Xanathar’s Guide to Everything Review

 

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything adds new options to your D&D 5E game, Many options, from new spells, traps and player options, this is the book you have wanting to flesh out your 5E games.

 

 

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is like  Volo’s Guide to Monsters on steroids. There is so much in this book I don’t even know what I should start, yes there is a lot to take in here. The book itself is filled with subclasses, rules, spells, and commentary from The Xanathar. Whom if you did not know is a Beholder and the crime boss that runs Waterdeep from deep below the city, and has a pet goldfish.

 

 

You might start to read this book and think, wait I’ve seen this before, and have a serious case of the Deja Vu, that’s because most of the material in Xanathar’s Guide will be familiar to, as most of the book comes from what have been seeing in Unearthed Arcana, this is not really a bad thing, I just wanted to make sure this was clear this is not totally all “New” they did tweak and fine tune things from the UA playtest version, but we’ve seen some of this in UA.

 

Character Options

This is the bulk of the book, if you’re looking to add more flavor to your game, then you have come to the right place!

68 pages make up this sections of the book and it’s fleshed out well, from the barbarian to wizard you should be able to find something that will add a bit to your class. There are enough options here, that I think players will find themselves wanting to explore some of these new options.

Dungeon Master Options

The bulk of the book is devoted to player materials, there are some great things in here for the  DM resource.

We find 70 pages dedicated to the DM. There are rules from Sleeping to Tying knots, yes tying knots, I did not even know I wanted my players to do this, till I found out rules for it! There is an extensive section dedicated to all the tools you will run across, be it Alchemist Supplies to Weaver’s tools. One very useful section covers how spell area effect will work, this will come in very handy as a quick reference to see where that spell will land.

 

 

Encounter building is covered here as well, with hints tips and tricks to help you build those encounters for that TPK! The jewel of this section, in my opinion, would have to do be the random encounter tables, you will find a table for any situation, just roll a d100 and let the dice decide. Speaking of that TPK, how about a few traps to thwart your party? New rules for designing those dastardly traps are covered here as well. And to round the DM section we have some new Magic items if you wish to reward your party with a shiny!

Spells

Need some new fancy spells? Xanathar’s Guide has you covered in that aspect as well, With 24 pages here are 95 spells printed in this book–56 of which are brand new

The book rounds out with 2 appendices covering running a shared campaigns, and character names, which is 17 pages filled with names. This is the one section of the book that I was just this is just a waste of space, I think they could have used these last pages for something better than names, maybe it’s just me who really doesn’t that put that much thought into their NPC names.

 

Artwork

Once again, I must give some kudos to the art team at WOTC, they chose some amazing art and it shows all throughout the book.

Final Thoughts

Take your 5E game to the next level with Xanthar’s Guide. This book has it all. I would say this is the first “Must Own” Supplement book for 5E. From character options to new traps this book runs it all. Players and DM alike will get good use out this new sourcebook.

 

Xanthar’s Guide To Everything comes in 2 versions, the only difference in them will be the cover art.

 

A limited edition cover can be found ONLY at your local FLGS for a limited time

 

 

And the standard cover can be found at your FLGS.

 

 

Xanthar’s Guide To Everything released TODAY at your FLGS

Xanthar’s Guide is also found on Fantasy Grounds.

 

 

And can be found everywhere else such as Amazon on November 21st.

 

Xanthar’s Guide To Everything was provided to us by WOTC for the purpose of this review, this is no way had any effect on the outcome of the review.

The Amazon links found above are AFFAILTE links, DDO Players will receive a small percent of your sale, this is another way you can help to support the site!