I would love to buy a bundle but it is out of my range at this time. I am interested in buying some coursebooks and want to get the most out of character creation that I can.
Obviously I think I need the Players Handbook.
I am also thinking Xanthar and Eberron.
Thoughts?
I have a player in my game that got Eberron for Christmas and she wants to play a race out of there. I don't want to say no to her as she was very excited about getting the book. So I wanted to purchase the digital version for my own use. I have another that wants to play an alchemist. What book would that be in?
The books I recommend for players/characters are the PHB and XGtE. Almost more important than the subclasses are the spells.
The SCAG has some races, subclasses, and spells. Mostly pretty niche choices though.
VGtM and MToF have playable races. I pretty much just recommend buying those piecemeal unless you really want the lore and monsters that they have.
The eberron book you need is Eberron: Rising from the Last War. If the DM is allowing eberron content (because it is a different setting with different lore, etc from Forgotten Realms) I recommend it over the SCAG.
I agree with DxJxC - the PHB and XGTE will get you the most, after that you can get the other stuff from other books on a piecemeal, "as needed" basis.
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Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
VgtM is probably my favorite sourcebook and IMHO the first really good sourcebook. It nearly doubles the number of playable races from core It also provides a lot of great ideas for anyone playing a yuan-ti or goblinoid. If you're okay with your party being an orc, a kobold, a lizardman and an elf out to save the world, this would be my recommendation.
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Another medical problem. Indefinite hiatus. Sorry, all.
If you are buying on dnd beyond, don’t forget that you can buy things piecemeal for $1.99 and that goes towards the price of the book if you want to buy it later.
As a follow up. I analyzed what I want and using the above suggestions I also went through all the other sources and added in things I wanted, which are mostly class related.
Spent a little more than was comfortable but I will be able to help provide a better experience for my players.
if you don't want the content, i really recommend you don't buy adventures... though you'd be missing out a lot by not buying them. aka many adventure books have player content.
so what i would do, is definitely buy the player content of everybook that has some. but even that will cost you bucks, buying the whole books is often more attractive penny wise then buying things individually. exemple of the player handbook. buying only races, classes, backgrounds and spells as well as feats will cost you more then book cost itself. the same is pretty true for XgTE. so calculate how much it would cost you and then check if its really worth it to buy just the player content. for my part, most of the time the content is 10$ and if i buy everything except that. i end up being only 5$ away. which is not a big difference when you consider it. some books will definitely cost you more then book own worth if you buy piecemeal, so as i said, just calculate your stuff before doing that.
the goal of the thing is that books are already much cheaper and thus are already "low price" they voluntarily put everything else higher price because they definitely want you to buy in bundles and not each items. a good exemple of that is how 1 character class is 2$ each, buy them 1 by 1 and you get a total of 26$ for all 13 classes. Thats literally the price for the book right there. now they say you can have them all for about 5$, now thats a lot of savings... now do the same for every books and you'll catch that the more you buy, the more savings you do.
overall, if you add the money from buying player content... you'll see that most of the time you are not saving much, if anything at all. the player stuff just cost more.
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DM of two gaming groups. Likes to create stuff. Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games --> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
If you buy just the character content for DDB (race, subrace, background), there's usually some stuff in the source beyond character content that can add to the whole character creation. It is my opinion that reading the source before diving into character creation is better than getting DDB character content features alone. (You can both read the source and create characters from the source material with one purchase here at DDB. No. I was not endorsed by DDB to state that, but I could be.)
To the original question: PHB and XGtE are my recommendations. DMG and MM have a little bit more toward character creation, but it is also my opinion that it would be better to wait to dive into the DMG or MM until you can discuss with the DM for further character creation if you think it's necessary to use content from those sources for your character.
Disclaimer: "My" refers to just one opinion and not a consensus and not guaranteed to be objective.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Keep in mind that your players can pay for things as well. If anyone in the campaign has a master tier subscription, then everyone can share everyone else's content.
Don't be afraid to tell your players that you'll pay for the subscription if they buy the content (or vise versa). Sometimes players will bite. And sometimes they will be find with the Basic Rules, in which case, why would you buy content for them?
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I would love to buy a bundle but it is out of my range at this time. I am interested in buying some coursebooks and want to get the most out of character creation that I can.
Obviously I think I need the Players Handbook.
I am also thinking Xanthar and Eberron.
Thoughts?
I have a player in my game that got Eberron for Christmas and she wants to play a race out of there. I don't want to say no to her as she was very excited about getting the book. So I wanted to purchase the digital version for my own use. I have another that wants to play an alchemist. What book would that be in?
Tanks in advance.
The books I recommend for players/characters are the PHB and XGtE. Almost more important than the subclasses are the spells.
The SCAG has some races, subclasses, and spells. Mostly pretty niche choices though.
VGtM and MToF have playable races. I pretty much just recommend buying those piecemeal unless you really want the lore and monsters that they have.
The eberron book you need is Eberron: Rising from the Last War. If the DM is allowing eberron content (because it is a different setting with different lore, etc from Forgotten Realms) I recommend it over the SCAG.
I agree with DxJxC - the PHB and XGTE will get you the most, after that you can get the other stuff from other books on a piecemeal, "as needed" basis.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
VgtM is probably my favorite sourcebook and IMHO the first really good sourcebook. It nearly doubles the number of playable races from core It also provides a lot of great ideas for anyone playing a yuan-ti or goblinoid. If you're okay with your party being an orc, a kobold, a lizardman and an elf out to save the world, this would be my recommendation.
Another medical problem. Indefinite hiatus. Sorry, all.
If you are buying on dnd beyond, don’t forget that you can buy things piecemeal for $1.99 and that goes towards the price of the book if you want to buy it later.
Dxjcx Thanks for the most excellent response. I am the dm, I will allow characters from other realms. My intent is fun and not a rule lawyer.
As a follow up. I analyzed what I want and using the above suggestions I also went through all the other sources and added in things I wanted, which are mostly class related.
Spent a little more than was comfortable but I will be able to help provide a better experience for my players.
which book allows playable lizard folk?
Volo’s Guide to Monsters
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
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thank you
if you don't want the content, i really recommend you don't buy adventures... though you'd be missing out a lot by not buying them. aka many adventure books have player content.
so what i would do, is definitely buy the player content of everybook that has some. but even that will cost you bucks, buying the whole books is often more attractive penny wise then buying things individually. exemple of the player handbook. buying only races, classes, backgrounds and spells as well as feats will cost you more then book cost itself. the same is pretty true for XgTE. so calculate how much it would cost you and then check if its really worth it to buy just the player content. for my part, most of the time the content is 10$ and if i buy everything except that. i end up being only 5$ away. which is not a big difference when you consider it. some books will definitely cost you more then book own worth if you buy piecemeal, so as i said, just calculate your stuff before doing that.
the goal of the thing is that books are already much cheaper and thus are already "low price" they voluntarily put everything else higher price because they definitely want you to buy in bundles and not each items. a good exemple of that is how 1 character class is 2$ each, buy them 1 by 1 and you get a total of 26$ for all 13 classes. Thats literally the price for the book right there. now they say you can have them all for about 5$, now thats a lot of savings... now do the same for every books and you'll catch that the more you buy, the more savings you do.
overall, if you add the money from buying player content... you'll see that most of the time you are not saving much, if anything at all. the player stuff just cost more.
DM of two gaming groups.
Likes to create stuff.
Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses
If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games
--> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
If you buy just the character content for DDB (race, subrace, background), there's usually some stuff in the source beyond character content that can add to the whole character creation. It is my opinion that reading the source before diving into character creation is better than getting DDB character content features alone. (You can both read the source and create characters from the source material with one purchase here at DDB. No. I was not endorsed by DDB to state that, but I could be.)
To the original question: PHB and XGtE are my recommendations. DMG and MM have a little bit more toward character creation, but it is also my opinion that it would be better to wait to dive into the DMG or MM until you can discuss with the DM for further character creation if you think it's necessary to use content from those sources for your character.
Disclaimer: "My" refers to just one opinion and not a consensus and not guaranteed to be objective.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
What does IMHO and DxJxC stand for?
IMHO = "In my humble opinion"
DxJxC = the username of a member here.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
oh, ok, thanks
Keep in mind that your players can pay for things as well. If anyone in the campaign has a master tier subscription, then everyone can share everyone else's content.
Don't be afraid to tell your players that you'll pay for the subscription if they buy the content (or vise versa). Sometimes players will bite. And sometimes they will be find with the Basic Rules, in which case, why would you buy content for them?