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.

 

[Bagpuss]

Have you considered either playing a game that better suits your preferences, or changing the rules to do so at your table?

Isn't that would they are doing with 5.5 changing the rules?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It didn’t give them any survival advantages, or it wouldn’t have diminished to that extent. It may have had “can’t speak” but even that is unlikely, since it wouldn’t survive to pass on any genes. Most likely, just cosmetic.

I don't really want to continue this, frankly unimportant and unrelated to the actual issue side-tangent, but that's not really how it works. Half-Neanderthal Half-Homo Sapiens Sapiens could have been (and I'm not saying they were, but they could have been) super-people, and they'd still diminish genetically if their population was smaller.

They could be the smartest, handsomest, most capable folks around, and all that would do is make other people want to have kids with them - and if they don't have a whole lotta peers, then they'd quickly (in generational terms) go back to being just like everyone else.

But this really doesn't have much to do with half-elves - so much so that I'm not quite sure how we got into this tangent. I'm guessing that you're still insisting that people play half-elves in the numbers that they do because they were a good option in BG3? Sure. I guess. I wouldn't really know. I don't even play or care about half-elves myself.

I just think that other players have a legit desire to want an updated version of them, that has little-to-nothing to do with them being "OP".

 

[Mannahnin]

I call that "A question for a book down the line about more advance stuff, not the starting basic book" Heck, even Basic didn't do that, it just had humans, elves, dwarves and hobbits

Basic had Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings, but it was a deliberate simplification from OD&D & AD&D.

I think part of the issue with half elves is that they've been part of the core game since 1975. So they're one of those D&D sacred cows.

But it's clearly not ONLY that, as Mistwell observes, since only a fraction of BG3 players are longtime D&D players, so clearly the nostalgia or Tolkien-simulation factors can't be the only ones in play.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Isn't that would they are doing with 5.5 changing the rules?

Yes, but not even 5.5 is as gamist as @GobHag appears to want.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Basic had Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings, but it was a deliberate simplification from OD&D & AD&D.

I think part of the issue with half elves is that they've been part of the core game since 1975. So they're one of those D&D sacred cows.

But it's clearly not ONLY that, as Mistwell observes, since only a fraction of BG3 players are longtime D&D players, so clearly the nostalgia or Tolkien-simulation factors can't be the only ones in play.

Honestly, the way video game players pick characters, it could just be that they think the avatar is sexy.

And hey, while we're having half-elf tangents: When did half-elves become all about charisma? My first exposure to a half-elf was probably Tanis Half-elven, and that grumpy sad-sack didn't read "high CHA" to me.

Not to mention the general fluff that everybody hated them. That's some pretty serious racism if you're hated in spite of being totally charismatic just because of your parentage!

 

[Micah Sweet]

And hey, while we're having half-elf tangents: When did half-elves become all about charisma? My first exposure to a half-elf was probably Tanis Half-elven, and that grumpy sad-sack didn't read "high CHA" to me.

5.0 in 2014. Pulled out of thin air more pr less.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

5.0 in 2014. Pulled out of thin air more pr less.

That is definitely not the case. It may have been not until 3e but it was WAY before 5e, of that I am certain.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That is definitely not the case. It may have been not until 3e but it was WAY before 5e, of that I am certain.

Ok. When then? I don't recall seeing a charisma focus prior, but I suppose it could have been 4e.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Ok. When then? I don't recall seeing a charisma focus prior, but I suppose it could have been 4e.

Yeah, it might have been 4e. 3.5 is too long ago for my memory - did they have a CHA-bump then? If not, it was 4e.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, it might have been 4e. 3.5 is too long ago for my memory - did they have a CHA-bump then? If not, it was 4e.

I often forget about 4e. I ran it for a year but it really didn't work for me.