D&D (2024) D&D 2024 Player's Handbook Reviews

On Thursday August 1st, the review embargo is lifted for those who were sent an early copy of the new Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook. In this post I intend to compile a handy list of those reviews as they arrive. If you know of a review, please let me know in the comments so that I can add it! I'll be updating this list as new reviews arrive, so do check back later to see what's been added!

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Review List

• The official EN World review -- "Make no mistake, this is a new edition."
• ComicBook.com -- "Dungeons & Dragons has improved upon its current ruleset, but the ruleset still feels very familiar to 5E veterans."
• Comic Book Resources -- "From magic upgrades to easier character building, D&D's 2024 Player's Handbook is the upgrade players and DMs didn't know they needed."
• Wargamer.com -- "The 2024 Player’s Handbook is bigger and more beginner-friendly than ever before. It still feels and plays like D&D fifth edition, but numerous quality-of-life tweaks have made the game more approachable and its player options more powerful. Its execution disappoints in a handful of places, and it’s too early to tell how the new rules will impact encounter balance, but this is an optimistic start to the new Dungeons and Dragons era."
• RPGBOT -- "A lot has changed in the 2024 DnD 5e rules. In this horrendously long article, we’ve dug into everything that has changed in excruciating detail. There’s a lot here."

Video Reviews
Note, a couple of these videos have been redacted or taken down following copyright claims by WotC.

• 2024 PHB Rules Changes D&D 5.24 (Treantmonk's Temple)
• Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook 2024 Preview & Review | Key Takeaways and Comparisons with 2014 (Awesome Black)
• 10 Unexpected Changes in the D&D 5E 2024 Player's Handbook (This Effin' GM Games)
• Every Class and Subclass Change for 2024 (d4: Deep Dive)
• D&D Player's Handbook 2024 Winners & Losers! (The Character Sheet on ComicBook.com)
• 2024 Player's Handbook First Look Review (Dungeon Dudes)
• The 2024 Player's Handbook: Full Spoilers Review (DnD Shorts)
• Full Early Review! D&D 2024 Player's Handbook (JoeFudge)
• First Look at the 2024 Player's Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons (GameMasters)
• 2024 PHB Flip through (Jorphdan) [taken down]
• D&D New Player's Handbook, DM's Guide, Monster Manual, and Project Sigil Info (maturemindedgamers)
• 2024 Player's Handbook: Questions Answered! (Alphastream)
• D&D 2024 Player's Handbook Walkthrough (Sly Flourish) [redacted]

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Release timeline (i.e. when you can get it!)

• August 1st: Reviewers. Some reviewers have copies already, with their embargo lifting August 1st.
• August 1st-4th: Gen Con. There will be 3,000 copies for sale at Gen Con.
• September 3rd: US/Canada Hobby Stores. US/Canada hobby stores get it September 3rd.
• September 3rd: DDB 'Master' Pre-orders. Also on this date, D&D Beyond 'Master Subscribers' get the digital version.
• September 10th: DDB 'Hero' Pre-orders. On this date, D&D Beyond 'Hero Subscribers' get the digital version.
• September 17th: General Release. For the rest of us, the street date is September 17th.

 

[Oofta]

Maybe we need a countdown clock. It's 1,575 minutes until August 1st at 9AM ... I'll be back in a minute with an update.

 

[Mistwell]

Is it August 1 at midnight (or 9am?) in a particular time zone or is it midnight / 9AM for each individual reviewers time zone?

Maybe we need a reviewer who lives in Kiribati, the earliest time zone in the world.

 

[Nikosandros]

In a way (and I realize that it is incredibly silly) I'm a bit sad that the PHB will be fully discussed and dissected by tomorrow and when I'll read it in September fro the first time, it will be "old" for me. Of course, I could refrain from watching those videos and participating in those discussions, so I'll have no one to blame, but me...

 

[Parmandur]

Is it August 1 at midnight (or 9am?) in a particular time zone or is it midnight / 9AM for each individual reviewers time zone?

Maybe we need a reviewer who lives in Kiribati, the earliest time zone in the world.

6 AM PST/9 AM EST the NDA lifts, and every content creator is getting their stuff ready to drop immediately.

 

[Mistwell]

6 AM PST/9 AM EST the NDA lifts, and every content creator is getting their stuff ready to drop immediately.

OK cool, that's pretty clear at least 6AM tomorrow for me. Yay!

Also I love that we are 54 posts into...nothing. Don't let anyone tell you they see no excitement out there for D&D 2024.

 

[Vin St. John]

Amusingly, Ginny is probably the closest to an “influencer” of anyone on that list. Not all social media content creators are influencers.

An "influencer" is someone that a marketing department at a company that's selling a product thinks they can get to speak positively about their product by talking with them, providing them free product, inviting them to events, giving them access and exposure, etc. It usually refers to people who run independent blogs, podcasts, livestreams, video channels, and social media profiles, that are popular among the audience that the product is sold to.

Anyone who has a public presence and received a review copy from WotC is "an influencer" in the sense that they have the ability to influence people, and WotC saw that and wanted it to help make that happen.

The only way some of these people can be "more of an influencer" than others is if their business model tends to rely on "sponsored content" frequently, which more than one of these creators have, and which none of them rely on 100% to my knowledge. Singling one of them out as "more of an influencer", if I may, seems to suggest a misunderstanding of how they make money and what the word "influencer" actually means.

Anyways, the list of content creators with advance access is longer than this list, and many of them - including Ginny Di - are excellent, creative people worth checking out!
EDIT: And all of this is just to clarify what that word actually means, because I think people often use it as a derogatory term. All of your favorite Youtubers are also "influencers", in the eyes of marketing departments out there. We don't have to define them that way, they are all more than that.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

D&D Shorts got a review copy as well, he's as shocked as the rest of us and us answering the question does it make him a hypocrite in the below video. I say no.

 

[DarkCrisis]

An "influencer" is someone that a marketing department at a company that's selling a product thinks they can get to speak positively about their product by talking with them, providing them free product, inviting them to events, giving them access and exposure, etc. It usually refers to people who run independent blogs, podcasts, livestreams, video channels, and social media profiles, that are popular among the audience that the product is sold to.

Anyone who has a public presence and received a review copy from WotC is "an influencer" in the sense that they have the ability to influence people, and WotC saw that and wanted it to help make that happen.

The only way some of these people can be "more of an influencer" than others is if their business model tends to rely on "sponsored content" frequently, which more than one of these creators have, and which none of them rely on 100% to my knowledge. Singling one of them out as "more of an influencer", if I may, seems to suggest a misunderstanding of how they make money and what the word "influencer" actually means.

Anyways, the list of content creators with advance access is longer than this list, and many of them - including Ginny Di - are excellent, creative people worth checking out!
EDIT: And all of this is just to clarify what that word actually means, because I think people often use it as a derogatory term. All of your favorite Youtubers are also "influencers", in the eyes of marketing departments out there. We don't have to define them that way, they are all more than that.

It's something that reminds me of my age and that "my time has passed".

As in, whole groups of people have grown up with the internet and with youtube. It never did not exist for them. And so of course they have favorite personalities (influencers) and streaming shows that they love and watch on a daily/weekly basis. Heck most later gens get most of their news from talking heads on a youtube page. (though not like tv media is much better).

I view stuff like Youtube and Twitch moreone of documentaries. Flip in on. Watch something about a topic and move on. I've maybe followed one or 2 specific people over the years but never stuck with anyone for a long period. Usually I'll watch someone play though a story heavy game I've already played and want to experience again without playing it myself.

I guess maybe Youtube and Streaming in general is like old school broadcast tv. Instead of watching Cheers and Perfect Strangers it's Ginny D and Mr. Beast (or whatever).

 

[Mistwell]

An "influencer" is someone that a marketing department at a company that's selling a product thinks they can get to speak positively about their product by talking with them, providing them free product, inviting them to events, giving them access and exposure, etc. It usually refers to people who run independent blogs, podcasts, livestreams, video channels, and social media profiles, that are popular among the audience that the product is sold to.

Anyone who has a public presence and received a review copy from WotC is "an influencer" in the sense that they have the ability to influence people, and WotC saw that and wanted it to help make that happen.

The only way some of these people can be "more of an influencer" than others is if their business model tends to rely on "sponsored content" frequently, which more than one of these creators have, and which none of them rely on 100% to my knowledge. Singling one of them out as "more of an influencer", if I may, seems to suggest a misunderstanding of how they make money and what the word "influencer" actually means.

Anyways, the list of content creators with advance access is longer than this list, and many of them - including Ginny Di - are excellent, creative people worth checking out!
EDIT: And all of this is just to clarify what that word actually means, because I think people often use it as a derogatory term. All of your favorite Youtubers are also "influencers", in the eyes of marketing departments out there. We don't have to define them that way, they are all more than that.

I think you have to be paid by companies to be an influencer?

 

[Chaosmancer]

And he said one of the spells can be obtained by a particular Sorcerer subclass but the other two could not.

Okay, so not shield, but definitely Wall of Force (from Clockwork Soul)