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.

 

[Oofta]

I don't know how they are going to handle this for the new books, but usually WotC ships pre-orders a couple of days before the street date, at least that's what the EU store has done in the past.

I'm just going by what it said on DDB. I won't mind it if I get it a couple of days earlier.

 

[DarkCrisis]

He said he didn't get an advance copy.

If I recall correctly, the reviewers who got one are...

Treantmonk
D4 Deep Dive
Ginny Di
Dungeon Dudes
Pointy Hat
Pact Tactics

I’ve heard of one of those people

 

[Wolfpack48]

Looking at D&D Beyond -- how do you order the alternate cover book there? Not seeing it.

 

[Morrus]

Looking at D&D Beyond -- how do you order the alternate cover book there? Not seeing it.

As far as I'm aware, the alternate covers have always been exclusive to hobby stores.

 

[Wolfpack48]

Ah! Cool - I will check my FLGS!

 

[Charlaquin]

I’ve heard of one of those people

They’re all quite large YouTubers.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I’ve heard of one of those people

Assuming you've heard of Treantmonk

D4 Deep Dive --> Mostly does build videos, focusing on a concept and building it out. He then mechanically checks the power, largely looking at spike damage potential. Seems like a cool dude in general. I don't watch him much.

Ginny Di --> I saw her originally for her cosplays, has delved into discussion topics a few times. Always seems thoughtful, but I don't watch a lot of her content.

Dungeon Dudes --> Pair of guys, I've mostly watched their ranking videos and similar content. Usually geared towards newer players, but sometimes their discussion gives me some insights. They have very different styles as players and as DMs, so it is always interesting to see them bounce off each other. They recently finished a series of "what if everyone in the party played the same class" looking at each class individually. It was some fun stuff.

Pointy Hat --> Mostly looks at lore and aesthetics, some of his biggest videos are the "DnD with a Twist" where he will take a thing in DnD and offer a twist to make in more interesting or a variation on them. He did halflings cursed with bad luck, he did hags that feed on various emotions. He also has a series called "Which Lich" where he makes a lich for each of the types of classes, which are Fascinating videos. Big thing to recommend him beyond his art (which is great) is that he offers free content alongside his videos. So, you want a copy of his Barbarian Lich, you can grab the Google Doc and look at it. He also is a game designer and has had some good insights into adventure and dungeon design.

Pact Tactics --> Least watched by me. He is a self-described power gamer, and focused on RAW, so I don't get a lot of his videos which seem to be a lot of "technically, per the rules, I can do this really broken thing." Also, I know it is bad, but his voice grates on me a bit. I don't know why and I know it is unfair, but it does. He generally knows is stuff though, and I'm certain his content is generally solid, I just bounced off of it.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Assuming you've heard of Treantmonk

D4 Deep Dive --> Mostly does build videos, focusing on a concept and building it out. He then mechanically checks the power, largely looking at spike damage potential. Seems like a cool dude in general. I don't watch him much.

Ginny Di --> I saw her originally for her cosplays, has delved into discussion topics a few times. Always seems thoughtful, but I don't watch a lot of her content.

Dungeon Dudes --> Pair of guys, I've mostly watched their ranking videos and similar content. Usually geared towards newer players, but sometimes their discussion gives me some insights. They have very different styles as players and as DMs, so it is always interesting to see them bounce off each other. They recently finished a series of "what if everyone in the party played the same class" looking at each class individually. It was some fun stuff.

Pointy Hat --> Mostly looks at lore and aesthetics, some of his biggest videos are the "DnD with a Twist" where he will take a thing in DnD and offer a twist to make in more interesting or a variation on them. He did halflings cursed with bad luck, he did hags that feed on various emotions. He also has a series called "Which Lich" where he makes a lich for each of the types of classes, which are Fascinating videos. Big thing to recommend him beyond his art (which is great) is that he offers free content alongside his videos. So, you want a copy of his Barbarian Lich, you can grab the Google Doc and look at it. He also is a game designer and has had some good insights into adventure and dungeon design.

Pact Tactics --> Least watched by me. He is a self-described power gamer, and focused on RAW, so I don't get a lot of his videos which seem to be a lot of "technically, per the rules, I can do this really broken thing." Also, I know it is bad, but his voice grates on me a bit. I don't know why and I know it is unfair, but it does. He generally knows is stuff though, and I'm certain his content is generally solid, I just bounced off of it.

Ginny.

To be fair I don’t watch “influencers” or whatever. Maybe a video here or there on a current topic but I don’t follow any.

 

[Mistwell]

Ginny.

To be fair I don’t watch “influencers” or whatever. Maybe a video here or there on a current topic but I don’t follow any.

Huh. Ginny is, to me, much more the "influencer" than any of the others, though I don't say that with negative connotation. Treantmonk is essentially an ENWorld user from the 3e and 4e days who made class design guides that were popular. He also posted a lot at the old WOTC message boards doing the same thing. Eventually he started design guide videos because people kept asking him to (I know I asked him to after I saw an interview with him and thought his videos would be worthwhile). He sort of naturally got views that way, rather than setting himself up with a goal to be an influencer.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Dungeon Dudes also have several well-liked books that are now sold as third party products on D&D Beyond.