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.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

In some settings, the Archmage, Knight Commander, Prince of Thieves, Ranger Captain, and High Bishop are level 5.

D&D is a poor model for food and drink based survival due to the level of magic available to PCs at low levels.

Default survival gameplay should be hazard based. Hazard and trap avoidance and recovery should be core aspects of classes and it's sad 5e2024 did not embrace that.

Tbh, the expected power and magic levels of PC's is part of this editions survival problem. Everyone is a superhero from early on.

Where in earlier editions the power levels and magic levels were lower than today, especially for lower levels.

 

[Arilyn]

Should be interesting decisions for survival and exploration. Do we push on in hopes of finding shelter or risk resting here? How safe is this strange shrine we've found? Why is the weather acting odd? Umm, why is there an Inn in the middle of nowhere? Should we shelter in the strange cave, ruin, etc.? Is this colourful merchant trustworthy? Sure, you're just a harmless old lady with a cute cottage...

 

[Nightfly]

It's because they've removed contested checks.

That's my complaint, really. I liked contested checks! Simple, elegant, rewarded training in the relevant skills for both PCs and monsters. Stealth vs perception, athletics vs acrobatics. Easy to explain, easy to understand, resolved instantly. Great!

To be fair, maybe this new saving throw system will do everything the old system did except better. That's quite possible. I'm still put off by the fact that things in 5e I thought badly needed a fix are unchanged or only slightly changed, and one of my favorite aspects has been scrapped. But I'll see how it plays in practice before I go full grumpy grognard about it.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

That's my complaint, really. I liked contested checks! Simple, elegant, rewarded training in the relevant skills for both PCs and monsters. Stealth vs perception, athletics vs acrobatics. Easy to explain, easy to understand, resolved instantly. Great!

To be fair, maybe this new saving throw system will do everything the old system did except better. That's quite possible. I'm still put off by the fact that things in 5e I thought badly needed a fix are unchanged or only slightly changed, and one of my favorite aspects has been scrapped. But I'll see how it plays in practice before I go full grumpy grognard about it.

I don't think that they removed Contested Checks. It's that the Players don't need to know how the DM adjudicates checks. They just roll when they are asked, based one what they've chosen to do story-wise. Or in other words, I think Contested Checks will be in the DMG along with any other "Complex Skill Resolutions". Players just need to know how to roll D20 Tests, which is described in the PHB. Resolving them is up to the DM, and therefore in the DMG. We shall see.

 

[MarkB]

That's my complaint, really. I liked contested checks! Simple, elegant, rewarded training in the relevant skills for both PCs and monsters. Stealth vs perception, athletics vs acrobatics. Easy to explain, easy to understand, resolved instantly. Great!

Except when both parties rolled the same result. Nobody ever seems to remember offhand how that resolves.

I don't think that they removed Contested Checks.

Well, they're gone from the Players Handbook along with any instance of their use, including both stealth and grappling. It's possible that they could appear in the DMG, but it seems unlikely that they wouldn't have merited at least a glossary entry if so.

 

[mellored]

I usually don't use Stealth as a "mode" you enter when you start sneaking. You just use the Hide action and -boom- you are hidden as long as the basic requirement are met. The actual d20 stealth roll is only made against the Passive Perception when you would be spotted.

I don't understand the need to have a primary roll to enter stealth mode with a floor of 15 or whatever.

That would be my preferred way.

Actually...

Passive Stealth.
And then when anyone would be able to notice you, they roll perception.

 

[mellored]

That's my complaint, really. I liked contested checks! Simple, elegant, rewarded training in the relevant skills for both PCs and monsters. Stealth vs perception, athletics vs acrobatics. Easy to explain, easy to understand, resolved instantly. Great!

And completely unbalanced in 5e math.

Not saying it couldn't work, but you would have to remove expetise, advantage, ect... and this isn't a new edition.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Except when both parties rolled the same result. Nobody ever seems to remember offhand how that resolves.

Well, they're gone from the Players Handbook along with any instance of their use, including both stealth and grappling. It's possible that they could appear in the DMG, but it seems unlikely that they wouldn't have merited at least a glossary entry if so.

I thought that I explained why I felt that it'll probably be in the DMG - it's not really player-facing.

 

[Stalker0]

It was in the playtest, so most people already saw it.

Seems like ALL skill contests are gone.

Then you never saw a Rogue with expertise in athletics.

1d20 (minimum 10) + 5 Str + 6 proficiency + 6 expetise = 27 (minimum).

A creature would need 44 Str/Dex to have a 50% chance to break out.

Not counting Hex, Guidance, or any other thing that can boost skill checks.

Using skills for combat puts things well outside bounded accuracy.

Rogue: Hey wizard look what I can do! I can basically grapple anyone, anywhere. I can prone them, I can move them at half my speed at any point. Hehe its pretty darn strong, I mean....what are you going to do in the combat?

Wizard: Oh buddy that's really good. Me....not much. I thought about maybe altering reality with a wish, or making myself completely invulnerable to all damage. Or just encase them in an unescapable force cage. But your stuff is really good too buddy!!


In seriousness, yes high level grappling was very strong.....at a time when everyone complained about how weak martials was. It was weak control, but it was practically automatic control, giving it a nice contrast from the spellcasters who had stronger controls but were less likely to succeed.

When I have a player that was willing to give up all of their damage of a combat in order to grapple something (in what are often 3 round combats), I wouldn't consider that busted.

 

[Mistwell]

True. I consider that first bunch of reviews by people that WotC carefully selected as promotion. The real reviews will start when people that weren't carefully selected get their hand on it.

They went out of their way to include DnDShort, a guy that is an avowed and loud anti-WOTC activist in YouTube.