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!

---

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]

---

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]

The more familiar I am with something in real life, the more I expect the thing to behave like that in D&D.

It's all fun an games until the proctologist joins the game.

 

[FrogReaver]

I just bought my copy today. I’m loving the alt cover.

 

[FrogReaver]

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Oh I know that nobody thinks it's entirely meat. I just want 5e(or really, most TTRPG that says that and then make the only non-magical way to heal is through a tourniquette and bed rest) to actually put their money where their mouth is and actually mechanize that.

Hell, I'm a personal believer of 'It's always meat until it isn't' being how DnD actually treats HP. That's why you don't suffer HP damage from being berated by your mom or when your allies die but definitely when a mosquito bites you.

Well....isn't that what Second Wind is for fighters (in 5E)? And a short rest burning hit dice? I thought this edition had already embraced that idea.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Agincourt is a fantastic example. 5,000 English/Welsh archers, issued with 30 arrows each. That's 150,000 arrows. They ran out in the course of the battle, so they're all loosed. And the French still get into melee combat. Add in, careful reading of historical records suggest around 5,000 French troops died at Agincourt, some certainly in melee because that's recorded and some certainly after they'd surrendered because a French force attacked the English rear and King Henry ordered the captives killed so they couldn't arm themselves and join an attack from behind.

Everybody who wants their D&D character to need to shoot 50 arrows to kill a single person, should be asking for missiles to be reduced in effectiveness.

And to paraphrase someone more knowledgeable than me, "The arrow will start the battle and weaken the foe; but you will not win without coming in reach of the enemy with lance and mace."


This is quite true, but there are also accounts of "storming parties" from across the world from the pre-gunpowder era, doing things that aren't too unlike what D&D parties do in assaulting with a small group to seize something vital from a more numerous occupant (watchtowers, gates, that sort of thing) And almost no matter where the story comes from, there's two or three melee fighters for every ranged specialist.

My recollection from reading on the subject was not that you needed 50 arrows to down a target, but that you missed 49 times and then finally hit, usually taking the guy out with the single final shot.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I don't know if I remember it right, and it ran into issues around resource management, but older D&D had 1 minute rounds, and I think the idea was you had multiple swings etc going on but only one or two attacks that had a real chance of getting through defenses, so only rolled 1 / 2 attacks for the minute, but many more swings went on. Where it doesn't work is the one roll and one arrow lost for using bows, when in theory may have been 3 to 6 arrows lost per roll.

Pretty much. I recall the idea being that your # of attacks wasn't "individual swings" with a weapon but rather how many opportunities you had to make a strike. But then arrows were counted down with each attack roll, and ultimately I think most people equated 1 strike to 1 attack roll and so it changed over time.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

My recollection from reading on the subject was not that you needed 50 arrows to down a target, but that you missed 49 times and then finally hit, usually taking the guy out with the single final shot.

Plate armour (which they had at Agincourt) offers pretty good protection against arrows. There is a really good playlist on the topic on YouTube.
The tl:dr is that if enough arrows are shot at someone there is a decent chance of injury and injuries are likely to severely hamper one's ability to successfully fight, but it still offers good protection.

In particular, I would recommend this one:

 

[mellored]

6 seconds is an arbitrary number that Wizards pulled out of their ass. It has little bearing on anything real but it is a useful clock. I tend to regard that number a a guideline.

6 seconds gives you a nice even 10 per minute.

But yea, use it as a guideline.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

6 seconds gives you a nice even 10 per minute.

This. Even back in 1st edition the 1 minute combat round was divided into 10 "segments".

 

[Mannahnin]

I'm a fan of the B/X ten second combat round, but the six second round is convenient for tracking as well.