Question about DnD books

[May 20]

Living up to her geek/nerd heritage, my daughter has begun playing Dungeons and Dragons with her college friends. (Her father is very proud. ) She is interested in acquiring some books to enhance her gameplay. I already have the Player's Handbook in my Amazon cart. What other books would be useful to a player? She is not interested in becoming a DM at this time.

She is playing 5e, which means that she is not able to use my husband's books (not that he'd let her take them so far away).

TIA

 

[Unicron]

Well, I only bought books for 3E so I'm not sure what to recommend for 5E. I like 3E despite some of its known issues. I tend to like stuff that adds potential options for monsters, gear and so forth, although I also have a few good campaign settings for story as well.

 

[Skywalker]

If she's playing 5E and she's only interested in stuff that might help her as a player, she should also check out the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. SCAG is mostly about adventuring in the Forgotten Realms setting, which is the default setting for 5E, but it offers a batch of new class options and subclasses mostly tailored for Forgotten Realms. (Though they're fairly easy to adapt for non-FR settings.)

Volo's Guide to Monsters might be worth a look, too. It's mostly about the lore of various D&D monster races, and includes a bestiary featuring new monsters for players to fight against, but it also has a chapter with stats for new playable races, including the aasimar and the goliath.

Xanathar's Guide to Everything comes out later this month and is probably going to be the best resource for new player options. It's going to include around twenty-five new subclasses, new spells, new racial feats, and a system to give characters a randomized backstory.

There was also a digital-only companion to Elemental Evil, a 5E campaign produced by WotC. It's called simply the Elemental Evil Player's Companion. This isn't actually something that needs to be bought, it can be downloaded legally and for free at Wizards of the Coast's website. It includes stats for new playable races like the aarakocra, deep gnome, genasi, and (again) goliath. And it has a bunch of new spells that have an elemental flavor to them.

 

[May 20]

Thanks!

 

[publiusr]

I miss the old Great Wheel cosmology myself.

Planet Baator takes some getting used to.

 

[Unicron]

What's the current version? I heard it was changed in 4E, but I liked it too. Seemed like a sensible arrangement that offered many options for travel.

 

[Apparition B5]

Current version is 5E. Imagine if 2E, 3E, and 4E got together and made a baby. 5E would be that baby.

I second Volo's Guide to Monsters and Xanathar's Guide to Everything. They would both be useful for players, Xanathar's Guide especially so. It's the Unearthed Arcana for 5E.

 

[May 20]

Thanks!