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.

 

[mellored]

Ok. The most frustrating thing I see as a DM in 5E is - Monster X does this and Bob take Y damage and fails his save and is poisoned

Mike: Oh wait I silvery barbs it and give Bob advantage

DM: Ok it still hits, Bob reroll your save with advantage.

Jim: I use lucky to make him reroll.

DM: Ok it still hits

Bob: I rolled a 2 on my save, but I am going to use my feat to half the poison damage.



This kind of thing is going to be a normal turn in the new game I think.

Silvery barbs is not in the new book.

Lucky now gives advantage. Not a reroll.

So... no. I don't see how that would be more common.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I have said this many times. I'm not looking forward to 5.5, but that's all anyone wants to talk about with any frequency. Also, many subjects of discussion can reference any version of the game, and therefore would be nice to engage in, but WotC's new offering is going to drown out those conversations too. You have to talk about 5.5 if you want to engage with the community.

I do understand your position. I really do. I don't envy you.

On my side of things, while I'm trying to skip around in glee in my happy place of hype and excitement for the 2024 books, I have to manage how I react to the negativity of the same criticisms and arguments over and over again in multiple threads. For months now.

It has caused me to avoid ENWorld a bit more these days. But again that's on me to manage how I engage the community. I'm trying to keep to the light-hearted stuff and avoid the areas of tension.

Though I will say that ENWorld is better than the wilds of social media which doesn't have dedicated moderators to keep things civil.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

It’s a bit odd to see people that don’t have the book say what the book is like to someone who does have it.

 

[MockingBird]

It’s a bit odd to see people that don’t have the book say what the book is like to someone who does have it.

I was just thinking the same thing.

 

[SteveC]

It’s a bit odd to see people that don’t have the book say what the book is like to someone who does have it.

I definitely see what you're saying here, but if you're talking about rules or abilities that are different, I think that's fair game. If you're trying to talk about how the book is organized or how it looks, I could not agree with you more. I'm trying to digest the new rules and abilities at this point, and I'm assuming the book is going to look gorgeous.

 

[ECMO3]

Silvery barbs is not in the new book.

Lucky now gives advantage. Not a reroll.

So... no. I don't see how that would be more common.

To be clear what I was saying was this kind of thing is what I see as most frustrating as a DM when I play now (i.e. using the current rules). I haven't seen anything from the new 2024 rules frustrating yet in play because I have not used them in play yet. I used things in the current rules as an example and all the examples I used are both relatively rare and consume resources.

Off turn reactions (or worse changing results without a reaction) are going to be the norm for most characters in 2024 and IMO that will be frustrating as a DM. Change the names of the things above, but that is the kind of turn you will have regularly now and it will be happening far more often than it currently does because those kinds of things are more broadly available, almost to the point of being universal. Worse off many of the new reactions are at will and do not even use a resource.

Silvery Barbs might not in the new book (I say might because I have not seen a complete list yet), but do you have Cantrips now that are reactions in 2024. So yes you will be seeing MORE stuff like that. The new spell Fount of Moonlight for example will let you use a reaction to blind an enemy any time you get hit.

Maybe I will be wrong, but I don't think I will be wrong.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I definitely see what you're saying here, but if you're talking about rules or abilities that are different, I think that's fair game. If you're trying to talk about how the book is organized or how it looks, I could not agree with you more. I'm trying to digest the new rules and abilities at this point, and I'm assuming the book is going to look gorgeous.

I was thinking of ECMO3 when they replied to SlyFlourish.

 

[mellored]

Off turn reactions (or worse changing results without a reaction) are going to be the norm for most characters in 2024 and IMO that will be frustrating as a DM.

I didn't see any additional reactions than 2014.

More bonus actions. But not more reactions.

Worse off many of the new reactions are at will and do not even use a resource.

What new reactions?

you have Cantrips now that are reactions in 2024.

Nope. Guidance and Resistance are not reactions.

They playtested them as reactions, but they didn't make the cut.

 

[DarkCrisis]

it’s funny seeing people dismiss the issues with “that stuffs always been in the 5E” and somehow miss that the issue is that “there is far more of it”.

Reeks of “I don’t DM, so not my problem.” Might be your problem if less people want to DM. Which from what I understand is already a rare commodity.

 

[Clint_L]

Ok. The most frustrating thing I see as a DM in 5E is - Monster X does this and Bob take Y damage and fails his save and is poisoned

Mike: Oh wait I silvery barbs it and give Bob advantage

Me as DM: too late. You can't wait to see if Bob makes their save before deciding whether to use a reaction on the original attack.

DM: Ok it still hits, Bob reroll your save with advantage.

Jim: I use lucky to make him reroll.

We banned lucky years ago. It's a fun killer. And the new lucky doesn't work retroactively anymore, I believe. Which, if so, is a great change - now we can un-ban it.

DM: Ok it still hits

Bob: I rolled a 2 on my save, but I am going to use my feat to half the poison damage.

If someone has a feat to let them take half poison damage, then fair enough.

This kind of thing is going to be a normal turn in the new game I think.

I think you greatly underestimate how atypical your table is. Most games are being played sub-level 10 and not by optimizers.