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.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

People have been running playtest campaigns for a year now...

You know what takes the longest time? Moving characters around on a grid, counting the movement on said grid, optimizing AoE placements, GM having to take each NPC's turn, all the chaff from the game being built on 5ft squares and the insistence that each individual critter has to be represented individually. Plus, big pools of HP.

That a few characters get extra options/triggers weighs nothing in comparison.

This is why 4E combats took forever for us. Huge pools of HP and crazy grid tactics planning and implementation.

 

[Scott Christian]

The playtests I've seen of the new rules do not appear to involve longer combats or longer turns despite more reactions.

Not to debate this, because we don't know. All of our experience with the new ruleset, especially the printed versions in the PHB, are limited. But we do know that adding options and reactions takes more time. Players trying to decide what to do takes longer. It is the reason the wizard's turn often takes much longer than the fighter's. This is not debatable. It is simply a fact. If you point to some outlier, ok. I'm sure you had a player that was a wizard, and they took half the time that the fighter took. But the real-life scenario, the day-to-day play, the average playstyles at a table, choices and options and reactions increase a combat turn's time.

People have been running playtest campaigns for a year now...

You know what takes the longest time? The exact same stuff as before - moving characters around on a grid, counting the movement on said grid, optimizing AoE placements, GM having to take each NPC's turn, all the chaff from the game being built on 5ft squares and the insistence that each individual critter has to be represented individually. Plus, big pools of HP.

That a few characters get extra options/triggers weighs nothing in comparison.

Not to be nitpicky, but a limited number of people having been running playtests. The PHB hasn't even been officially released except for a few thousand at GenCon.

And you are correct: HP and 5ft squares do take more time. Do you know why? Because it offers more choices. It increases options. Do I place the spell here or there? Do I move here or there? Options take time. Just like character combat options take time.

 

[Mistwell]

Not to debate this, because we don't know. All of our experience with the new ruleset, especially the printed versions in the PHB, are limited. But we do know that adding options and reactions takes more time. Players trying to decide what to do takes longer. It is the reason the wizard's turn often takes much longer than the fighter's. This is not debatable. It is simply a fact. If you point to some outlier, ok. I'm sure you had a player that was a wizard, and they took half the time that the fighter took. But the real-life scenario, the day-to-day play, the average playstyles at a table, choices and options and reactions increase a combat turn's time.

You keep saying it's just fact, I am telling you the playtests I've seen do not support your claim, and you're just repeating it's fact.

It didn't take more time overall. I offered a possible explanation for that, that combats were over faster due to needing fewer rounds to finish them. You blew that explanation off and then again repeated it just takes longer and anything differing from that must be an outlier because you know in theory it should take longer.

Scott, what if you find, when you actually play it, it doesn't take longer? Then what?

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

I think the amount of time taken by casting spells so completely dominates that making anything non-magical take more time isn't going to be noticeable.

 

[Chaosmancer]

The playtests I've seen of the new rules do not appear to involve longer combats or longer turns despite more reactions.

See, but that just has to be impossible Mistwell. It is an immutable fact of the universe that people with more options will take longer to do things. Nothing can possibly prevent it, like some options not being viable at the time, or people making their decisions ahead of time, or people just knowing their characters and the game really well and moving quickly. It will always and forever take longer.

/s

 

[MerricB]

My plan is to start running Empire of the Ghouls using the 2024 PHB in just under three weeks. As you might know, I use Roll20 so I'll be able to see how long combat takes from the timestamps.

It won't tell us that much... but I can see if the player options significantly slow play down.

Cheers,
Merric

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I use Roll20

Oh yeah, they just added support for 2024 character sheets! I haven't tested that yet, just made sure nothing about my Drakkenheim campaign broke on the move to the new interface.

 

[ECMO3]

You keep saying it's just fact, I am telling you the playtests I've seen do not support your claim, and you're just repeating it's fact.

Can you provide a link to a playtest you've seen using the 2024 rules? To be clear I am not talking about UA, I am talking about a playtest using the actual RAW official 2024 PHB.

The UA is way different than what is being reported for DND 2024 PHB.

Maybe it will be shorter, but I don't think it will be.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

The UA is way different than what is being reported for DND 2024 PHB.

It really, really isn't.

Biggest change is that Dual-Wielder gives you an extra attack, which could be used to hit with a Topple weapon, prompting a lot of extra rolls... but besides that, enh.

I'll be running a 2024 game tomorrow, and I struggled to think of anything I'd need to mention to my players that wasn't already covered by our playtest changes list.

 

[MerricB]

Oh yeah, they just added support for 2024 character sheets! I haven't tested that yet, just made sure nothing about my Drakkenheim campaign broke on the move to the new interface.

Drakkenheim breaking would be utterly on-point for that campaign, surely?

Cheers,
Merric