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.

 

[Arilyn]

We've wlways had the patron get involved but in different ways, depending on which patron the warlock chooses. A fairy patron will show up the most but the requests will usually be more frivolous. The Great Old One will be the least common but the stangest.and potentially have the biggest repurcussions. Infernal will require trickiness on the part of the warlick to navigate in order to avoid outright heinous acts. A celestial patron will be the mist straightforward in many ways but have the least wiggle room and they'll likely be kinda bossy and inflexible.Even a chaotic good celestial will expect the warlock to do things their way.

Of course, it's often not the patron themselves, but rather a servant, a dream or a whisper in the warlock's head, once again, depending on the patron. Patron visits do not happen continuously. A patron's request can be woven into whatever the adventurers are doing, or may act as a seed for a quest.

This approach works for us and has been a lot of fun for the whole group. I don't see how it's stomping all over the player's agency when they've chosen to have a "boss" so to speak. We've never had a player choose infernal, cause evil, although one player did toss around idea of an unintended link.

Having a patron is similiar to a character aligning with a faction, just trickier to break away from.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

True. The patron can directly threaten the warlock into doing their bidding by telling them that they will lose their powers if they don't. However, there is the possibility that not all patrons operate this way towards their servants.

Which is something the player and the DM need to develop together, not something the DM imposes on the player.

It’s pretty much the same as a PC’s family, should they have one.

 

[Imaro]

Which is unnecessary if you are of average intelligence or better, since you can just look and see what is going to happen later. This is especially true since you won't have gained any real greater understanding in the few sessions it takes to go from level 1 to 3.

This statement is not only insulting (if someone doesnt pick it up in the timeframe you believe appropriate then they must have below average intelligence)... it doesnt make sense logically.

So the mechanics are simple enough to grasp from reading them... yet no one could possibly gain any understanding from playing in some beginning sessions with them. Putting aside that deifferent people learn better or worse in different ways...Which one is it? Are the mechanics simple or not??

Then you should be advocating waiting until level 6 or 7, because it will be that long before a new player gains any real master over the system and can make the informed decision you are talking about.

Why? No one said they have to be a master... but having some experience will help, plain and simple... oh right but only if they are below average as opposed to say a visual learner.

Apples and oranges. Understanding basic rules that have been simplified to the point that a smart bird could understand them is not the same as surviving in harsh, real life conditions in the wilderness.

Again with the insults... not cool and not accurate.

 

[Distracted DM]

I disagree with this assessment. The player is gaining a PC with a very different style of play than any other character has. That difference in style and roleplay is very much something that the player is getting in return.

If you don't want that kind of style of play and roleplay, play the wizard instead. If I choose warlock, I am choosing it in large part BECAUSE of the nature of the patron and the PC.

My only issue here is that there's zero support for it :'(

 

[Distracted DM]

It’s pretty much the same as a PC’s family, should they have one.

Yeah, mechanically it's the exact same as a wizard and his master teaching him, or a fighter and the man at arms that tutored him, etc. Your character got their skills from somewhere, probably from someone... But warlock promises it in the class fiction and then provides zero support for it

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I gave you a method to resolve this issue for yourself - read the comments of the video. If that is too much work for you, well, that's a shame on one of us.

That's certainly one way to look at my post!

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Shouldn't you have to back up positive opinions too?

Absolutely! Not what's happening here is it though?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, mechanically it's the exact same as a wizard and his master teaching him, or a fighter and the man at arms that tutored him, etc. Your character got their skills from somewhere, probably from someone... But warlock promises it in the class fiction and then provides zero support for it

The fiction is the fiction and the rules are the rules. And rules are fundamentally limited, whereas fiction is not.

 

[Umbran]

Which is unnecessary if you are of average intelligence or better...

Mod Note:

It is astounding that you thought that an insult to intelligence was going to fly.

You are done in this discussion.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah its hard for me to understand the audience that would want a class whose stickt boils down to... do whatever the DM tells you to do or loose your class powers.

The DM should be playing the patron appropriately to their nature and the information that patron has to make decisions, just like a God and their cleric (or paladin sometimes). If you as a player don't trust your DM to do that fairly and with verisimilitude, you IMO have a bigger problem.