D&D (2024) WotC Fireside Chat: Revised 2024 Player’s Handbook

In this video about the upcoming revised Player’s Handnook, WotC’s Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins reveal a few new tidbits.

• The books are near final and almost ready to go to print
• Psionic subclasses such as the Soulknife and Psi Warrior will appear in the core books
• Named spells have art depicting their creators.
• There are new species in the PHB.

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[Micah Sweet]

Nope. Within the context of the story he was just a man. Nothing Supernatural about it. No magic. No mutation. He was just "Really Good" at his job.

Of course it's not -real-. But neither is Batman, who also does ridiculous superhero BS that would kill a normal human being. But in the story he does it without superpowers as just a "Peak Physicality Human".

Because that's what that story calls for. And what that setting allows.

If you wanna get serious with trying to map D&D to reality, get a high end swordsman to move 30ft and make 4 -effective- attacks on someone within 6 seconds.

It ain't gonna happen. But that's the "Reality" in D&D.

It's not about the reality of the story. The perspective where the mundane -> supernatural-> magic spectrum matters is the players. From that perspective, John Henry was supernatural, and so is Batman, because they both do things normal humans can't do.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Again, supernatural need not be magical. They’re different words, and we do the language a disservice by assigning them identical meanings.

Again, what's the difference between them, to you?

 

[Remathilis]

Nope. Within the context of the story he was just a man. Nothing Supernatural about it. No magic. No mutation. He was just "Really Good" at his job.

Of course it's not -real-. But neither is Batman, who also does ridiculous superhero BS that would kill a normal human being. But in the story he does it without superpowers as just a "Peak Physicality Human".

Because that's what that story calls for. And what that setting allows.

If you wanna get serious with trying to map D&D to reality, get a high end swordsman to move 30ft and make 4 -effective- attacks on someone within 6 seconds.

It ain't gonna happen. But that's the "Reality" in D&D.

How many John Henry's are there in a D&D world. Just one? Every fighter? Every person capable of using a sword? Can anyone be John Henry? Can everyone?

Edit: and is John Henry sufficiently powerful enough to match a D&D wizard in terms of power?

 

[Raiztt]

They sure look like scaled up humans in all the art.

Have you cut them open and examined their interior anatomy?

 

[Micah Sweet]

D&D isn’t meant to be realistic either. And I’d it was, it would be doing a terrible job of it.

Realism is one thing. Verisimilitude (as much as is practical for a game) is another.

 

[Charlaquin]

This isn't about the PCs in-universe perspective.

That’s exactly what it’s about.

This is to create and support the frame of reference of those playing the game, who are all (as far as I know) humans from Earth. The perspective of humans from Earth is what they have to work with, so anything beyond what Earth physics allows is be definition supernatural.

Don’t worry. If 20th level fighters can cut mountains in half, nobody is going to get confused and think that’s possible in real life. What this argument is about is people who like playing nonmagical classes wanting their characters to be able to perform feats that are beyond what is possible in real life, but that aren’t considered acts of “magic” from an in-universe perspective.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Yes, it is. He was referring to the way anime has been used to sexualize youth. Applying it to some shounen tropes you don’t care for is frankly pretty distasteful.

So we agree that the Fighter Mountain thing is just an anime trope trying to be shoehorned into D&D?

 

[Cadence]

Nope. Within the context of the story he was just a man. Nothing Supernatural about it. No magic. No mutation. He was just "Really Good" at his job.

Of course it's not -real-. But neither is Batman, who also does ridiculous superhero BS that would kill a normal human being. But in the story he does it without superpowers as just a "Peak Physicality Human".

Because that's what that story calls for. And what that setting allows.

If you wanna get serious with trying to map D&D to reality, get a high end swordsman to move 30ft and make 4 -effective- attacks on someone within 6 seconds.

It ain't gonna happen. But that's the "Reality" in D&D.

I think it would be great if the DMG had a section on DMs thinking about extraordinary vs. supernatural when imagining a campaign world, and thinking about power sources.

Is Batman/Hawkeye the limit to what a normal humans can train up to? Is it John Henry? Is it Anime person? Or is it just IRL olympic athlete?

Does everyone have access to Ki/Rage/Grit/Luck/whatever and is able to do cool things with it if they have enough and train? (Like strength or dex IRL and specialist athletes doing things no one else can). Or do only some people have access to that power source? Is magic like that - do you need to be born with the gift to do it at all like a sorcerer, or does everyone have it to some extent?

Are spirits being in things part of the normal part and parcel of the waking world? Is there a chaos-fey/law-boring-folk divide? Is the Feywild a separate parallel world all of its own that sometimes leaks in?

Are psionics like a sci-fi 6th sense that is just part of the world? Is it a magic corruption from realms beyond? Is it supernatural and you need to be born to it? etc...

 

[Raiztt]

D&D isn’t meant to be realistic either. And I’d it was, it would be doing a terrible job of it.

No, it's not, but AGAIN...

...there are two different camps vis a vis D&D and what it's supposed to be approximating.

 

[Neonchameleon]

How many people want psions as reskinned diviners?

I mean, I see three main groups when it comes to opinions about psionics:

1. People who actively dislike psionics. They'd rather not have them in the game at all.
2. People who don't care much either way. They don't mind the concept but would prefer it if it doesn't get too much space. For them, reskinned diviners is "fine" because it gives the psi fan something to shut them up without taking too much in the way of resources.
3. People who like psionics, preferably (flavor-wise) something close to the way they were in 2e and 3e: at least one and ideally more actual psi-based classes, breadth on par with arcane or divine magic, psionics takes up a significant part of the game world.

You miss category 4 - those who are more than happy with the current situation or at least with some of the current (and forthcoming) classes and the approach of not having a one size fits all solution. Most of us don't get involved in internet arguments; internet arguments are the place for discontents.

I actually don't think they need to do the same things, any more than wizards and clerics need to do the same things. Ideally, wizards and psions would do different things. This would require nerfing quite large parts of the wizard spell list in order to give the psion a niche in which to excel without breaking the game.

I don't think that this would be a bad thing. But I think wizard fans would scream to high heaven at the nerf. And they massively outnumber psionics fans in the D&D space.