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.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yep, and you get ZERO magical powers along the way.

They get a limited subset of a priest’s powers during training.

What's more, there's nothing that says any prep is necessary at all. I can have my paladins backstory that I took up a sword to go right the injustice done to my town. Bam! 1st level paladin with powers in 2.4 seconds. Then the first two levels come very quickly. It can happen in less than a day in game time. Where's the long time of prayer and prep there before I take the oath of vengeance? Heck, I just started smiting with magical powers with zero prayer and prep time and violated no RAW.

Sure, it can be fluffed differently, that’s a matter for players and DMs. But it still doesn’t matter what level they get oath-specific abilities.

For any class, experienced players probably know what subclass they are going to choose from the start, but it doesn’t matter if they only have general abilities in the first session. The most important thing is to make the game accessible to new players, so D&D players don’t become a dying elite.

 

[Xamnam]

The books and marketing could have (and did in the past I think) encouraged this though, and it was the way learning about the game was handled for a long time for a lot of players. Now, I'm not saying the idea can't be modernized. WotC could easily have put out training videos for D&D on their own, and used the books and marketing to direct new players to them. But they didn't because...wait, why exactly didn't they do that?

Having alternate methods is great, and different methods work better for different people, but if an RPG book's best recourse is to direct you to an external resource like an experienced table or a video, in my opinion, that is a relative failing of the text.

 

[Imaro]

But that's bupkis narratively. If you get the abilities through faith and devotion to the oath, even if you haven't taken it, then betraying everything the oath stands for should cost you those abilities, even if you never get to 3rd level to take the oath. Betrayal = no believing and/or having no faith in the oath.

Who said you get them that way... you're creating your own narrative and then claiming it doesn't make sense. Nowhere does it say devotion to an oath grants a paladins lower lvl powers.

 

[Imaro]

Paladins have magical abilities before they swear the Oath. Where's the lore of where those abilities come from? The Oath concept is pretty specific, and gives you specific abilities depending on the Oath. But you still have power before that, and the source of that power is very vague and, IMO, hand-wavey. Why the different approaches to the class fantasy and lore of the same class?

To accomodate the discovery narrative for those who wish to play it out. Of course the book also gives the option of talking about power loss with your DM if you break your oath... thus if you want to tie your lower level powers (and their loss) to the oath... thats accomodated as well.

 

[Steampunkette]

Well hey, glad you've got A5e to design for, sincerely! From what I heard described, it sounds like it does a lot that I personally don't care for. Because I see positives to the decision, it's not a matter of comfort, I actively like the change. Calling the '24 design just straight up bad doesn't track for me. It has tradeoffs, and they'll hit differently for different people.

I'm glad you like the change, then... but it's still a bad design decision. It still splits the narrative element that defines warlocks in a way that seriously undermines them in relation to the narratives that inspired and defined the class.

Like moving Rage to 3rd level. The Barbarian intro is 5 lines about their rage and 3 lines about them being leaders and adventurers. And then give them, like, Brutal Critical options at level 1, instead, or something. The narrative importance of the rage is there from level 1, but the actual function of it isn't. It'd suck.

It's not about the power. It's about the narrative. It's why I think if they'd just full sent it into 6e and turned the Patron into a ribbon or minor abilities and made Pact Boons into Archetypes it'd have worked better.

As a designer it's my job to get across the core identity of a character class at level 1. To encapsulate in the ruleset what it is that separates that class from every other class.

It's why the Champion starts out with a Righteous Cause. The Gunslinger starts out with Grit. The Sentinel starts with their Companion. The Warcaster starts out with a Casting Style and Initiation.

Each of these elements are meant to deliver the class fantasy right out of the gate. They're core, tangible, elements of the class that define them.

Meanwhile of the 11 sentences introducing Warlocks, 8 are focused on their Patrons and their relationships with their patrons. Not their Invocations. Not their spellcasting. Patrons. Patrons they don't get 'til 3rd level.

It's bad design.

 

[Xamnam]

As a designer it's my job to get across the core identity of a character class at level 1. To encapsulate in the ruleset what it is that separates that class from every other class.

If that's your perspective, I understand why you feel the way you feel.

 

[Micah Sweet]

For any class, experienced players probably know what subclass they are going to choose from the start, but it doesn’t matter if they only have general abilities in the first session. The most important thing is to make the game accessible to new players, so D&D players don’t become a dying elite.

How do you know it doesn't matter. Sounds like it doesn't matter to you.

And while accessibility is important, it can be taken too far, assuming you want people to keep enjoying your game after they've been playing for a little while and all the new player stuff becomes an inconvenience.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Having alternate methods is great, and different methods work better for different people, but if an RPG book's best recourse is to direct you to an external resource like an experienced table or a video, in my opinion, that is a relative failing of the text.

Strong disagree. Experienced players, in person or through something like a training video, is IMO the best way to teach new players, and I think the book should be encouraging this.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If that's your perspective, I understand why you feel the way you feel.

What do you think a game designer's job is? Actually curious.

 

[Chaosmancer]

The specific Oath is of course malleable. The fact that you take take an Oath ar level 3 and that's where your power comes from isn't, but somehow where you power comes from before that is. Why is that?

If you believe that all paladins must be connected to a Divine Source, then it is the blessings from the gods on the Paladin, before they take their oath and refine and express that power more completely.

If you believe that all paladins derive their power from their fervent beliefs, then it is that their belief is still powerful enough to create miracles, but has not been crystallized into its final form.

I honestly don't find it that hard of a thing to justify, because "draws power from their Oath" is... a simplified version of what that actually means. Paladin oaths are not magic words. They aren't arcane text that manifests otherworldly power. They are internal and emotionally charged. To actually be a paladin whose oath manifests power, you need to be the type of person who has those convictions. You can't just swear vengeance on those who wronged you, you have to be fueled by that pursuit, driven by it, it has to nearly consume you on a level that is nearly unhealthy. And so, for a PC that is a Vengeance Paladin... they very very rarely have that moment of vengeance on screen. It is usually tied to their backstory. All Paladin motivations are, because all motivations are in your backstory. The physical swearing of the Oath is nearly a formality in my mind, because you need to be the type of person who embodies the oath before you even get your abilities. So you already ARE a Vengeance Paladin before level 3, you just haven't gotten the specific powers.