D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

born2streak · Jun 17, 2015

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

This is a great product. The rules are easily understood & very streamlined. Wizards did a good job cutting away the excess. I look forward to seeing some new class options being introduced, but this product is great all by itself.

Xaelvaen · Oct 25, 2015

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

I can't help but give this book a 5-star rating. The versatility of this system with its very clean and simple core has me constantly making new worlds, campaigns, and mechanics for my games.

sleypy · Nov 23, 2015

4 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

The book has some of the best artwork I've seen coming from a WoTC product. The information is well organized, formatted in a way to make finding information easier. I'm sure the use of colors to delineate sections is useful for most, but being colorblind it isn't as useful as it could be. It isn't too big a deal since they make use of symbols. The book uses natural language that is typically simple to understand. This language does make a few rules vague, and a handful of cases undecipherable. Words like stealth have a game definition but also used as a textbook definition--even within a single passage. Overall, this is a great purchase, and it should be your second must purchase, after the Starter Set, for new GM.

Onslaught · Dec 12, 2015

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

Well... most guys already said it, but D&D 5e is the best of 3.5 merged with the few good things 4E had. In the end it's the best D&D i've ever read or played.

Pobman · Dec 14, 2015

2 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

Positives

The artwork is pretty cool – I’ve even come to like the Halfling depiction.
Combat is fast (which everyone else seems to like).
The book oozes flavour

Negatives:

I am visually impaired and even though every other RPG book I've read has been ok if I use a magnifying glass, this book is a massive challenge for me - I find the page numbers impossible to see, the use of a non-white background makes the text of the book difficult to read even with my magnifying glass.
I dislike the spell casting system
- Attack spells using saves rather than defences mean I feel like I’m not actually doing anything - I like rolling dice!
- Being a different level to the highest level of spell you can cast (e.g. being level 7 and only being able cast level 4 spells) makes no sense.
- I find that I have way too many options - each turn in combat, my level 7 Cleric can cast one of 10 spells (not including Cantrips). Each of these can be cast using any of the slots I have meaning that I suffer from analysis paralysis.
- Having to look up the spells constantly is a real pain in the arse. I find it odd that they don't put the page number of spells in the spell list (not that that would do me any good) and they don't put which classes can use which spells in the spell description (the 2E PHB did this). Could I use spell cards instead? Of course, but this is a review of the PHB and the fact that I would have to buy another product to get the best out of this book should count against it.
PCs are way too fragile at low levels. – our Rogue got one shotted in the first session for looking in a chimney. If I started a 5E campaign again from level 1, I wouldn’t even bother creating a backstory for my character as I’d be too worried that I’d be wasting my time putting the effort in only to see it get killed so soon. Having to constantly worry that doing the slightest wrong thing will kill your character will appeal to a lot of people, but unfortunately not to me.
The focus on DMs making rulings rather than having codified rules makes it harder for someone like me to DM. I have an excellent memory but I am not a quick thinker. Therefore I prefer a system where I can memorise rules and only have to come up with rulings on the spur of the moment in exceptional cases.
No Warlord. This was my favourite non-spellcasting class in 4E. I know that it would be hard to make it work given 5E combat, but it is annoying that they didn’t manage to pull it off.

Conclusion
It’s still D&D. You can still use this to have fun with your friends just like with any other edition of D&D. My low score is a reflection of the fact that the entire reason I got into D&D was to play a Wizard (or other spell caster). The fact that I dislike the spell system so much that I wouldn’t play a spell caster in 5E again means that a lot of the book is useless to me. This combined with the feeling that my character could die at any time during low levels makes me wish that the system is fundamentally different to what has been released. The icing on the cake is the fact the book is horrible for my visual impairment. Therefore my rating for this book has to be low.

Herschel · Feb 2, 2016

2 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

5E could have been great, but instead we got a kludgy mess often bringing the worst of previous editions in to play, rather than the best. It's poorly-done fan service that had the potential to be a great product. Instead, it appeals to nostalgia and props up the worst in the game.

Shagamemnon · Feb 20, 2016

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

The core rules for players and DMs for 5th Edition completely blew my expectations out of the water. I highly recommend this game to both new players and veteran roleplayers.

maxnmn80 · Mar 23, 2016

4 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

Well written (it draws you easily into the world of D&D), well designed with nice illustrations. The rules are in general intuitive though sometimes a little ambiguous. A little pricey too.

PatriotofKarrnath · Mar 30, 2016

2 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

I was hoping for a lot better here. Another "why are my pages falling out, this thing is new" material quality, absolutely horrid. Content...ok. nothing to write home about. It has some good stuff, some ok ideas, but overall kind of dull. definately wont win me over from 3.5 with this one. Not much crunch here. Did not like how advantage/disadvantage is the "thing" and everything completely reliant on stats and "proficiency" made me very underwhelmed with the mechanic. It did not seem like it was made with much concern. Very simplified system (almost too simplified) and did not find it much fun. The classes all seemed really samey (not a word, but inventing it now) cleric felt seriously overpowered while fighter and ranger seemed useless. Warlock was a lot less interesting than 4th. Played through the starter set module, didnt bother to finish, traded it for store credit, got LotFP instead. Would not recommend it to anyone, but would not tell them to run for the hills either, especially if they have younger players. If they are more serious gamers, would recommend something else, not "anything" else, but definitely not this.

TheSwartz · Apr 26, 2016

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook

Each edition of D&D is probably best defined by it's Player's handbook (or 1st PHB in editions with multiple PHB). And in this regard, 5th ed is awesome because of this one book.