D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal #1: "Everything You Need To Know!"

Each day this week, Wizards of the Coast will be releasing a new live-streamed preview video based on the upcoming Player's Handbook. The first is entitled Everything You Need To Know and you can watch it live below (or, if you missed it, you should be able to watch it from the start afterwards). The video focuses on weapon mastery and character origins.

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There will be new videos on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week, focusing on the Fighter, the Paladin, and the Barbarian, with (presumably) more in the coming weeks.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Are you not aware that WotC has insisted, time and time again, that it was the same edition? Saying "the 5e Core Rules don't work with it" is at a direct contradiction to that. There is no honest way to claim that it has "always" been an update to the core system, since those in the best know claimed otherwise.

Been following along all throughout the playtest, so yes, I am well aware of what WotC has said on the matter.

They're giving the 5e system an update. That's what they were always doing, and what they've always claimed they were doing. It's still 5e and they're designing it in such a way that older options (and in particular, adventures) should still be compatible (albeit with a bit of tweaking, perhaps), but the expectation has always been that most people will upgrade to the new system and that everything they publish moving forward will likewise be designed to use it.

There's nothing stopping you from continuing to use the '14 ruleset, and you can even try bringing in options from the '24 PHB and future books too. But they were not - and never were going to be - designed to be used in that way.

If someone provides you with a toolset alongside instructions on how to properly use it and you then try to make the toolset do something it wasn't designed for, it's not their fault if the tools happen to break down in the process.

Many of us strongly suspected that they were misleading the public, be it in a quest to not have sales drop off after the announcement or for some other reason, but this is the first actual confirmation that the earlier books will not get errata, which is how you update within the same edition. We've seen it, like them publishing the Triton several times and then going back and errata'ing every one of those books when they added Darkvision to them.

Errata makes sense when they're fixing a mistake or making minor tweaks, not for a full book overhaul.

They were never going to errata the entire text of the '14 PHB to change it to match the '24 PHB, and if they did, people would scream bloody murder about their '14 books being taken away.

 

[Gradine]

I personally would love for someone to explain to me how a Wizard has less complexity than a Warlock.

 

[Von Ether]

I mean, you can use AD&D magic items in 5E games. Nothing really stops you.

This is literally what the OSR does with rulesets that can be quite different (WWN) or literally identical (OSE) to the original game systems. That's the value add, any stats for creatures, traps, and magical items can be used as is regardless of your OSR chassis.

I think the guideline of "Keep to one or the other, but not both PH to make your PCs" seems reasonable for combability. Realistically, you can't test out all the combinations so there may still be some ironing out to do. And I can see some GMs putting a moratorium on the 2024 PH until they read it themselves.

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, I hope this means we get three encounters per adventure. That's A LOT of content.

Since they are 15 maps usable on Beyond I'm their VTT feature, it seems to me that they have 15 full-on Dungeons in there.

 

[Zaukrie]

I mean, I hope this means we get three encounters per adventure. That's A LOT of content.

To quote myself, if they are good at all, the DMG is basically 5 adventures with a free setting and rule book.....

 

[Willie the Duck]

I give up. So tedious. Every thread.

Ignoring the pedantic debate over if this is 'backwards compatible', 'new edition', 'new half-edition', and just want to say this is EXACTLY what I wanted out of the 2024 PHB. It's ultimately a way to create a new character that is still fully compatible with every adventure and source book that I've bought in 5e, adds new twists to older concepts, and is easier to use and teach to new players.

How about we take the "backwards compatability" discussion to its own thread (or one of the myriad previous threads on the subject), and leave this one to discuss the other info from these videos?

It would genuinely enhance my opinion of the board as a whole if the people who cannot keep themselves from relitigating this once again could show the self-restraint to move it to a thread dedicated to the subject.

 

[Zaukrie]

It would genuinely enhance my opinion of the board as a whole if the people who cannot keep themselves from relitigating this once again could show the self-restraint to move it to a thread dedicated to the subject.

Or if the mods would do something about it.

 

[Minigiant]

It was always an update to the core game system. Backwards compatibility means you should still be able to use older options with the new system, not that everything designed for the new system will work if you try running it using the old system.

In other words, the goal is something akin to being able to run a piece of software designed for Windows 95 on modern systems, not being able to run modern software on Windows 95.

PS1 games run on the PS2.

Not playing PS1 games getting PS2 graphics

 

[Parmandur]

I personally would love for someone to explain to me how a Wizard has less complexity than a Warlock.

Warlock Invocations are not new player friendly.

 

[Gradine]

Warlock Invocations are not new player friendly.

I mean, I can't say that I agree, but regardless no invocations match the inherent complexity of managing a spellbook.