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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It is only the same amount of reactions if the proportional split on Barbarians playing subclasses with reactions is equal, the opportunities to use a reaction are equal and the number of uses per day is equal. We know the second and third are not true and we have good reason to believe the first will not be true.



You can have 2 players from a single class. Someone asked me for examples of things that I think will cause more reactions in play. This is what that is.



It is the fact that it undoes an attack that otherwise hit that will be frustrating for me (and I think for many).



I don't see it as a bad thing either. I said it would be frustrating for me as a DM. Those are not the same thing.



In 2024, yes every player will have a feat and a lot of them will have spells.



No not the Paladin Aura. Things like Lucky or Heroic Warrior.

The more often the DM has to rewind time to describe what (eventually) happens, from any source, the longer combat will take.

 

[Scribe]

But I also think by 2030, WOTC will be out of passionate ideas and there will be loud calls for 6e.

They could easily, EASILY, lean into new classes at that point.

Warlord, Psion, actual support for Artificer.

 

[ART!]

This is somewhat inevitable given the times but table top will never die. Table top wargaming did not die. It was not replaced by either rpgs not Magic: The Gathering, despite the fears at the time. It will not completely die in the future but there is likely be more growth at the moment in the digital space than in the table top space.

Similarly, when tablets made digital comic books into a popular thing, many people were worried it would mean the end of printed comics.

Instead, the presence of digital comics increased awareness of comics in general, and some of the people made aware started going to comic book shops.

When working at a comic book store, I was surprised how many people would wander in and say they didn't know comics were still being published.

 

[mellored]

You can have 2 players from a single class.

Same as before.

Someone asked me for examples of things that I think will cause more reactions in play. This is what that is.

Sure.

And I agree that there will probably be slightly more reactions. But not a significant amount.
Depending on what players choose.

It is the fact that it undoes an attack that otherwise hit that will be frustrating for me (and I think for many).

Fair.

Though I haven't seen the final wording. It would make more sense for the save to come first.

No not the Paladin Aura. Things like Lucky or Heroic Warrior.

Lucky isn't a reroll anymore. It's advantage. So that's one less.

And I still expect Heroic Warrior to be used on the players turn 90% of the time to effectivly make an extra attack.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Similarly, when tablets made digital comic books into a popular thing, many people were worried it would mean the end of printed comics.

Instead, the presence of digital comics increased awareness of comics in general, and some of the people made aware started going to comic book shops.

When working at a comic book store, I was surprised how many people would wander in and say they didn't know comics were still being published.

I have had the same experiences. I've never worried about digital comics replacing print, because I have had many, many customers who have bought print comics after having bought digital comics (sometimes the same comic - so the digital comic served as advertising). I'm sure that I've lost a few customers to digital, too - but it goes both ways.

 

[Daztur]

I'm pretty skeptical. 47% of people on this forum, which starts with an extremely high degree of grognards, many of whom never played 5e to start with. And even then I'm skeptical that 47% of those won't eventually wind up on board. Folks like to be argumentative here and that's cool, but I also think it leads to us tending to take stronger rhetorical positions than we actually practice.

It's REALLY hard to judge things like this ahead of time. However, on more newbie-filled areas of 5e discussion there seems to be remarkably little positive 5.5e buzz.

Looking at here: Reddit - Dive into anything for example there's a lot of talk about 5.5e but the poll there about adopting it is even more negative than the poll here on EnWorld.

Here: Reddit - Dive into anything there's one thread talking about Beastmasters would work in 5.5e and crickets aside from that.

Here: Reddit - Dive into anything there is just no discussion of 5.5 whatsoever.

Here: Reddit - Dive into anything again no real discussion about 5.5e at all.

So as far as I can tell the grognards are mildly grumpy but not really outraged and the newbies don't much care. Newbies who don't much care will probably just go with the flow so network effects will matter MASSIVELY here. If 5.5e has strong enough initial adoption then most people will get on board since there's not the kind of boiling anger that there was in 4e edition wars I think most people will just go with the flow if 5.5e starts off well. The question is if it will start off well. Hard to tell at this point since the more casual D&D fans don't seem to be paying all that much attention yet.

The trouble is, you are basing that opinion on reading the rules instead of playing it. Many of us here have been playing with those rules (using the UA playtest) and NONE of us have had that problem. I have YET to see anyone say "I've played with weapon masteries and the combat was a slog!" Not once.

I've seen a few people like yourself that "worry" that it "might" be. I don't mind the worrying, it's natural - but I do take small issue with it being treated like it's a foregone conclusion.

Guess I have to temper my expectations a bit then. Good to hear that weapon masteries are working more smoothly than I expected.

But I think this depends on what kind of group you're playing with. I think if everyone is really on top of the rules and know exactly what to do on their turn it won't be a big issue at all. However, with the sort of groups where people are constantly forgetting what they can add proficiency to I think that we'll see a bigger difference. For example 4e simply had too much player-side complexity for one guy in my home group who doesn't like numbers to handle so we didn't play 4e since he's our friend and we didn't want to play without him. He was fine in 5e (as long as he didn't play a druid or a complicated multi-class ), we'll see if 5.5e having a bit more things to keep track of than 5e pushes him and similar people who are fun to play with but not the best at numbers over the line.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It's REALLY hard to judge things like this ahead of time. However, on more newbie-filled areas of 5e discussion there seems to be remarkably little positive 5.5e buzz.

Looking at here: Reddit - Dive into anything for example there's a lot of talk about 5.5e but the poll there about adopting it is even more negative than the poll here on EnWorld.

Here: Reddit - Dive into anything there's one thread talking about Beastmasters would work in 5.5e and crickets aside from that.

Here: Reddit - Dive into anything there is just no discussion of 5.5 whatsoever.

Here: Reddit - Dive into anything again no real discussion about 5.5e at all.

So as far as I can tell the grognards are mildly grumpy but not really outraged and the newbies don't much care. Newbies who don't much care will probably just go with the flow so network effects will matter MASSIVELY here. If 5.5e has strong enough initial adoption then most people will get on board since there's not the kind of boiling anger that there was in 4e edition wars I think most people will just go with the flow if 5.5e starts off well. The question is if it will start off well. Hard to tell at this point since the more casual D&D fans don't seem to be paying all that much attention yet.



Guess I have to temper my expectations a bit then. Good to hear that weapon masteries are working more smoothly than I expected.

But I think this depends on what kind of group you're playing with. I think if everyone is really on top of the rules and know exactly what to do on their turn it won't be a big issue at all.

Maybe. But I play with all kinds of players. From literally just-started to 40 year vets, to my kids. I have run 5 different groups through the playtest over multiple campaigns. None of my players are particularly rules-savy. I'm the only one who lives this stuff.

For example, I made ALL the characters. I've played with 20 unique people, only me and my son (who also playested with 7 of his friends) read any of the playtest material.

Everyone was able to read what their character sheet said their character could do, and do it without holding things up.

I just don't think it's a problem. Maybe at high levels with bad power gamer/munchkins? I wouldn't know the answer to that. But with casual players? Most players? No.

 

[Chaosmancer]

And yet his review, the least positive, is the one that's pulled. Hmm...

His review was not pulled. It is right here

Not sure why you would spread that misinformation. Hmm....

 

[Daztur]

I've been running 5e since early 2015 and I have not found that to be true for how we play. We are old school gamers so my group generally tries to avoid fights, so we don't have a lot of combat generally. We have a had a few combat heavy sessions, but I have not noticed any difference in effectiveness or, more importantly, player engagement and enjoyment, between our adventure days that have 1-3 fights or those that have 6-8. However, I acknowledge that everyone plays differently and my experience is not everyone's experience. I guess I just think it is less the system and more on how each group plays.

Everyone's play experience is different. Just in my own personal experience I've found that I enjoy 5e a lot more when there are 5-6 fights per long rest than if there are 1-2 fights per long rest. However, getting in those 5-6 fights per long rest takes a lot more time than in TSR-D&D (at least for me) which makes it hard for me to run a Westmarches-style campaign or something similar in 5e. In general I'm biased towards fast fights as it's often easier to get a higher ratio of interesting choices per minute with bunches of fast fights than with fewer longer more tactical fights. Also attrition-focused dungeon crawls are a big part of D&D tradition and those are easier to do with lots of fast fights over fewer more tactical long fights.

Maybe. But I play with all kinds of players. From literally just-started to 40 year vets, to my kids. I have run 5 different groups through the playtest over multiple campaigns. None of my players are particularly rules-savy. I'm the only one who lives this stuff.

For example, I made ALL the characters. I've played with 20 unique people, only me and my son (who also playested with 7 of his friends) read any of the playtest material.

Everyone was able to read what their character sheet said their character could do, and do it without holding things up.

I just don't think it's a problem. Maybe at high levels with bad power gamer/munchkins? I wouldn't know the answer to that. But with casual players? Most players? No.

Good to hear, on the other hand maybe you're just a really awesome DM? You've done a better job of convincing me to give 5.5e a shot than anyone else. Thanks!

 

[Chaosmancer]

No, it looks to me like you have all those classes making reactions all the time, and remember that is not a comprehensive list of class and subclass abilities and does not include spells or feats. The shield spell is easier to get now, meaning it will be even more common and Defensive Duelist is now an awesome feat that many people are going to get and use.

No, the shield spell is not easier to get now. Unless you count "now" as "since 2021 when Strixhave officially allowed everyone to get a 1st level feat". And even then, that is only if you discount the sheer number of people who homebrewed 1st level feats into the game.

And yeah, I know it wasn't a comprehensive list, because a comprehensive list would have included even more 2014 content that had reaction abilities. And saying things like "well, there was a reaction ability in 2014 that was horrible and no one ever bothered to take, but now it is actually decent and people might use it!" is not the red flag of impending doom you seem to think it is. Case in point, I DID have players who took Defensive Duelist before.

Also Heroic Warrior is not general, it is a Champion ability that provides heroic inspiration every single round .... which means a reroll every single round.

Ah, my mistake. I thought you were just listing Heroic Inspiration as a whole. But yes, Champions will be able to re-roll one attack per turn if they miss. Having seen these sort of abilities in play, for example with Savage Attacker which I have also seen used, this does not really noticeably increase the length of combat after the first one or two where the player gets into a pattern.

Compare that list to what we have now and then consider the number of uses per day of the abilities that are similar.


Yes. some of those things require a reaction, some of them don't, but every single player does not use their reaction every round now, most don't use their reaction most rounds at all. They will be

I am not saying that is bad, I am not saying the abilities are bad. How this discussion started is I said one of the most frustrating things for me is players doing things off turn or changing the outcome of things off turn. That will be happening more now.

If it doesn't bother you fine, but that kind of thing is frustrating for me as a DM. TBH to me it is a lot more frustrating than having to look up stat blocks for creatures summoned, polymorphed or shapechanged.

Okay, but a personal frustration of players being able to affect the outcome of events is very different than the conversation you joined in on, which is "2024 is making things harder for DM's and slowing down combat".

If your argument is "I hate when the players make me re-roll a die, and now they can do that more"... okay, cool, you can hate that. But that doesn't make the game noticeably slower or more difficult to run. Again, literally, everything on your list except for 4 things already existed in the game. So did Hellish Rebuke, Ancestral Guardians, Commander's strike, Voice of Authority, Mage Slayer, Sentinel, Polearm Master, and dozens of other reaction abilities.

Ok. The old Fey Warlock could use Misty escape once per short rest, the new Fey Warlock is going to be able to do it Charisma bonus times per day plus they can do it with spell slots. To put this into context 5 times a day (with a 20 Charisma) is most of the time you take damage in a day and when you consider your spell slots it is probably almost every time you get hit for most players.

Or fewer if they use the bonus action teleport options that pull from the same pool of uses. So if they can teleport 5 times per day, and they teleport three times on their turn, they only get 2 reaction teleports.

Beguiling Defense is completely different. The reaction used to be usable when someone tried to charm you, now you can use it when someone damages you. So it is going to go from something you might use once or twice in a campaign, now you are going to use it every day (unless you use Misty Escape).

Also I am not ringing alarm bells. I am saying this is going to slow down combat and it is going to be frustrating for me as a DM.

I didn't say it is too many now. It is more now though. In 5E most of the reactions were spells and AOOs. Now all your characters are going to be using reactions regularly.

And most people who have played with these features, or similar features are telling you it isn't going to slow down combat at all. So why should I believe you, over my own lived experience as a GM?

So you agree with me?

Including enemy reactions and AOOs? Sure 2-3 per round, probably 3 per round actually right now.

Going forward that number will probably be more like 6-7 per round in a party with 6 players.

No, I wasn't counting enemy reactions, because most players avoid that. And no, I don't think it will be 7 times per round with 6 players.

See, because let's say you have a party of six, and every single person has a reaction that activates if they are attacked... well then if you only attack three of them, you only get three reactions. And let's say you have a Polearm Master Tiefling Feylock with magic initiate who can use beguiling defense, misty escape, hellish Rebuke, shield and attack anyone who approaches them with their halberd... well they can only do one of those things. So the fact that they have five different reaction abilities... doesn't actually change anything.

And if they have a Lore Bard with Defensive Duelist, Countercharm, and Cutting Words... they can still only use one reaction.

And since a lot of these reactions were things we ALREADY dealt with... I don't see the number of actual reactions taking place on a given turn functionally increasing. Maybe one or two, but they are all pretty clear abilities that are going to resolve quickly. I mean, the group I'm in now has two people with silvery barbs, one with shield, and a Spore Druid who reaction hits anyone who approaches. And that is with none of those people using 2024 rules (I'm playing a 2024 trickery domain cleric and have no new reaction abilities)

This is the same as it ever was.