One sentence summary
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (Dungeons & Dragons) is an essential guidebook from Dungeons & Dragons franchise, providing resources for players and Dungeon masters to crank up their game.
Book genre
The book is an expansion of the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game and is classified as a source book.
Main topic of the book
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is an essential guidebook for players and Dungeon Masters of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, providing them with new rules and guidance on how to best take their game to the next level. It includes game mechanics, character backstories, dungeon master guidelines, and more.
Key ideas
- Creativity: Since the game oftentimes relies on players’ creativity and imagination, this book provides valuable resources in order to improve on the latter.
- Game Mechanics: The book also includes a variety of game mechanics, such as character backstories and dungeon master guidelines, which provide further information about the game and its rules.
- Playable Characters: Finally, the book contains information on a variety of playable characters which players can choose from.
Main parts of the book and a short summary
- Chapter One: This part of the book covers the basics of Dungeons & Dragons and provides a brief overview of how the game works.
- Chapter Two: This chapters covers new options for character classes, backgrounds, and spells. It also includes guidelines for building worlds and includes dozens of new monsters to fit the world.
- Chapter Three: The third chapter provides rules to establish a balance between dungeon masters, players, and other members of the team. It also provides rules for special character conditions such as inspiration and exhaustion.
- Chapter Four: This part of the book focuses on providing detailed and comprehensive adventurers which Dungeon Masters can use as a pre-planned adventure or as a source for crafting their own stories.
Key takeaways
- The book is essential for any Dungeons & Dragons player and Dungeon Masters wanting to take their game to the next level.
- The book includes game mechanics, character backstories, dungeon master guidelines, and more.
- Character classes, backgrounds, spells, monsters, and adventures can all be found in the book.
Author’s background and qualifications
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is an essential game guidebook from the Dungeons & Dragons franchise. The book was written by a team of designers and editors including Jeremy Crawford, Ben Petrisor, Mike Mearls, James Wyatt, Christopher Perkins, and others.
Target audience
The book is ideal for players and Dungeon Masters of the Dungeons & Dragons board game who are looking to gain an insight into the game and hone their skills.
Publisher and first publication date
The book was published by Wizards of the Coast on November 10, 2017.