Hello readers! For many of you that frequently visit game stores you have probably seen this product, the Spellbook Cards for each class. They come in a little box and contain brief mention of what they are. They look like this:
Normally I do not buy into many of the mini products that are put out as player aids. I often find that they cost more then they are worth. My Dad; however, is a big fan of D&D products, and so we bought him a set of Bard Spellbook Cards for his birthday. Surprisingly I am actually really impressed with these items. While not essential they are very useful and can help assist smooth and quicker play.
Nearly every D&D group has had the experience of passing the Player’s Handbook around the group as everyone simultaneously wants to look up spells, abilities, and rules. This can become quite cumbersome when a party contains multiple spellcasters and only one Player’s Handbook. Often the solution is to try to get more Player’s Handbooks; however, this is a rather costly solution. A great alternative is the Spellbook Cards. These cards give full details for all the spells in the Player’s Handbook, so they are a great quick reference guide for each spellcaster, without needing to purchase another Player’s Handbook. I was impressed the cards’ text is legible and well organized. These cards are also a great visual cue for players for what spells they have prepared for the day. Finally, instead of looking through a whole book, they merely need to grab the specific card and read it. Occasionally players will need to look up rules in the Player’s Handbook, but the Spellbook cards certainly cut down on this need.
The Spellbook Cards are also fairly priced with a range between $20-10, considering these could be used as frequently as a player sheet this seems reasonable.
Overall, while not essential to get gaming, I think the Spellbook Cards are a great addition to any D&D Gamer’s collection, especially for spell heavy classes like Wizards, Clerics, and Druids.
What do you think? Have you seen these cards? Have you used them?
theroomfillswithwater 
Nice review, Jake!
I purchased a set of the Cleric spell cards a while back. I agree that they are a quick and easy reference. They also help me to keep track of how many spells I’ve cast in a given day/encounter.
My only gripe is that the deck does not actually contain all of the spells that my character knows. I’m a relatively new player, and did not realize that some spells the Clerics have access too do not actually fall under the category of Cleric. Thus, in order to get ALL of the cards I need, I would have to purchase a couple more decks. Not a huge issue, but it came as a disappointment when I received my cards in the mail.
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Thanks for the comment Greg!
Keeping track of remaining spells is another great use! My players often forget how many spells they have remaining, so I will be sure to try to suggest this as a solution.
That is interesting, I am guessing it was the Domain spells that were missing from the Cleric deck? That is a bit of a shame and something I hadn’t considered. I guess Wizards thought that since these were primarily Wizard, Druid, ect. spells that is where they belonged, but it would have been nice to be included.
My guess is the Cleric is the only class which actually has this problem, as to my knowledge none of the other classes cross into other class spell lists.
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Hey Jake,
Glad your blog is going so well.
I’m finally part of a D&D group with some friends every other week! I’m playing a (Death) Cleric, and I actually use an app for spell cards. It’s called “D&D 5 Spellbook Cards” and it was completely free for my Android phone (I believe it’s like… a dollar on the apple store).
So it was free, has every spell for every class (and even accommodates for things like Cleric Domain spells when you search by class, even specifying the domain), allows you to type in to search for a spell that gets cast whenever, sort spells by class, AND have multiple characters with a log of what spells they have prepared/memorized at any given time if you have multiple characters in different campaigns. I told the people in my group about it and they all love it too now, especially our DM.
Did I mention it was free? That in mind, I can’t help but see physical spellbook cards as a complete and utter waste of money. Unless they’re pretty to look at for a collector.
Also, College of Lore Bards would run into the same problem as Clerics with physical spellbook cards, I believe, learning spells from wherever they feel like.
-Sublime Manic
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