The best D&D games to play on PC (2024)

Looking to play the best D&D games? Dungeons and Dragons games have a long and decorated history, so you have a small army of titles to choose from. This guide recommends the very best videogames based on the first tabletop RPG, from classic ‘90s DnD RPGs to modern MMOs.

Like the tabletop version played with pen and paper, most of these games feature great storytelling and exciting combat encounters. You’ll have your pick of DnD classes and DnD races, and you’ll likely pick up a party to adventure with along the way. If you like strategy, stories, and fantasy, these games are for you.

These are the best DnD games:

  • Baldur's Gate 3
  • Baldur's Gate
  • Baldur's Gate 2
  • Neverwinter
  • Dungeons and Dragons Online
  • Planescape: Torment
  • Solasta Crown of the Magister
  • Chronicles of Mystara
  • Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms
  • Lords of Waterdeep

The best D&D games to play on PC (1)

Baldur’s Gate 3

Pros:

  • Endlessly replayable
  • Compelling characters
  • Top-tier RPG mechanics

Cons:

  • Late game areas feel weaker

Baldur’s Gate 3 is the most recent entry in the D&D games pantheon, and it’s the best by far. Using its CRPG know-how from the Divinity series, developer Larian has seamlessly ported tabletop’s fifth edition rules to the digital world. The result is an enormous, immersive setting that offers more creative customization options than you can throw a Fireball at.

The varied Baldur’s Gate 3 classes, combined with dynamic environments and compelling encounters, mean that we keep coming back to the world of Baldur’s Gate, even after hundreds of hours. It also helps that the narrative writing – and the Baldur’s Gate 3 companions you’ll travel with – are absolutely phenomenal.

Smooch everyone, stab everything in sight, or stick to a peaceful Paladin oath. This is an RPG you can truly play your way, and your choices really mean something. Baldur’s Gate 3 cleaned house at the 2023 gaming awards, and those accolades are richly deserved.

Read our full Baldur’s Gate 3 review here.

The best D&D games to play on PC (2)

Baldur’s Gate

Pros:

  • Outstanding writing
  • Excellent adventuring
  • Strong core gameplay

Cons:

  • Unapproachable for newcomers

Baldur’s Gate wasn’t the first Dungeons and Dragons videogame, but for many, it’s the first that comes to mind. BioWare’s groundbreaking CRPG hit the scene with a compelling story, an open world ripe for exploring, and a complex RPG system designed to suck in strategic minds. Plus, even after 25 years, this trailblazer (mostly) holds up.

Playing as an orphan with a mysterious past, you’re free to roam the fertile fantasy lands of the Sword Coast before approaching the titular city of Baldur’s Gate. Along the way, you’ll pick up a cast of colorful traveling companions, lend aid to various communities, and figure out what kind of hero you really are. As far as story-driven RPGs with customizable character classes go, this is the template.

While good writing never tarnishes, there are plenty of places in Baldur’s Gate where things start to look rusty. It lacks any real tutorial, has plenty of antiquated D&D mechanics working behind the scenes, and you can freely wander into the map’s most dangerous zones at any time. Playing Baldur’s Gate is rewarding, but figuring out how to play can be a ruthless uphill struggle for newcomers.

The best D&D games to play on PC (3)

Baldur’s Gate 2

Pros:

  • Excellent writing builds on the original
  • Heaps of content and replay value

Cons:

  • Still not newbie-friendly

Baldur’s Gate 2 is a worthy successor to the CRPG series’ debut, offering even more in-depth storytelling, complex combat, and adventuring to sate your D&D-loving stomach. The 24-year-old game is dense and difficult to understand for newcomers, but returning veterans (and novices who don’t mind reading a lot of online tutorials) will find a treasure trove of classic RPG goodness.

You’re playing the same character from the original Baldur’s Gate, and you’re traveling with many familiar faces. Only now you’re significantly more powerful and must go toe-to-toe with a dastardly mage called Irenicus. You learned a lot from your original adventures on the Sword Coast, but now you’re in the land of Amn, and your new enemies pose just as much of a threat.

With so much content packed into a reasonably small game, plus an army of nuanced companions to travel with, there’s enough here to justify multiple playthroughs. Before Baldur’s Gate 3 hit the scene, Baldur’s Gate 2 was at the peak of Dungeons and Dragons videogames.

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Neverwinter

Pros:

  • Entertaining combat
  • Explores iconic D&D settings
  • Free to start

Cons:

  • Grindy if you don’t spend real cash

Neverwinter is a mid-complexity MMORPG that lets you explore all manner of classic DnD settings. Things may have started in the once-great city of Neverwinter, but regular new modules and events have taken gameplay to Avernus, Ravenloft, the Underdark and beyond. With a decent-sized player base and new content still arriving as of 2023, you can still jump into this decade-old game with relative ease.

It’s free to start playing Neverwinter (though you’ll be grinding for a long time if you want the best in-game items). Once you’ve chosen one of the DnD classes and formed your adventuring party (with real or computerized companions), you can get stuck into some dungeon-crawling, combat-heavy quests.

Experienced MMO fans might not be overly impressed by Neverwinter’s low complexity and level caps. But if you love the Forgotten Realms setting and enjoy a story-driven online multiplayer game, there’s plenty to love.

Play Neverwinter for free.

The best D&D games to play on PC (5)

Dungeons and Dragons Online

Pros:

  • In-depth character customization
  • Engaging quest storylines
  • Free to start

Cons:

  • Looks and feels dated

Before Neverwinter, there was Dungeons and Dragons Online. This MMORPG is almost 20 years old, and it certainly looks its age. However, those dated graphics hide a wealth of unique settings and customizable DnD character builds to explore. With gear that actually matters and a reincarnation mechanic that lets you bring characters back stronger, there’s enough replayability here to span several decades.

It helps that there’s a significant amount of content to play without having to pay anything. And, for those who are willing to invest, the developer is still bringing out adventure modules. These span all sorts of settings, from Eberron to the Feywild.

A lot of the old guard from Dungeons and Dragons Online will say that the game’s quality has gone downhill since its early days. However, if you ask them whether to start playing, many will still say an emphatic ‘yes’.

The best D&D games to play on PC (6)

Planescape: Torment

Pros:

  • Incredible writing
  • Unique setting

Cons:

  • Old-school combat is dense and dated

Planescape: Torment is widely considered one of the best CRPGs of all time – and many would call it one of the greatest videogames of all time. You don’t get that kind of reputation for nothing.

This 1999 RPG uses the same AD&D system as the first two Baldur’s Gate games. It also sets the scene using one of Dungeons and Dragons’ most original locations. You play The Nameless One, who recently awoke in a morgue in the City of Sigil. Sigil is a dark, bizarre place ruled over by the enigmatic Lady of Pain. You’ve already died when the game begins, but that isn’t going to hold you back.

What follows is the most philosophical, thoughtful writing we’ve ever seen in a D&D game. Yes, the UI feels very ‘90s, and the combat system is still complex and obscure, which raises the barrier to entry for newcomers. But it’s worth pushing through – there’s literally no RPG quite like Planescape: Torment.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister

Pros:

  • Incredibly faithful to the 5e DnD system
  • Literally hundreds of fan-made campaigns

Cons:

  • Primarily focused on combat
  • Weak story and voice acting

Not an officially licensed Dungeons and Dragons game, Solasta: Crown of the Magister still makes this list thanks to its turn-based combat system, an incredibly faithful representation of the 5e ruleset, made with the content Wizards puts out for free in the SRD.

While you obviously won’t encounter a mindflayer monster or any of the other features unique to an official DnD setting, Solasta offers a closer proximity to how Dungeons and Dragons plays at the table than most other titles on this list, even Baldur’s Gate 3.

Adventuring through its vast dungeons taking on the denizens of a necromancer’s castle or volcanic cavern is highly satisfying. Despite some jankiness or lack of polish in places, it’s a very solid tactical combat and exploration game, scratching that DnD videogame itch for longtime fans, or offering a promising introduction for newcomers.

While Solasta stumbles a little on the story front, let down by mediocre writing and subpar voice acting, it’s propped back up by a dedicated modding community, with over 350 fan-made campaigns and modules on the Steam Workshop. Obviously some of them are going to be pants, but there are plenty of good ones, offering unmatched replayability.

Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara

Pros:

  • Highly replayable
  • Good version of a classic game

Cons:

  • Short playtime
  • Relies on nostalgia

An oddity amidst all these cRPGs with their dense worlds and tactical combat, DnD: Chronicles of Mystara is a button-mashy side scrolling beat-em-up. Originally released as a pair of arcade games by Capcom, this retro title was dredged up and re-released in 2013.

Chronicles of Mystara is actually a compendium of two games: Tower of Doom and Shadows over Mystara. They’re very similar, but the latter is pretty much a straight upgrade, offering more variety in class options and special moves. While a single playthrough is very quick, the game is rightly praised for its branching paths, offering different enemies to fight and magic items to collect, which will keep you coming back.

Best played with friends, Chronicles of Mystara lets you tackle a range of DnD monsters in classic beat-em-up style. If you’ve ever wanted to mash buttons and stab a beholder in the face, this is the game for you. It also gets bonus points for being a great port with online multiplayer, leaderboards, and plenty of graphics options.

The best D&D games to play on PC (9)

Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms

Pros:

  • Simple and approachable
  • Filled with iconic D&D characters

Cons:

  • Too many microtransactions

Looking for a way to enjoy D&D that’s a little less rules-heavy? Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms might be the game for you. This is a free-to-play strategy management game where you collect various adventurers with different abilities, form a party, and send them off to battle bosses in various settings in your stead. There’s loot and level-ups in it for you, too.

The phrase ‘idle’ in the title comes from the idea of an ‘idle game’ or ‘incremental game’ – these are games that ‘play themselves’ to a certain degree. Like a simulation game, the strategy comes from managing a resource (here your adventurers and their abilities) rather than engaging in an activity like combat. We did say this was one of the less intense D&D videogames.

The best D&D games to play on PC (10)

Lords of Waterdeep

Pros:

  • Engaging strategy game
  • Approachable for tabletop newbies

Cons:

  • No story or combat like other D&D games

If you want to play something that’s truly faithful to the tabletop experience, you might want to pick up Lords of Waterdeep. Yes, this really is just a digital port of the classic DnD board game of the same name – but sometimes that’s the perfect kind of videogame to scratch the D&D itch.

Lords of Waterdeep places you in the role of one of the rulers of the famous D&D city Waterdeep. To win, you’ll need to earn points by assigning your underlings to various tasks – whether that be completing quests or constructing buildings. Manage your people well enough, and your wealth and control over Waterdeep will grow. There’s plenty of strategy here, and the turn-based gameplay that’s been translated from the board game offers a slower, more thoughtful videogame experience compared with some of the real-time alternatives in this list.

Looking for more gaming recommendations? Here are the best grand strategy games and free war games to try.

The best D&D games to play on PC (2024)
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