The 10 Best Dungeons and Dragons Books

Editor's Notes

October 29, 2019:

First released in 1974, Dungeons & Dragons is an immersive, imagination-based role-playing game that has been captivating fans for decades. Requiring both players and a dungeon master, it is a group activity that involves fighting fictional monsters with spells and weapons, treasure seeking, and interacting with the setting's various other inhabitants, with the outcomes based on a combination of your decision-making skills and the roll of a dice. We have included indispensable guides for players and dungeon masters, adventure books, and novels.

We have updated our list this year to include the newest Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual for the fifth edition, which is generally regarded as being easier to learn than previous iterations. New character types, spells, and monsters should help lure back some experienced players who may have grown bored with the game.

We also removed Homeland, which was part one of The Dark Elf Trilogy, and instead replaced it with The Legend of Drizzt 25th Anniversary Edition, which contains all three books. We did the same for Dragons of Autumn Twilight, replacing it with the Dragonlance Chronicles, which is a set of all three novels of this famous series. We did this because believe that anybody reading the first installment of either of these will be dripping with anticipation of moving onto the next.

For those looking for adventure books, rather than a guide or novel, we have included Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which contains rule sets for ocean-faring campaigns, and Curse Of Strahd, which reinvigorates the world of Ravenloft.

For the many Dungeons & Dragons fans who also enjoy Magic: The Gathering, we recommend you take a look at our list of the best Magic booster boxes.