Good , we know her name and her face . Good luck finding a job now you hateful little shit . <| sep |> Player ' s Handbook is absolutely , hands down , no ifs , ands , or buts , your first priority . Get that first . If you can inly get one , get that . The next most immediately useful one as a player would be the SCAG . It contains new options for character creation , and , if you ' re playing the forgotten realms setting , has all sorts of useful lore to help build a character backstory . If you ' re a DM , the next most immediately useful book is the Monster Manual . Invaluable in running your own campaign or a premade . Your bext priority as a DM , in my opinion , is the DMG . It has so many helpful sections on worldbuilding , running the game , creating a d venturesnpcstownsdungeons , and planningbalancing encounterscustom monsters , and magic items . God does it have magic items . I have gotten a ton of mileage out of my DMG . Almost more than my monster manual , personally . After that , I ' d recommend as a DM either Volo ' s or the SCAG . But at that point , you have the core books and are just getting supplements , so order isn ' t as important . I appreciate all the new monsters in Volo ' s , but the pc races are such a mixed bag . Some are great , some are stupid broken , some are so weak there ' s no point in having them .