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]

Good question. It would probably depend on whether or not any of the WoTC designers frequent the forums here on EN World. Then we could blitz them with questions ad nauseum about 2024 D&D.

At this point, we can only guess ad nauseum about what were they were thinking with regards to what they did and didn't do in the 2024 PHB.

Well if a poster is claiming they've provided them...shouldn't be that hard for them to point us in that direction.

If we're just going off the rules... well there are already rules that allow players to control and interact with things outside of their PC's at a metal level... including bastions. You disliking said ruled doesnt change that they exist.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well if a poster is claiming they've provided them...shouldn't be that hard for them to point us in that direction.

If we're just going off the rules... well there are already rules that allow players to control and interact with things outside of their PC's at a metal level... including bastions. You disliking said ruled doesnt change that they exist.

As I've said before, the books are pretty clear, throughout the editions, that the GMs job is to control all the characters outside of the PCs. I am not aware of any D&D core book that says otherwise, but if such a thing exists I'd live to hear about it. Do you deny this? The Bastion system, if it works like the marketing video suggests, represents a break from this long-standing design philosophy. In regards to designer intentions, I see no difference between the rules in the book and anything else printed in the book.

 

[Imaro]

As I've said before, the books are pretty clear, throughout the editions, that the GMs job is to control all the characters outside of the PCs. I am not aware of any D&D core book that says otherwise, but if such a thing exists I'd live to hear about it. Do you deny this? The Bastion system, if it works like the marketing video suggests, represents a break from this long-standing design philosophy. In regards to designer intentions, I see no difference between the rules in the book and anything else printed in the book.

I'm asking for a specific declaration of this in the books. I'm looking at the 2024 PHB and it has no such thing.

 

[Corinnguard]

No one here said there was only one way (why would you imply otherwise?), but that doesn't mean that the designers don't provide guidelines to their intentions.

Well if a poster is claiming they've provided them...shouldn't be that hard for them to point us in that direction.

How exactly is what @Micah Sweet said in his reply, a claim that the designers provided guidelines to their intentions?

 

[Imaro]

How exactly is what @Micah Sweet said in his reply, a claim that the designers provided guidelines to their intentions?

Never said it was him... however he's clearly stepped up and stated it after I posed the question.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm asking for a specific declaration of this in the books. I'm looking at the 2024 PHB and it has no such thing.

I don't own the 5.5 PH (part of my vow not to be a hypocrite on this issue). If what I am saying about player and DM responsibilities isn't there, perhaps it's in the forthcoming DMG. Or perhaps this aspect of the game has changed for 5.5 (in which case we are back to it breaking a long-standing precedent about traditional RPGs in general, and D&D in particular.

 

[SteveC]

So what exactly do the designers guidelines to their iintentions say?

I already posted that I looked at the beginning of the 2014 PHB. It talks about roles for players and the group. It doesn't talk about doing anything with characters other than the one's you create here. It doesn't talk abou creating elements of the game world. It's a very traditional description. If your only exposure to RPGs is the D&D PHB, you're not seeing what a lot of the posters are posting about here (including me).

That's why, if I may paraphrase The Dark Tower, "There are other games than this." Once you move from 5E you can see a lot of different options for how to play a game. People should do that. The 5E PHB is not targeted at that audience. Maybe there will be some info in the new DMG.

 

[Imaro]

I already posted that I looked at the beginning of the 2014 PHB. It talks about roles for players and the group. It doesn't talk about doing anything with characters other than the one's you create here. It doesn't talk abou creating elements of the game world. It's a very traditional description. If your only exposure to RPGs is the D&D PHB, you're not seeing what a lot of the posters are posting about here (including me).

I'm seeing that D&D is pretty much neutral on the matter uinlike you and some of the posters here... and that it already has mechanics where players play creatures (Ranger pets, familiars, summoned spirits, etc.) that are not their PC's and these have been in the game for awhile even though a lot of the posters seem to what to make these exceptions or ignore them. So no it's not that my only exposure ios to D&D it's that I'm not reading more into it thazn is there. Nothing in that intro prohibits something like bastions.

That's why, if I may paraphrase The Dark Tower, "There are other games than this." Once you move from 5E you can see a lot of different options for how to play a game. People should do that. The 5E PHB is not targeted at that audience. Maybe there will be some info in the new DMG.

Or... people can play howevere they want to play as long as the game isn't actively hindering it... much less providing rules for it.

 

[Imaro]

I don't own the 5.5 PH (part of my vow not to be a hypocrite on this issue). If what I am saying about player and DM responsibilities isn't there, perhaps it's in the forthcoming DMG. Or perhaps this aspect of the game has changed for 5.5 (in which case we are back to it breaking a long-standing precedent about traditional RPGs in general, and D&D in particular.

The only way that's a long standing precedent is if you ignore all of the exceptions that have sprouted up throughout various editions. It's rarely if ever been a hard rule and is barely a soft expectation nowadays.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I already posted that I looked at the beginning of the 2014 PHB. It talks about roles for players and the group. It doesn't talk about doing anything with characters other than the one's you create here. It doesn't talk abou creating elements of the game world. It's a very traditional description. If your only exposure to RPGs is the D&D PHB, you're not seeing what a lot of the posters are posting about here (including me).

That's why, if I may paraphrase The Dark Tower, "There are other games than this." Once you move from 5E you can see a lot of different options for how to play a game. People should do that. The 5E PHB is not targeted at that audience. Maybe there will be some info in the new DMG.

References to the Dark Tower will always get a "like" from me!