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.

 

[pemerton]

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?.

I've not seen any discussion of it, nor anyone in this thread pointing to such discussion.

And given that the flaw does not, in fact, exist - as per the text that I quoted - it's no surprise there's been no discussion of it!

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

And yet the Oath you take on reaching level 3 isn't that kind of question. Why is it different? They're clearly the same kind of question. What makes the Oath as a power source worth putting it in the book, but where you get the power you obviously already have before that isn't?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I've not seen any discussion of it, nor anyone in this thread pointing to such discussion.

And given that the flaw does not, in fact, exist - as per the text that I quoted - it's no surprise there's been no discussion of it!

Then why are people talking about it now, if it doesn't and has never existed?

 

[Chaosmancer]

I think it's worth talking about that such logical, reasonable constructs don't exist in the text. Seems like the sort of thing that would have been worth putting in there, if narrative is supposed to matter in this game of role-play.

It really isn't surprising that they have vagueness in place, when people are so quick to treat ink on paper as rules carved into the fundament of the universe.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Indeed, the Paladin (less so in 5) but Warlock especially are thematically a mess when trying to marry up with the rules.

No, they really really are not.

The problem is people are seeing the Subclass mechanics as a reality.

Warlock's don't choose their patron abilities until level 3 =/= The warlock has no idea who their patron is at level 1.
Clerics don't get their unique divine powers until level 3 =/= The Cleric has no clue which gods they worship at level 1
The Paladin does not get oath specific abilities until level 3 =/= The Paladin does not have an oath or devotion to a cause at level 1

You are perfectly fine to decide those things before the mechanics, because levels 1 and 2 are designed with the intent of being training levels. Maybe your paladin has never sworn a single oath before level 3, maybe they went through a full knighting ceremony before level 1. It is a NARRATIVE choice, which is completely free to be independent from the subclass choice at level 3. Especially since all of these things are perfectly mutable.

I can have a Fey Pact warlock who did not make a pact with a Faerie. It is perfectly fine to do.

 

[Scribe]

The problem is people are seeing the Subclass mechanics as a reality.

Warlock's don't choose their patron abilities until level 3 =/= The warlock has no idea who their patron is at level 1.

I'd say its no so much a problem as a disagreement on the interplay between rules and lore.

That said, the Warlock is particularly egregious in this respect, has been for all of 5th, to me, to a degree that its really not even worth the keystrokes, you'll never change my mind.

 

[Chaosmancer]

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.

So... is it a flaw if, as Pemerton points it, it was fully addressed in the text?

 

[pemerton]

Then why are people talking about it now, if it doesn't and has never existed?

In your case, I'm guessing it's because you were not familiar with the text I pointed you to.

 

[pemerton]

I'd say its no so much a problem as a disagreement on the interplay between rules and lore.

I make no comment on the warlock.

But for the paladin, there is no disagreement in that interplay, as per the text I've already posted upthread.

 

[Chaosmancer]

And yet the Oath you take on reaching level 3 isn't that kind of question. Why is it different? They're clearly the same kind of question. What makes the Oath as a power source worth putting it in the book, but where you get the power you obviously already have before that isn't?

What do you mean it isn't that kind of question? It absolutely IS that type of question. Oaths are incredibly malleable. The 2024 rules (the ones at issue) use the phrasing "These paladins share the following tenets" for the subclasses. But that isn't an oath, those are pieces of an oath. And even then, they are the most broad versions of those things possible. In fact, if you pay attention... they tend to even overlap an awful lot.

	Devotion	Glory	Vengeance	Ancients
	Let your word be your promise	Endeavor to be known by your deeds.	Show the wicked no mercy.	Shelter life
	Protect the weak and never fear to act.	Face hardships with courage	Fight injustice and its causes.	Kindle the light of hope.
	Let your honorable deeds be an example.	Inspire others to strive for glory.	Aid those harmed by injustice	Delight in art and laughter

"Let your Honorable Deeds be an Example", "Inspire others to strive for Glory" and "Kindle the Light of Hope" are all basically the same thing at their core.

""Protect the Weak and never fear to act" "Face Hardships with Courage" and "Kindle the light of hope" are also incredibly similar.

Meanwhile, look at the literary oath supposedly taken by King Arthur's Knights, which is not only significantly longer.... but has specifics, both penalties and charges:
The king established all his knights, and bestowed on them riches and lands. He charged them never to commit outrage or murder, always to flee treason, and to give mercy to those who asked for mercy, upon pain of the forfeiture of their honor and status as a knight of King Arthur's forever more. He charged them always to help ladies, damsels, gentlewomen, and widows, and never to commit rape, upon pain of death. Also, he commanded that no man should take up a battle in a wrongful quarrel—not for love, nor for any worldly goods. So all the knights of the Round Table, both young and old, swore to uphold this oath, and every year at the high feast of Pentecost they renewed their oath.

The Oaths in the PHB are not full oaths... they are an outline sketch.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Then why are people talking about it now, if it doesn't and has never existed?

Because people leapt to conclusions without checking the source material to see if their position was warranted?

Steampunkette's entire thing about warlocks boils down to a single line of flavor text that is trivially altered, because Warlock's can gain their powers in a myriad of ways. "Through occult ceremony, you have formed a pact with a mysterious entity to gain magical powers. The entity is a voice in the shadows—its identity unclear—but its boon to you is concrete: the ability to cast spells."

What if my Warlock merely cut his hand on a book? What if I'm a celestial Warlock and performed Divine Ceremonies? What if my Patron forced the deal upon me? What if the deal was made long ago, and I'm merely forced into it by the terms of that deal (ie: The Seventh Son of my Seventh son shall serve you all his days)? What if I gained my powers because I performed a deed for a Fey Princess and received her boon, becoming her knight?

This isn't even flavor text for the Warlock, it is flavor text for Pact Magic and warlock spells. All of those stories are 100% viable warlocks, and all of them would be impossible with the interpretation that we must take this single sentence as absolute law and all Warlocks must go through occult ceremonies.