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.

 

[Valetudo]

Honestly I don't care if you play the game or not. I have watched alot of reviews so far and dnd shorts is the most negative I've seen and he straight up says in the video most of his negativity is because hasbro owns wotc. In fact that is probably the number negative that most people day(me included) about 5.5.

 

[Valetudo]

Yeah maybe by 2030 I might be ready for 6th edition. Right now I'm super cool with a .5 revision. In fact I think with such a short dev time, a brand new edition would have likely been messy and rushed(kinda like 4th edition, which I did enjoy but acknowledge it needed more time in the oven.). You can see even on 5.5 that they where rushed at the end.

 

[Clint_L]

As I said earlier a few days ago, 47% of people a choosing not to adopt it.

I'm pretty skeptical. 47% of people on this forum, which starts with an extremely high degree of grognards, many of whom never played 5e to start with. And even then I'm skeptical that 47% of those won't eventually wind up on board. Folks like to be argumentative here and that's cool, but I also think it leads to us tending to take stronger rhetorical positions than we actually practice.

 

[R_J_K75]

I'm pretty skeptical. 47% of people on this forum, which starts with an extremely high degree of grognards, many of whom never played 5e to start with. And even then I'm skeptical that 47% of those won't eventually wind up on board. Folks like to be argumentative here and that's cool, but I also think it leads to us tending to take stronger rhetorical positions than we actually practice.

You may be correct, but it seems from the reactions at least as of now, people are pretty divided on whether they will switch and if they think it's good or bad.

 

[dave2008]

I probably didn't articulate what I was thinking well enough. I excluded 4E because it was such a radical departure from what came before or since, and so I didn't feel it was relevant to this conversation.

I disagree it was that radical of a departure, but I understand you feel that way.

As was noted on these forums and the old WotC forums at the time, a lot of 4e was previewed by late 3e. It was, in many ways, a continuation of the ideas of late 3e. Additionally, many games that are still popular now have taken lessons from 4e, such as PF2 and 13th age. So its design ideas are still relevant. Finally, many people today still believe 4e solved or nearly solved many of the issues with D&D and would like to see more 4e design in 5e or an eventual 6e. So while you may not feel it is relevant, I lot of other people do.

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. If they really think that this is an evergreen edition I disagree, there will come a time when it withers on the vine, and they will need to redesign the game from the ground up. But again, as unpopular as it may be, it's my opinion.

I agree that Crawford's statement is BS, but I do think they want to keep this an evergreen edition. They have been saying it for 10 years, no reason not to believe them at this point. The only thing that will move them to make a 6e is what has always motivated an edition change - poor sales.

 

[Corinnguard]

Honestly I don't care if you play the game or not. I have watched alot of reviews so far and dnd shorts is the most negative I've seen and he straight up says in the video most of his negativity is because hasbro owns wotc. In fact that is probably the number negative that most people day(me included) about 5.5.

And yet WoTC gave him a copy of the 2024 PHB to look at and review. Which he did do while promising to donate the proceeds of his YouTube review to charity.

Maybe WoTC benefitted from his negative review.

 

[dave2008]

You may be correct, but it seems from the reactions at least as of now, people are pretty divided on whether they will switch and if they think it's good or bad.

What interesting this time is that you don't need to switch to continue playing the current edition of the game. Previously, when 4e came out you had to buy 4e core books and adventures to continue play with current material. With 5e24 you continue playing new adventures and settings with your old 5e14 books. So there is less incentive for people to transition. So 5e could be more popular than ever and still sell less core books. However, the supplements could continue selling at the same or better pace.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

And yet WoTC gave him a copy of the 2024 PHB to look at and review. Which he did do while promising to donate the proceeds of his YouTube review to charity.

Maybe WoTC benefitted from his negative review.

I think they took a gamble that he might like it - which seems to have paid off, because he basically said that he only didn't like it because it was WotC. If even he thinks it's not that bad, then it's probably pretty good.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

The WotC executives certainly feel the same as you, and their opinions are the only ones that really matter.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

They're not out of passionate ideas now? What passionate ideas are currently being explored?