My problem is that I have eight shelves of 5E books. Is it better if I just stick to my core, plus a few third-party "designed for the game" books, and enjoy A5E with as few books as possible? A5E is a solid game; it is my seven and a half other shelves of books that kill it for me.
At this stage of 5E's life, your enjoyment of the game will be in what you get rid of, rather than what you include. Even my Tales of the Valiant collection has gotten too large, three shelves of books, and the system struggles under its own weight. ToV is great, good enough that I write a blog, but it is in my upstairs closet while I work out my lack of shelving issue. But for me, it has gotten too big, and I feel the need to cut back on that game as well.
The thing about A5E is that it tends to get better the more you focus on the original books, and they are really all you need to have fun. The system is well built to work with its own components, and the game is very dense and packed with good content. The system is very robust and filled with options in just the first three books, and in general, it does a lot with a little.
The art in these books is not AI-generated and ranges from average to good quality. The EN World team does an admirable job in the art department; it works, but it is not a strong point of any of their releases, especially compared to the competition.
First stop, the Adventurer's Guide, and my copy is a bit beat up, with bent corners, but I don't care. It is an awesome, well-loved book. One thing I love about A5E is that it sticks to the classic races and character options: Dragonborn, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Human, Orc, and Planetouched. We don't get clockworks or mycanoids, time travelers, or other out-there backgrounds. Just the basics, and Orc is really the only outlier in the group, but I can give that a pass.
What is shocking is that we don't get Kobolds or Goblins, or any furries of any kind (ToV has a generic beastkin lineage). We do get Goblinkin in other books, but they are not in core, which makes A5E feel more like old school D&D, at least around 4E, to me. Drow are also here as a "shadow elf" culture selection, plus an elf as heritage.
Oh, and A5E uses heritage, culture, and background. ToV uses lineage, heritage, and background. I prefer A5E's terms far more than ToV. To me, lineage is more of a "family tree" term and does not belong in the discussion. Heritage as race is fine, but ToV drops the ball here using heritage as culture, and culture is clearly the better term and far clearer what it is. A5E is closer to race, culture, and background, and those are plain-language terms.
The classic selection of heritages is a strength, since the book focuses on the classics, giving dwarves and elves time in the spotlight again, and not too many silly, science-fiction, or crazy heritages to distract us from starting with a traditional fantasy world.
Mixed heritages are supported in A5E, so we can have half-elves and half-orcs. Thank you.
Where ToV tends to feel like "new-D&D," A5E stays firmly in the classics in tone and feeling.
A5E's destiny system is far better than D&D's inspiration system, and it also beats ToV's cold, mechanical luck system. A5E wins on the character motivation aspect, and you can actually fulfill your destiny and gain a mechanical benefit.
A5E's background system also beats ToV's by a wide margin. If my character has a soldier background in ToV, it is a few proficiencies, equipment, and a talent. In A5E, it is the same, but I get both a feature (allowing me to carouse with other soldiers more easily) and the ability to advance the background, earn a small squad to roam around with, and take on missions from my new commanders. A5E's backgrounds do a lot more work for you, can be advanced to gain new benefits, and are a source of new adventures.
Did we establish a small foothold in the borderlands regions? Great, my experienced soldier can call up his old unit, get a few men to garrison it, and then get orders from high command on what happens next. A5E gives me the exploration game and supports a strong narrative system through the backgrounds, which interact with the campaign.
In A5E, I can do that. In ToV and either version of D&D, I can't.
It is Advanced 5E for a reason.
All the great monsters are here in the Monsterous Menagerie, and they keep the major humanoids as monsters, but since Orcs are a core heritage, they leave them out, but include an NPC section in the back of the book so you can have Orc bandits, thugs, soldiers, and warriors as you need. I would rather have Orcs represented in a monster entry, but at least the book is consistent and includes a section of NPCs representing the various roles and classes from the core heritages.
Fair enough, Orcs are core races, I can live with that, and can always roll my own as monsters. At least they didn't wipe out every humanoid from the monster lists, like they did in D&D 2024. We live in a post-World of Warcraft world, and Orcs should likely "settle down" and have their own realms and kingdoms. The story possibilities are better, but I am not going "full WoW" with them by making them jokes and silly.
They hid the succubus and incubus under the "malcubus" entry. Still there, sort of existing between demons and devils as a neutral-evil entity. Destiny has replaced alignment, but alignment still exists as traits, granted by destiny and other things.
Also note that A5E is balanced against D&D 2014 math, where ToV and D&D 2024 are more CR+1 systems these days and have amped up the damage values. If you miss the original 2014 math and balance levels, then A5E is a clean system that has that "dry balance" without blowing out the damage values.
This is a really good referee's guide. The Trials & Treasures book is where all the rebuilds of the core systems are paid off, and we get hard rules for all the pillars of play, including robust sections for combat, exploration, and social play.
Combat challenges, such as environmental factors, are covered here. Exploration challenges put the wonder and danger back into the world and remind me of the amazing, fantastical landscapes in our D&D 4E games, where an entire ocean would be split by a waterfall hundreds of miles long, cities of the dead, upside-down mountains, a continent built on a massive stone arch, shadow forests, floating islands, ghostlands, and eternal magical vortexes that lay waste to a deep void-blasted crater.
Parties will be begging for a ranger to guide them through this insane world, and that puts the wonder back into the world design and makes the experience memorable.
The Dungeon Delvers Guide is optional, but it has a bit more of everything, plus it has a great section on traps and fills out that part of the core game. Ratlings are the notable heritage here and are a strong addition to the core selection. Despite having Kobolds on the cover, those are not a new heritage here. They can be found in the Handbook of Heritages, published by WolfWorks Press.
The Planestrider's Journal is another optional book, sort of a guide to the planes, how they are done in Level Up, with their own cosmology and layout. There are a lot of fun, unique, and cool ideas hiding in here, and this is not to be dismissed out of hand.
I like this alternate cosmology, and it is a unique take on a planar setting. I am a bit tired of the Great Wheel and the same old planes that have ceased being wondrous places, and the D&D versions have become stale and more paint-by-numbers than places of mystery. You have to ask yourself, "What purpose do the planes serve?" I get the feeling that in many D&D-like games, the question can't be answered; they have always been places to freely come and go from.
The planar book makes me want to pull out my Tales of Arcana hardcover, which I enjoy far more than I should, as a collection of strange and wacky planar races and cultures. Some parts of this book are really silly and childish, but a good 90% of it is solid. Many races are, by default, a touch OP, but they can be tweaked to align with terrestrial selections, or left "as-is" and reserved exclusively for planar backgrounds. If you use this book, use it as-is for all races, but you will not get ability score increases for backgrounds in A5E, since you will get those for your race selection. You will also not get A5E's heritage gifts, since your abilities will be pulled from this book.
This is the only 5E, not-designed-for-A5E book I would use for this campaign, since I enjoy this book way too much for planar races. The silliness is very high with a few, but most are super solid and great options to have in your toolbox.
For my game, this is not optional.
We do have a second monster book, which, while optional, is a good expansion to the system, since more monsters designed for it are a good thing. Horde monsters allow monsters to fight and attack as a group, good for rats and bats. We get heroic monsters that allow them to gain character levels and power up, which are good for allies, master villains, and boss monsters.
This is a solid addition to the core books, not absolutely needed, but a nice-to-have resource.
MOAR Complete is an amazing book, and this is the original designers throwing the kitchen sink at the game, adding an insane amount of cool stuff. We get an amazing amount of expansion material here, easily making up for other books' subclasses, with so many cool options, allowing your masked vigilante to be a dino-rider, and that is insanely cool.
This is for experienced gamers only, after you have explored the core book to the point where you want more.
Paranormal Power is a good psionic power book, complete with a detailed Esper class that does a lot within one class. I like this book, and the one class we get here is better than many of the other psionic classes I have seen; it feels balanced and offers a lot of utility without overshadowing other classes.
There are homebrew and hacking guides for this system that cover creating new heritages and feats, but they are clearly optional. If we are paring down the number of books we need to support, these will be kept close, but by no means will they be needed, just to keep things simple.
An optional book for a robust psionic system.
The Multiclasser's Manuals are excellent. A5E has the concept of multiclass synergies, which are sort of multiclass subclasses with feats and special benefits. These books replace so many third-party guides and use the A5E class synergy rules to build on an excellent multiclassing system that puts many other 5E versions to shame for failing to consider these design features.
Unlike D&D, multiclassing is a core supported feature in A5E, and there are multiclass builds and synergy feats in the game to support it. Finally, somebody thought this through and actually turned the worst part of 5E into the best part. A5E is a genius-level design that turns multiclassing from an exploit into a core game feature. Finally!
This book is for experienced players only, but an excellent expansion for more options.
There is a second book in this series, also highly recommended, but I would use these later in your play, choosing to focus on the core books for options first, then using these to add more options for more experienced players. Use it if you use the first book to expand the game for experienced players.
The Mythological book is a strange book full of historical figures converted to A5E rules, which is a very strange concept, and I likely would not use it very much, so it is off my playlist. Still, as examples of high-level NPCs, this is a good guide, and many of these could be repurposed and renamed for special NPCs.
Not needed for most games.
The Pets & Sidekicks book is useful for companions and expands the heroic monster system, but it is not needed beyond companion rules and expanded class options. This is good for special cases and for more experienced groups who want to play with options and have companion pets and companions.
Optional, but useful for special cases.
The Gat Pass Gazeteers are also optional, good for specific things, but organized as collections of zines.
I have the first three, but want to pick up the 2025 book if they make it a crowdfunding bonus. All of these are optional books, not needed outside the occasional one-off addition.
This is a solid core library, half a shelf, but packed with fun and options. Rarely has there been a 5E library so compact, but so full of densely packed options. The system interlocks and provides depth through its design.
The game's compactness is the appeal here. Compared to ToV and a full set of Kobold Press books, this is a sixth of the library size. The game isn't as popular, but it supports a rabidly loyal fanbase. With A5E, less is more. The game doesn't need much, since what they give is so well done and tightly designed. An example is martial classes and Combat Maneuvers: by creating a system of trainable "special attacks," it removes the need for dozens of specialist subclasses and puts the depth in the existing class as a subsystem with choices, a resource pool to balance them, and tactical options.
Where D&D and other 5E games will just "give you new options" and bloat the game with more and more hardcovers, A5E rebuilds the martial classes with Combat Maneuvers, allowing future books to add more maneuvers which will be available to all classes, not some new subclass hidden somewhere in an adventure or expansion book. The base game's classes and subclasses are not being "rendered obsolete"; they will remain strong core choices and can use the new options. You also get the freedom to pick from themed Combat Maneuver traditions, some ranged, others offensive, and others defensive in nature. So the entire fighting style of your martial character can change depending on your choices.
The rebuild of the core classes and the ability to use modular subsystems are what make A5E shine above all the other 5E clones and even D&D itself.
Level Up A5E is simply the better-designed game, and it shows.
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