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.

 

[Imaro]

Not that lore, no. Nothing in the last few years from WotC, lore or rules, is worth keeping as far as I'm concerned (although I'm sure there the odd exception here and there.

Well luckily you don't have to use their lore for your game... have fun.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So you need the book to specifically determine what your PC has devoted him or herself too... yeah thats...hmm...not something I'd want. Give me enough to latch onto and let me expound from there for my particular concept.

What do they give you to latch on to? You're still basically saying it doesn't matter. Why does it not matter here but it does elsewhere? Why have a class narrative in one place, yet leave clear, unexplained holes in others? To me, it's a sign that the designers don't care any more than you do, apparently. IMO it's bad writing, and bad game design. "You can make up whatever you want" simply doesn't excuse that for me. We're paying for this stuff.

And for the record, I sincerely hope these issues are the result of decisions forced by the money people. I have no reason to believe the creatives don't care, but I do believe they are under real constraints, and their work suffers for it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I mean in your game you can always do what you want. In fact this is exactly what many of us, including myself, are arguing for. But some people need a book that spells out every detail and narrative they can create for them... others dont.

You mentioned rules so I figured you'd want to follow the most recent/correct ones... if not why comment on it seeming like a rule?

Recent and Correct are so very much not synonyms.

 

[Imaro]

What do they give you to latch on to?

Ive answered this for 2 classes so far... you dont like and thus wont accept that answer... but it was answered.

 

[Imaro]

Recent and Correct are so very much not synonyms.

I'm not conflating the two...

 

[Maxperson]

Two abilities is still enough, plus the whole entire set of "Pick your elf type" options that SCAG brought along and are outstandingly popular.

One ability. Darkvision doesn't count or you have to eliminate tons of races that all have that ability. They effectively share one ability. That's minimal. Lot's of races share one ability.

So, yeah. That's why Half Elves aren't in despite the popularity. Because every other species has seperate exciting option, and half elves have half of the elf options. Every species brings unique options to the table, half elves don't. Because that's how they're designed: They're half elves. They're not supposed to bring unique options to the game, they're half elves. They're reminiscent of elves but missing half the features, and replacing them with either a bootstrapped "pick your elf" or versitle from humans

Elves fail. I don't want to be an elf. I want to be a half-elf with the unique half-elf abilities that go along with it. And really, you don't get to decide what is or is not exciting for other folks. I love half-elves and find them plenty exciting to play.

And even if no individual ability is unique, the combination of abilities is very unique and that is sufficient for uniqueness.

They're also one of the most powerful races in the game in 5E

The one and only thing of "power" they get is a charisma bonus, which other races also get. A charisma bonus isn't enough to exclude them.

 

[pemerton]

So...whatever you want, it doesn't matter? Why bother with having a narrative in the book at all if, whenever the logic fails we should just shine it?

I'm pretty sure that this D&D Beyond entry for paladin is the 2014 version: https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/4-paladin

So you (and others) have had 10 years to prosecute this particular case. Why is it only turning up now? If no one noticed for 10 years, that suggests that it is not, in fact, a major concern.

I also noticed this text on that page:

The most important aspect of a paladin character is the nature of his or her holy quest. Although the class features related to your oath don’t appear until you reach 3rd level, plan ahead for that choice by reading the oath descriptions at the end of the class. Are you a devoted servant of good, loyal to the gods of justice and honor, a holy knight in shining armor venturing forth to smite evil? Are you a glorious champion of the light, cherishing everything beautiful that stands against the shadow, a knight whose oath descends from traditions older than many of the gods? Or are you an embittered loner sworn to take vengeance on those who have done great evil, sent as an angel of death by the gods or driven by your need for revenge? . . .

How did you experience your call to serve as a paladin? Did you hear a whisper from an unseen god or angel while you were at prayer? Did another paladin sense the potential within you and decide to train you as a squire? Or did some terrible event—the destruction of your home, perhaps—drive you to your quests? Perhaps you stumbled into a sacred grove or a hidden elven enclave and found yourself called to protect all such refuges of goodness and beauty. Or you might have known from your earliest memories that the paladin’s life was your calling, almost as if you had been sent into the world with that purpose stamped on your soul. . . .

When you reach 3rd level, you swear the oath that binds you as a paladin forever. Up to this time you have been in a preparatory stage, committed to the path but not yet sworn to it. Now you choose the Oath of Devotion detailed at the end of the class description or one from another source.​

So it seems to me that the authors of the book have squarely addressed the relationship between the paladin's origin fiction, and the mechanical structure which gives a new player a bit of time to explore some basic class features before making a choice about how they specialise and focus. And if someone wanted to vary that fiction a bit - eg to have had their PC swear an oath form the outset, with the 3rd level and subsequent features simply coming "on line" for whatever reason they do (just as an AD&D paladin has some abilities, like turning undead, calling for a warhorse, and spell-casting, that don't come online until later levels) - there is ample room to do so.

But it's self-apparent they receive power from something besides the oath since they have minor divine power before swearing it.

I think it's much more important to affirm a contradiction and declare the class unplayable!

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm pretty sure that this D&D Beyond entry for paladin is the 2014 version: https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/4-paladin

So you (and others) have had 10 years to prosecute this particular case. Why is it only turning up now? If no one noticed for 10 years, that suggests that it is not, in fact, a major concern.

I also noticed this text on that page:

The most important aspect of a paladin character is the nature of his or her holy quest. Although the class features related to your oath don’t appear until you reach 3rd level, plan ahead for that choice by reading the oath descriptions at the end of the class. Are you a devoted servant of good, loyal to the gods of justice and honor, a holy knight in shining armor venturing forth to smite evil? Are you a glorious champion of the light, cherishing everything beautiful that stands against the shadow, a knight whose oath descends from traditions older than many of the gods? Or are you an embittered loner sworn to take vengeance on those who have done great evil, sent as an angel of death by the gods or driven by your need for revenge? . . .​

​

How did you experience your call to serve as a paladin? Did you hear a whisper from an unseen god or angel while you were at prayer? Did another paladin sense the potential within you and decide to train you as a squire? Or did some terrible event—the destruction of your home, perhaps—drive you to your quests? Perhaps you stumbled into a sacred grove or a hidden elven enclave and found yourself called to protect all such refuges of goodness and beauty. Or you might have known from your earliest memories that the paladin’s life was your calling, almost as if you had been sent into the world with that purpose stamped on your soul. . . .​

​

When you reach 3rd level, you swear the oath that binds you as a paladin forever. Up to this time you have been in a preparatory stage, committed to the path but not yet sworn to it. Now you choose the Oath of Devotion detailed at the end of the class description or one from another source.​

So it seems to me that the authors of the book have squarely addressed the relationship between the paladin's origin fiction, and the mechanical structure which gives a new player a bit of time to explore some basic class features before making a choice about how they specialise and focus. And if someone wanted to vary that fiction a bit - eg to have had their PC swear an oath form the outset, with the 3rd level and subsequent features simply coming "on line" for whatever reason they do (just as an AD&D paladin has some abilities, like turning undead, calling for a warhorse, and spell-casting, that don't come online until later levels) - there is ample room to do so.

I think it's much more important to affirm a contradiction and declare the class unplayable!

Just because a flaw (IMO) has existed in the game for a while doesn't mean it hasn't ranked. What makes you think it hasn't been noticed?

And this all started with a discussion of the Warlock class, where a similar issue has just risen due to 5.5.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Then make the patron archetype into a collective rather than a single entity. Here, I'll give you a start on it with an A5e version:

Sure, you CAN do that. It is an OPTION. But it is not the only way to achieve the same result. I can be a Fiend Warlock with multiple pacts, each pact tied to a different spell or ability RIGHT NOW. Absolutely nothing prevents me from doing this.

This is a flexibility created by the design decision made, a path that was taken. Just because your design sensibilities would cause you to do it differently does not mean it was a mistake to do it the way they did.

Anyway. Yeah. It'd work fine as a patron. And now that I've written this much of it I'm going to finish writing the rest of it out and put it into a future book after Martial Artistry. Think I'll call it "Occult Omens". So thanks for that.

You are welcome.

 

[Chaosmancer]

But where does the level 1 and 2 character get their cool powers from?

Supplemental question: why is this question considered so irrelevant? How can this issue not be considered worth discussing?

Why is it any time people say "the answer is that you get to decide" you want to tell us we are treating it as irrelevant and not worth discussing?

"What is the name of your Paladin Mentor?" is not an irrelevant question, nor is it a question not worth considering, but it IS a question whose answer is "The people involved in creating the character and their place in the story are best suited to answering that" Because the answer is going to change depending on what people are trying to do with the character.