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.

 

[Maxperson]

At any rate, I always thought it was a weird choice, and was probably done simply to find something to do with stat-bumps that was different than Human or Elf.

Which IMO is one of the many good reasons to remove ASIs from 'race'.

Now if only they'd move them to CLASS, where they belong (or at least ONE of them - maybe each of the three (assuming it needs to be three) should come from three different places? Or get rid of 'em. Whatever.

I partially agree. I'd love to see +1 come from race, +1 from background, and +1 from class.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

In AD&D, Elves but not Half-Elves have a racial CHA minimum. Elves are the only race with a CHA minimum. (From memory, it is 8 CHA.)

I was simply making the point that I don't think Tanis is low CHA.

In 4e D&D, I would build Tanis as a warlord - probably an archer warlord.

Yeah, fair - Tanis himself had some leadership skills. Still, the general attitude toward half-elves back then wasn't "everyone's best friend".

Tanis WAS entirely traumatized by undeserved hatred toward him, and it made him, let's say "guarded".

 

[GobHag]

The problem is rules design not based on at least some level of realism, it lacks verisimilitude and that makes it feel more like a game an less like a believable world your character is inhabiting.

Like the strongest Halflings being as strong as strongest Goliath or poisons damaging constructs.



I think the move over recent years has been to pamper to a few players that would get upset about a situation like that (and I know a few) rather than the players that see that as a challenge and welcome the opportunity to try different strategies to overcome a different type of monster.

A few vocal players on the internet complain that their halfling isn't the mightiest fighter in the setting, so they get rid of racial stat adjustments, wreck verisimilitude and remove the challenge of playing a character against type from everyone else.

I'm not seeing a single Con here. It feels great to be pampered, my whinings are heard(but not enough). If it bothers you so much that Halflings can be a very strong fighter, simply never ASI your strength! And heavily discourage players to not take strength ASIs if you're the DM!

I don't care about verisimilitude, it's a little clown I trot out occasionally but I have no need nor desire to respect verisimilitude on a world scale.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm not seeing a single Con here. It feels great to be pampered, my whinings are heard(but not enough). If it bothers you so much that Halflings can be a very strong fighter, simply never ASI your strength! And heavily discourage players to not take strength ASIs if you're the DM!

I don't care about verisimilitude, it's a little clown I trot out occasionally but I have no need nor desire to respect verisimilitude on a world scale.

I would play HeroQuest or Gloomhaven if I wanted to play that sort of game. When I sit down to an RPG it needs to be internally consistent in the fiction, which requires some level of realism.

 

[Bagpuss]

I strongly agree with the essence of that post, if not the words used. But you're right: @Bagpuss , please avoid using such inflammatory language when talking about the opinions of those with which you disagree.

I'm sorry you find it inflammatory, but I'm not sure what other words to use, perhaps "cater for" rather than "pamper" would have sounded nicer? But pamper is more accurate as it has been done to provide a comfort rather than meet a need, people had been playing for decades without the need for the hobbits to be as strong as trolls.

But it has removed a challenge, I'm not sure how else you could describe it and it does spoil verisimilitude. Those changes have been done to cater for players that want to be play a specific character they envision, regardless of it makes any sense in the game world.

 

[Mecheon]

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.

The issue you really do face with half elves is they're Elves Light. At the moment, in a case where races aren't adding too much to things, it does raise the question of using your limited space for two options that are really similar to each other

I get they have their fans, but that's the problem you have. They're a watered down version of one of the races already around, and if that one is already fairly watered down as designed? You'd start looking at other things to replace it with rather than two things that are fairly identical to each other.

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.

As Fitz says, this could just be they're hot. Folks will make dozens of new race and texture things just for making their character look fancy. Look at Skyrim mods for an example of how far folks will go for that perfect waifu to play as

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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

It is sexy, and I think that's the main reason for the popularity. BG3 is all about 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.

Pathfinder. So 2010s. (unless there is something in 4e I don't know about).

Tanis had a charisma of 15 (as a pregen in the modules), he was something of a natural leader. But the only thing that made him different from a human is he had pointed ears and a beard at the same time. And Mirror Spock did it first.

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!

That's not unrealistic, unfortunately.

 

[pemerton]

I'm sorry you find it inflammatory, but I'm not sure what other words to use, perhaps "cater for" rather than "pamper" would have sounded nicer? But pamper is more accurate as it has been done to provide a comfort rather than meet a need, people had been playing for decades without the need for the hobbits to be as strong as trolls.

But it has removed a challenge, I'm not sure how else you could describe it and it does spoil verisimilitude. Those changes have been done to cater for players that want to be play a specific character they envision, regardless of it makes any sense in the game world.

I dunno about removal of a challenge - what challenge is removed? I mean, if I want the challenge of playing a low-STR fighter I don't see how the new rules stop me from posing that challenge to myself.

I also don't agree about it not making sense in the game world - because there is no the game world. Presumably in those players' gameworlds, which include high-STR Halflings, it does make sense. And presumably in your gameworld, in which only low-STR Halflings make sense, there are no high-STR Halflings.

 

[Retros_x]

I'm sorry you find it inflammatory, but I'm not sure what other words to use, perhaps "cater for" rather than "pamper" would have sounded nicer? But pamper is more accurate as it has been done to provide a comfort rather than meet a need.

Those changes have been done to cater for players that want to be play a specific character they envision, regardless of it makes any sense in the game world.

Yes and, previously you and you're playstyle was catered for, now you're the one who needs to homebrew these rules. You're just pissed that you are not part of the leading group of players that the game is made for anymore and try to obscure that personal offense you took with claims how it makes the game objectively worse. Its subjective ofc, but that would weaken your opinion.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm sorry you find it inflammatory, but I'm not sure what other words to use, perhaps "cater for" rather than "pamper" would have sounded nicer? But pamper is more accurate as it has been done to provide a comfort rather than meet a need, people had been playing for decades without the need for the hobbits to be as strong as trolls.

But it has removed a challenge, I'm not sure how else you could describe it and it does spoil verisimilitude. Those changes have been done to cater for players that want to be play a specific character they envision, regardless of it makes any sense in the game world.

I completely agree with what you're saying, but not everyone cares about verisimilitude like you and I do, and their opinion on the matter is just as valid as ours. If I have a problem with their rudeness toward our views, I have to have a problem with ours toward theirs.