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.

 

[Maxperson]

By being able to multiclass into ranger/clerics?

Historically, half elves were not distinct at all, being nothing but humans who could multicass. From 3rd edition onwards they tried to make them distinct by making them overpowered, leading to the ridiculous situation where half elves where more common than elves and humans put together amongst powergamers, even though the lore said they were incredibly rare.

Humans didn't have a 30% resistance to sleep and charm spells. Humans didn't have 60' infravision. Humans didn't notice secret doors in passing. Those were all things half-elves had in 1e.

Saying that historically they were nothing but humans who could multiclass is wrong. Historically they were more than that.

 

[Nefermandias]

Pop culture is out of WotC’s control, and pop culture knows what an orc looks like.

Nonsense! Everybody knows that real orcs are pig-faced!

 

[SteveC]

Talking about one minute rounds really takes me back. We changed to 10 second at our club at UW while still in first edition. It was one of those things that really made no sense to anyone. I think it's because the club really was RPG based and we didn't have people coming from wargames. But yeah, it was D10 + Dex mod for Initiative, and ties were broken down by further D10 rolls.

 

[Mannahnin]

I tried out soft kit (except for the helm) buhurt fighting recently and you're not kidding about the exhaustion. Certainly a significant portion was the full helm restricting breathing a bit, but a three minute round (in a boxing sense) is remarkably long and tiring if you're not trained for it.

Conditioning being a major factor also bears out when you watch buhurt/armored combat league fighting. Folks who don't have the conditioning wear out fast in all that armor and equipment.

But wouldn't we assume that D&D warriors are conditioned?

Absolutely! But for me it was a nice vivid refresher of reality which underpins a couple of thoughts:

1. That rounding up combat lengths to 10 minutes for purposes of exploration (as B/X does and I think theoretically OD&D and AD&D do, though less clearly) makes sense, for rest as well as adjusting armor, cleaning blades, bandaging minor wounds, etc.
1a. That the 1 turn in 6 rest schedule from those exploration procedures also isn't totally crazy.

2. Trained Fighters and similar would definitely be conditioned, but other folks engaging in combat much less so. If we were really being realistic some kind of fatigue rules would make sense, and folks trained in fighting and running in armor would definitely have greater stamina.

 

[Mistwell]

By being able to multiclass into ranger/clerics?

Historically, half elves were not distinct at all, being nothing but humans who could multicass. From 3rd edition onwards they tried to make them distinct by making them overpowered, leading to the ridiculous situation where half elves where more common than elves and humans put together amongst powergamers, even though the lore said they were incredibly rare.

I’m quite happy for a player to call their character a half elf, but I don’t want them to have a powergamey mechanical advantage for doing so. It’s a role play choice.

In iconic characters, both pre-D&D and since 3e. I still don't know how, given the huge popularity of Baldur's Gate 3, they went ahead and simultaneously cut the race of one of its most prominent characters.

Half-elves are so popular in BG3 it's literally the most popular race. Something WOTC had to know at the same time they were drafting the 2.24e PHB:

 

[FitzTheRuke]

In iconic characters, both pre-D&D and since 3e. I still don't know how, given the huge popularity of Baldur's Gate 3, they went ahead and simultaneously cut the race of one of its most prominent characters. Half-elves are so popular in BG3 it's literally the most popular race. Something WOTC had to know at the same time they were drafting the 2.24e PHB:

I don't think that we've seen the last of half-elves - I just think that WotC didn't come close to finding the solution they were looking for when it came to updating mixed-heritages. What they came up with for the playtest was (in a lot of minds) worse, and I don't think that they had "time" to come up with something better. Hopefully, they will figure it out eventually.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In iconic characters, both pre-D&D and since 3e. I still don't know how, given the huge popularity of Baldur's Gate 3, they went ahead and simultaneously cut the race of one of its most prominent characters.

Half-elves are so popular in BG3 it's literally the most popular race. Something WOTC had to know at the same time they were drafting the 2.24e PHB:

They are not “cut” . They just do not have unique mechanics. Which, if you were interested in half elves because of “iconic characters” rather than power gaming, wouldn’t matter at all.

 

[Mistwell]

They are not “cut” . They just do not have unique mechanics. Which, if you were interested in half elves because of “iconic characters” rather than power gaming, wouldn’t matter at all.

They are cut. The "flavor" solution you think is there where you just choose one of elf or human and reflavor it, didn't make the book. They're literally just cut. As FitzTheRuke said above, I also suspect they ran out of time after they received negative feedback on that solution, so just punted to a later date.

And that solution doesn't solve for the issue anyway because a species isn't all mechanics. The flavor IS RULES also. It's not just blank text there describing half-elves, their history, society, culture, names, ages, heights, weights, etc.. that stuff was all meaningful to some people too (myself included). All of that was cut and is not solved by "Well just choose elf". Which is why I think they cut that solution as well.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

They are not “cut” . They just do not have unique mechanics. Which, if you were interested in half elves because of “iconic characters” rather than power gaming, wouldn’t matter at all.

To be fair, there is also the very legitimate criticism that being of mixed heritage does not make you exactly like one parent or the other. And that there are an awful lot of half-elf characters that (seemingly) can't be rebuilt using the new rules (we can argue how true this is exactly, but I think it's a somewhat fair complaint, long-term).

Still, I think we'll see a new version of a half-elf eventually, whether it is done as a distinct species, an elvish heritage, or some way of mixing-and-matching species traits, IDK. There's a lot of passion for the half-elf (much less for the half-orc, though I'm sure it has its fans, but I think most of what people are looking for in that is easily handled by the not-inherently-evil orc). Oddly enough, that still has the same meta issues as above, but less people appear to be passionate about it.

I don't think that it's just power-gaming, though. Most of the power gaming ought to be handled by simply having an elf with a charisma bump, right?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

They are cut.

They are cut from the PHB. I don't think that they will be cut from the game. For now, you can use the 2014 version, and we'll see a replacement someday, I just about guarantee it.

(Note: I know you, Mistwell, know all this, I'm just spitballin' random thoughts, not trying to lecture).