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.

 

[Scott Christian]

Really. That is interesting, we find 5e combat pretty fast. We get through most combats in less than 10 minutes. Trivial ones we can blast through in about 5 minutes.

I have asked this to every person I have ever heard say this: Can I watch or do you have video of combats lasting less than 10 minutes?

Obviously, there are many circumstances that effect this: number of players, level of characters, number of opponents, effects, etc. Obviously, a level 1 encounter with two players and a DM is going to go much faster than a level 12 encounter with five players and a DM.

So, if you don't mind answering:

• How many players?
• What level?
• Are encounters complex? Do they use things like difficult terrain, skill checks needed to dismantle the gidgity-goo, creates shifting on a rolling sea, etc? Are effects a large part of combat?

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

No. You get up to one bonus action per turn.

I never said you got more of them. You have a Light bonus action attack available to you with every Attack action (to spend your bonus action on).

 

[OB1]

I never said you got more of them. You have a Light bonus action attack available to you with every Attack action (to spend your bonus action on).

I thought they decoupled the bonus action attack from the attack action. So that you only have to have a light weapon in both hands to use the bonus action attack regardless of what you did with your action. IE, you could cast a spell and then make a bonus action attack with a light weapon (that doesn't receive the skill bouns to damage). Or am I mixing that up with the Monk bonus unarmed strike.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Oh, the final Barbarian Bear Totem gives you resistance to every damage type except Force, Necrotic, Psychic, Radiant.

An awkward way to say it resists physical and elemental attacks, but I'll take it over the previous one.

Edit: oh yeah, poison isn't really an element, is it. Still, there has to be an easier way to say it than to send the barbarian to research exactly how many damage types there are

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I thought they decoupled the bonus action attack from the attack action.

Monk and BG3 do that. Light property still requires you to take the Attack action.

 

[OB1]

Monk and BG3 do that. Light property still requires you to take the Attack action.

Got it. In that case, I would rule that if you make two attacks (via action surge, Haste or Extra Attack) you could Nick on one attack and bonus action attack on the other.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Speaking of BG3, I do wish they'd modelled Wildheart more after it... The lv6 and lv10 options are now so boring that they kill any desire to continue in the subclass.

Sure, darkvision/climb speed/swim speed/ask DM about the surrounding environment are nice, but those are ribbons, you could give them and actual features without it suddenly making Wildheart omgstrong.

Ah well, I suppose you could mimic Land's Stride and avoid difficult terrain by wall-running with climbing speed. Even if you're working with a GM who calls for climbing checks for everything, you have Str+Athletics+advantage, what do you care.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Speaking of BG3, I do wish they'd modelled Wildheart more after it... The lv6 and lv10 options are now so boring that they kill any desire to continue in the subclass.

Sure, darkvision/climb speed/swim speed/ask DM about the surrounding environment are nice, but those are ribbons, you could give them and actual features without it suddenly making Wildheart omgstrong.

Could you remind me what they get in BG3?

 

[Scott Christian]

Oh, the final Barbarian Bear Totem gives you resistance to every damage type except Force, Necrotic, Psychic, Radiant.

An awkward way to say it resists physical and elemental attacks, but I'll take it over the previous one.

Edit: oh yeah, poison isn't really an element, is it. Still, there has to be an easier way to say it than to send the barbarian to research exactly how many damage types there are

Boo! Totem of the Bear was not overpowered. So they made it weaker? Why?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Really. That is interesting, we find 5e combat pretty fast. We get through most combats in less than 10 minutes. Trivial ones we can blast through in about 5 minutes.

That's astonishing. I've never even seen an actual-play with video that can do combats that fast unless they edited them heavily. Let alone play at the table.

Not to be too skeptical but I do know a surprising number of people (in both life and work) who say stuff takes "10 minutes" when they actually mean "45 minutes to an hour". Recently I had a friend say something was a "10-15 minute walk, tops" when it was like, well over 2 miles, close on 3.

(The reverse does apply too to some extent, like "It'll take at least 40 minutes to clean this!", then 10 minutes later we're done.)