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.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

That one comment that Crawford made struck a chord with me, it was something to the effect that it would have been easier to create a new edition than revise the current one. I call B.S. and implies to me that their confidence in the RPG team may be somewhat lacking, but I could be wrong.

I don't think that's the case. It is that they currently have the best selling D&D of all time. Even if you don't like it, or don't think that it's sales are because of 5e specifically and more on the zeitgeist, you have to admit - it would be a bad time to "rock the boat".

As a huge D&D fan, I'd probably enjoy a bolder departure myself, but as an FLGS retailer, I am very glad that it will be backwards compatible and not throw quite as many babies out with the bathwater as new Core Books often do.

The designers probably feel the same as me.

 

[R_J_K75]

I don't think that's the case. It is that they currently have the best sell D&D of all time. Even if you don't like it, or don't think that it's sales are because of 5e specifically and more on the zeitgeist, you have to admit - it would be a bad time to "rock the boat".

I'm not in the RPG industry so I can't say much on its inner workings, but one thing that crossed my mind is that if it's a zeitgeist, now might be the perfect time to update editions or they may be at a risk of losing all those new players they acquired over the last 10 years. Just an observation that may be unfounded, IDK.

Let me ask you something as a game store owner. Did you see a significant uptick in sales as 5E was released or was it over a few years? How many pre-orders for the revision have you had comparatively speaking?

 

[Chaosmancer]

These are all things you can use off turn, most use your reaction, some do not use your reaction but will still slow down the game with rerolls or similar off turn:

Retaliation
Branches of the Tree
Countercharm (changed, now a reaction, unlimited uses)
Inspiring Movement (Reaction attack essentially at will for a use of a BI)
Unbreakable Majesty
Cutting Words (more uses)
Warding Flare (much more uses and usable on allies from level 3)
Beguiling Twist
Protection (rarely saw this before now mechanically probably the best fighting style)
Indomitable (more uses)
Battlemasters get unlimited d8s for maneuvers at higher levels (presumably meaning unlimited reaction maneuvers)
Heroic Reroll (gives Heroic Inspiration every single round, unlimited use)
Deflect Attacks (works on all attacks, not just ranged, this is going to be used almost every turn)
Steps of the Fey
Beguiling Defenses

This is not a complete list it is just a sample and does not include all the class or subclass reactions. It also does not include spells and feats and the feats in particular are going to generate far more reactions and off turn things than before.

It is not that these are bad individually, it is that there are going to be so many things happening off turn by virtually every player at the table that it will slow down the game. The example I gave of a terribly frustrating turn is going to be the new normal I think.

Oh wow, that is such a big list. But wait... what if it looked like this?

Spoiler: The list?

Barbarian:
Retaliation
Branches of the Tree

Bard:
Countercharm (changed, now a reaction, unlimited uses)
Inspiring Movement (Reaction attack essentially at will for a use of a BI)
Unbreakable Majesty
Cutting Words (more uses)

Cleric:
Warding Flare (much more uses and usable on allies from level 3)

Ranger:
Beguiling Twist

Fighter:
Protection (rarely saw this before now mechanically probably the best fighting style)
Indomitable (more uses)
Battlemasters get unlimited d8s for maneuvers at higher levels (presumably meaning unlimited reaction maneuvers)

Monk:
Deflect Attacks (works on all attacks, not just ranged, this is going to be used almost every turn)

Warlock:
Steps of the Fey
Beguiling Defenses

General:
Heroic Reroll (gives Heroic Inspiration every single round, unlimited use)

Huh, well... that looks far less intimidating doesn't it? I mean, a single reaction for monk's, a single reaction for clerics. Ah, but silly me, it is just that there are so many NEW reactions, right? I'm sure if I look I'll find...

Spoiler: The NEW list?

Barbarian:
Retaliation
Branches of the Tree

Bard:
Countercharm (changed, now a reaction, unlimited uses)
Inspiring Movement (Reaction attack essentially at will for a use of a BI)
Unbreakable Majesty
Cutting Words (more uses)

Cleric:
Warding Flare (much more uses and usable on allies from level 3)

Ranger:
Beguiling Twist

Fighter:
Protection (rarely saw this before now mechanically probably the best fighting style)
Indomitable (more uses)
Battlemasters get unlimited d8s for maneuvers at higher levels (presumably meaning unlimited reaction maneuvers)

Monk:
Deflect Attacks (works on all attacks, not just ranged, this is going to be used almost every turn)

Warlock:
Steps of the Fey
Beguiling Defenses

General:
Heroic Reroll (gives Heroic Inspiration every single round, unlimited use)

Huh... four new reactions? And the heroic inspiration can't forget that. Except, multiple people, myself included have come out and said... that this is exactly how they rule inspiration anyways. So it is only a change for some tables.

Oh, but silly me, I need to account for things having more uses... for some reason... Why? I mean, any given character only has a single reaction per round. If this is going to be "so much more complicated and difficult for DMs" then... why is being able to use it four times instead of three a big deal? It is still only once per round.

And, on to the point about them not being new, this is what I mean. Was anyone ringing alarm bells if they had a Feywarlock, Fey Ranger, Ancestral Guardian Barbarian and a Lore bard on their team? Not really. No one ever really said "The bard using cutting words, the Barbarian using Spirit Shield, and the Feylock using Misty Escape... it is just too many reactions!!" So why would a Feywarlock, Fey Ranger, World Tree Barbarian and a Lore bard be any different?

I mean sure, your initial list is big and scary, but since you only have four new reactions, and you didn't include AT LEAST five that I can think of off the top of my head... what's the big deal?

There are more reactions, those that already existed are usable in more circumstances and have more uses per day. Additionally, many which were optional from feat/fighting style were not used because they were not very powerful and they are now way more powerful meaning you will see them a lot (protection and Defensive Duelist in particular). Finally any character can get the Shield spell through an Origin Feat without multiclassing.

Okay, so bad options got better. WoTC ALREADY had multiple settings where a 1st level Magic Initiate Feat was a legal choice. So... you are mostly just going to see reactions more consistently, instead of it being limited to specific parties. Also, everyone using their reaction all the time for everything means more freedom to move monsters around without opportunity attacks, correct?

I mean, it isn't uncommon for me to see combats with people using 2 to 3 reactions per round already. So I don't get the panic.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm not in the RPG industry so I can't say much on its inner workings, but one thing that crossed my mind is that if it's a zeitgeist, now might be the perfect time to update editions or they may be at a risk of losing all those new players they acquired over the last 10 years. Just an observation that may be unfounded, IDK.

No, they would definitely lose more players with a fully brand new edition.

Not to mention, the attrition rate is currently slower than the adoption rate.

Let me ask you something as a game store owner. Did you see a significant uptick in sales as 5E was released or was it over a few years? How many pre-orders for the revision have you had comparatively speaking?

I've been a retailer since 1993, so I've seen my share of new editions. They always sell great initially and then trickle off over time.

OTOH, 5e didn't grow over time for my store, though I believe it did for WotC (but that has to do with them finding more presence in B&N and Amazon and DDB) but sales didn't noticeably shrink either. They shrank a bit with the announcement of 2024 Core, but they didn't fall off a cliff like they did before when a new Edition was announced. (As an aside, a strange phenomenon is that an "old edition" dies when a new edition is announced, but makes a comeback after the new edition is released - I've seen it happen every time).

This time, I fully expect that the initial release of the 2024 Core will be slightly smaller than before (relatively - both the audience for D&D and my store are larger, so the actual numbers might be bigger but as a percentage of the market, I think smaller) but I don't expect it to slow down much. I think that most "holdouts" will pick it up over time, and all new players will just pick up the new books.

I could be wrong, but I haven't been in business for 30 years by being wrong about this sort of thing. We shall see.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Everyone that you have seen. Not a large enough sample size to claim “you are wrong”.

Within a rounding error everyone who posts on ENWorld who plays at all is a DM (I seem to recall 95% of EnWorld posters are sometimes DMs and 75%+ normally DM). Indeed the majority of people who care enough to post about it online in just about any non-newbie forum (rather than just show up to sessions or ask for newbie advice) are DMs. And ENworld skews hard away from newbies because it's old and a forum not Reddit.

If you claim that anything anyone on ENworld posts "reeks of I don't DM" then you are almost certainly arguing with your own prejudices rather than what's really happening. Web forums are DMs arguing with DMs.

 

[R_J_K75]

Be interesting to see if this new crop of gamers who have only ever known 5E and say they won’t change to 5.5 will stick to their guns and not upgrade or will history repeat itself again and everyone eventually use the new version.

I believe it'll shake out to be what the majority of players are playing. If its anything like 30-40 years ago you bounced around from game to game so if the majority of players are playing either 2014 or 2024 then I'd suspect the rest will follow the trend.

 

[R_J_K75]

You can mix and match stuff from both 5e and Level Up as you see fit.

I have a lot of free time next week so I'll give it a closer look, but it'll be one or the other for me not both and seeing I don't play 5E anymore it would likely be LU if my players are interested.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I believe it'll shake out to be what the majority of players are playing. If its anything like 30-40 years ago you bounced around from game to game so if the majority of players are playing either 2014 or 2024 then I'd suspect the rest will follow the trend.

The majority will be playing 2024 or a mix of 2014 and 2024, I have not a single doubt.

 

[R_J_K75]

The majority will be playing 2024 or a mix of 2014 and 2024, I have not a single doubt.

You may be right, I guess time will tell.

 

[Minigiant]

I believe in 2 years, WOTC will reprint most of the subclasses not in the PHB and 95% of people will switch to 2024 over 2014.

But I also think by 2030, WOTC will be out of passionate ideas and there will be loud calls for 6e.