D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide (Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebook) (2014)

Beautiful book, has the nicest cover and feel by a mile out of the 3. Has some interesting lore in it. Honestly, if you want to be a DM, really your main point is to learn the Player's Handbook off by heart. The book's split into 3 parts, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. Here's a rundown of what you get. Honestly, chapters 1-6 are nice for a bit of inspiration, but 6 onwards is really what you're buying this for. As a DM though you'll probably spend way more time in the PHB. I glance at this like once in a blue moon, it's not the type of thing you need on hand if you print yourself all the most useful bits and bobs for your DM screen. Part 1 (Master of Worlds): Chapter 1, which is about world building. Tbh this is very generic advice and it's mostly naturally intuitive anyway, but even if it wasn't you'd probably be best with like, a Kobold guide to Worldbuilding. Chapter 2 is about their setting's planes of existence, which is fairly useful if you want to use a generic setting and you think your campaign will last long enough to get into alternate planes. Part 1 I find pretty superfluous. Part 2 (Master of Adventures): Chapter 3: 10% of the chapter is super important - shows the rules for creating encounters. Useful because the online ones don't seem to actually work very well. 90% of this chapter however is "roll on this d20 table to invent a plot". Like, really, do people do that? Either you're going to invent your own worlds on the fly or you're going to use an adventure module. I mean, you can read this for ideas, but who is going to roll a d12 to find out what the climax of their adventure is? Chapter 4: Roll to make an NPC, same as chapter 3 (at least this is more likely if you quickly had to put something together). More importantly, contains Oathbreaker Paladin and Death Domain for the cleric. These are cool things to spring on a player who falls to the darkside. Also optional rule for Loyalty is in here, you may find useful. Chapter 5: Roll to make a world. Only really useful thing here are sample traps. (Again, read it for inspiration but not really useful). Chapter 6: Shows downtime rules. Useful if you break up your campaign that much? I tend to leave mine on cliffhangers and pick back up straight where we left off though. Nice after a campaign finishes and you want to give your PCs cool new bonuses though. CHAPTER 7: Finally things get good. This chapter is 99 pages on its own. Contains the rules for treasure drops, and then an absolute TONNE of magic items. Worth the buy just for that. Unless you can grab a copy of Forged In Magic: REFORGED perhaps. Part 3 (Master of Rules): Okay here's the entire point of the book. Chapter 8 contains all combat rules, ability checks, inspiration, travel, object use, improvising damage, using battle grids, adds flanking, chases, diseases, sieges, poisons, madness, potion crafting, ways to award xp, how to deal with absent players. Chapter 9 contains ways to modernise it with weapons and use alien technology, some combat options, and otherwise is a homebrew chapter that shows how to make monsters, spells, magic items, backgrounds. Appendices: A: Roll to make dungeons. B: Lists of monsters from the Monster Manual based on environment! Like Arctic, coast etc - super useful. Wish Tome of Beasts had this. Also based on CR. C: Some generic maps. I mean, it's beautiful, the writing is quality and I guess most of it is generically useful to all DMs but it feels like the first half is more for people who don't like to come up with their own material. It's the least useful of the 3 books though. You could probs live without it given that encounter and loot generators exist online and they're the main use, as long as you're comfortable with combat. (Which, tbh is mostly in the PHB anyway).

I was a bit sceptical of 5e being promised to 3.5e (completely dismissing WoWe) but this book is full of good stuff. It goes into detail around making story based games with tables full of ideas/concepts. It provides countless tables to randomise or help kick start your imagination like: 'fleshing out NPC's' to make them memorable, 'creating the perfect villain', 'story/plot lines' with twists and intrigue and 'fleshing out dungeons' with ideas of furniture, noises, traps and tricks! It even has a random dungeon generator, treasure list and monster encounter table. The artwork is inspiring and modern and overall well written. In regards to the rule set well that's in the PHB. The DMG provides lots of variant rules to make your game more like 3.5e for advanced players. This includes diagonal movement, flanking, tumble, overrun, trip, disarm massive damage, encumberance and a few others. On a personal note I did not think I would like this edition but the transformation is simple. There is no more bonus/ penalties for every given circumstance so that u need a calculator and Stephen Hawkins brain to keep up in fights, it's simply advantage or disadvantage (meaning - depending on the circs, you roll 2x d20 and choose highest or lowest of the two). It speeds up play and is a good method. They have reduced the amount of attacks of opportunity to literally only when u move out of a threatened square. This allows more movement and more opportunities to be heroic as opposed to 3.5 where one wrong step will get u killed. I DM a game on Roll20 using online tabletop and players are already feeling the power to do more things for example, at level 1, my half Orc barb scaled a crumbling wall to get atop a bridge above them to push the bandit on it, off and over the other side. You wouldn't dream of doing that in 3.5 with the amount of AoO you would incur. I like flavour in action and any chance to do this movie like stuff keeps the game fun and players smiling! The raging half Orc was equally surprised when my other hidden bandit jumped out and pushed him off the bridge onto his companions below!! I know I keep making comparisons with 3.5 but I'm sure there are lots of players like me who love that edition and are cautious about moving over. The magic is not as overpowering in 5e making it balanced for players and DM alike. colour spray has been toned down so that it wont knock out all your monsters for the encounter so they can be coup de grace, glitterdust is no more - blinded condition no longer cripples your char and no more stupid high DC's that is impossible for low wis/int/Cha characters to pass. My only gripes with the book and edition is around treasure. they have toned it down making magic items rare and less available - fair enough. I think the best weapons/ armour are now +3. Yes there are random tables but the items now are categorised in A-I either common, uncommon, rare, very rare or legendary. The guidance on distributing loot is based over the heroic tiers for example; between 1-4th you should roll 8 times on treasure hoard table. As you can imagine rolls can be unreliable and give more or less out. Items no longer have prices or levels, so they are worth a sum equal to their status like all common items are worth 50-100gp. For me I like to know how much treasure a player should have earned to keep them balanced, or at the very least how much treasure to allocate per given encounter difficulty. The concept of ad hoc loot giving is a bit anarchic for me. Overall I'm not gonna let that effect my rating. The way you work out encounters and CR's is much simpler now. Traps are more flavourful and creative too. I feel I'm not to restricted by game mechanics anymore. Im very happy with my purchase and well worth the transformation for unsure 3.5 fans.

This book is a great choice for D&D lovers, and who wants to get into D&D. There is information about every detail of the world of D&D, which can be a great resource, reference, of just a read if you love the world itself. Artwork is fantastic too !

Been playing DnD since I was 13, starting with first edition. This version, well, they nailed it. The system is just complex enough to remain interesting but also simple enough to pick up very quickly. The book itself is very high quality, beautifully illustrated and filled with useful info drawn from a wealth of experience of previous editions and lots of new tweaks. Cover to cover it is a great read and obviously a labour of love by those working on it. Experienced DM's will find themselves smiling at the nostalgia and homage of previous editions now faithfully tweaked restored in this book, as well as recognising it is a solid tool to help you get your campaign planned out and finely tuned. The Magic items section in particular had me grinning like a schoolboy, reading through the classic adventuring treasures alongside some new entries. New DM's are in for a great treat. This book is a wonderful intro to the role of Dungeon master. It has a step by step guide on pretty much every basic campaign aspect and has a ton of tables for randomly generated story points and scenario building if you don't have time to sit down and plan every little thing! The one and ONLY criticism of this system comes from this book however. The guidance on building levelled combat encounters. Because of the simplified approach to this edition, the math behind the system balance is not as (insanely) fine tuned as it was in say 3.5. When following the step by step guide to picking your monsters and such, I would advise you use your common sense as well as the rules given. Even a level 2 combat encounter may end up being extremely deadly if you happen to build it using certain foes that seem perfectly appropriate for the party level on paper, yet may actually have some tactical advantages that pushes them well beyond the threat level you expected!! Overall my favourite DMG so far. Huzzah!!

Though I can't say I've finished reading it, I can say that this book was a fine purchase. Though the pricing may be slightly steep, I feel that it is important to consider that there is a 100 page segment about magic items where approximately half of each page is artwork and the rest of the book has similarly sized pieces every few pages. Artwork is not cheap. That is something I know for a fact and what I believe to be a primary contributor to the price of the book. Is it worth it though? Yes. Whilst some may say it is unnecessary or wasteful, it adds a great deal to the book. For example, it can be somewhat difficult to visualise how all the planes fit together in the chapter regarding creating a multiverse. Fortunately, there's a handy little picture in the chapter to demonstrate one layout and help you grasp the concept. Then, what you're really after if you get the book, the content.I will admit that the reading is a tad tedious at times. Compared to the Player's Handbook, which is ripe with vivid and playful descriptions, it is rather dry and serious. However, one must consider that they are teaching us how to make a game world and the characters in it; there are quite a number of people who make a living doing that these days so it is a rather more serious matter than character creation and rules. Of course, this isn't on the same scale but it is certainly a matter which should be considered seriously when preparing a D&D game, else the experience will be ruined for the players. Thus, though it is not as easy a read as the Player's Handbook, it is at least as worthwhile in terms of content. So, I believe that this is definitely a good buy for anyone interested in the game; though, I'm no veteran player so I can't speak on their behalf.

Would rate 4.5 if I could. This is great, it shows how to craft worlds, monsters and NPCs. It also has all the myriad rules that you should know but don't. It is ideal for homebrew, most of the book is geared towards this, but still covers stuff out of the box DMs will need. BUT It is using 5th edition rules (which are way better in most people's opinion). The current edition is 5.5e as opposed to 5e. Many people are happy to play 5e, they are VERY similar, just not the same. Also, as you will find if purchasing the Monster Manual, you need to have the players handbook of that edition for many of the rules. This makes sense if you think about it but is infuriating none the less.

Although still in the process of writing a campaign for 5e this book has been integral in writing lore and what not. Great and detailed and while many resources are available on the internet I feel this book adds value in that it feels more traditional in the writing process if that makes any sense. The artwork found throughout the book is stunning and adds additional personality to it.

Bought it as a present for my sister and she loves it! Useful even if you're not planning on DMing yourself. Fantastic quality printing and full of cool artwork and tips.