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.

 

[Vaalingrade]

And that's why we ignore realism and verisimilitude.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I do not believe in that argument personally. I will accept reality when it applies, whether it's to my advantage or not.

I understand and appreciate that. I'm saying that individuals interpret the physics, social dynamics, etc. of our world in their own way. Sometimes they have special knowledge in a certain area, which makes them expert in that specific field. Sometimes. though, their own world view makes them feel that they are experts, when that's not objectively true. Even if they are truly experts, this extra knowledge is a double-edged sword... their might be a limit to their expertise, or the composite knowledge of experts within that field might not be complete.

At the end of the day, we're playing a game. The objective is to have a good time with your friends. Whatever rules or tools are used for a particular game... as long as everyone has a good time, everybody wins.

Getting hung up on a specific rule for... falling damage? Did the Fire Bolt or sword swing hit first? It's not that important.

 

[vagabundo]

Not true. People choose to play that way because they want to, not because they have no choice. Outside of supernatural elements, there's nothing that demands the game not make logical, real world sense.

Everything that is a game mechanic does not reflect our reality: HP, rounds, turns, combat rolls, abilities, etc. They are all just gamist abstractions or they stimulate DND reality. We're just used to them and have internalised all the weird inconstancies.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Fair enough. Tactically it's still better to kill your enemy from a distance when possible.

That is a trivial observation and adequately modelled in the D&D rules. The rpg trope of the melee archer is utterly unreal though, no-one was using a bow once there were people with sharp cutlery within 60 feet unless there were behind the kind of obstacle that the enemy could not easily get through.
That said, I am not going to ban it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Everything that is a game mechanic does not reflect our reality: HP, rounds, turns, combat rolls, abilities, etc. They are all just gamist abstractions or they stimulate DND reality. We're just used to them and have internalised all the weird inconstancies.

Some abstractions are necessary for practical game play; I have said this many times, and accept it. How much abstraction you want or need is subjective and a spectrum, however. It's not full realism (not practical) or "who cares, anything goes as long as the rules allow it, silly elf game". My preference (and that's all it is) is to minimize those abstractions as much as possible, so that outcomes fall into realistic parameters when clear supernatural elements are not a factor. I would just love it if folks would stop telling me that my preference for this wrong or impossible because perfection can't be reached. There are plenty of fantasy games with more realistic rules than WotC 5e (either 5.0 or 5.5).

 

[Micah Sweet]

That is a trivial observation and adequately modelled in the D&D rules. The rpg trope of the melee archer is utterly unreal though, no-one was using a bow once there were people with sharp cutlery within 60 feet unless there were behind the kind of obstacle that the enemy could not easily get through.
That said, I am not going to ban it.

A good point, although I would say 30 feet. You should probably require a feat or class feature to use bows that close range. Crossbows and firearms would be ok.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

A good point, although I would say 30 feet. You should probably require a feat or class feature to use bows that close range. Crossbows and firearms would be ok.

If they are as close as 30 feet I want a melee weapon in my hand already. People greatly underestimate just how fast a fit motivated young person can move at close quarters. They also overestimate how difficult it is to track and shoot a close moving target.
You are not going to reload crossbows or single shot mussel loading pistols in melee. Again, I am not motivated to ban them on the basis of realism.

 

[trappedslider]

Creativity often thrives with some level of structure doesn't matter if the people involved are dumb or not.

That's why we have rulebooks instead of Calvinball in the first place.

maybe i should have quoted what i was responding to. Just because something isn't called out explicitly in the PHB doesn't mean a player or DM isn't smart enough to have a conversation on changing something to better fit the character concept. Unless I'm giving DM/players too much credit on the whole conversation idea.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If they are as close as 30 feet I want a melee weapon in my hand already. People greatly underestimate just how fast a fit motivated young person can move at close quarters.

Six seconds if you still want to attack, apparently.

 

[Scribe]

Six seconds if you still want to attack, apparently.

6 seconds is a very long time if someone is trying to hurt you.