Using magic in Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a central element of gameplay.
But it’s not always easy to find an organized list of spells.
In this article, find out which official D&D books contain spells, where to find them, and how to access D&D spells if you don’t own the books yet.
Which official D&D books contain spells?
Here Are the Official D&D Books That Contain Spells (Full List)
To make it super simple for you to find out which official D&D books contain spells, I’ve created a simple chart.
In this chart, you’ll find the name of D&D books with spells.
The chart also links to where you can find and purchase physical copies of these books.
Here is the chart:
| D&D Books that Contain Spells | Learn More |
|---|---|
| Acquisitions Incorporated | Check the latest price |
| Basic Rules | Check the latest price |
| Dungeon Master’s Guide | Check the latest price |
| Elemental Evil Player’s Companion | Check the latest price |
| Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount | Check the latest price |
| Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica | Check the latest price |
| Lost Laboratory of Kwalish | Check the latest price |
| Monster Manual | Check the latest price |
| Monsters of the Multiverse | Check the lastest price |
| Player’s Handbook | Check the latest price |
| Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide | Check the latest price |
| Volo’s Guide to Monsters | Check the latest price |
| Xanathar’s Guide to Everything | Check the latest price |
Related: 21 Spells You Can Cast on Yourself in DND (Solved)
Which Official D&D Books Contain Spells? (Explanations)
Besides knowing the titles of which official D&D books contain spells, it’s helpful to grasp what you’ll find in each book.
Some D&D books contain more spells than others.
Let’s quickly summarize each official D&D book with spells, starting now.
Acquisitions Incorporated
Acquisitions incorporated is a manual for a different way to play Dungeons and Dragons.
It includes tons of information and details about how your players can launch a fantasy business in the multiverse of D&D.
In this book, you’ll find a unique take on classic magic threaded through the entire work.
You’ll also find a list of seven new spells on pages 99-100:
- Distort Value
- Fast Friends
- Gift of Gab
- Incite Greed
- Jim’s Glowing Coin
- Jim’s Magic Missle
- Motivational Speech
Basic Rules
The Basic Rules is a free PDF download available from Wizards of the Coast.
The Basic Rules cover:
- Major classes and subclasses
- The mechanics of playing a character from level 1 to 20
- 120 spells
- 5 backgrounds
- Character sheets
Dungeon Master’s Guide
The D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide is a book for Dungeon Masters (DMs).
DMs will find ideas on how they can run epic campaigns with a group of player characters.
In this book, you’ll find:
- Information on magic in your D&D world
- Magical characters
- How to create a spell
Elemental Evil Player’s Companion
This is a free PDF companion to the pre-made adventure Princes of the Apocalypse.
The Elemental Evil Player’s Companion helps players build characters inside the Elemental Evil world.
This includes:
- New race options (aarakocra, genasi, deep gnome, and goliath)
- 43 new spells based on elemental magic
Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
This book provides a Dungeon Master (DM) with everything they need to create a campaign in a fictional D&D setting called Wildemount.
You can also play through a pre-made adventure in the book.
For our purposes, you get new magical character options and a new set of 15 spells.
Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica
Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica explores the fantasy setting made popular in Magic: The Gathering.
Like the other books in this list, you’ll find:
- New character options
- New magic items
- 50+ spells based on guilds (Boros, Dimir, Gruul, etc)
Lost Laboratory of Kwalish
The Lost Laboratory of Kwalish is a pre-made adventure that takes place within the Barrier Peaks.
You’ll also find new bad guys, magic items, and spells, as well as sci-fi trinkets, and random encounters.
It’s a great resource if you are new to D&D, want to know the extra spells, or just want to play a pre-made campaign.
You’ll only get a few spells out of this book.
Monster Manual
The D&D Monster Manual is an essential book needed to play D&D.
In it, you’ll find a list of monsters, stat blocks, and everything else you’ll need to include monsters in your D&D adventures.
Throughout the book, you’ll find lists of spells known to individual monsters.
For example, a Deva is an angelic creature that can cast commune and raise dead at will.
Player’s Handbook
The D&D Player’s Handbook is one of three core rulebooks for running a Dungeons and Dragons one-shot or full campaign.
In the Player’s Handbook, you’ll learn:
- Character races
- Character classes
- Character equipment
- Combat details
- A vast list of spells and spell descriptions (by class and character level)
Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
If you want to run D&D adventures in the Sword Coast setting of Forgotten Realms, this book offers everything you need.
Similar to other campaign setting books, you get:
- New character class options
- New setting details
- New spells
In the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, you’ll find four new cantrip spells.
Volo’s Guide to Monsters
Volo’s Guide to Monsters (VGM) is a monster manual on steroids.
It does not replace the standard D&D Monster Manual. Rather, VGM offers more backstory information on classic monsters, descriptions of new monsters, and new playable races.
As you might suspect, you’ll find new spells woven throughout the book.
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
This is an expansion book full of lore, new rules, DM tools, character subclasses, and approximately 95 spell options.
It’s one of my favorite resources.
If you want the widest range of options for the magic and mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons, this book is a must-have purchase.
What DND Book Has All the Spells?
No single D&D book contains a complete list of all the available spells in Dungeons & Dragons. The Player’s Handbook lists and describes the largest number of spells.
You can find the full list of D&D spells spread across many books.
The best four D&D books for spells:
- Player’s Handbook
- Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
- Elemental Evil Player’s Companion
- Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
These books contain the most comprehensive repositories of spells in D&D. However, none of them contain all of the available spells.
If you were going to buy only one D&D book for spells, go with the Player’s Handbook.
Which D&D 5e Books Have New Spells?
Here is a list of D&D 5e books that have new spells:
- Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
- Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
- Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
- Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons
- Strixhaven
- Ran Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
- Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
- Elemental Evil Player’s Companion
- Player’s Handbook
How To Find D&D Spells If You Don’t Have the Official D&D Books?
If you don’t own the official D&D books, you can still find helpful lists of spells.
There are several options available to you:
D&D Beyond Spell Search
You can access a full list of updated spells on D&D Beyond.
You can identify which book or other source contains spells by using this search function on D&D Beyond.
The good news is that you can run this search even if you have not purchased any of the books.
D&D Spell Apps
You can also find spells lists on free or paid D&D spell apps.
On these apps, you can search for spells with filters like level, class, range, magical school, and more.
Two of my personal favorite D&D spell apps are:
- Spells List D&D 5th Edition
- D&D Beyond App
D&D Spell Cards
D&D Spell cards are exactly what they sound like: physical cards with spells printed on them. You can use D&D spell cards when playing the game or for reference between games.
There are several ways to get D&D spell cards, but not all options are free.
Your best bet is to buy the official card decks from Amazon.
There are currently 8 decks priced competitively. If you get the cards, you probably want to pick up a D&D Spell Cardholder to keep them organized.
How Many Spells Exist in the 5th Edition of DND?
There are currently 532 spells in the 5th edition of DND. New spells get added with the release of new official Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks.
The way I calculated the number of spells in the 5th edition is to use the D&D Beyond spell search.
On D&D Beyond, there are 27 pages of spells.
Doing the math, you get 20 spells per page X 26 pages plus 12 spells on the 27th page = 532 spells.
There are also an uncountable number of homebrew/third-party spells.
How Many Spells Exist in the 6th Edition of D&D?
Wizards of the Coast is set to release the 6th edition of D&D in 2024.
While we do not yet know an exact number of spells, we can assume that the number will grow higher than the current 532 spells in the 5th edition.
The 6th edition will also see new and updated sourcebooks.
If I had to estimate based on historical trends, I would guess there will be 700+ spells in the 6th edition of D&D.
Final Thoughts: Which Official D&D Books Contain Spells?
If you haven’t already, I strongly suggest that you get physical or digital versions of all of the D&D books mentioned in this list.
Owning your personal copy will give you the most flexibility in your D&D games.
You can purchase physical copies on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Fantasy Grounds, Roll20, Steam, or digital copies on D&D Beyond.
You can also get many of these books at your local game store.
Related posts:
- Is DND Beyond Safe? (Solved With Proof)
- How Many Cantrips Can You Have in D&D? (Answered & Solved)
- How Many Players Do You Need To Play D&D? (SOLVED)