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.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Haste doesn't grant you an additional bonus action, so I'm not sure how it is relevant?

Because you get one Light bonus action attack available to you for every Attack action...

 

[pukunui]

Because you get one Light bonus action attack available to you for every Attack action...

How? As I've already stated, you only get one bonus action per turn. So no matter how many Attack actions you get on your turn, you only get that extra Light weapon attack once. Same with any other bonus action that might trigger off the Attack action (or any other action for that matter). I really don't get how you can argue that you can take multiple bonus actions in this instance.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

How? As I've already stated, you only get one bonus action per turn.

Yes, and Nick means you never spent it. As we can only use Nick once per round, when we then take an extra Attack action, we rotate back to looking at just the Light property as usual, which puts no limits on how often in a round it can trigger (just per Attack action).

Clearly, Light and Nick entries haven't been written in the best possible fashion, as this is how it reads like to me, while you arrive at the opposite conclusion.

 

[pukunui]

You get to spend one bonus action per turn. Nick means you never spent it, but you can only benefit from Nick once per round.

Nick reads "When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can make it as part of the Attack action instead of as a Bonus Action. You can make this extra attack only once per turn."

To me, "this extra attack" in the second sentence is referring back to "the extra attack of the Light property" clause in the first sentence only, not the whole first sentence. It's clarifying that if you use Nick, you can't also take a bonus action to make an extra attack from the Light property. I see Light and Nick as mutually exclusive. Either/or.

The way I read it, the main purpose of Nick is to let you make that off-hand attack for free so you can still use Cunning Action or Bardic Inspiration or the like.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

The way I read it, the main purpose of Nick is to let you make that off-hand attack for free so you can still use Cunning Action or Bardic Inspiration or the like.

Yes, the likely design intent is obvious. I'm saying they should put that into text form if that is the case. Otherwise, I can only work with what the text says.

 

[Clint_L]

So... the new Exhaustion affects all d20 tests. I had assumed saves were somehow their own category separate from that, but they really mean all d20 tests.

That's all of a sudden such a big deal that we're back to not being able to use Exhaustion. What was wrong with penalty to attack, ability and spell DCs, WotC?

I disagree. I think the stacking effect works very well. One level of exhaustion is worth it in lots of situations. Two is rough but not horrifying; it’s a choice worth making for the right benefit. After that, you are in desperate straits, but that’s how three or more levels of exhaustion should feel. In my experience, that happens very, very rarely and when it does it’s for good reasons. Sometimes the story needs to feel desperate.

 

[Clint_L]

I'll give it a shot - but I think that we'd be more likely to have the game come to a grinding halt while everyone (who has any exhaustion) insists on taking a Long Rest before doing anything else.

(As an aside - I don't think that I'd ever advocate for exhaustion affecting AC).

Except what if they are in a situation where a long rest isn’t possible? Sometimes the story benefits from a scenario where the party just has to keep soldiering on.

 

[Clint_L]

Because you get one Light bonus action attack available to you for every Attack action...

No. You get up to one bonus action per turn. That’s RAW and it seems very clear. Your reading of the mastery effect does not change the underlying rule and I’m not sure how you concluded that it did.

 

[Distracted DM]

Really. That is interesting, we find 5e combat pretty fast. We get through most combats in less than 10 minutes. Trivial ones we can blast through in about 5 minutes.

I need more context for this- it seems ridiculously fast. What level are these combats at? Can you give a few examples of what you consider "most combats," as those are what you finish in less than 10mins?

I'm wondering how different each tables combats are- how many rounds you go, how many players, enemies, etc. Obviously each combat isn't the same! But a few examples? 'Id appreciate the info!

I wonder if there are streams/videos of actual play with not-trivial combats consistently under ten minutes, I'd love to see how they go down in real time.

 

[mellored]

But why would a rule that applies to the Light property not be written under the Light property?

Saying "once per turn as a bonus action" is pretty redundant.

...unless you get an extra bonus action.