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.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The videos are one of the big sources, for sure, but D&D Twitter is flooded with the artists going "hey, I can share this now that it was in a giant video, my art is in the PHB!" And the influencer previews being shared about.

For your convenience, here are some less twee pieces from the new books, soirced by going to the journalist Christian Hoffer's Twitter because he reteerts the artists:

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I love the totally bizarre bearded beholder vs. blinged-up behir one! God knows what's going on there but it's inspiring.

Also the last one is a cute subversion - "Oh look at the nice dwarf Cleric! Wait what is she doing! That seems bad!". Not often you see a dwarf Cleric up to no good!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Not especially clean, but I grabbed this from the Pointy Hat video:

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Oh I like that. I wish there'd been at least one with no horns, but that's definitely a cool piece with good energy and again a little bit of a story - the Mage Hand holding cards is nice - and the claw marks from the grey-skinned guy show he's a bit stressed!

 

[Azzy]

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Are those Meenlocks that that warrior is fighting?

 

[Hussar]

/snip

They can't all be Wayne Reynolds, or Larry Elmore.

ANd thank goodness for small favors.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

As an aside, the dwarf with the torch above, along with the dwarves in Disney's Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs using candles and lanterns, is why I am for removing darkvision from dwarves.

Why? Darkvision only turns Darkness into Dim Light - in which you will have Disadvantage on Perception Checks (or in other words - you can't see all that well). So a Dwarf would still use a Torch, if they want to see well (remember - it also turns Dim Light to Bright, so a torch is effectively twice as bright to a Dwarf), and Drow would still use those purple glow orbs or that light-emitting fungus, or whatever.

Otherwise, they'd both still stumble into traps.

 

[Hussar]

Why? Darkvision only turns Darkness into Dim Light - in which you will have Disadvantage on Perception Checks (or in other words - you can't see all that well). So a Dwarf would still use a Torch, if they want to see well (remember - it also turns Dim Light to Bright, so a torch is effectively twice as bright to a Dwarf), and Drow would still use those purple glow orbs or that light-emitting fungus, or whatever.

Otherwise, they'd both still stumble into traps.

Never minding the field day that a Gloomstalker Ranger or anyone with the Stalker feat would have in such a place. Or, since Darkvision is in black and white, it would make mining REALLY difficult.

 

[Demetrios1453]

No more art in D&D books.

D&D fans prove time and time again we don't deserve it.

No font besides Time New Roman either.

I'd prefer if we only got Comic Sans.

Or even better, Wingdings...

 

[Vaalingrade]

I'd prefer if we only got Comic Sans.

Or even better, Wingdings...

Wingdings are shapes. Too much like art.

We already can't operate the word 'superhero' responsibly, so Comic anything is right out.

 

[Thommy H-H]

I love the totally bizarre bearded beholder vs. blinged-up behir one! God knows what's going on there but it's inspiring.

I wonder if it's art for Polymorph or something? They look like wizards having a duel a la The Sword in the Stone.

 

[Parmandur]

Last time I tried scanning a video there was stuff I couldn't find, but I think I found most of it:

The Halfling and I presume Aasimar ones are really nice! Cute and emotive in a good way that like, is relatable and makes sense in the setting.

The dwarf one is dumb as a box of rocks for the reasons I stated above - it's not too cute but it is like, done by someone who didn't even think about the realities of the situation. You could totally tell the same story in a much better way in a single art piece.

The elf one is unexpectedly awful given elves are normally a slam-dunk. Like, it's not good art even, esp. compared to the others. And it also makes the elves look like twerps, just pompous berry-coloured humans with pointy ears, which seems mean when none of the other ones make the people involved look like twerps! And it doesn't have a story or much energy like the others.

The human one I really like because it's well-observed and it tells a story. At least I presume those are humans. The guy holding his head is great.

The Goliath one is good and actually even feels very Goliath-y with them all working together and lifting something real heavy.

The Orc one (I dunno if it's in here, I couldn't find it if so, but I've seen it elsewhere) is... just... it's not trying hard enough. But it's a classic D&D art failing "I overly literally translated real-life historical culture/dress X into D&D", so it's nothing new. And it's ten times better than the elf one! So there's that!

I didn't see any Tiefling or Dragonborn one. Or I think Gnome. Unless what I thought were Halflings were Gnomes.

Worth noting that the Elf, Dwarf, and Orc pictures are the same artist...so you may just nit like his style.