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.

 

[Distracted DM]

Playing 5E and B/X (OSE) with the same group and seeing how much faster combat is when you don’t have 4X the HP (on both sides) and 10 super powers per character, it’s night and day.

I’m looking forward to giving 5.5 a spin but not looking forward to drawn out combats again.

Oh and even a fight with like 5 goblins doesn’t feel pointless like it does in 5E. I’ve skipped whole combats in 5E simply because “you guys would easily overpower them and easily heal any damage so you win”.

In OSE, the attrition is real. Even if I only carve off a few HP, healing isn’t so easy and plentiful it doesn’t feel like wasted time.

Having a point of comparison is really great. Are you the GM in both games?

 

[DarkCrisis]

'Super powers' like 'attack twice' or 'attack but gooder'.

Feats, special attacks, Spells that effect combat (smites etc), special racial abilities. All those fun pushes and pulls and fae steps etc etc etc. Let's not pretend that 5E doesn't have more to do per round than old school Basic

 

[DarkCrisis]

Having a point of comparison is really great. Are you the GM in both games?

Yes

 

[SteveC]

Feats, special attacks, Spells that effect combat (smites etc), special racial abilities. All those fun pushes and pulls and fae steps etc etc etc. Let's not pretend that 5E doesn't have more to do per round than old school Basic

All of this makes a huge difference. I played some second edition earlier this year, and it just flies compared to 5E. Now, if you ask me, 5E combat is a fun minigame, and 2E combat is something you hope to get through with your character still alive, so they are quite different in practice.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Feats, special attacks, Spells that effect combat (smites etc), special racial abilities. All those fun pushes and pulls and fae steps etc etc etc. Let's not pretend that 5E doesn't have more to do per round than old school Basic

I'm pushing back on 'superpowers', not 'has options'.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I'm pushing back on 'superpowers', not 'has options'.

A rose by any other name

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Feats, special attacks, Spells that effect combat (smites etc), special racial abilities. All those fun pushes and pulls and fae steps etc etc etc. Let's not pretend that 5E doesn't have more to do per round than old school Basic

Oh, that makes more sense. I thought that you've been saying all this time that 2024 is going to be slower than 2014 (It isn't, or at least not by much) but your REAL complaint is that it's slower than B/X and THAT is absolutely fair.

It is much slower than that.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Oh, that makes more sense. I thought that you've been saying all this time that 2024 is going to be slower than 2014 (It isn't, or at least not by much) but your REAL complaint is that it's slower than B/X and THAT is absolutely fair.

It is much slower than that.

I think 2024 will be slower than 2014 (from what I've read online) but I haven't played it yet, so it's wait and see for me.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

seeing how much faster combat is when you don’t have 4X the HP (on both sides)

Yes! While I'm not a fan of the rocket tag and ambushes that low HP systems can encourage, whittling down a big health number just isn't interesting.

I think 2024 will be slower than 2014 (from what I've read online)

I've run a playtest campaign for almost a year now, and it will, just because they added some options to warrior types. But that just raises them slightly above 'me walk me hit', and they're never the ones taking the most time, it's still going to be AoE placement wizards with familiars.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Yes! While I'm not a fan of the rocket tag and ambushes that low HP systems can encourage, whittling down a big health number just isn't interesting.


I've run a playtest campaign for almost a year now, and it will, just because they added some options to warrior types. But that just raises them slightly above 'me walk me hit', and they're never the ones taking the most time, it's still going to be AoE placement wizards with familiars.

Don't use Crit hits and make sure the players know AC is very important and old school is pretty survivable after level 1. Oh and death at like -3 or whatever.

I asked my old school game if they wanted to do away with Crit Hits after I slayed yet another PC with a crit and they said "no".

None of the original party remains after the last session. The Halfling falling prey to an instant death poison trap.

Turns out the lethality is fun if you curb it a bit and the players know what to expect. Adds a nice bit of challenge.