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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[Charlaquin]

Is there a reason you won't tell me what you think the difference between magic and supernatural is? This is the third time I've asked.

I did. In the very post you quoted and tried to dismiss by saying it wasn’t about an in-character perspective. Here it is again, if you don’t feel like going back a few pages (damn this thread is moving fast!)

When you say “innate supernatural power,” you are describing ways in which the fictional world differs from the real one. These things don’t work in real-life physics, but they are still ordinary within the context of the fiction. The fictional world is governed by different rules than the real world is, but dragons flying or giants not collapsing doesn’t break the rules of the fictional world. Magic does bend or break the rules of the fictional world. An agent such as a god, monster, or magic user uses some supernatural means to alter reality according to their will, to create some effect that would not otherwise happen on its own (or, one might say, “naturally”). In D&D, that is typically done by altering the field called “the weave,” or by entreating another agent to do so on your behalf.

 

[Yaarel]

Ok, now find me the part where it says magic is what makes giants able to not collapse under their own weight.

In 4e, if I recall correctly, Giants are explicitly Primordial, Primal, Elemental, magic.

I generally view them that way. Likewise the "frost" and "fire" effects, "stone" and "storm", are all Giant magic.

The Giant-theme Barbarian taps into the "Primordial" aspects of Giant magic, and so on.

It is all, technically, magic.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I did. In the very post you quoted and tried to dismiss by saying it wasn’t about an in-character perspective. Here it is again, if you don’t feel like going back a few pages (damn this thread is moving fast!)

Ok, fair enough. In that case we have reached an impasse, because you are using an in-universe perspective for these terms, and I'm using one that relates to the people playing the game, and the mechanics. I don't see that gap being bridged.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think we all get that, and the response from many people is, "Ok, now what is the implication for the rest of the world? How does this all work?"

However it needs to…? D&D has never been particularly rigorous in its worldbuilding. I am merely arguing that what is possible in real life should not set the limit of what fighters, rogues, and barbarians ought to be capable of. They should be allowed to do things that would be impossible, without it being defined as magic.

 

[Steampunkette]

In their defense, in real life I don't think "supernatural" picks out a discrete element of reality, at least as far as ontology goes. Natural vs. supernatural isn't as meaningful as exists vs. doesn't exist.

I.e.: IF magic existed, it WOULD be "natural".

Often when people say "natural" they mean physical/deterministic/scientific.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Magic exists in D&D so it's not Supernatural. It's Natural. It's part of the world. How do Wizards use it? Science! They learn it from trial and error and doing various tests and making it work. Which is why Owlbears and other monsters exist because Wizard Experiments went awry!

Magic is totally normal and natural in a D&D Campaign Setting. Nothing supernatural about it!

... unless it -is- supernatural. Kind of a thing I plan to write into Sunset Riders. Magic, the arcane in particular, is -unnatural-. Not because it's supernatural compared to our baseline reality, but because it comes from another reality. From -beyond- the Prime Material Plane.

But on the plane it comes from? That's just how physics works, my dude. Y'know? THAT plane has really weird physics where wiggling your fingers and saying special words makes an explosion... And you're invoking those physics and placing them onto the Prime Material Plane, temporarily, because of reality-bleed between different existences.

Diving and Nature magic, though... those are natural.

 

[Charlaquin]

In their defense,

They are making a clear distinction between the two,

My pronouns are in my title, y’all. If you didn’t notice them there, I’d rather you ask than try to guess and use the wrong ones.

 

[Charlaquin]

They are making a clear distinction between the two, but not explaining what that distinction is.

I literally did. You need me to pull the quote up for you a second time?

 

[Oofta]

Do you have a suggestion for how to fix this, specifically?

We would need more details. What spell? What type of scenario?

The ultimate answer, to me, is that if there is something causing an issue either for player or DM is to discuss it as a group. Does the wizard forcecage every bad guy making combats unfun? Discuss it with them. Can you come up with an alternative, like forcecage has a certain number of HP and can be damaged? Just ask the player not to use it or ban it? I heavily limit banishment in most cases for example because I decided long ago that travel between planes should not be easy or simple. So a summoned monster can be banished back home, but if that Balor found some portal to enter the world, you have to be close enough to a portal to send it back. When it came to heat metal on NPCs in armor causing disadvantage on everything with no save while the caster runs away, I just explained that I could either never use NPCs in armor or we could come up with an alternative.

At a certain point, some of the players may not be ecstatic about a solution (in the case of heat metal the target gets a save against the disadvantage every round), but the DM's enjoyment of the game is just as important as everyone else's. I do my best not to arbitrarily nerf any ability or spell, but the game has to work for everyone.

 

[Raiztt]

However it needs to…? D&D has never been particularly rigorous in its worldbuilding. I am merely arguing that what is possible in real life should not set the limit of what fighters, rogues, and barbarians ought to be capable of. They should be allowed to do things that would be impossible, without it being defined as magic.

Some people want heroic, but not super heroic fantasy. I was dead serious when I said leveling should stop at 10.

Some people want adventures where the protagonists do cool stuff, amazing stuff, but not the sort of things that shatter the laws of physics at least as we know them. I imagine most of the OSR falls into this camp.

 

[tetrasodium]

Given that PHB182 states "Jumping Your Strength determ ines how far you can jump.LongJump. W hen you m ake a long jump, you cover anumber of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you m ake a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement."
I can't help but wonder why we are focused specifically on a 30 foot jump rather than 5 10 15 16 18 or 20 foot jumps other than so the discussion is required to shift over to what it says on PHB175
"Strength Checks
A Strength check can m odel any attempt to lift, push, pull, or break something, to force your body through a space, or to otherwise apply brute force to a situation. The Athletics skill reflects aptitude in certain kinds of Strength checks.
Athletics. Your Strength (Athletics) check covers difficult situations you encounter while climbing, jumping, or swimming. Examples include the following activities:
• You attempt to climb a sheer or slippery cliff, avoid hazards while scaling a wall, or cling to a surface while something is trying to knock you off.
• You try to jump an unusually long distance or pull off a stunt midjump."

So it seems like a fighter could jump across a 30 foot gap that needs an unusually long jump