New to D&D? 4 Books to Play and Level Up Your Experience

Tags New Player's Guide

D&D Beyond offers the Basic Rules of fifth-edition Dungeons & Dragons for free. These rules help you explore the game and get a feel for the different races, classes, and monsters without any investment.

But if you’re interested in seeing the breadth of character creation options available in the books — or you want to pick up tools to run your own game — we recommend the following D&D books for beginners:

Share your books with other players

D&D Beyond users with a Master-tier subscription can freely share books they’ve purchased with players in their campaigns.

To do so, create a campaign. Then, navigate to your campaign’s page and select “Enable Content Sharing.” Players who join your campaign will automatically have access to your purchased books on D&D Beyond. You can share content with up to 12 players in each of five campaigns.

Player’s Handbook

Player's Handbook coverThe Player’s Handbook is the quintessential book for new players. It includes everything you need to create characters, including the core classes, races, backgrounds, and spells. You’ll also find the rules for multiclassing and feats, which are optional rules that can further customize your characters:

  • Multiclassing. You can gain levels in two or more classes, allowing you to mix their abilities. A lot of abilities are front loaded in classes and can result in powerful and flavorful combinations. A wizard who takes two levels in fighter can use the Action Surge feature to cast two spells in a turn, for example. But you might simply decide that your barbarian character has taken an interest in yodeling and should pick up a few levels of bard.
  • Feats. Whenever a player character receives an Ability Score Improvement, they could pick up a feat to specialize in an area beyond what their class provides or to supplement their strengths. For example, a barbarian could choose Great Weapon Master to help deal damage instead of only acting as a shield; a wizard could choose Magic Initiate to gain two cantrips and a 1st-level spell.

The appendices of the Player’s Handbook expand on the lore behind D&D. You’ll find information on the gods, multiverse, and creatures you might encounter.

Dungeon Master's Guide

Dungeon Master's Guide coverA Dungeon Master runs more than a dungeon — they create and manage the whole world that the party interacts with. From voicing and puppeteering creatures to moaning like the wind, the Dungeon Master has a lot to do. The Dungeon Master’s Guide offers everything you need to run your own game.

You’ll learn about the different styles of play in D&D and how to create worlds. The book also contains magic items to shower on your player characters and all the nitty-gritty rules you need to run encounters, downtime activities, and make exploration exciting.

Here are more examples of what you’ll find in the book:

  • Discover new settings: Want to take your player characters to the unpredictable Plane of Faerie? You’ll learn about fey crossings and the time-warping effects of the Feywild. Want to explore the Shadowfell, where undead creatures can hunt your player characters? You’ll find details in this book.
  • Create villains: If you want to tell the story of a new crime boss who has overthrown The Xanathar Guild, the book has rollable tables to help you create a villain and determine their motivations.
  • Designing adventures: Dreaming up a plot for a session or entire campaign can be challenging. This book offers guidance on structuring an adventure and has rollable tables for determining the quest the party receives, how you might introduce it, the climax of the adventure, and complications the party will encounter.
Looking for an adventure?

If you're a new Dungeon Master, learning the rules of the game on top of writing and running your own campaign can be a challenge. You might also find that building your own world is easier when you have published material to reference. If you're looking for recommendations on an adventure to run, check out our primer of the best adventures for new Dungeon Masters.

Monster Manual

Monster Manual coverThe Monster Manual provides the stat blocks on about 500 monsters drawn from mythologies across the world. If you want classical monsters like werewolves and vampires, you’ve got ‘em. If you want fantastical aberrations like floating eyeballs and space lizards, you’ve got ‘em. If you want elemental entities like sentient flames — that’s right, you’ve got ‘em.

Dungeon Masters don’t have to use a monster as a great, big, physical adversary. Here are some other ways you might use the monsters found in the Monster Manual:

  • An unexpected ally. Creatures could give advice or blessings. If the party is working to save a forest, a unicorn might appear to protect them from dangers. In dungeons, flumphs could foreshadow what’s ahead by changing colors to depict whether they’re amused, scared, or angry.
  • To offer needed exposition. A guardian naga could be seeking to retrieve a magical relic that the party is after and offer a short history lesson on the item.
  • Serve as an adventure hook. A sprite caught in a traveling circus might offer to draw a treasure map if you help them escape.
  • Provide moral quandaries. Will player characters make a deal with a green hag for the greater good? Will they put innocents in danger to capture or kill a vile creature?
  • Be the base for a homebrew creation. D&D Beyond lets you take a published creature and use it as a base for your homebrew creations.
Explore free creatures in the Basic Rules

The Basic Rules on D&D Beyond offer free creatures for you to use in your fifth-edition D&D game. Click here to begin browsing creatures. If you want to see creatures found only in the Basic Rules, select “Show Advanced Filters” and then fill in the “Sources” section with “Basic Rules.”

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything coverTasha herself is a chaotic non-player character, and her book introduces a slew of new character options that will have players drooling. Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything includes new subclasses, spells, feats, and magic items, as well as the custom lineage option, which lets you customize your starting race or create a new one.

Every class receives at least one brand-new subclass in this book. These include the Armorer artificer, Way of the Astral Self monk, Rune Knight fighter, and Twilight Domain cleric. Subclasses that were previously printed across several different publications are reprinted here, as well.

Aside from new spells, you’ll also find that some existing spells have been added to new classes. A lot of the new feats in the book can also be taken by just about any character, expanding your ability to customize your character.

Dungeon Masters will enjoy the 47 new magic items presented in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Magic tattoos, in particular, can be a fun addition to your campaign, while items like the bloodwell vial can help players get more mileage out of class abilities.

But some of the most important content for Dungeon Masters is found in the latter parts of the book. There, you’ll find the long-awaited session zero blueprint — the meeting that the Dungeon Master and players should have before the start of a campaign. It discusses how everyone at the table can communicate their wants and needs and create a safe and inviting space.

Which D&D books should you buy first?

If you’re a new player to Dungeons & Dragons, the Player’s Handbook is a great place to start. Once you’re familiar with the system — or if you’re just raring for more character creation options — Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is a great purchase for your second book. In addition to new content, it consolidates character options found in other books like Eberron: Rising From the Last War, which first introduced the artificer class.

For Dungeon Masters, the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide are must-haves for understanding the rules of the game and running it. Although the Monster Manual is an important addition to your collection, if you need to hold off on the purchase, you could make do with the free creatures offered in the Basic Rules. When you’re ready to level up your and your player’s game experience, snag a copy of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

Jenn Jones (@jennesai) is a writer, hiker, cosplayer, and avid consumer of board games. She lives in Charlotte with way too many paint supplies, never enough dice, and one cat.

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