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!

---

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]

---

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.

 

[dave2008]

As far as the lore, that makes me sad, the lore about the planes was faaaaaaaaaaaaaaar and away my favorite bit of 4e.

Most of it is still there and, or course, you can still use the 4e planar lore.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Yeah I think some people aren't really seeing the forest for the trees. A lot of the abilities they're adding are nifty in isolation but with all of them added in combat is going to bog down, which is a problem as combat taking too long is my biggest complaint about 5e as it is. This is symptomatic in the way that 5.5e has been developed: a lot of throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what stuck. A lot of the stuff people liked were little added abilities that look like a lot of fun, but with no overarching conception of what they wanted 5.5e combat to look like there's a real risk of them being a lot less than the sum of their parts. This is especially a problem in 5.5e, since unlike 4e there are a lot of issues that crop up if you only have one or two fights per long rest. Maybe I'm wrong, I haven't played the game yet but I predict there'll be a spate of threads about the game being "grindy."

As far as the lore, that makes me sad, the lore about the planes was faaaaaaaaaaaaaaar and away my favorite bit of 4e.

On the other hand. If you plan to have only one or two combats a session, I suppose 2 long drawn out combats works fine.

I’m used to like OSE where I can do 3-6 combats a session or less and thus more time for RP and exploration.

 

[dave2008]

I’d say it’s not fun if it slows everything down. Especially combat turns when those not currently taking their turn tend to tune out.

I don't know why more groups don't do this, but we started limiting turns in 4e and continued in 5e. You have 30 seconds (RLT) to determine and adjudicated it completely. What your doing and any roles that need to be made. Doesn't matter how many options you have, you have to be ready to go!

It was a little difficult at first, but goodness it became fun once we got the hang of it. It makes combat so exciting.

 

[Mistwell]

I have spent a lot of time reading the reviews and listening to critiques over the past day. Most of the reviews have been neutral and some of them negative. I have not seen a review from anyone who has the new books that I would categorize as "positive" overall.

Then you have not seen a majority of the reviews, or you're spinning. I am not going to go for a point by point running down all the reviews, but the overwhelming majority end with a positive overall.

 

[Mistwell]

I do understand your position. I really do. I don't envy you.

On my side of things, while I'm trying to skip around in glee in my happy place of hype and excitement for the 2024 books, I have to manage how I react to the negativity of the same criticisms and arguments over and over again in multiple threads. For months now.

It has caused me to avoid ENWorld a bit more these days. But again that's on me to manage how I engage the community. I'm trying to keep to the light-hearted stuff and avoid the areas of tension.

Though I will say that ENWorld is better than the wilds of social media which doesn't have dedicated moderators to keep things civil.

Agreed.

 

[Mistwell]

That’s fair. I’m hoping people like Slyflourish and myself are wrong and it does end up being easier for a DM (when conducting combat).

So far all of the YouTube vids I’ve watched seem to mostly gush about all of the PC upgrades and more clarified rules and almost none off talk about the concern I have.

Time will reveal all though. Im glad you approve of it so far.

So to be clear you're sick of reviews gushing about 2024 concerning things you don't like, while ECO3 is claiming all the reviews are negative.

 

[Mistwell]

This is pretty much how I feel. The constant changing of rules is such a drag.

It's been a decade

 

[Hatmatter]

It's been a decade

I still feel as Skid Ace articulated himself. Like Skid, I am adopting the revision.

I have come around and I am glad that instead of reinventing the wheel, Wizards of the Coast is revising the fifth edition ruleset and focusing on how the game is presented. I hope that this is the attitude maintained going forward.

That being said, I grow weary of new rulesets. I like the game as it is and do not feel that the game itself needs to be changed, whether that be ten years or twenty years. How long is the game going to be tinkered with? Another fifty years? I just don't see the need.

 

[DarkCrisis]

So to be clear you're sick of reviews gushing about 2024 concerning things you don't like, while ECO3 is claiming all the reviews are negative.

What an interesting interpretation of what I wrote.

 

[Daztur]

On the other hand. If you plan to have only one or two combats a session, I suppose 2 long drawn out combats works fine.

I’m used to like OSE where I can do 3-6 combats a session or less and thus more time for RP and exploration.

Having a 5e campaign with 1-2 long drawn out fights per long rest emphatically does not work fine. Played in a campaign like that, it caused all kinds of problems. Completely messed up class balance as some classes are far better for two fights per long rest than others. Also those fights tend to really drag as players use a lot more resources per round, making the average round take longer. 4e can do this well, 5e can't.

The other solution is to have a few fights per session but only one long rest every few sessions. This is more workable but causes some headaches. In an Old School game you can have players make an expedition to the dungeon, end the session leaving the dungeon and go back in the next session, but that kind of pacing is harder to achieve in 5e.

Also it's just a logistical hassle keeping track of what resources each PC has spent from one session to the next, dealing with people who can't make every session, etc.

What I had the most fun with in 5e was nautical campaigns in which resting was only possible in port. Damage to the boat made the PCs panic as they NEEDED that boat to get back to port and get a long rest. It also provided better explanations as to why PCs were dropping in and out from session to session (Bob's PC is busy doing stuff below decks while we just found Tina's new PC in a shipwreck).

But still, it's a real pain to do a traditional dungeon crawl in 5e because combat takes too damn long.