Give me a brief explanation of your favorite sourcebook and or adventure book.
My son and I have sold a bunch of old D&D stuff on ebay. That old stuff is giving us the funds to buy here. But after the basics and the Players bundle we're looking for a few more books. In order to simplify our games we have a Master account which we will upgrade for a year.
We're relatively new to beyond but have had a great experience so far. We're overwhelmed by the number of volumes and have no idea where to start. Beyond what we bought and what will buy we're looking for a recommendation. But don't tell me what I should buy; instead tell me about your favorite books and why you like them
We already own: DM Guide, Players Handbook, Essentials Bundle (Dragon of Icespire Peak, Storm Lord’s Wrath, Sleeping Dragon’s Wake, and Divine Contention adventures)
We are going to buy the Monster Manual and the Players Bundle: (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)
After that??? We're looking for 1 Sourcebook and 1 Adventure book (Maybe the Map pack)
With the PHb, XGtE and TCoE you have most of player options.
To add to that, perrsonally, I think Volo's Guide to Monsters is cool, as it gives you a bunch of cool monster and lore and some monstrous races on top of that. If you plan running homebrew or like to add some cool creatures on published adventures, it's a good source book.
If you like the steampunk noir vibe, Eberron: Rise from The Last War is a good setting that has some cool player options on top. (The same could be said for Wildemount, if you are a CR fan). I think both add interesting options in terms of races and classes and help to add flavor on things. I find the take of Wildemount lore on Dark Elves pretty interesting and the whole vibe of Eberron is pretty unique.
In terms of adventures, it is hard to say just based on my tastes as it really depends on your style. More RP heavy and story focused? Curse of Strahd. More into exploring with some neat dungeons? Tomb of Annihilation. Like a sandboxy high fantasy? Storm King's Thunder.
My personal favorite? I think I would be very controversial and go with Storm King's Thunder. More because of the high fantasy vibe. I think the book offers a lot of sandbox options and is easy to tweak and input into a homebrew setting/campaign. The story is good, albeit the execution as written can be a bit clunky.
I would just stay away from Hoard of the Dragon Queen (it's not as well written as the more recent adventures).
I would echo Volo's Guide to Monsters, but with Fizban's Treasury of Dragons scheduled to be released in a month I'll suggest waiting until the reviews on that one come in. Volo's is great, I don't think you're going to regret buying it, but Fizban's is a book about dragons. They're kind of iconic and make up half the name of the game.
Adventure-wise I'll throw my hat in the ring for Tomb of Annihilation. It's not the easiest campaign to prep but it's far from the worst either, and for me it's the one that best straddles old school vibe and modern adventure design out of all WotC's offerings so far. It's also just a fun romp, which is still the style D&D does best in my opinion.
Pairing Curse of Strahd with Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is darn good too, they're both among the best ones in their respective categories, but it kind of locks you into a pretty bleak horror setting that you may love but also hate.
Out of the Abyss is my fav campaign book to run, I have run it twice now and am probably going to be looking for a party to run it with a 3rd time the back end of this year. It needs a lot of Prep work and some of the middle bits of the campaign become a mini sandbox that needs a lot of effort.
I can't really talk for sourceboks, Mordenekeinans tomb of foes has some interesting information in it, Volo's guide to monsters has some extra monsters but I will say combined with the Monster Manual you can get a bit overwhelmed with choice sometimes and if you are new to 5th edition there is plenty to have fun with in the monster manual without then giving yourself the extra choice of another 150+ monsters.
Give me a brief explanation of your favorite sourcebook and or adventure book.
My son and I have sold a bunch of old D&D stuff on ebay. That old stuff is giving us the funds to buy here. But after the basics and the Players bundle we're looking for a few more books. In order to simplify our games we have a Master account which we will upgrade for a year.
We're relatively new to beyond but have had a great experience so far. We're overwhelmed by the number of volumes and have no idea where to start. Beyond what we bought and what will buy we're looking for a recommendation. But don't tell me what I should buy; instead tell me about your favorite books and why you like them
We already own: DM Guide, Players Handbook, Essentials Bundle (Dragon of Icespire Peak, Storm Lord’s Wrath, Sleeping Dragon’s Wake, and Divine Contention adventures)
We are going to buy the Monster Manual and the Players Bundle: (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)
After that??? We're looking for 1 Sourcebook and 1 Adventure book (Maybe the Map pack)
With the PHb, XGtE and TCoE you have most of player options.
To add to that, perrsonally, I think Volo's Guide to Monsters is cool, as it gives you a bunch of cool monster and lore and some monstrous races on top of that. If you plan running homebrew or like to add some cool creatures on published adventures, it's a good source book.
If you like the steampunk noir vibe, Eberron: Rise from The Last War is a good setting that has some cool player options on top. (The same could be said for Wildemount, if you are a CR fan). I think both add interesting options in terms of races and classes and help to add flavor on things. I find the take of Wildemount lore on Dark Elves pretty interesting and the whole vibe of Eberron is pretty unique.
In terms of adventures, it is hard to say just based on my tastes as it really depends on your style. More RP heavy and story focused? Curse of Strahd. More into exploring with some neat dungeons? Tomb of Annihilation. Like a sandboxy high fantasy? Storm King's Thunder.
My personal favorite? I think I would be very controversial and go with Storm King's Thunder. More because of the high fantasy vibe. I think the book offers a lot of sandbox options and is easy to tweak and input into a homebrew setting/campaign. The story is good, albeit the execution as written can be a bit clunky.
I would just stay away from Hoard of the Dragon Queen (it's not as well written as the more recent adventures).
I would echo Volo's Guide to Monsters, but with Fizban's Treasury of Dragons scheduled to be released in a month I'll suggest waiting until the reviews on that one come in. Volo's is great, I don't think you're going to regret buying it, but Fizban's is a book about dragons. They're kind of iconic and make up half the name of the game.
Adventure-wise I'll throw my hat in the ring for Tomb of Annihilation. It's not the easiest campaign to prep but it's far from the worst either, and for me it's the one that best straddles old school vibe and modern adventure design out of all WotC's offerings so far. It's also just a fun romp, which is still the style D&D does best in my opinion.
Pairing Curse of Strahd with Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is darn good too, they're both among the best ones in their respective categories, but it kind of locks you into a pretty bleak horror setting that you may love but also hate.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Out of the Abyss is my fav campaign book to run, I have run it twice now and am probably going to be looking for a party to run it with a 3rd time the back end of this year. It needs a lot of Prep work and some of the middle bits of the campaign become a mini sandbox that needs a lot of effort.
I can't really talk for sourceboks, Mordenekeinans tomb of foes has some interesting information in it, Volo's guide to monsters has some extra monsters but I will say combined with the Monster Manual you can get a bit overwhelmed with choice sometimes and if you are new to 5th edition there is plenty to have fun with in the monster manual without then giving yourself the extra choice of another 150+ monsters.
These responses are great. Thank you.