D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal #1: "Everything You Need To Know!"

Each day this week, Wizards of the Coast will be releasing a new live-streamed preview video based on the upcoming Player's Handbook. The first is entitled Everything You Need To Know and you can watch it live below (or, if you missed it, you should be able to watch it from the start afterwards). The video focuses on weapon mastery and character origins.

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There will be new videos on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week, focusing on the Fighter, the Paladin, and the Barbarian, with (presumably) more in the coming weeks.

 

[KYRON45]

Sure, through the actions of whatever PC or PCs they are controlling at the time. That doesn't make the game "character concept-focused".

I simply can not fathom a game where the characters aren’t the main driver of what’s happening. I think we have taken this thread far enough off course though. Game your own game and enjoy.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Barbarian: Berserker, Wild Heart (formerly called Totem Warrior) World Tree (new), Zealot
Bard: Dance (new), Glamor, Lore, Valor
Cleric: Life, Light, Trickery, War
Druid: Land, Moon, Sea (new), Stars
Fighter: Battle Master, Champion, Eldritch Knight, Psi Warrior
Monk: Elements, Hand, Mercy, Shadow
Paladin: Ancients, Devotion, Glory, Vengeance
Ranger: Beast Master, Gloomstalker, Fey Wanderer, Hunter
Rogue: Arcane Trickster, Assassin, Thief, Soulknife
Sorcerer: Aberrant, Clockwork, Draconic, Wild
Warlock: Archfey, Celestial, Feind, Great Old One
Wizard: Abjurer, Diviner, Evoker, Illusionist

If I'm to switch in middle of my campaign, it seems I need a swashbuckler, other chracters seem to be covered. What UA had the latest iteration of that?

 

[Mortus]

I run 5E without the optional feats. I provided feedback during the play-test for optional feats in 5E Revised (5ER) but could see that’s not where the revision was going. It looks like the feats at baked-in throughout 5ER. The rest of the changes are great so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to find some way to get rid of the feats in 5ER. What are your thoughts of feats in 5ER from these previews?

 

[darjr]

List of PHB 2024 previews.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1747-where-to-find-2024-players-handbook-previews

 

[Zaukrie]

List of PHB 2024 previews.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1747-where-to-find-2024-players-handbook-previews

Some of those have more stuff so far than others, and I'll say the quality of some sites is better than others too. But I'm guessing that's a matter of taste, moreso than anything else.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

They've been doing that for awhile (since Dragonlance, I believe?) Yeah, they're trying to find yet another way to cut us out, which is a shame, but it's also understandable. As a consolation (and it really is a very good consolation) they're back to giving us the books two weeks early (though they have their digital books available early as well, for their subscribers) and they've recommitted to giving us those exclusive covers. Overall? I'm not overjoyed, but I am satisfied that they still consider us to be important, even if they'd like to make as much on their own as they can. It's more of a shrug than a rage, if that makes sense.

Overall, as long as they make products that are good enough to buy, I'll be able to keep selling them (for as long as they keep making print versions). If they were really smart, they'd sell us cards with digital codes that our customers could use to unlock Digital products. On the one hand, they'd be using us to teach our customers the joys (mixed as they can be) of digital, while also allowing those of our customers who want digital to be able to buy them from us.

Well, I do like the special hobby exclusive covers, in particular that PHB is so good imho. Sounds like my FLGS keeps my money - at least for the core 3.

But, I have really been considering moving to DDB for all my online games going forward, and moving away from Roll20 character builder. It's kind of a race between Roll20's new alpha character sheet's quality and utility and roughly the end of the year when I'm going to make the decision...

 

[Umbran]

not disagreeing with this, but if the point is not the archetype (and that to me very much includes having a patron), why not pick a different class in the first place

Setting aside how nobody needs to justify their character choices to some random guy on the internet who doesn't like them, you mean?

And setting aside how, "If you aren't going to do it MY WAY, why do it at all?" is many things, but open-minded about playstyle isn't one of them?

Then, the most basic reason is that, while you don't like it, the archetype as presented is sufficient for many.

The next most basic is that, for those for whom it is insufficient, you can expect that whatever game design WotC built around it would still not have satisfied the majority of them.

Mostly because, in the end, this is about the relationship with the patron, and historically D&D has a weak history with mechanics for relationships.

 

[Chaosmancer]

so they say them, but that does not make it actually true.

I can see them having to learn a lot of new stuff so picking something premade over rolling your own is just one less mental hurdle they have to deal with and they gladly run with that, delaying a custom background to when they have less mental overload and a better idea of what backgrounds are.

That does not mean that creating one is not dead simple and they easily could do so if they didn’t have 20 more important things to figure out at the same time…

asking people with no experience while they are under stress about how complex something is that they have no idea about sounds like a great way to get accurate answers

Honestly, the one thing I can see new players struggling with in regards to custom backgrounds is feats.

Because they struggle with feats constantly. But this is why DMs and more experienced players should be on hand to help cut down the lists.

 

[Chaosmancer]

So I'll explain why I dislike that. It comes from two factors: Ghostrider and Paladins.

First, I like the idea of a warlock going rogue. Challenging the entity you made your deal with. Fighting to get out of it. If the warlock's powers serve only at the whim of an entity, the warlock can never challenge his patron unless he multi classes and enjoys several dead levels.

Which leads me to part two: the DM decides what my character can do. The biggest problem with characters with otherworldly sugar daddies is that the first time the player does something the entity doesn't agree with, they are cut off from their class. That restriction would be fine if the warlock or cleric or paladin was far more powerful than the other classes (as in AD&D) but they aren't and that have to mind their manners less the DM decides to make them commoners.

Yep, and I'll bounce off this. Sometimes, the pact doesn't fit neatly into a category.

I have a Fey Warlock, his pact turned out to have a lot of hidden downsides, but they were actually not part of the deal. His deal was a marriage proposal to a Fey Lady, in exchange for giving the Fey a foothold in the new world. All the downsides came from politics, because he was marrying Fey Nobility.

I once made a Fiend Warlock whose pact was very, brutally simple. Demon filled her with power, sent her to recover a number of artifacts to increase his power, if she failed to do so? He'd slaughter her entire village. The entire "pact" was basically her being given the option of "I can kill you and everyone you love, or give you what you need to steal for me. Which is it?"

Both of these had consequences, but they aren't the types of things that could be covered in, say, a paladin oath, because they are so specific to the situation.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I thought this thread would be a good place to find out what's been revealed about the new books. Unfortunately it appears to be just another place to complain about about them. So fun

Well, there was very little revealed in the video yesterday that we didn't already know from the playtest. I think the only thing that was really "new" was the Bonus Action Potion rule.

Though, I have heard this video is about a new spell. Just haven't had time to watch it yet.