D&D (2024) New D&D Edition's Player’s Handbook Cover Reveal

Game Informer has revealed the cover to the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

The cover features a gold dragon behind the old-school D&D characters Strongheart the paladin, Mercion the cleric, Elkhorn the dwarf fighter, and Molliver the thief. Ringlerun the wizard is absent (then again he got his showcase on one of the 1E AD&D Player's Handbooks), but a drow mage appears to have joined the party!

 

[zenopus]

The "dual-wielding" wizard facing off against a red dragon goes way back...!

 

[Chaosmancer]

The digital Game Informer issue is also out, with a different article that drops some additional details.

From the sound of it, Aasimar are in the PHB. "The classic options like humans and elves ... are joined by new included options, like the planetouched Aasimar, the hulking Goliath, and mighty Orcs."


For the Monster Manual, they tease expanding some of the classic monsters into "families" with more examples at different CR levels. The given example is a lower CR proto-vampire and a higher CR Nightbringer vampire.

I'm still catching up to the thread, but I was getting really discouraged with the sheer vitriolic negativity.

You buoyed my mood immediately with this news. Thank you and WHOO!

 

[Reynard]

Hey, is this the Infernal Warlock Subclass Art?

View attachment 363079

Imagine a world in which the infernal Warlock PHB art is NOT a tiefling.

 

[steeldragons]

So, Elkhorn, Strongheart, Mercion, that new thiefy nonbinary character from the Witchlight adventure that had a mini (as if they were part of the original character toy line), and a -as far as I can tell, entirely new- Elf of Color character. A Gold Dragon with (seemingly directing) their champions vs a Red with some minions...

Ok. I dig it.

[EDIT: Oh it's a Bronze? That makes total sense since a Bronze Dragon was also part of the LJN toy line figures. And was built as a mount for Strongheart -who is there. So...]

 

[Chaosmancer]

I just think they like the idea of "creature-type-blooded" races.

Dragonborn - dragon
Goliath - giant
Tiefling - fiend
Aasimar - celestial
Elf - fey
Genasi - elemental
etc.

They had stated back during the UA playtest that they included Goliaths to be a second "big guy" race to pair up with Orcs. That way there would be more than one choice available to players for that archetype.

 

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

So, I like the new PHB Cover Art. I think the intent is it's aspirational, as it should be: "Someday, YOU and your friends can face off with immense evil (Red Dragon) with the forces of good at your back (Gold Dragon)."

I respect dipping into the past with Strongheart, et al. I think that if they'd done a party of "bigger" faces, we'd all be dealing with "Wolverine Syndrome" (Or, as noted, Snake Eyes. Or Bumblebee, et al. I can see the "Ugh. Drizzt. AGAIN?!?!" comments), and worry that the "Big Names" would just look like Todd Lockwood's "Heroes", which is a great piece, but I don't think for a PHB cover, and is a somewhat questionable assortment of characters.

That said, I still think the piece that captured my imagination and interest the most when I was first starting out WAS a "low-level"/PC kinda beaten up piece: Elmore's "Dragonslayers and Proud of It!" from 2E PHB (I really need to buy a print of that).

But I think I appreciate the recognizable characters on the cover; one of the things that kept me from buying the Lego D&D set was looking at the PCs and thinking, "Who ARE these people?"

 

[dead]

Where is the drow mage? Isn't it an elf?

 

[JEB]

So Goliaths are just in this because of critical role, right?

Probably a factor, honestly. Possibly also part of why they added aasimar (though it's also an obvious contrast with the tiefling). And why shouldn't they? That's smart marketing.

On the latter note, guessing we're not getting ardlings now (suspect they were meant to replace aasimar as the default celestial PC species).

Nothing nefarious, but the armor has been changed (normally, he has chain mail on the arms instead of the blue padded armor; the shoulder protection is different and his armor is not seamless around the chest/stomach). He's also normally depicted with the face plate up and it really stands out he's the only one whose face is covered.

I admit that my first thought on noticing the closed helmet that they were planning another "reveal". Not that anyone should be expecting 2024 edition lore to be consistent with anything pre-2024 at this point.

That's a halfling wild mage, per Game Informer.

I'm pleasantly surprised that they carried forward the wild mage from the 2014 rules.

All ten Dragon types have gotten a big refresh.

Interesting that they're resetting the default dragon designs - usually that happened with edition breaks.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

On the latter note, guessing we're not getting ardlings now (suspect they were meant to replace aasimar as the default celestial PC species).

If ardlings do come back at some point, it'll probably be as the all-purpose "animal person" we got for their second UA draft, with minimal celestial ties, if any.

 

[CM]

All ten Dragon types have gotten a big refresh.

Sure, just as I have gotten the last of the adult dragon miniatures...