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.

 

[Chaosmancer]

No, not any person. But new players who only have the book to guide them are just going to see that default and likely assume that's the rule they have to follow.

No they won't, because they won't see it as a rule unless someone tells them it is a rule. Because it isn't a rule.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The "rules" do not say this. It is a single line of flavor text for Warlock spellcasting and Pact magic. NOWHERE does it say "while making your warlock's background you are forbidden from deciding who your patron is unless you are starting at level 3 or higher". That rule does not exist. You are making it up to have something to complain about.

You are assuming that no one can possibly have a problem with this because you have no problem with this, extrapolating your personal experience to a wider audience.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No they won't, because they won't see it as a rule unless someone tells them it is a rule. Because it isn't a rule.

Its right there in the class. Why would you assume no one would take it seriously?

 

[Imaro]

You are assuming that no one can possibly have a problem with this because you have no problem with this, extrapolating your personal experience to a wider audience.

Have you actually played with any new players that experienced the problem you're claiming could possibly arise? No you haven't because you don't play D&D 5e. So you don't even have personal experience to extrapolate from. What exactly are you basing your claims of a problem on?

 

[pemerton]

Have you actually played with any new players that experienced the problem you're claiming could possibly arise? No you haven't because you don't play D&D 5e. So you don't even have personal experience to extrapolate from. What exactly are you basing your claims of a problem on?

This is exactly why I've been pointing out that we are talking about empirical conjectures. In my view, those conjectures are being made on a thin evidence base. And I agree with @Chaosmancer - the fact that no corresponding problem seems to have arisen, over the past decade, in relation to barbarians or paladins strongly suggests that the empirical conjecture is false.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Have you actually played with any new players that experienced the problem you're claiming could possibly arise? No you haven't because you don't play D&D 5e. So you don't even have personal experience to extrapolate from. What exactly are you basing your claims of a problem on?

Well, there is always someone who will have a problem with anything, so if you say “some people will have a problem with this”, it’s a safe bet you are right!

 

[Chaosmancer]

Its right there in the class. Why would you assume no one would take it seriously?

Because the vast majority of people who are new players aren't reading the text for Pact magic before making their Warlock character and their backstory.

Most people who choose warlocks WANT to have a patron, so they will likely figure out who it was that gave them their magical powers before reading exactly how they get their pact magic slots back. If they even bother to read that text at all.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Because the vast majority of people who are new players aren't reading the text for Pact magic before making their Warlock character and their backstory.

Most people who choose warlocks WANT to have a patron, so they will likely figure out who it was that gave them their magical powers before reading exactly how they get their pact magic slots back. If they even bother to read that text at all.

How do you know that? Are you extrapolating how you would deal with it to other people again?

When I started D&D with BECMI, and again with the 1e PH, I read those books pretty much cover to cover before I sat down to make a character, let alone play a game. I've done the same ever since. Who's to say your opinion on the matter is any better than mine?

 

[Maxperson]

There's no problem. The reason there's no problem is because any given table is likely to take one of the following three approaches, none of which creates a problem:

* The player and GM are both ignorant of who the patron is, and the GM plays the patron "vaguely and sparingly" (to borrow @Imaro's language) until the PC reaches level 3;​

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* The player tells the GM who their patron is, and the GM players the patron accordingly;​

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* The GM forms their own view of who the patron is, and plays the patron accordingly. When the PC reaches 3rd level, the relationship between the PC build choice the player wants to make, and the GM's view of who the patron is, can then resolve itself. There are many ways this could happen, depending on the details of the fiction as well as they way the table in question distributes authority between player and GM over PC build elements.​

If there's some other approach that you think will cause problems, it's not at all clear to me what that is.

I think the fact that you get pact magic before you have a pact is a problem. Does the power from the pact you make at level 3 travel back in time to power you at level 1?

 

[kittenhugs]

Nevermind