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.

 

[WanderingMystic]

So I agree with you for the most part, but I question if WOTC spent enough money or time playtesting the things that were not in the playtest online.

So in my opinion the problem stems from having the bulk of your play testing done with people who know what the rules are supposed to mean. I have seen this same problem in other companies and other products. They know exactly how the hide rules are intended to work so when they read the rules as written they go well obviously they work like this because I was told beforehand that that is how they work. This leads people to having blinders on where they just can't see how to people on the outside things might be confusing.

It also seams to stem from them writing the PHB and DMG as one book, moving most of not all of the rules crunch into the DMG to make room for the class and character options in the PHB.

Some of my favorite smaller companies open the books up for digital backers for a month before being sent off to the printers that way they have thousands of eyes caring minor spelling mistakes but mainly rule confusions.

 

[Shardstone]

So I agree with you for the most part, but I question if WOTC spent enough money or time playtesting the things that were not in the playtest online.

I want to be clear - overall I really like the 2024 rules. I play 4 weekly games and 3 of them are switching immediately. One is going to probably switch after 20th level when we start over.

At the same time I think the rules are sloppy and there are a lot of things the designers did not think through ... more things than they did not think through in 2014. Dual Wielding is one example, weapon switching is another, the interplay between Alert and Find Familiar is a third, the stunning strike rules and the stunned condition is a fourth.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I feel like the 2024 rules were rushed out without enough scrutiny. That doesn't mean they are bad, nor does it mean they are worse than 2014.

As far as WOTC goes, I love WOTC. I would argue they are better than any other game company I have experience with. I am saying I think you are wrong when you say they are not better ..... they ARE BETTER, but they are not faultless.

I agree, another year of playtesting would have been perfect

 

[DarkCrisis]

So I agree with you for the most part, but I question if WOTC spent enough money or time playtesting the things that were not in the playtest online.

I want to be clear - overall I really like the 2024 rules. I play 4 weekly games and 3 of them are switching immediately. One is going to probably switch after 20th level when we start over.

At the same time I think the rules are sloppy and there are a lot of things the designers did not think through ... more things than they did not think through in 2014. Dual Wielding is one example, weapon switching is another, the interplay between Alert and Find Familiar is a third, the stunning strike rules and the stunned condition is a fourth.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I feel like the 2024 rules were rushed out without enough scrutiny. That doesn't mean they are bad, nor does it mean they are worse than 2014.

As far as WOTC goes, I love WOTC. I would argue they are better than any other game company I have experience with. I am saying I think you are wrong when you say they are not better ..... they ARE BETTER, but they are not faultless.

Look on the brightside, all weirdness and slopiness and needed errata and clarification will help sell a 2024.5 book in a year or 2. Be that a new Tasha/Xanathar style book or a an actual .5 Core.

And the train rolls ever on.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Look on the brightside, all weirdness and slopiness and needed errata and clarification will help sell a 2024.5 book in a year or 2. Be that a new Tasha/Xanathar style book or a an actual .5 Core.

And the train rolls ever on.

They're more likely to just add errata to a reprint than revise the PHB, but yeah, we can expect a Tasha/Xanathar-type book within a few years, though that's more likely to add a few new things and update more subclasses than it is to do any correcting of sloppiness.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I agree, another year of playtesting would have been perfect

But... but... the 50th Anniversary! They almost missed it as it is!

(They should have started earlier).

 

[WanderingMystic]

They're more likely to just add errata to a reprint than revise the PHB, but yeah, we can expect a Tasha/Xanathar-type book within a few years, though that's more likely to add a few new things and update more subclasses than it is to do any correcting of sloppiness.

Just an FYI they are already working on their next book and Perkins said it will have Artificer in it. Now if that is an updated class or just new sub class he did not specify but with it already in the works I think we will get it in 2025.

 

[SteveC]

But... but... the 50th Anniversary! They almost missed it as it is!

This genuinely makes me sad. Looking at my shelf, I have my silver anniversary products all arranged. There will never be an opportunity to market things like this again in my lifetime. I kind of wonder if there are marketing people who are just getting ignored or if it's just that nobody cares.

 

[Nikosandros]

This genuinely makes me sad. Looking at my shelf, I have my silver anniversary products all arranged. There will never be an opportunity to market things like this again in my lifetime. I kind of wonder if there are marketing people who are just getting ignored or if it's just that nobody cares.

I was expecting quite a bit more from the golden anniversary, to be honest. I mean, I love my Making of Original D&D book, but I feel they could have done so much more.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Just an FYI they are already working on their next book and Perkins said it will have Artificer in it. Now if that is an updated class or just new sub class he did not specify but with it already in the works I think we will get it in 2025.

Artificer???!!!??? Cool... where was this announced?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

This genuinely makes me sad. Looking at my shelf, I have my silver anniversary products all arranged. There will never be an opportunity to market things like this again in my lifetime. I kind of wonder if there are marketing people who are just getting ignored or if it's just that nobody cares.

Didn't they fire the entire marketing team? It seems likely that others there might care, but there's little to no one who's job it is to get it done.

But, hey! Profits!