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.

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.


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.
2Dec 2021.jpg
 

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I'm not intending to mess with my player's ability, but I also want the setting to make logical sense and to be consistent. Warlocks, just like clerics and paladins, owe their power to another being. It's right there in the class fiction. If you don't want your patron to matter in that way, why are you playing a Warlock?
Speaking of consistency, why haven't the cleric and the paladin been examined in the same light as the warlock? All three classes do owe their power to another being and now gain their subclasses at 3rd level. And yet, there is no back-and-forth debate about when they become a follower of a particular deity or the nature of a cleric/deity or the paladin/deity relationship. ;)
 

Mannahnin

Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
Speaking of consistency, why haven't the cleric and the paladin been examined in the same light as the warlock? All three classes do owe their power to another being and now gain their subclasses at 3rd level. And yet, there is no back-and-forth debate about when they become a follower of a particular deity or the nature of a cleric/deity or the paladin/deity relationship. ;)
Pretty sure this did get discussed in some detail earlier in the thread.

Paladins also don't necessarily have a deity nowadays.
 

Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Supporter
First, it is disingenuous to say that an otherworldly entity you sell your soul for power or something like that is not a likely source of conflict.

Mod Note:

Since nobody actually argued that such entities in general are "not a likely source of conflict," you have stood up a strawman, and attribute it to someone else being disingenuous (so, lying).

The Golden Rule applies.

You probably DO NOT want anyone to break down that strawman, and attribute its flaws to you, personally, do you? No? Then don't do it to others, please and thanks.
 

SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself
There's been some discussion of why Warlocks get special treatment as far as their patrons having control over their powers. I think that's been the case in this thread, but over the years there have been many, many discussions about Clerics and Paladins on this issue too. I just think the discussion in this thread comes from the personal nature of the pact in the case of the Warlock.

Clerics and Paladins can definitely have issues based on not living up to their deity's beliefs. If you've read the Order of the Stick, there was a whole plotline about turning someone from a Paladin into a Fighter without all the bonus feats.

Why the Warlock? I think it's because the relationship is designed as a Patron and the powers given are related to a Pact, which makes people think about whatever the Patron is asking for specific things. In the history of D&D, you have 100% had this discussion in other classes. I can even recall one or two of them about Wizards getting cut off from magic by certain actions. To me, the Warlock is getting special treatment here because it's a newer class, and the relationship is seen as very personal. The gods worshipped by divine characters have gradually become much more distant to avoid some discussions the came out of the 80s. That's my take on it anyway.

I have a daughter who's at the age where she's doing mythology, and I'm enjoying the experience. I think when I was a kid this is where I developed a love of fantasy. We listened to the Podcast from Nat Geo, Greeking Out, and it made me think that a Cleric of Zeus could have a very personal relationship with their god. And could very easily have horrible things happen to them by being rude about really any of the gods. Now I will leave it as an exercise for all of you to decide whether the DM should portray those gods or not.
 

There's been some discussion of why Warlocks get special treatment as far as their patrons having control over their powers. I think that's been the case in this thread, but over the years there have been many, many discussions about Clerics and Paladins on this issue too. I just think the discussion in this thread comes from the personal nature of the pact in the case of the Warlock.

Clerics and Paladins can definitely have issues based on not living up to their deity's beliefs. If you've read the Order of the Stick, there was a whole plotline about turning someone from a Paladin into a Fighter without all the bonus feats.

Why the Warlock? I think it's because the relationship is designed as a Patron and the powers given are related to a Pact, which makes people think about whatever the Patron is asking for specific things. In the history of D&D, you have 100% had this discussion in other classes. I can even recall one or two of them about Wizards getting cut off from magic by certain actions. To me, the Warlock is getting special treatment here because it's a newer class, and the relationship is seen as very personal. The gods worshipped by divine characters have gradually become much more distant to avoid some discussions the came out of the 80s. That's my take on it anyway.

I have a daughter who's at the age where she's doing mythology, and I'm enjoying the experience. I think when I was a kid this is where I developed a love of fantasy. We listened to the Podcast from Nat Geo, Greeking Out, and it made me think that a Cleric of Zeus could have a very personal relationship with their god. And could very easily have horrible things happen to them by being rude about really any of the gods. Now I will leave it as an exercise for all of you to decide whether the DM should portray those gods or not.
You're absolutely correct that the same issue may potentially affect clerics and paladins too. It is just like I said earlier, it coming up with them is somewhat less likely. Gods tend to be more distant than patrons, and the cleric presumably chose a god whose tenets they mostly agree with. The relationship with patron is more personal and more transactional, so some sort of conflict is more likely.

But yes, all these classes should address the matter of the relationship with the power source and what happens if there is a conflict. But weirdly enough only the paladin does at all.
 

SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself
But yes, all these classes should address the matter of the relationship with the power source and what happens if there is a conflict. But weirdly enough only the paladin does at all.
You made me think of way back in the AD&D days with a Paladin. I don't think people realize how good they have it today. I was playing the Caves of Chaos with a Paladin, and I almost lost my powers because I wouldn't kill the kiddos. I had a very intense conversation with the DM at this time about what a Paladin would do with children. It actually changed the course of the game because that character ended up running an orphanage.
 

You made me think of way back in the AD&D days with a Paladin. I don't think people realize how good they have it today. I was playing the Caves of Chaos with a Paladin, and I almost lost my powers because I wouldn't kill the kiddos. I had a very intense conversation with the DM at this time about what a Paladin would do with children. It actually changed the course of the game because that character ended up running an orphanage.
Yeah, the old school paladin horror stories and lawful good warcrimes absolutely is not something we need back.
Glad that this story had a cool ending though.
 

Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Speaking of consistency, why haven't the cleric and the paladin been examined in the same light as the warlock? All three classes do owe their power to another being and now gain their subclasses at 3rd level. And yet, there is no back-and-forth debate about when they become a follower of a particular deity or the nature of a cleric/deity or the paladin/deity relationship. ;)
They absolutely should be, but I suspect the course of the thread would follow the same path.
 


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