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!

---

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]

---

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.

 

[SlyFlourish]

It's basically the same situation we're in--EN World isn't the direct money-maker, but it is the audience builder. Plus it's a fully-owned 'home base' which isn't subject to the whims of the owners of a social media site!

Yeah, absolutely. I hate that I depend so much on YouTube because it is just another social media site (albeit the biggest one by like one or two orders of magnitude). If they decided to limit external links, that would hurt me badly.

I do try to diversify a lot. I have my blog, podcast, books, newsletter, and Kickstarters, all which bring in new people but not like YT does. I wish that wasn’t so but here we are!

 

[EzekielRaiden]

And, when I played 4th edition, it felt much more like a combat-only game. Although, admittedly, that might have been the group I played with at that time.

This always baffles me. I genuinely don't understand what about the 4e rules makes them, in any way, more "combat-only" than 3e or 5e. All three systems spend the vast majority of their text talking about combat options. Only 4e actually attempted to provide rules beyond "DM says" for meaningful non-combat gameplay. To the best of my knowledge, only 4e gave clear and effective explanations for both DM-authored and player-authored quests, with actual meaningful rewards to the players for engaging in that.

I just...was it unfamiliarity? Was it the (kind of) sleek/modern style of the text? I just don't understand how people looked at Rituals (which were FAR better than 5e rituals!), Skill Challenges, Quests, Backgrounds, Page 42, etc., and thought "yep, this game is purely, exclusively combat with absolutely nothing else in it."

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, absolutely. I hate that I depend so much on YouTube because it is just another social media site (albeit the biggest one by like one or two orders of magnitude). If they decided to limit external links, that would hurt me badly.

I do try to diversify a lot. I have my blog, podcast, books, newsletter, and Kickstarters, all which bring in new people but not like YT does. I wish that wasn’t so but here we are!

Things always change, and nothing last forever. It's YouTube now, it was something else a few years ago, it'll be something else one day--the important thing is you're not 100% dependent on one platform. You have a built-in resilience.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

This always baffles me. I genuinely don't understand what about the 4e rules makes them, in any way, more "combat-only" than 3e or 5e. All three systems spend the vast majority of their text talking about combat options. Only 4e actually attempted to provide rules beyond "DM says" for meaningful non-combat gameplay. To the best of my knowledge, only 4e gave clear and effective explanations for both DM-authored and player-authored quests, with actual meaningful rewards to the players for engaging in that.

I just...was it unfamiliarity? Was it the (kind of) sleek/modern style of the text? I just don't understand how people looked at Rituals (which were FAR better than 5e rituals!), Skill Challenges, Quests, Backgrounds, Page 42, etc., and thought "yep, this game is purely, exclusively combat with absolutely nothing else in it."

My understanding is that it looked different and different is bad.

 

[R_J_K75]

Yes and yes for the PHB.

This is what I want

The next question is does it make it $50 easier to run and better. Which is a lot harder to answer.

Its not a money thing, granted Im not gonna drive down the road and throw money out the window, but ~$200 for a set of core books isnt a bad deal, its a question of am I going to use them? On the face of it, doesnt look like a whole lot has changed in the game design in 10 years and that tells me I probably wont.

 

[mellored]

This is what I want

Its not a money thing, granted Im not gonna drive down the road and throw money out the window, but ~$200 for a set of core books isnt a bad deal, its a question of am I going to use them? On the face of it, doesnt look like a whole lot has changed in the game design in 10 years and that tells me I probably wont.

If your using Android, and the iPhone 12 gets replaced by iPhone 13, that runs a little faster, has a few new featues, and better graphics. I doubt you will switch. It's still an iPhone.

And this is still 5e. Just upgraded to that run a little faster, has a few new features, and better graphics.

 

[Corinnguard]

My group and I aren't looking for necessarily "more" options, I know this is an oxymoron, but we probably want less PC build options but more customization options. Can LU do that? For example, I really don't like how spell casting is handled in 5E, every spell casting class does it a bit differently for "flavor" but only to do the same thing, that needs to go.

I like to think Level Up can provide you with more customization options outside of designing a particular PC Build. In 5e, most of the customization builds are class centered. You pick two or more classes and try to get a certain number of levels of each class to meet the concept behind the build. There is very little customization coming from species, skills, feats and background in 5e.

Level Up otoh also allows you to do with the classes, but there are a number of new features in the base version outside of the archetypes that multiclassing becomes a little trickier. As each class now has exploration and social features vying for your attention as well. Like PF1, Level Up's designers would like to stick with a class instead of dipping into another class for some extra features. However, if you still want to multiclass despite the drawback that comes with multiclassing, there are synergy feat chains that give you a little some extra to make up for pushing back a favorite class feature.

Character origin in Level Up offers up a lot more customization than 5e does. You get to pick up a Heritage, a Culture, a Background and a Destiny for your character. With the first two, they aren't tightly bound to each other like it appears in 5e. You can play as a member of one heritage who grew up in another heritage's culture (and thus gain that culture's traits). Destiny is what motivated your character to go and adventure. You can easily design a character of mixed heritage. All you need to do is pick a heritage (with all of its' commonly held traits) and then pick up a heritage gift (think 1st-level racial feat) from another heritage.

 

[Parmandur]

I am already concerned that I have heard no mention of Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws. I know that Youtubers don't usually use those when discussing optimization and their builds, and they are rarely mentioned here, but I have found they were a useful set of concepts when introducing new players to role-playing. I assume they have been eliminated as the silence here is deafening. I was hoping that they were replaced with something.

The Dungeon Dudes went into detail about this, it was actually their biggest criticism of the new book: Traits, Ideals, ones and Flaws are gone, which isn't too shocking as they have been cut from Backgrounds in new books since 2020. Apparently the Backgroujd section opens up with a discussion of fleshing out one's character, and has "five questions to ask about your past" to help put some meat on the vones...but those knobs as seen in the 2014 book are gone, no tables or anything.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I'd have to get buy in from my players before I made the investment, but maybe I'll run it by them next time we get together

I can't even imagine how wound up @Micah Sweet and @Corinnguard are by this post! A potential recruit!

 

[R_J_K75]

I like to think Level Up can provide you with more customization options outside of designing a particular PC Build. In 5e, most of the customization builds are class centered. You pick two or more classes and try to get a certain number of levels of each customer to meet the concept behind the build. There is very little customization coming from species, skills, feats and background in 5e.

Level Up otoh also allows you to do with the classes, but there are a number of new features in the base version outside of the archetypes that multiclassing becomes a little trickier. As each class now has exploration and social features vying for your attention as well. Like PF1, Level Up's designers would like to stick with a class instead of dipping into another class for some extra features. However, if you still want to multiclass despite the drawback that comes with multiclassing, there are synergy feat chains that give you a little some extra to make up for pushing back a favorite class feature.

Character origin in Level Up offers up a lot more customization than 5e does. You get to pick up a Heritage, a Culture, a Background and a Destiny for your character. With the first two, they aren't tightly bound to each other like it appears in 5e. You can play as a member of one heritage who grew up in another heritage's culture (and thus gain that culture's traits). Destiny is what motivated your character to go and adventure. You can easily design a character of mixed heritage. All you need to do is pick a heritage (with all of its' commonly held traits) and then pick up a heritage gift (think 1st-level racial feat) from another heritage.

Lot to unpack here, I had to make a sandwich and grab a beer.

Seems like I can throw out what I dont want use while keeping custimation? Not to sum up your post in a sentence but is that somewhat, right?

We're playing Goverment Issued Joe now. Fun, has it flaws but any GM that cant make an on-the-fly - call ruling should probably stick to being a player. I'll suffer through a session of two of a bad DM because I encourage all my players to at least try it once. Sure is the day is long. if you suck, Im gonna say something...with encouragement 

5E is clunky in layout, ability to find things, etc. I look at 5E as the successor to 3.5 but should've been 6E. 4E doesn't count. lets not go there, but from 3E to now the core chassis of the rules mechanics have not changed, and that's what I want and why Im not happy.

IM GOING TO SAY IT, WOTC PLAYED IT SAFE