Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition

by Wizards of the Coast

Explore a wealth of fantastic new rules options for both players and Dungeon Masters in this supplement for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

Assembled here for the first time is new information on adventurers of every stripe. In addition, you’ll find and valuable advice for those of nefarious intent who must deal with such meddling do-gooders, including the Xanathar’s personal thoughts on how to dispatch anyone foolish enough to interfere with his business dealings. Alongside observations on “heroes” themselves, the beholder fills the pages of this tome with his personal thoughts on tricks, traps, and even treasures and how they can be put to villainous use.

Complete rules for more than twenty new subclasses for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, including the cavalier, the inquisitive, the horizon walker, and many more.

Dozens of new feats and spells, and a system to give your character a unique, randomized backstory.

A variety of systems and tools that provide Dungeon Masters new ways to personalize their home games, while also expanding the ways players can engage in organized play and shared world campaigns.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but evil is in its heart!

The Xanathar…
Waterdeep’s most infamous crime lord, and a beholder to boot…
You’d be shocked to discover just how much he knows about you…
Yes, you… adventurers.

Genres: Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Role Playing Games, Gaming, Reference, Games, Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published November 21, 2017

About the author

Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC /ˈwɒtˌsiː/ or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. Originally a basement-run role-playing game publisher, the company popularized the collectible card game genre with Magic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s, acquired the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game by purchasing the failing company TSR, and experienced tremendous success by publishing the licensed Pokémon Trading Card Game. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Renton, Washington in the United States.[1]

Wizards of the Coast publishes role-playing games, board games, and collectible card games. They have received numerous awards, including several Origins Awards. The company has been a subsidiary of Hasbro since 1999. All Wizards of the Coast stores were closed in 2004.

Reviews

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, it's an RPG source book. And yes, I read it straight through–skimmed a bit on the tables. It was fun!

That said, anyone without an interest in Dungeons & Dragons will probably want to give this a miss. And, if you're unfamiliar with D&D, you're better off starting with the Player's Handbook. Xanathar's is a supplemental volume, suggesting additional character classes and magic among other goodies. It's designed to be used with the 5th Edition rules (the current standard, as of this writing), though specific familiarity with them isn't mandatory. Just a general knowledge of tabletop RPGs should be sufficient. My personal D&D experience is pretty much all 1st edition–old school gamer here–but I had no trouble getting into the text.

My favorite bit was probably the Wizard spell, Steel Wind Strike. It seems to be inspired by anime, and allows the character to brandish a blade, vanish from sight, attack up to five enemies within range, and then appear next to one of them. It's a very cool move to contemplate.

If you desire to add some extra flavor to your AD&D 5e game, this book has some great ideas in it. Recommended!

[Dan Schwent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, this is a collection of bells and whistles for D&D 5e players and dungeon masters alike. There are more subclasses, more spells, more magic items, and more DM tools. Some 2e kits made their way back into the game as subclasses, like the blade option from the Complete Book of Bards to the Kensei from whatever book that was in. There are also more ways to flesh out backgrounds and quirks. The DM tools are good too, from the collections of traps to tables for generating random names. I'm going to read this again but it feels more useful than the Tasha's book to me.

[Adam Cleaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really a story so hard to give it a star review, however, as an expansion to the D&D rules this is a really good addition to the main rule books. I like the idea of fleshing out the characters backgrounds in the game and being able to use new additional abilities. For me the character design is a major part of the fun of D&D and this just makes this part more enjoyable and really does let you make a more detailed and a more umique type of character. - So if you are looking for more player options give this a read.

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roll for adventure, no preplanning needed! The encounter tables are awesome! There are even downtime tables. Are you a low, middle, or upper class carouser? Life’s great questions, lol.

This is where you find Path of the Zealot, which doesn’t look a tenth as cool as whatever homebrew made Yasha from Campaign Two of Critical Role.

Infernal Constitution was the most useful find.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly an epic addition to 5e DnD. This makes generating a character for a first time player (or veteran) even easier. The layout of the book and the charts are just well placed and though out. Allowing players to create a well rounded character via dice rolls if they want. This provides a much faster path to filling in a characters back story or at least provides you with enough starting points to round them out with greater ease.

It even has a section that helps you generate a freaking name for your character! Add to that the new charts and game creating help it provides for DM's, this book is a fantastic tool for both players and DM's.

Having toyed around with several of the new character class options already in actual game play I can honestly say..these options are wonderful. They add a nice bit of flavor to the standard character archetypes (honestly Cleric of the Forge is how you make your healer the tank of your party).

I can't recommend this book enough for both new and returning DnD players.

[Diz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is worth picking up for players and DMs for the additional character options. The additional spells and and magic items are nice to have as well.

[Shadowdenizen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. The D&D 5E line continues to impress. This book expands substanstially on the core rules, but manages to (mostly) avoid power-creep, and feels useful as a great supplement/ add-on to most campaigns.

And I enjoy the snarky asides from the titular character sprinkled throughout the book.

[James Bowman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A major expansion for the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition game, Xanathar's Guide to Everything has a ton of new options for players and Dungeon Masters to use in their campaigns. Similar to 5E itself, much of the material in Xanathar's was publicly playtested at length before being published, as part of the Unearthed Arcana column on the D&D web site. Similar to Volo's Guide to Monsters, this book has the conceit of being narrated by the Xanathar, a beholder crime lord from the Forgotten Realms setting. (The Xanathar isn't nearly as entertaining as Volo and Elminster were in Volo's, however.) After a brief introduction (that includes something of a rules FAQ), there are three chapters in the book: one for player options, one for DM options, and one for new spells. There are also two appendices.

Let's go through this section by section.

Chapter 1 - Character Options: The meat of the book, this section starts with 31 subclass options, at least one for every class. Four of these are not actually new - the Sun Soul Monk, the Mastermind and Swashbuckler Rogues, and the Storm Sorcerer were all originally presented in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. (Presumably these were included for the benefit of D&D Adventurers League players, who only get to choose non-core options from a single rulebook. I'd hate to think it was padding.) Many significant fantasy/RPG archetypes missing from the game are also represented here, including Grave Domain Clerics (for non-evil death gods), Circle of the Shepherd Druids (empowered by animal spirits), Cavalier and Samurai Fighters, Way of the Drunken Master Monks, Monster Slayer Rangers, Inquisitive Rogues (if you want to be a fantasy detective), and Shadow Magic Sorcerers. I also particularly liked the Path of the Zealot (basically the barbarian answer to paladins), the Arcane Archer Fighter (magic arrows), and the Divine Soul Sorcerer (touched by the gods).

Mind, I wasn't satisfied with all of these subclasses. A number of options do not feel like they'd easily fit into all campaigns, particularly the Circle of Dreams Druid (which is strongly tied to the Feywild), the Samurai Fighter (which feels very specifically Japanese, rather than pan-Asian in the sense that the Cavalier is pan-European), and the Horizon Walker Ranger (which assumes the existence of a multiverse). This could be fixed with some tinkering and re-flavoring, but it's still a minor disappointment. I'm also not sure we really needed the Monster Slayer Ranger or the Scout Rogue, which could be covered by existing archetypes. I also take issue with the War Magic Wizard, which was not only unnecessary but risks overshadowing the core Wizard options; it particularly steps on the turf of Abjuration and Evocation Wizards. Still, I recognize that all of these options have an audience, and none of them are bad from a design standpoint.

Beyond subclass options, they also provide a lot of other useful material for characters. This includes suggested characterization and quirks for members of each class, animal reference tables for druids, and new Eldritch Invocations for warlocks. The class material is followed by my favorite section in the book, This Is Your Life, an extensive series of tables you can use to work out your character's history, including family, childhood, major life events, important NPCs, and much more. They also provide a section of Racial Feats, which you can choose for your character to unlock additional abilities tied to your character's race. This includes two options with nods back to 4th Edition (for elves and gnomes) and my pick of the litter, Prodigy, which lets humans and half-humans become extra-skilled.

Chapter 2 - Dungeon Master's Tools: This chapter has lots and lots of useful material for DMs, including:
- A handful of possibly unnecessary but still very useful rules clarifications
- A section on the use of tool proficiencies, with lots of suggestions for making each tool useful (some suggestions blur the line between tool and full-fledged profession, but they're all still very good to have)
- Useful guidelines for adjudicating and representing spells
- An alternate system for building encounters (I don't think it's perfect but it at least seems better than the one in the Dungeon Master's Guide)
- A very useful list of random encounter tables for various environments (including some non-combat options)
- A much-needed section on building and using traps (although the section on complex traps may be too ambitious)
- Significantly expanded and revised downtime rules (including much-needed new rules on buying and crafting and selling magic items, and cool skill-centric systems for resolving many other options)
- A new system for awarding magic items (including dividing them into minor and major items)
- A very fun selection of new common magic items

Overall, this chapter is incredibly handy and addresses many previous shortcomings in the game.

Chapter 3 - Spells: Something D&D 5E hasn't had enough of, IMHO, is new spells. This chapter addresses that - there are a whopping 95 spells in here. It should be noted that nearly half of them are not new, as they were originally published in the free Elemental Evil Player's Companion and the non-free Princes of the Apocalypse. (Again, I'm going to hope this was for the benefit of Adventurers' League players and not just to pad the book out.) However, the many new spells address a lot of gaps in class capability, such as spells to summon fiends or stronger mounts. A few are returning favorites from older editions, too (hello, charm monster and Tenser's transformation). And many are just fun and cool (like chaos bolt, shadow blade, steel wind strike, and tiny servant).

I do have a few minor nitpicks with this section, however. Clerics didn't get nearly the options the other dedicated spellcasters did. The spell ceremony confers in-game benefits for things that should be purely role-playing, like joining a church or getting married. There are a few spells in here that feel distinctly psionic. And I feel like mighty fortress (which creates, well, a fortress) should have been 9th-level. However, none of these even remotely outweigh the greatness of the other new options.

Appendices: There are two appendices at the end. The first offers advice for running shared campaigns, where more than one person serves as DM. It's clearly designed to run games specifically in the style of the D&D Adventurers' League, but it still contains a lot of useful advice, particularly in adventure design and rules to streamline play. The second appendix offers lots and lots of suggested names for characters of various races, followed by names from various real-world cultures. This last does feel a bit like padding, but it's still pretty neat.

Xanathar's is a great choice for players, and extremely useful for Dungeon Masters. It's not perfect, but the issues I see are fairly minor, and others may see things differently. (For example, the reprinted material is one of those minor issues... but it's also handy to have all this stuff in one place.) Overall, this book is highly recommended. (A)

[Walker Jinks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a sourcebook for Dungeon Masters. It’s filled with a lot of tools to spice up adventures as a DM but the actual player options are pretty thin. Funnily enough though it does have significantly more additional spells than Tasha’s cauldron of everything which I felt should thematically be the opposite but that’s a minor nitpick. If you are running games this is a great supplement, if you are a player you can probably skip this one.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really great resource, and has some of my favourite class expansions.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best 5e suppliment so far

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ono što se zove role playing games igram od čini mi se devete godine, dakle od neke '89. a Advanced Dungeons & Dragons od '95. Tri godine kasnije, prešao sam na Skills & Powers i potpuno preskočio 3.x ediciju pravila, sve do Pathfindera 2008. ili beše 2009. Dvadeset godina nakon što sam prvi put bio game master.

Danas je moj omiljeni sistem zapravo moja teška modifikacija Pathfindera, koju grupa kolega kojima trenutno vodim od milja zove Nightfinder. Međutim, jasno mi se ukazuju pismena na zidu, osećam u koju stranu vetar duva i shvatam da je budućnost D&D 5e, makar što se tiče mog igranja, ako već ne vođenja u tom sistemu.

Govoreći strogo u svoje ime i bez pretenzija da dajem ikakav objektivan sud, 5e je odveć jednostavan, preterano uprošćen sitem i uštrojen u svemu što ne predstavlja čist combat encounter, iako smanjena matematika i suspregnuti power creep predstavljaju neizmernu prednost.

To rekavši, Xanathar's Guide To Everything uvodi solidan broj mehanika koje meni ovu igru čine zanimljivijom i nadahnjuju me da pravim likove i razmišljam o njima u granicama ovog sistema (umesto nekog drugog). Međutim, u delovima kada XGtE pokušava da pokrije makar neke situacije koje su komplikovaniji sistemi kakav je Pathfinder odavno izgustirali, kao što je jednostavno padanje s velike visine ili vezivanje čvorova, pokazuje se krajnje priprostim i kilavim, u nedostatku boljeg izraza.

Deo koji mi je izmamio osmeh ispod brka zapravo je spell-list (iako me nervira što u opisu spellova ne stoji kojoj su klasi namenjene), koji sadrži i neke stare znance sa sve njihovim punim imenima (Melf's Minute Meteors mi prvi padaju na pamet).

Premda i dalje držim da je za ambicioznije i dugovečnije kampanje, koje imaju želju da prerastu hack & slash element RPGa potreban ozbiljniji sistem, D&D 5e polako poprima obrise solidne igre, a XGtE predstavlja krupan iskorak u tom smeru.

Prava je šteta što WotC ne koriste talas popkulturnog hajpa na kojem je 5e sada jezdi, ali je tokom prethodne godine svetlost knjižara i tableta ugledalo nekoliko izvanrednih 3pp dodataka ovom sistemu, što u vidu settinga, odnosno igraćih svetova, što u vidu dodatne mehanike, koja po pravilu u manjoj ili većoj meri prati te svetove.

Xanathar's Guide To Everything se utoliko manje dojmi kao nezavisna publikacija, a više kao vezivno tkivo između Player's Handbooka i Dungeon Master's Guidea i tih 3pp publikacija, pomalo popunjavajući mesom i dalje relativno ogoljeni kostur D&D 5e-a.

Sve u svemu, ipak solidan proizvod za sve pasionirane igrače i rekao bih nezaobilazan dodatak svetom trojstvu D&D pravila.

[Andrew Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a player, I mostly wanted a compendium of new spells and sweet new classes. This book offers some thoughtful lower level spells and additions for some of the more boring classes (i.e. fighter)

I find a lot of the book’s additions such as a list of minor magical items and role playing ideas to not be as interesting to me.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful addition to the core rule books. It offers some really great choices for new subclasses and I love the optional new Dungeon Master rules. There the good selection of new spells and magic items too.

The only thing that didn't work for me at all is the ridiculous list of names at the end. For example, the German names listed are sometimes listed on the wrong gender or are not German at all. Some of the names are weirdly old-fashioned in the sense that nobody these days would be called that but at the same time those names aren't old enough to count as ancient. They're grandma names.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite supplemental book for 5e. This is a great resource for players as well as DMs. Players have several new subclasses with added tidbits unique to each class. For those needing help with backstories, there are a ton of charts to inspire or random roll to get you going.

DMs have plenty of options from random encounter tables by type, to additional rules for falling, sleeping, traps, and downtime. Common items are added to the magic items from the DM Guide and handy charts breaking down those items into Minor and Major and then sorted by rarity.

Xanathar brings more spells to the table, many of which where brought over from Princes of the Apocalypse and rebalanced.

The book includes several hundred names to again inspire or randomly roll. There are 100 names for every race in the Player's Handbook, split between female and male names. The Human options are categorized by sample nation from Mezo-American to the far East to ancient Roman and Greek names.

This book should be in every player's collection and is just as important as the Holy Trinity of the PHB, DMG, and MM.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slightly random grabbag of improvements to 5e. A lot of the new subclasses are seem very fun, and definitely things that I'd want to play. The really useful parts of this, however, are definitely the DM improvements. There are lots of improvements to rules that I've worried about: how to allocate magic items without just using the random tables, and rules for tool proficiencies, which otherwise seem to do almost nothing for most of the game.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

There isn't much of a coherent theme to this supplement — it's a grab bag of new character options and optional rules for the Dungeon Master, much like the old Best of Dragon Magazine books — but there's probably something here to appeal to everybody. Production values are high and the color commentary from the eponymous Xanathar is amusing.

[Kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

The jokes are bad, but that's not why you read this book. :P

[Eskil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siden en av de viktigste medspillerne mine er på den andre siden av Atlanteren er det vanskelig å få til noe mye døndzjenkrååling, så da er det vel ikke noe anna å gjøre enn å lese en regelbok fra perm til perm. Eller to, for den saks skyld.

"Xanathar's Guide to Everything" er et systemsupplement til spillerhåndboka og Dungeon Master-håndboka. Den forutsetter også sånn halvveis at du har de to pluss monstermanualen, men siden jeg er litt gnien har jeg ikke dem, oops. I "Xanathar" finnes to til fire ekstra underklasser for hver klasse, samt nye rasebonuser og lange tabeller man kan bruke til å fylle ut bakhistorien til karakteren sin, fra fødsel til yrkesutøvelse. Det utgjør omtrent en tredjedel av boka.

Den andre tredjedelen er full av verktøy som virker veldig nyttige for både nye og mer erfarne Dungeon Mastere. Den inneholder regler, forslag til hvordan man kan gjøre diverse aspekter av spillet mer interessant og nyttig, flere feller man kan fange karakterene i (inkludert hvor mye XP de bør få, flere måter fellen kan løses på, pluss, pluss) og har tjue sider med tabeller man kan bruke til å rulle tilfeldige vanskelige situasjoner heltene kan havne i. I tillegg er det over ti sider med forslag til hvordan spillere og DMer kan samarbeide for å gi karakterene deres noe å drive på innimellom eventyr for å gi både dem og verdenen en mer virkelighetsnær smak. Det var også en seksjon om magiske gjenstander som gjorde meg oppmerksom på at gruppa mi har fått alt for få magiske gjenstander så langt.

Siste tredjedel er delt mellom en liste over de nye trylleformlene boka introduserer og lister over mulige navn man kan bruke på karakterene sine og skapningene de møter i løpet av eventyrene sine. I klassisk D&D-tradisjon er navna delt inn i "ikke-mennesklige navn" (seks sider) og "mennesklige navn" (12 sider, sortert etter kulturen de tok dem fra (f.eks. "japansk, meso-amerikansk, niger-kongo, norrønt").) Det er alltid vanskeligere å komme på navn til ikke-mennesker, så jeg gir dem bare vanlige navn uansett siden jeg synes det er litt pinlig å bruke for mange fantasy-ord. Derimot er det nok mange som kunne tenkt seg litt flere navn å piffe opp ikke-menneskene sine med.

Som supplement til de tre kjernebøkene (spillerhåndboka, DM-boka og monstermanualen) funker boka kjempegodt. Det var flere ting jeg ikke kunne slå opp i de to sistnevnte siden jeg bare har "Xanathar" og spillerhåndboka, men jeg syntes likevel at jeg fikk mye ut av boka. Den bruker litt mer humor enn for eksempel spillerhåndboka, og jeg koste meg med tabeller som "Upper-Class Carousing Complications" og "Crime".

[Henry Z F2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

(It's a little difficult to write a review since this is more of a guide than novel, but I'll try my best. Don't expect any fancy language tho. Also, sorry, this review might be a little confusing if you haven't played dungeons and dragons, it's really hard to explain what I like in normal people words.)
I was extremely impressed by the presentation of this book, all the pages were well pressed and cut, it had think, colored pages, and the hardcover art was beautiful. Even the back had two different textures, a matte black and a glossy.
I also think the new subclasses for the game (dungeons and dragons) were really creative and interesting. Some of them were a little weak, but nothing a talk with your dungeon master can't fix. These are my favorite new additions: Horizon Walker Ranger, College of Swords Bard, Samurai Fighter, and Storm Sorcery Sorcerer.
I also enjoyed the section about adamantine weapons.
This is a really good book, it's great for any dnd collection, and will help your party for years and years to come.

[Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent addition to Dungeons & Dragons 5e, but also a lot of really helpful tables that could work with any D&D edition and fantasy-based table RPG. The tables are supremely helpful, both for idea generation to fit specific parameters or for randomly generating characters and encounters quickly. Love it!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

A super helpful expansion to the encounter design guidance. And all the fun subclasses!!

Is it too much to ask for a consolidated set of rules / spells / items / subclasses / notes, though? Reading through 4 books at once because they all cross-reference each other instead of duplicating text is aggravating. An unexpected outcome of reading this straight through is the resolve to reflect and refine my own professional writing so documents and their addendums and appendices can be understood in isolation.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Xanathar's Guide to Everything is a supplementary rulebook for Dungeons and Dragons. It includes loads of new subclasses and spells, as well as a bunch of new magical items. It also has suggestions and inspiration for several aspects of the game, such as traps and encounters.

Pretty cool. There is no story whatsoever, this is just a bunch of new rules. It works.
Balancing between 3 and 4 stars, but some of the subclasses are really cool so I'll bump it up to 4.

[Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better sourse books for 5e i think

[Bryan L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great supplement with useful additions for all classes and DMs.

[Carlos Gutiérrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pues la verdad es que salvo el primer capítulo, con nuevas subclases, no le encuentro mayor interés al manual. Personalmente me quedo con Tasha.

[Robert Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like that you get access to subclasses, more background stories, and spells with other goodies, but my favorite by far is downtime activities and ideas for such rulesets. It took some time to digest the tables for the encounters and such, but overall a very helpful book to aid your DND journey.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

NNEEEERRRRRDDD!!

'Tis true.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not needed to play or run a good story. But has some neat Archetypes and other things for creating characters

[Daniel A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've said before that the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons has greatly benefited from the Wizards RPG Team's having released a comparative minimum of new rulebooks for D&D, particularly, as compared with fourth edition, and third and 3.5 to a lesser extent. To that effect, Xanathar's Guide To Everything—amazingly enough, only the third book of new rules in at least as many years—fulfills the adage that less is more, insofar as the new rules provided therein bolster and supplement those in the Player's Handbook.

Xanathar's Guide to Everything is divided into two sections—one for PCs, and one for DMs—and this accounts for the bulk of its value as a new rule book; certainly, compared with Volo's Guide to Monsters (the only part of which I can use being that on monster PCs), Xanathar's Guide is a vast improvement. The fact that several of the new builds for the "core" PC classes intrigue me, arguably more than some of the original builds in some cases, is an argument in Xanathar's Guide's favor, and that the main portion of the information for DMs consists of elaborations on information already provided in the Player's Handbook is equally so. Moreover, those parts of the second section that aren't so geared supplement the PHB without being absolutely vital, and the tables for generating character names is an added nice touch, even if the tables for generating human names based on real-world ethnic groups has a tinge of cultural appropriation.

That being said, Xanathar's Guide to Everything mostly works, both on its own level and as part of a larger D&D continuity of sorts. That 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons is playable even without this volume, and that this volume contributes to that playability (rather than, say, 4th edition's having limited actual playability absent Player's Handbook 2 and 3), makes Xanathar's Guide to Everything all the more worth it.