going to prove problematic in games with noticeably different levels of optimizational system mastery. Outside that context, it’s nearly all really good stuff.

 

[Guest 6801328]

At any rate, the sales will likely be interpreted as a vindication of their strategy up to this point.

Ironically, I bet everybody uses it as vindication of their viewpoints: "Ha! D&D has grown explosively, therefore most players are noobs who don't know any better, so the fact they are buying it by the truckload only confirms that it's bad. Q.E.F.D."

 

[Swarmkeeper]

So, the Xanathar train continues to rumble along quite well, apparently:


"The first major update for Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition has become the fastest-selling release in the almost half-century history of the roleplaying game."

https://www.tabletopgaming.co.uk/bo...thing-is-the-fastest-selling-dungeons-dragons

Whether you applaud or criticize XGtE, this can only be good news for the hobby, IMHO. More books sold = more players = more DMs = more fun

 

[Quickleaf]

I actually quite like the SCAG. To me, that book feels unfinished only insofar as it could have had so much more in it. Xanathar's feels unfinished because much of its content comes across as half-baked.

For all their talk about quality over quantity, I'm just not seeing it here. Xanathar's feels like a random assortment of stuff they felt was "good enough". Much like the monstrous races in Volo's. It felt like the designers just couldn't be bothered spending enough time getting them right, so they just slapped on a warning about them possibly being unbalanced and called it a day. A lot of what's in Xanathar's feels the same way to me.

I'd probably give the SCAG a B+, whereas I'd be inclined to give Xanathar's a B-.

I could sugest a few things why it might be selling well.
It is a player focussed book, and there are more players then dungeon masters, for many on the player side the last book they bought was the PHB or maybe SCAG.

Also the timing of the release is good for the hollyday season.
Coming uo with gifts can always be hard, but if you know sombody who plays DnD and you know he diden't buy Xanatars themselve it makes a easy christmas gift.

Exactly my thoughts. Not well-done or meaty enough to interest me personally, but I'll be getting it as a gift for a friend.

 

[ad_hoc]

My wife is my personal "normal nerd" barometer for these sorts of things (she loves D&D, but while playing a Warlock avoids Eldritch Blast because she doesn't like it)

This is off topic, but I'm considered the 'mega nerd' of my group of friends and I don't like using Eldritch Blast on Warlocks either.

It's good, but it isn't necessary.

 

[Parmandur]

Definitely. And I would add that it’s also just a really good product. It fills the game with a ton of thematically engaging elements, and does so in a very entertaining package.
As for the mechanical content of the book, I think the options included are generally only going to prove problematic in games with noticeably different levels of optimizational system mastery. Outside that context, it’s nearly all really good stuff.

I don't see any major balance problems, particularly given the non-finetuned nature of 5E: none of the archetypes will outshine or be outshone in any practical way.