D&D (2024) How D&D Beyond Will Handle Access To 2014 Rules

D&D Beyond has announced how the transition to the new 2024 edition will work on the platform, and how legacy access to the 2014 version of D&D will be implemented.

• You will still be able to access the 2014 Basic Rules and core rulebooks.
• You will still be able to make characters using the 2014 Player's Handbook.
• Existing home-brew content will not be impacted.
• These 2014 rules will be accessible and will be marked with a 'legacy' badge: classes, subclasses, species, backgrounds, feats, monsters.
• Tooltips will reflect the 2024 rules.
• Monster stat blocks will be updated to 2024.
• There will be terminology changes (Heroic Inspiration, Species, etc.)

D&D (2024) - Wizards of the Coast Backtracks on D&D Beyond and 2014 Content

Wizards of the Coast posted an overnight update stating that they are not going forward with previously released plans to require those wishing to use some 2014 content on D&D Beyond to use the Homebrew function to manually enter it. Instead, all the content including spells and magic items will...

www.enworld.org

 

[SlyFlourish]

More specifically, there is no average gamer who just happens to share your own preferences in how things should be handled. You and your group are individuals, and so the chances that anyone else's choice of process or design would 100% meet your desires is basically nil.

Exactly. I think we spend too much time worried about the entire community (as if there's only one) instead of focusing our our attention on those we actually know, talk to, and want to help. The people we can actually reach.

 

[mamba]

I don't think D&D 5E has become too crunchy . . . D&D has been crunchy and complicated since the AD&D days decades ago!

5e is a lot more crunchy than 1e, it just is better organized so it is not as obvious

Personally I consider it the upper limit of crunchiness I am interested in and rather would have somewhat less

 

[Umbran]

Exactly. I think we spend too much time worried about the entire community (as if there's only one) instead of focusing our our attention on those we actually know, talk to, and want to help. The people we can actually reach.

Or, complaining that some offering is (or isn't) aimed at some specific sub-group (including the "average gamer").

Most of the time we'd do well to worry about whether it works for ourselves, and let the rest go.

 

[Micah Sweet]

5e is a lot more crunchy than 1e, it just is better organized so it is not as obvious

Personally I consider it the upper limit of crunchiness I am interested in and rather would have somewhat less

While I would vastly prefer more. No one game is going to please everyone, and IMO trying to do so anyway just results in a poorly-designed game.

 

[Mistwell]

 

[Nikosandros]

Yes, all of this is known and we have been discussing this for a while now.

 

[TiQuinn]

My group looked at the RPGbot list of spell changes, and what we saw is the changes don't amount to much. So in that respect it's kinda whatever.

This is what I was wondering - how different are 2014 spells vs 2024 spells? I get that there will be some differences but if I’m not being charged for the changes, and the changes are largely minor, how much of this is being mad at the principle rather than the actual harm?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

This is what I was wondering - how different are 2014 spells vs 2024 spells? I get that there will be some differences but if I’m not being charged for the changes, and the changes are largely minor, how much of this is being mad at the principle rather than the actual harm?

The conjure X spells are really different, more a zone of effect than a summoning a creature, really. Probably simpler than having player adding extra creatures to a fight, but a zone of damage quite different than having a unicorn figthing at your side. The new True Strike and Shillelagh are pretty decent, but are different than their 2014 counterpart. Sleep requires 2 failed save in a smaller area to knock out creatures, but ignore the whole HP pool thing.

Other spells arent changed that much; Smites losing concentration and casting as BA on a hit is cool. Acid Splash is now a 5ft AoE. Color Spray is now a save. Things like that.

While I'm not fond of the added level of complexity of 2024, I must say that the revised spells are more accessible at the table by casual players than some of 2014 spells.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The conjure X spells are really different, more a zone of effect than a summoning a creature, really. Probably simpler than having player adding extra creatures to a fight, but a zone of damage quite different than having a unicorn figthing at your side. The new True Strike and Shillelagh are pretty decent, but are different than their 2014 counterpart. Sleep requires 2 failed save in a smaller area to knock out creatures, but ignore the whole HP pool thing.

Other spells arent changed that much; Smites losing concentration and casting as BA on a hit is cool. Acid Splash is now a 5ft AoE. Color Spray is now a save. Things like that.

While I'm not fond of the added level of complexity of 2024, I must say that the revised spells are more accessible at the table by casual players than some of 2014 spells.

I mean, so maybe 12 - 20 things will change, most of which are fairly minor? As @Parmandur said, that's more of an errata than a wholesale change people are acting like it is.

 

[bedir than]

The conjure X spells are really different, more a zone of effect than a summoning a creature, really. Probably simpler than having player adding extra creatures to a fight, but a zone of damage quite different than having a unicorn figthing at your side. The new True Strike and Shillelagh are pretty decent, but are different than their 2014 counterpart. Sleep requires 2 failed save in a smaller area to knock out creatures, but ignore the whole HP pool thing.

Other spells arent changed that much; Smites losing concentration and casting as BA on a hit is cool. Acid Splash is now a 5ft AoE. Color Spray is now a save. Things like that.

While I'm not fond of the added level of complexity of 2024, I must say that the revised spells are more accessible at the table by casual players than some of 2014 spells.

Healing spells are all boosted