15 D&D Accessories I'd Buy After 7 Years of Playing (2026)

What you need to start

I've played D&D for 7 years, and the honest answer to “what do I need?” is almost nothing. One set of dice, a pencil, a character sheet and the free Basic Rules will get you through your first session and plenty after it. That's the whole list.

Everything below is optional. I sorted it by the problem it fixes at the table, so skip any section your group doesn't have trouble with. If you'd rather browse, everything we make for the table is in our D&D accessories collection.

You don't need to buy a book to play. D&D Beyond has the 2024 Basic Rules free online, and they cover enough to make a character and get through your first few sessions.

Put your sheet somewhere you can write on it all night without wearing a hole through it. HP and spell slots change every round, and erasing the same box 30 times tears the paper.

A better sheet and a rules reference

The official character sheet works, but it didn't fit how we play, so we designed our own. The Minimal 5e Character Sheet puts the stats you look at most at the top of page 1, with backstory on page 2 and spell slots on page 3. It's a fillable PDF you can also print at home. If you're starting a new character, the 5e New Character Bundle adds session notes, spell and item cards and initiative tracker cards to the same sheet.

Next to the sheet goes a rules reference. Our 5e Cheat Sheet Bundle is two sheets of 3 pages each, one for players and one for the DM, written for the 2024 rules. Page 1 of the player sheet walks through your turn and all 12 actions. Laminate a copy and it'll last the whole campaign.

Casters with long spell lists should look at spell cards. Our Minimal Spell and Item Cards cover spells, weapons, items and spell scrolls at 2.5 by 3.5 inches, so they fit regular card sleeves. I print mine on light cardstock and sleeve them, and they hold up fine. Some players find cards repeat what's already on the sheet, so try a few before you print a whole spellbook.

A tray stops the chase under the couch. It also keeps rolls away from the minis on the map, which matters more than you'd think in a tight fight. Towers are the other option.

No. 04·Best for every player

Our dice bottle

One 7-die polyhedral set

7 dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d%, d12, d20

A standard set has exactly the 7 dice the game uses. The percentile die only comes up now and then, and your DM probably has one if you don't.

Watch out: Dice are the gift most players already own, so check before you buy a set for someone else.

Instead: Borrow a set for your first session. Our guide to where to buy D&D dice covers shops and subscriptions.

Varies by seller

Ours: Mystery Healing Potion Dice BottleWhere to buy dice

No. 05·Best for crowded tables

D20 Round Dice Tray

Made by Minva

6 × 6 × 1 in · PLA · dice up to 25 mm, sharp-edge sets included

It's 6 inches across, so it fits next to a character sheet, and the compartments around the rim hold the dice you aren't rolling.

Watch out: It's 3D printed in PLA, and the product page warns that small surface marks can show.

Instead: Our D20 Hexagon Dice Tray is deeper at 1.5 inches. A shallow box lid with a cloth in it works too.

From $15.00 at Minva

See the tray

After a few sessions the details blur. Who gave you the quest? What was the town called? Why does the rogue owe money to that guild? A D&D journal with the pages already laid out gets used, where a blank notebook tends to end up in a drawer. I compared the options in my guide to the best D&D journal for players.

No. 06·Best for one character, one long campaign

Record of Adventure campaign journal

Made by Minva

5.5 × 8.5 in · 80+ pages · 80 lb paper · coil-bound

It holds one character's sheet, spells, inventory, NPCs, locations and session notes in a coil-bound book that lays flat on the table.

Watch out: It's built for one character. If you play two at once, it runs out of the right pages.

Instead: Our Character Compendium is the multi-character version. A plain notebook is the free option.

From $18.00 at Minva

See the journal

Combat is where most DMs lose time. Initiative ends up on scratch paper, monster HP lives in the margin of your notes, and conditions get forgotten because there's nowhere to write them.

No. 07·Best for dms running combat

Combat Tracker Initiative Notepad

Made by Minva

5 × 8 in · 50 sheets · 70 lb paper

Each sheet has columns for initiative, name, HP, AC and status, so one page holds a whole fight and you tear it off when the fight ends.

Watch out: 50 sheets is 50 fights, so a table with a fight every week will need a second pad within a year.

Instead: Index cards work (see the next pick), and so do our printable Initiative Tracker Cards.

$9.99 at Minva

See the notepad

Going from theater of the mind to any map at all is the biggest change you can make here. What the map is made of matters a lot less.

No. 11·Best for dms who need a dungeon tonight

100 One-Page Dungeon Maps

Made by Minva

100 PNG files · system-agnostic · instant download

You get 100 one-page dungeon maps as PNG files with transparent backgrounds, so you can print one for yourself or drop it into a VTT.

Watch out: These are overview maps that fit on one page. With minis, you'll still redraw the room the party is in on a grid.

Instead: Sketch your own on grid paper. It takes longer and costs nothing.

$9.99 at Minva

See the maps

A DM screen hides your notes and rolls. A screen with pockets also lets you choose the rules you look at, and writing your own panels means your homebrew rules can sit next to everything else.

No. 13·Best for dms who prep on a laptop

Lorekeeper 5e Notion template

Made by Minva

Works with a free Notion account · session notes template included

It has linked databases for adventures, locations, treasures, NPCs and characters, so clicking an NPC shows the quests and places tied to them.

Watch out: It only lives in Notion, so it won't help if you prep on paper or don't want another app.

Instead: A paper session journal like our Adventure Log works, or a plain notebook.

$17.99 at Minva

See the template

Once you play away from home, the problem becomes the pencil you left on the kitchen counter or the d20 that rolled under somebody else's couch. One case that always goes in the bag fixes it.

On a VTT, the mat and the minis stop mattering, and so does the screen. Your dice and your notes still matter, and a digital planner like Lorekeeper earns its place here. Our free 5e tools include a dice roller and an initiative tracker that run in a browser tab.

Each kit is a full set for one person, and the totals use today's Minva prices plus the Amazon prices from Oct 27, 2026, so they'll move a little whenever one of those prices changes. Shop around.

First-time player

1. Read the free Basic Rules and make a character with your DM.
2. Get one 7-die set, or borrow one for the first session.
3. After 3 or 4 sessions, add whatever you missed. For most people that's a journal or a tray.

First-time DM

1. Run a short adventure with index cards for initiative and grid paper for maps.
2. Buy the 2024 Player's Handbook before the Dungeon Master's Guide. Your players will ask about their options first.
3. Add a screen and a battle map once you know you'll run a long campaign.

D&D got a rules revision in 2024. The Basic Rules on D&D Beyond and our cheat sheets use the 2024 version. If your group still plays the 2014 rules, ask before you buy a book.

Three questions narrow it down fast. Are they a player or the DM? Do they play in person or online? What do they already own? Dice and core rulebooks are the riskiest gifts, because most players have both.

DM

The Dungeon Master runs the game and plays the monsters.

Initiative

Initiative is the turn order in a fight, rolled at the start of combat.

Conditions

Conditions are effects like poisoned or prone that change what a character can do.

Dice tray

A dice tray is a shallow box to roll in, so dice stay on the table.

Safe bets are things people rarely buy for themselves: a dice tray, a dice bottle, a tracker, a journal or a subscription box. Our Dice Arcana box sends a new 7-die set each month ($16.99 a month on the monthly plan), and Dragon's Hoard sends dice, minis, pins and other table loot ($39.99 a month on the monthly plan). Our D&D gift guide has the full list by budget, and the subscription box comparison covers what each box ships.

I've played D&D for 7 years, and every pick here fixes a problem that comes up at a real table. Where a free option does the job, it's on the list, because most groups never need to buy the paid version.

We make 5 of the 15 picks. They're here because they solve one of these problems, and each card lists a drawback and something else you could use. The two Amazon picks are things we don't make, and I chose them for the specs on their listings. Minva prices update live from our shop. I checked the Amazon prices on Oct 27, 2026.