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.

 

[SkidAce]

...D&D has always been very clear when you can and can't swap things, and about 95% of DMs tend to follow the rules re: what you can and can't swap....

I understand your point, but it doesn't jive with my experiences.

Literally (based on DMs met and played with over the years) I would have said that 95% tend to break rules (on occasion) about swapping and rulings. I.e. clerics with swords cause their deity had one as favorite weapon, weapons prof in general, skills once they were added to the game, starting equipment, ignoring requirements for prestige classes, etc.

Basically if it wasn't too borken and fit a character concept, game on!

Anecdotal, of course.

 

[SkidAce]

... I remember quite clearly a woman brand new to DnD who wanted to play a Kitsune. Myself and the DM for that game didn't shut her down with "No, you can't" we instead looked to the options. ...

We let the wife of a player who was interested play a 1st edition pixie. From the monster manual. Now if you have a copy of the MM go look at the pixie.

It was not balanced. But we had fun, she got tfe idea, and eventually made a "real" character.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I really don't know where you get this idea of the DM from, except to imagine you have had some very overly strict DMs.

Quite often my approach when asked "can I do..." is to respond with a "well, let's see... does this work for what you are thinking of?" I remember quite clearly a woman brand new to DnD who wanted to play a Kitsune. Myself and the DM for that game didn't shut her down with "No, you can't" we instead looked to the options. Did she want to play a shifter? Could Tabaxi be reflavored into what she wanted? We ended up settling on a Custom Lineage using the Fey-Touched feat, which gave her a connection to the Fey she was very excited about.

I suppose you could argue that we said no, because a custom lineage isn't specifically a Kitsune... but that gets into a weird space of "what counts as fulfilling the fantasy". Mechanical representation of a story is a very flexible thing. And frankly, NO ONE, not a single person I have seen on any platform, has stated they will not disallow Custom Backgrounds. No one. The only discussion of Custom Backgrounds is how upset people are that it is in the DMG. I see that as a sign that, they are going to be pretty widely adopted.

This is quite funny because you're saying "Omg ur so wrong" and literally all your examples support my point!

You're not breaking rules at all - you're doing exactly what I said DMs usually do - using reflavouring and Custom Lineage, neither of which break the rules or swap anything out - they're both entirely legal! That's exactly what I'm saying 95% of DMs do! So I've had DMs exactly like you're describing yourself to be!

As for "no-one has said they will disallow custom backgrounds", I have read a few here people saying they'll disallow them, and more elsewhere, though I admit I wonder how much that's honest and how much that's macho posturing, but they're not the main concern for me. The main concern for me is people still coming to the game, who aren't going to have any idea about custom backgrounds. Everyone playing now uses custom backgrounds - they have to! They don't have a choice! But people coming to the game new - players won't even know they were ever a thing unless they get into reading some pretty rarely-discussed stuff online, and DMs won't have any reason to believe custom backgrounds should be allowed, let alone that they were completely the norm.

I'm not personally afraid my character won't be allowed a custom background - but I am concerned that it's going to be an issue for D&D increasingly over the next few years as people keep coming to the game and not being taught that custom backgrounds are the norm.

 

[ECMO3]

I'm not saying creating something new, I'm saying like asking " can I swap X for y"..I didn't realize that we needed the book to actually tell us we could do that instead of communicating with the DM

If it is mechanically different at most tables will not let you do it.

There are way too many rules for a DM to know of every possible exploit or combination of mechanics and most of the time DMs assume if it is in the core rules it is probably reasonable (and often that is not true either).

Example from early in play-

I had a PC very early in 5E that wanted to waive the rules for multiclassing Paladin and Rogue. She was playing the pregen Rogue from LMOP who had an 8 or 9 strength I believe. She wanted to multiclass into Paladin with an 8 Strength. I did not think it was a big deal - who cares just a Paladin attacking with Dex right?

We followed LMOP to POTA with these same characters. She ended up completely destroying other martials in terms of damage with a combination of Divine Smite from her 5 level Paladin dip and spell slots from Arcane Trickster.

 

[DinoInDisguise]

You can do /rolleyes all you like, but the cold reality is, that's not really how D&D has ever operated. D&D has always been very clear when you can and can't swap things, and about 95% of DMs tend to follow the rules re: what you can and can't swap. Your /rolleyes-ing is really undermined by the fact that 2014 absolutely clearly knew this, and that's why customizing backgrounds/custom background were explained the way they were - it's why it was called out! They didn't just leave it to chance, because they knew people wouldn't realize it.

I am unsure you can support these claims. We simply have no data on this, besides anecdotal data of an, obviously, old-school skewed forum. Even here, this is heavily debated. Simply stating that you are correct based on made-up stats is not compelling. So I think this "cold-reality" is more of a "in my estimation."

Recent discussion about the DnDbeyond changes, in another thread, highlights important issues here. Where disdain for enforced compliance with 2024 rule changes has been voiced by many. This lends credence to the idea that dungeon masters can think for themselves, and are not blind servants of rules as you propose here.

Recent discussions on DM-player antagonism, in another thread, also highlights important issues here. That a great number of the posters on this very forum, believe dungeon masters largely act in the best interest of fun. That many will side with players where reasonable. And that many want their players to enjoy the game, and to play what they wish.

So, just maybe, the eye rolling was justified, and dungeon masters are not mere mindless enforcers of the rules as written. Maybe the view that not following the rules, when it benefits the fun, is more popular than some would have us believe. Or maybe, I'm wrong and all of us stopped thinking for ourselves last month and blind obediance is the new norm.

 

[Chaosmancer]

This is quite funny because you're saying "Omg ur so wrong" and literally all your examples support my point!

You're not breaking rules at all - you're doing exactly what I said DMs usually do - using reflavouring and Custom Lineage, neither of which break the rules or swap anything out - they're both entirely legal! That's exactly what I'm saying 95% of DMs do! So I've had DMs exactly like you're describing yourself to be!

But Custom Backgrounds are ALSO entirely legal. So... what is the difference you are looking for? Yeah, I didn't homebrew an entire race on the spot. We could have, but we looked for less work, not something that "followed the rules"

As for "no-one has said they will disallow custom backgrounds", I have read a few here people saying they'll disallow them, and more elsewhere, though I admit I wonder how much that's honest and how much that's macho posturing, but they're not the main concern for me. The main concern for me is people still coming to the game, who aren't going to have any idea about custom backgrounds. Everyone playing now uses custom backgrounds - they have to! They don't have a choice! But people coming to the game new - players won't even know they were ever a thing unless they get into reading some pretty rarely-discussed stuff online, and DMs won't have any reason to believe custom backgrounds should be allowed, let alone that they were completely the norm.

I'm not personally afraid my character won't be allowed a custom background - but I am concerned that it's going to be an issue for D&D increasingly over the next few years as people keep coming to the game and not being taught that custom backgrounds are the norm.

I would have agreed, except the rules for the porting of old backgrounds are right there, and they are the exact same process for custom backgrounds. So, it seems likely to me that that section is going to signpost for people "hey, these things can be modified" without the need for a it to be listed twice.

 

[Chaosmancer]

If it is mechanically different at most tables will not let you do it.

There are way too many rules for a DM to know of every possible exploit or combination of mechanics and most of the time DMs assume if it is in the core rules it is probably reasonable (and often that is not true either).

Example from early in play-

I had a PC very early in 5E that wanted to waive the rules for multiclassing Paladin and Rogue. She was playing the pregen Rogue from LMOP who had an 8 or 9 strength I believe. She wanted to multiclass into Paladin with an 8 Strength. I did not think it was a big deal - who cares just a Paladin attacking with Dex right?

We followed LMOP to POTA with these same characters. She ended up completely destroying other martials in terms of damage with a combination of Divine Smite from her 5 level Paladin dip and spell slots from Arcane Trickster.

... But that end result has nothing to do with her having a low strength. If she had had a 13 strength and been able to legally multi-class... the exact same thing would have happened.

 

[ECMO3]

... But that end result has nothing to do with her having a low strength. If she had had a 13 strength and been able to legally multi-class... the exact same thing would have happened.

She would have but would have had much lower in another stat. This is the pregen she was using rom LMOP (note the pregen in the book did not have a name or a gender):

D&D Beyond Character Sheet

The World's most intelligent Dungeons and Dragons Character Sheet.

www.dndbeyond.com

She would have needed to go with an 8 in Intelligence to make that work, thereby nerfing her skills and her Arcane Trickster spells.

It is possible if you are rolling to roll a character that this is not a big limfac on, but it is not likely to happen.

 

[Chaosmancer]

It is possible if you are rolling to roll a character that this is not a big limfac on, but it is not likely to happen.

This. It is perfectly possible for a character to have been rolled with those stats, or to have lowered charisma or wisdom. Neither of which would have stopped her from using Arcane Trickster spell slots with Paladin smites.

 

[ECMO3]

This. It is perfectly possible for a character to have been rolled with those stats, or to have lowered charisma or wisdom. Neither of which would have stopped her from using Arcane Trickster spell slots with Paladin smites.

No it is not possible to put the 8 in Charisma, because 13 Charisma is also required for a Paladin multiclass. Wisdom was not high enough to meet the 13 Strength minimum (and is also a big nerf on a Rogue). Intelligence is the only score she could have swapped with the 8 strength to meet the RAW minimums for multiclassing Rogue-Paladin.

As I said it is possible to roll high enough stats that there will not be a big tradeoff on a high-dex skill Rogue, but it is not likely and on Standard Array it is a big hit on effectiveness out of combat.