It’s safe to say that Dungeons & Dragons is enjoying something of a golden age. Between the renewed popularity for the hobby brought on by Stranger Things to the success of the Honor Among Thieves movie, from the explosion of tabletop-focused podcasts and YouTube shows to the massive popularity of Baldur’s Gate 3, there’s seriously never been a better time to start rolling for initiative.
But navigating the nearly decade-long reign of the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons (AKA 5E) can be a bit difficult for newcomers to digest, especially owing to the plethora of high quality content being put out by third-party creators. If you’ve recently decided to get into the hobby, but don’t know where to start, here’s our recommendations on the best Dungeons & Dragons books in 2023. You can also check out our beginner’s guide to D&D for additional tips.
First-Party Content
A few disclaimers before we dive in! First, this guide will primarily focus on first-party content, since there’s a dizzying amount of third-party content that mostly is geared towards D&D veterans looking to spice up bog standard dungeon crawling. Secondly, we’re going to be excluding the three most essential books: The Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual. While all three of these books are great (and have exciting new versions slated for next year), it’s probably not particularly helpful to recommend them, since you’ll obviously want those basics before diving deeper. If you don’t have those three core rulebooks, you should get them.
Here are the best Dungeons & Dragon books worth having in 2023:
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (Sourcebook)
Quite possibly the most essential sourcebook since it was published in 2017, this expansion focuses on providing additional player options, including over 25 subclasses, 20 racial feats, new spells, and more. It also includes some helpful tools for the game master (like building traps) and some optional rules to flesh out some concepts from the core rulebooks (like playing through downtime).
Admittedly though, this sourcebook is more useful to players than it is to game masters, but if you want your party to have more options, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better sourcebook than this one. If you want Wizards who can learn War Magic, Paladins who have made an Oath of Redemption, or most importantly, Monks who can master drunken fighting style, you’re going to want to add this sourcebook to your collection immediately.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything (Sourcebook)
Similar to Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, this sourcebook is all about providing more player options and expanding upon ideas from the core rulebooks. Every class gets access to optional class features, there’s a whole host of new spells to peruse, and the game master can look forward to considering new rules for sidekicks, natural hazards, parlaying with monsters, and supernatural environments.
Again, most of the options in this one are geared towards players, but we consider this an essential part of injecting some class diversity into your milquetoast D&D party.
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (Adventure)
One of the coolest adventures published by Wizards of the Coast, this roleplay-heavy quest is filled with intrigue and deadly feuds. While many D&D adventures are filled with dungeon crawls and loads of monsters to fight, we prefer journeys that are packed with social encounters, political conflict, and subterfuge, and Waterdeep provides just that in one fantastic package.
The adventure begins when a famous explorer ensnares the party in a bitter conflict between two criminal enterprises, with the promise of great riches that lie hidden somewhere in the city’s shadowy corners. Also, the book offers four possible antagonists, which can be swapped out by the game master depending on their preference – a neat little feature that allows for surprises even if players have played or seen other groups play the adventure before.
Also, if you like this adventure, there’s a direct follow-up called Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. As the name suggests, it has a significantly different vibe (trading intrigue for dungeons), but it at least provides some options for an extended campaign.
Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse (Sourcebook/Adventure Bundle)
Planescape, the multiversal setting that sits at the center of the Forgotten Realms, is one of D&D’s most interesting worlds (not to mention the setting for Planescape: Torment, one of the all-time greatest RPGs), and this collection of three sourcebooks absolutely knocks it out of the park.
If you’re concerned that the three-book bundle follows in the disappointing footsteps of Spelljammer – fear not – clearly Wizards of the Coast has heard the feedback loud and clear and this expansion doesn’t skimp out on the details. The setting book, Sigil and the Outlands, is bursting with setting details from major landmarks to my personal favorite: factions (complete with extremely troubling philosophies). The setting’s monster manual, Morte’s Planar Parade, provides plenty of options for GMs to throw at their PCs during a campaign in Sigil, and the adventure, Turn of Fortune’s Wheel, goes some really interesting places.
All-in-All, this sourcebook bundle has really impressed us, and makes great use out of one of D&D’s best settings. We love it and think you will too.
Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk (Adventure)
Another recent release is the massive expansion to The Lost Mine of Phandelver, an adventure that was many tabletop players’ first foray into the magical universe of D&D. Phandelver and Below takes players back to the frontier town of Phandalin to dive deeper into the mystery of the magical obelisks found throughout the land. Throughout the course of this lengthy campaign, the party will unravel a conspiracy that’s worse than anything they could have imagined, when mystery becomes cosmic horror.
Honestly, this adventure is unlike anything Wizards has published in the past, and with Mind Flayers taking a central role in the narrative, hot on the heels of Baldur’s Gate 3, combined with the nostalgia hit of Phandalin, this is one of the best campaigns to run in 2023.
Eberron: Rising from the Last War (Sourcebook/Adventure)
This setting sourcebook is set in a war torn world with floating castles, skyscrapers, and airships, and is one of the more unique setting options to consider if you’d like to stray from the basics of the Forgotten Realms. There’s some really cool stuff packed in this one, including some new species options called Dragonmarks.
The pulpy post-war vibes in this setting offer lots of opportunities for roleplay-focused groups, but also plenty of swashbuckling goodness as well. The package also includes a campaign that focuses on Mournland, a creepy place that’s rife with not-so-fun magic. We’ll leave it at that, for now….
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen (Adventure)
This adventure also introduces a new (at least to 5E) setting, Dragonlance, which was recently incorporated into The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons lorebook. If you dream of mass combat encounters featuring lots of enemies warring with one another and dragons laying waste to numerous foes, this is the book for you.
The adventure is quite lengthy, and focused on the death knight Lord Soth and his frightening army of draconians as the primary antagonist. There’s also some new player options to boot!
Curse of Strahd (Adventure)
One of the OG adventures from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, this classic gothic horror is a remake of a very old adventure from the first edition of the game. It’s got vampires! It’s got blood! It’s got really creepy toys you probably shouldn’t interact with, but probably will! What’s not to like?
If you enjoy this one, there’s also a supplement to support the setting called Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, though honestly, it’s vampires hanging out in castles – you probably get the idea without needing to read a whole book on the matter.
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (Adventure)
Did we mention we like adventures with lots of roleplaying potential? Because another great option for doing just that is The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, an adventure that takes place in the Feywild setting that’s got a pretty cool carnival going on where nothing untoward is going on – probably. This one’s a lot of fun for parties that like having multiple options for solving a problem, not all of which include physical violence.
The book also offers two new playable species and some additional backgrounds to go with them. You can even decide to be a carny, meaning your character’s dreams of running away to join the circus can now become a reality – or a background.
Third-Party Content
Okay, okay – we know we were supposed to keep this thing limited to first-party stuff, since there’s just too much to cover in the third-party space, but we can’t help but name drop just a few quick titles you should consider checking out, including:
Strongholds and Followers, a sourcebook published by MCDM Productions that adds rules for GMs to give their parties bases and NPC friendlies. This book was so good that Wizards seems to be cribbing from it with their much more player-focused Bastion rules that will debut in next year’s revisions for the core rulebooks.
Flee, Mortals!, a monster manual published by MCDM Productions that redesigns lots of D&D monsters to be more interesting and adds some new ones to boot. It also has a companion book called Where Evil Lives that provides a single dungeon for groups to enjoy.
Tome of Beasts/Creature Codex, monster manuals published by Kobold Press that add even more monsters to the mix. The three volumes of Tome of Beasts are particularly useful for high-level groups looking for endgame challenges.
Grim Hollow, a dark fantasy setting created by Ghostfire Gaming that brings players into a much grimmer world of war, dark magic, and plagues. If you want to step out of the basic D&D settings, this is definitely one to consider. Plus, they’ve got plenty of books to support the setting, so you can dive in as deep as you like!
And there you have it! Those are our top recommendations for the books you should consider buying in 2023. What do you think? Are there any of your favorites that we missed? Sound off in the comments to let us know how wrong we are.
Travis Northup is a writer for IGN based in San Francisco. He’s been writing about games for over a decade and enjoys everything from strategy games and platformers to shooters and open-world RPGs. He also has an unhealthy relationship with Destiny 2.