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.

 

[Minigiant]

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

Warlord, Psion, actual support for Artificer.

They could.

However they keep talking and designing like the idea of new classes outside of setting requirement is not a priority.

Meaning they'll likely wait too long to create new classes.

 

[Scribe]

They could.

However they keep talking and designing like the idea of new classes outside of setting requirement is not a priority.

Meaning they'll likely wait too long to create new classes.

I mean what else are they going to do lol. Sure they need to release a book with the Xanathar's update but their setting work leaves so much to be desired.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Sure.

That is absolutely not true. The internet is practically fueled by outrage and negativity.

I can’t post a negative thought about 5E /5.5 without 2-3 certain other posters commenting on it like they take it personally.

I find it rather odd.

 

[Minigiant]

I mean what else are they going to do lol. Sure they need to release a book with the Xanathar's update but their setting work leaves so much to be desired.

They went 10 years without adding a new class.

This new PHB went hard on traditionalism and high magical fantasy. They also walked back a lot of future proofing for new classes.

Overall I think that the heavy "2e play with 3e mechanics." that the design team stress will heavy limit their ability to add interesting new things to 5.5e.

This is a nice PHB but this 5.5e will not be evergreen.

The VTT will have to come out early next year because in the next 5 years people will start getting bored of this game at the level needed to support the VTT unless the design team seriously and honestly expand their design horizons.

 

[mellored]

I can’t post a negative thought about 5E /5.5 without 2-3 certain other posters commenting on it like they take it personally.

I find it rather odd.

You say something negative.

They say something negative about you saying something negative.

You say something negative about them saying something negative about you saying something negative.

And of course...
I say something negative about you saying something negative about them saying something negative about you saying something negative.

 

[dave2008]

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.

That makes sense. We just do fights fast in 5e. 10-15 min is pretty typical, with 5 mins a low end. But a high end can be close to an hour. So In a typical 4 hour session we can get 4-6 fights in and still have 3 hours or so for other stuff. Now we typically only get 1-3 fights in about 45 min or so, but you get the idea.

 

[dave2008]

They went 10 years without adding a new class.

5 years. Eberron came out in 2019

 

[dave2008]

I can’t post a negative thought about 5E /5.5 without 2-3 certain other posters commenting on it like they take it personally.

I find it rather odd.

The inverse is also true. Someone can't post something positive without 2-3 certain other posters commenting on one of many bad things about 5e or WotC.

And I agree, it is odd - both ways.

 

[Minigiant]

5 years. Eberron came out in 2019

5 years.

And that's how long 5.5e will last if WOTC doesn't get radical or expand the game. This new PHB is nice but too safe. It'll sell but it doesn't set up future book sales.

 

[dave2008]

5 years.

And that's how long 5.5e will last if WOTC doesn't get radical or expand the game. This new PHB is nice but too safe. It'll sell but it doesn't set up future book sales.

That is a possibility, but just a possibility. I think they can continue what they are doing for another 10 years, but I can't really see it going much further than that. But I could be wrong about that, who knows. I could also seem them make some small adjustments to their business model of the next 5 years to set up another 5-10 years and no of this necessarily needs to be radical.

I would be down for a 6e, but I know it will not support my style of play. So I am happy to stick with 5e because we have already modified it to our style of play and don't really need anything more form WotC or 3PP (though I still buy most of it).