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.

 

[SkidAce]

Honestly that's one of my biggest reservations, how long until they punt, cry foul, get a whole new regime and then we get 6E? My moneys on within 5 years, because I think this evergreen revision mantra is going to tank, and quick. Yesterday I looked at a poll someone did here on EN World. are you going to adopt the new revision, and 47% (and I may be wrong) but I believe that was the number said no. I want something new, not more of the same.

I'm tired of updating my world to new rule sets, learning new interactions, etc. ForEx, I build a guild of illusionists based on 1e rules. How many times have their capabilities changed...sheesh.

I guess I have become just more focused on playing, its good enough, leave it alone.

BUT then new players join with different expectations, and the ideas are good, so we incorporate.

BL? I have upgraded every time and I have always loved the game. (2e style with 5e mechanics is my best description) But I guess inertia is setting in, I dont want new, just different (different settings, different stories, different styles). Leave the rules alone.

 

[dave2008]

I have already given extensive analysis of the ways 5e actively rejects how 4e worked, to the point of repeatedly reinventing its mechanics in worse ways* (Healing Surges vs Hit Dice), or taking an existing mechanic and hollowing it out to the point there's nothing left (At-Wills vs Cantrips; the former helped make everyone reliably good, the latter are, as with so much in 5e, a power-up for casters only.)

All I can say is that we play 5e very similar to how we played 4e. They feel very similar to us. You may think the 5e rules present lesser versions of 4e rules, but they still share some anatomy with 4e, which is good IMO.

There are a few, relatively small, parts of 5e that are actually like 4e. Feats are the rare exception, but they get so much active hate, and are generally far worse than just taking +2 to your primary stat, so I never expect to see them in a game. Skills should be an exception, but they aren't, both because of how the DMG is written and because people run 5e skills like 3e skills when they really, really, really shouldn't.

We have been feats only since 2015 or so.

 

[dave2008]

Presentation is quite different between the two admitedly, and the ultra-specific 4e lore they expected everyone to buy into is gone in 5e.

Interesting. I always took the 4e lore as completely option. It was often presented that way IIRC.

 

[Minigiant]

Laughing and sobbing at the same time

They seriously could never win, could they? Spent the few days with people telling us that this version of the rules was trash, because the designers couldn't make the game they wanted. Now it is trash because they made changes they wanted without consulting the community. Who, at least in part, has called every single thing they have ever made trash.

Welcome to the 50th anniversary of the game that changed the world people. Let's just heap some more negativity on everything, why not? World is on fire anyways.

Again. Some of the changes followed an observable line of reasoning.

Others did not and have no real explanation nor logic why they occured.

And some aspects of the game where you'd expect change due to their high visibility received no change

That's all on them.

The fact that the community both was big changes and backwards compatibility is not on WOTC. That is a tough spot.

WOTC just made their jobs harder for no explainable reason though

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Interesting. I always took the 4e lore as completely option. It was often presented that way IIRC.

Do you have any examples? Because I couldn't find any when I went looking. It was as though they'd scrubbed out everything they could, except the Feywild and Shadowfell, because those were too useful, and the Raven Queen, because she was too popular.

 

[mellored]

They made Mirror Image so all the images have your AC.

That makes it much simpler to run.

You don't need to figure out what was attacked and compare 2 different ACs.

Why tie the ability increases to backgrounds?

To make it less about genetics, and more about circumstances.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Nope, I've DMd far more than I've been a player. But hey, thanks for making this even more about Players vs DMs. Can't get too comfortable with working together with your friends to have fun. Gotta inject some disdain for anyone not in the vaunted position of making fun content for others.

I’d say it’s not fun if it slows everything down. Especially combat turns when those not currently taking their turn tend to tune out.

I’m not saying a DM can’t do it nor is it the players fault (where did I inject players v DMs,? and be specific), I’m saying while more new powers are nifty they will slow down a game that’s already slow when it comes to its main time eater: combat.

 

[Hatmatter]

I'm tired of updating my world to new rule sets, learning new interactions, etc. ForEx, I build a guild of illusionists based on 1e rules. How many times have their capabilities changed...sheesh.

I guess I have become just more focused on playing, its good enough, leave it alone.

BUT then new players join with different expectations, and the ideas are good, so we incorporate.

BL? I have upgraded every time and I have always loved the game. (2e style with 5e mechanics is my best description) But I guess inertia is setting in, I dont want new, just different (different settings, different stories, different styles). Leave the rules alone.

This is pretty much how I feel. The constant changing of rules is such a drag.

 

[dave2008]

Do you have any examples? Because I couldn't find any when I went looking. It was as though they'd scrubbed out everything they could, except the Feywild and Shadowfell, because those were too useful, and the Raven Queen, because she was too popular.

The lore I was talking about was 4e, not 5e. In 4e I understood the games lore and cosmology was optional. I really liked most of it and use most of still today, but I took as optional and, IIRC, it was often present as one possible lore, not the definitive lore.

Regarding 5e, they have kept the astral sea, elemental chaos, primoridals, and dawn war from 4e. Those were the parts I cared about the most so I see them easily. They also kept the shadowfell and feywild (and improved on both IMO) and, as you said, the Raven Quenn (though I was not overly fond of her myself).

It is worth noting that 4e kept or only slightly modified most of the 3e and earlier lore, and that also continues on in 5e.

 

[Daztur]

I’d say it’s not fun if it slows everything down. Especially combat turns when those not currently taking their turn tend to tune out.

I’m not saying a DM can’t do it nor is it the players fault (where did I inject players v DMs, and be specific), I’m saying while more new powers are nifty they will slow down a game that’s already slow when it comes to its main time eater: combat.

Yeah I think some people aren't really seeing the forest for the trees. A lot of the abilities they're adding are nifty in isolation but with all of them added in combat is going to bog down, which is a problem as combat taking too long is my biggest complaint about 5e as it is. This is symptomatic in the way that 5.5e has been developed: a lot of throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what stuck. A lot of the stuff people liked were little added abilities that look like a lot of fun, but with no overarching conception of what they wanted 5.5e combat to look like there's a real risk of them being a lot less than the sum of their parts. This is especially a problem in 5.5e, since unlike 4e there are a lot of issues that crop up if you only have one or two fights per long rest. Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't played the game yet but I predict there'll be a spate of threads about the game being "grindy."

As far as the lore, that makes me sad, the lore about the planes was faaaaaaaaaaaaaaar and away my favorite bit of 4e.