Dungeons & Dragons: Player’s Handbook (2024)

For those of you who visit this site for Dungeons & Dragons product reviews, this is the post you’ve been waiting for. If you follow me on X then you know that I debated even buying this book. I’m not opposed to revisions or updates when it comes to D&D. But a lot of the leaks surrounding “One D&D”  were rather controversial. To be clear, I’m not even referring to any of the “woke” updates that a huge part of the community was complaining about. My areas of concern centered more on unnecessary rule changes, over simplification, WotC’s push to digital content, and pointless tampering with a system that has been working just fine for the last ten years. Like many of you, I also saw the leaks and read articles from people who received advance copies. What I saw made me very leery of this new revision. So much so, that I had all but decided against purchasing this new Player’s Handbook. But, at the end of the day, I felt that I should actually sit down with the book and give it a fair shot. If, at the end, I found it to be complete trash – that would be it. I would stick with my 2014 core rulebooks.

A little over a week ago, I received a digital copy of the new PHB and then just yesterday I got my hands on the physical book. I’ve now had enough time to analyze the changes and I’m ready to share my thoughts. Before I get into the details, let me explain how I’m going to approach this review. First, I’m going to talk about the 2024 Player’s Handbook as a product. I’m not going to get into specifics about the rules or what I think of the mechanics. But just the book and it’s overall presentation and quality. Next, I’ll dive into the rules and elaborate on what I think about the changes.

So with that in mind, let’s start.

The first thing I noticed about the 2024 revision to the Player’s Handbook is the size. This book is significantly thicker than the 2014 original. In terms of page count, the new book has an additional sixty-four pages. Now keep in mind, that’s page count. If you’re looking at content, the actual word count of the 2024 Player’s Handbook is less. The original book averaged over eight hundred words per page, whereas this new book averages just over seven hundred. So does that mean that despite its size, the new PHB actually has less content? The short answer here is no. While there may not be as many words crammed between the covers of this new book, I think the difference here is quality over quantity.

As someone who owns and has analyzed/reviewed every 5E book that WotC has released, I can tell you that in terms of content quality this book outclasses the original PHB by leaps and bounds. The text is straight to the point and concise. There’s no talking in circles here. Plus, the overall format is just much more efficient. One of my biggest gripes with the 2014 PHB is the layout. While that book contained everything needed to play the game, the format could be quite frustrating at times. A good example of what I mean can be seen simply by watching a new player trying to use the book to create a character. All too often new players will start at the beginning of the PHB and try to follow the character creation steps. They constantly flip forward and then backtrack between the race and class sections, trying to decipher and record all of their modifiers or determine what spells and abilities are available to them. In a nutshell, the original PHB contained great information but the presentation was seriously lacking. That has been corrected in this new revision.

Everything about the page design has been improved in this new version. The text is extremely readable and unambiguous. Even the graphic placement is more relevant and just seems to make more sense in this new version. Whoever was in charge of the formatting and layout here deserves a pat on the back. Aside from formatting, the book is colorful and feels like a premium product. The binding is tight and the cover is nice and sturdy. Good job to WotC in terms of overall quality.

Now, let’s get into specifics. A lot has been said about some of the changes to the game in this new revision. Before we start, it is important to understand that this book does not represent a new “edition” of Dungeons & Dragons. This book is not 6E. It is also not 5.5E. WotC claimed from the very beginning that this refresh to the rules would maintain full compatibility with all existing 5E products. I admit to being very skeptical of that statement. But, having now spent time with the new PHB, I can tell you that WotC’s claim is accurate. The core game mechanics remain unchanged. If you know how to “play” D&D 5E, then you can sit down with someone who was introduced through this book and still play. Any old adventure modules or 5E campaign settings will work fine using this book as the core rules. What has changed here mostly has to do with character creation and the rules for certain spells and abilities. That being said, any legacy content can still be used with the new system, just be aware that if you mix and match legacy and revised content at the same table, you may be opening yourself up to some balancing issues. The new Player’s Handbook contains plenty of sidebars that help players convert legacy content to the new system when issues might arise.

So having said all that, you may be wondering what differences were made to the game in this new revision. I’m going to get into that now and I’m going to do it in great detail. So be warned.

Species: The 2024 Player’s Handbook has done away with the term “race” and replaced it with “species”. This change has garnered a lot of negative attention online. However, I have no problem with it. In my opinion, the word species actually makes much more sense than race. Here on Earth, all humans are a single species. But we have different racial ethnicities. Let’s look at Elves for a moment. Elf is a species. Whereas High Elves and Wood Elves are different races of the elven species. So to me, this change makes sense. Of course, WotC does their best to eliminate the word “race” entirely in this book. The terms “race” or “subrace” are not used. Instead, subraces are now referred to as lineages.

Old school players will be quick to notice that all racial ability modifiers have now been removed. That’s right, no more +2 to Dexterity for Elves and Halflings, etc. This is an extremely controversial change for many gamers. Instead of racial modifiers, WotC has now tied ability modifiers to character backgrounds. I suppose this does make sense to a degree. But I’m not sure how I feel about the blanket removal. The argument that WotC makes is that they want players to be able to create whatever character they want without having to worry about min/maxing. I get that. But at the same time, it is important to recognize that different fantasy races come with different benefits and drawbacks. Backgrounds only go so far. Still, I do see some wisdom in their decision. I think that ultimately, I will homebrew a rule in attempt to strike balance between racial modifiers and background modifiers. (More on this later)

The majority of the original core 5E species are present in this new book with the addition of a few that were previously only available in supplemental material. The new list of core species are as follows (in alphabetical order):

Aasimar – Added to the core rules. Previously introduced in Monsters of the Multiverse. This species is largely unchanged from the previous rules with a few minor exceptions to the way their resistances and transformation ability works. Personally, I feel Aasimar are a tad too exotic to be included as a standard playable species. But that’s just me.

Dragonborn – This books updates the Dragonborn in a number of significant ways. For starters, Dragonborn can now fly once per day starting at level 5. Dragonborn have also gained Darkvision and are now able to chose between line and cone when executing their breath weapon. Plus, the damage for their breath weapon has been increased. Not sure how I feel about these changes.

Dwarf – Dwarves in this new revision of the game seem to have been streamlined a bit. There’s no longer a distinction between Hill and Mountain Dwarves outside of the label. All Dwarves now have Darkvision to 120 feet and Dwarven Toughness. Dwarven weapon proficiencies have been eliminated and Stonecunning has been changed to essentially be Tremorsense. Again, I still feel like there should be a bit of distinction between lineages. The Stonecunning change is welcome.

Elf – Keen Senses has been changed to allow the player to choose from a list of three skills and Fey Ancestry (advantage to Charm saving throws) has been added. Modifiers for various elven subraces have been rolled into a new trait called Eleven Lineage. The effects of this trait vary depending on the lineage you choose (thankfully). Half-Elves have been eliminated from this new revision (more on this later).

Gnome – Largely unchanged but a little streamlining has occurred. The base Forest Gnome ability to speak with subterranean creatures has been replaced with a blanket Speak with Animals and Rock Gnomes can now use Mending and Prestidigitation. Pretty good updates.

Goliath – Added to the core rules. Golaiths were one of my favorite optional species so I’m glad to see them added. There’s been a few revisions made with this new version. Blanket Stone’s Endurance has been replaced with Giant Ancestry – a feature that varies depending on the Goliath’s lineage. Goliaths have also gained Large Form, an ability that let’s them function as a Large sized creature once a day. They have gained advantage on grapples and an increased carrying capacity. Not sure how I feel about Large Form, but the other changes make sense.

Halfling – Halfling lineages have been streamlined. All Halflings have Nimbleness regardless of lineage. Again, not a big fan of this.

Human – The previous “variant human” is now the standard. Humans now also get Heroic Inspiration on a long rest. The flavor text detailing various human ancestries has been removed completely. Also, the new core rules seem to heavily imply that humans originate from the City of Sigil in the outer planes. That’s an interesting lore drop, I guess. But I don’t feel like WotC has done enough to make humans desirable vs other species. In older editions, Humans were the go-to due to their flexibility. I have a pretty strict house rule at my table that only humans are allowed to be Multi-Classed.

Orc – Added to the core rules. It seems that Half-Orcs have been now replaced with regular orcs. Orcs here are nearly identical to what was found in Monsters of the Multiverse. The exception being they have lost Powerful Build and now their Darkvision reaches up to 120 feet. I don’t care for this addition. I feel that Orcs are monsters and should stay monsters. This is why Half-Orcs existed in the first place.

Tiefling – A welcome revision to what had become a pretty complex species. Lots of changes here – For starters, all Tieflings now know Thaumaturgy. Also, Fiendish Legacy now exists to help flesh out Tiefling ancestry. There are three options: Infernal, Abyssal, and Cthonic. Infernal seems to represent the previous default Tiefling model but Vicious Mockery has been replaced with Fire Bolt. Abyssal Tieflings have poison resistance and have access to Poison Spray. Cthonic Tieflings are resistant to Necrotic damage and can use Chill Touch. All three gain additional abilities as they level. I feel like the changes are warranted and welcome. Again, perhaps I’m being a bit strong-handed. But to me Tieflings are bit too exotic for most classic fantasy campaigns.

As mentioned above, the Half-Elf and Half-Orc options have been removed. This concerns me greatly. Half-Elves especially have a long history in Dungeons & Dragons. I can’t help but feel this was done strictly for political correctness since in the west race is such a hot-button issue and calling someone a “half-breed” is considered demeaning. But… I don’t think any real life elves or orcs are likely to get offended since, you know, they don’t actually exist. Rumor has it that the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide will include rules for mixed-species. So perhaps we will see the return of Half-Elves in this capacity. Time will tell.

Backgrounds: Character backgrounds play a much bigger role in the 2024 revision. As I mentioned above, ability modifiers are now tied to backgrounds instead of a character’s species. In addition to this, backgrounds still provide characters with specific items and proficiencies. But they also now include an Origin Feat. The old Traits, Flaws, Bonds, and Ideals have been eliminated. Proficiencies have been streamlined to eliminated languages and now reduce tool proficiency to a single tool. Players will notice a handful of new backgrounds in addition to names they recognize. However, almost every background has received significant revisions in one way or another. Whereas in the past, many players looked at backgrounds as merely an afterthought to help flesh out their characters. Backgrounds are now an essential element of character creation.

Classes: As you might expect, lots of changes to classes have been made. Surprisingly there’s not many blanket changes to way classes work in this revision, just very specific class changes. The only blanket changes I can find are as follows: 1) Classes now get a fixed number of prepared spells based on level (with a few minor exceptions) instead of a base number plus a modifier. 2) Level 19 characters can now choose between gaining an Epic Boon or an additional Feat.

With that, let’s deep dive into the class-specific changes.

Barbarian changes:

• Weapon Mastery
• Rage now lasts up to 10 minutes and can be extended when meeting certain conditions.
• Reckless Attack now stays active until the start of the next turn and now works with any strength-based attack.
• Primal Knowledge – Gain an extra skill proficiency and changes how some skills function when raging.
• Instinctive Pounce – Movement speed is halved during Rage.
• Brutal Strike – Allows you to give up the Advantage given by Reckless Attack in order to invoke various effects on your target. This replaced Brutal Critical.
• Level 13 Improved Brutal Strike –  Adds additional options to the skill.
• Persistent Rage – Allows you to recover Rage uses once daily.
• Level 17 Improved Brutal Strike – Adds 1d10 damage to the attack
• Primal Champion – Changes the max on Con and Str to 25
• Various changes to Subclasses – I won’t detail them all here. Some significant others not so much. Overall welcome changes.

Bard changes:

• Players can now change their cantrip whenever they level.
• Bardic Inspiration – Inspiration dice now expire after 1 hour instead of 10 minutes and only kicks in when a d20 roll is actually failed.
• Expertise: Moved from level 3 down to level 2.
• Font of Inspiration – You can spend a spell slot to reuse Bardic Inspiration
• Countercharm – Changed to work as a reaction
• Expertise – Moved from level 10 down to level 9
• Magical Secrets: Players can now pick spells from the Bard, Cleric, Druid and Wizard lists at level 10. Paladin, Ranger, Warlock spells have been removed.
• Superior Inspiration – Moved from level 20 down to level 19 and now grants two dice instead of one.
• Words of Creation – Effectively a free Power Word Kill/ Power Word Heal that can affect two targets
• Various changes to subclasses/colleges with the inclusion of a completely new college. I won’t go into details but overall the changes are welcome but some are rather trivial.

Cleric changes:

• Players can now change a cantrip whenever they level.
• Divine Order – Players can decide between a Protector or a Thaumaturge role regardless of domain. Protectors can use heavy armor and wield martial weapons. Thaumaturges receive an extra cantrip and a modifier to their religion and arcana checks.
• Channel Divinity – Number of uses now maxes at 4 instead of 3. New ability “Divine Spark” healing ability added as an option alongside Turn Undead.
• Sear Undead – Replaced Destroy Undead. Undead targets that fail their Turn Undead save now receive extra damage.
• Blessed Strikes – Moved down from level 8 to level 7. Can now choose between radiant and necrotic damage.
• Divine Intervention – Essentially allows you to cast any cleric spell of 5th level or less as an action once per long rest
• Improved Blessed Strikes – Adds damage or receive a temporary HP boost.
• Greater Divine Intervention – Player can use Wish when using Divine Intervention but comes with a cooldown on the ability!
• Various changes to Domains, most of them an improvement. I won’t dive into details here.

Druid changes:

• Players can now change a cantrip whenever they level.
• Armor and Weapon proficiancies have been revamped. Druids are now proficient in simple weapons and light armor. Druids can now wear heavy armor without proficiency.
• Druidic language and Speak with Animals. Passive Perception on hidden Druidic messages changed from Perception to Investigation.
• Primal Order – Additional cantrip and modifiers to Arcana and Nature checks OR proficiency in martial weapons/medium armor.
• Wild Shape – Wild Shape is now a bonus action regardless of Circle. Wild Shape can be reused without reverting to original form. Ability is now limited to four known forms (challenge rating of 1/4 with no fly speed) with two uses per short rest starting at level 2 and scales up to 4.
• Beast Spells has been removed
• Archdruid – Now includes Nature Magician and Evergreen Wild Shape (one use of Wild Shape when you roll for initiative instead of unlimited uses)
• Various changes to Druid circles. Mixed bag here some changes make sense, some seem a little pointless. But no real issues. Too much to detail in this review.

Fighter changes:

• Weapon Mastery
• Fighting Style – These are now Feats and players receive one for free at level 1. This can now be changed each time the player gains a level.
• Persuasion added to proficiency list.
• Second Wind is now two uses per long rest and players can recover one during a short rest.
• Action Surge revised to exclude magic.
• Tactical Mind – Can burn a Second Wind in exchange for adding 1d10 to a failed ability check.
• Tactical Shift – Players can move up to half their speed with no attacks of opportunity whenever Second Wind is used.
• Indomitable – Add a bonus equal to the player’s level to the reroll.
• Tactical Master – Adds Slow, Sap or Push Weapon Mastery to any weapon.
• Extra Attack 2 has been renamed to “Two Extra Attacks”
• Studied Attacks – Gives players advantage on their next attack on the same target any time an attack is missed.
• Three Extra Attacks – see above.
• Various subclass changes. I found most of these to be well needed and a welcome change. Will not detail all of these in this review

Monk changes:

The term “Ki” feature has been renamed to “Focus Points”. This seems to have done in attempt to break that “oriental” stereotype commonly associated with Monks.

• The quarterstaff has been replaced with a spear (why??) in Monk’s starting equipment.
• Monks are no longer proficient with short swords. Instead, they are now proficient in light martial weapons.
• Martial Arts – Bonus action attacks are no longer tied to a generic “attack” action. Damage die now starts at 1d6 and scales up. Players can now apply their Dex modifier to Grapple DC.
• Monk’s Focus – Flurry of Blows no longer takes an action to use. Patient Defense allows Monks to now Disengage as a bonus action. Step of the Wind is now also a bonus action with no point cost.
• Uncanny Metabolism – Recover all Focus Points once per long rest and heal hit points when rolling initiative.
• Deflect Attacks – Largely a change to Deflect Missiles. Now works against melee attacks.
• Stunning Strike – Target’s speed is halved and next attack against them has advantage on a successful save. Duration now ends on the start of your next turn.
• Empowered Strikes – Now unarmed strikes inflict force damage.
• Evasion – No longer works if player is incapacitated.
• Heightened Focus (Flurry of Blows increases to three attacks, Patient Defense now grants temporary HP, Step of the Wind can now affect another character).
• Purity of Body removed and replaced with Self-Restoration. Essentially same skill but does not affect disease and ends Poison, Charm, and Fright. Does not require food/water.
• Tongue of Sun and Moon removed and replaced with Deflect Energy – Upgrades Deflect Attack to work vs any damage type.
• Diamond Soul has been renamed to Disciplined Survivor
• Perfect Self removed and replaced with Perfect Focus – Combat always starts with at least 4 focus points.
• Empty Body has been removed and is now replaced with Superior Defense. New ability removes the invisibility but now only costs 3 FP instead of 4 Ki.
• Body and Mind – Adds +4 to Dex and Wis
• Fairly big changes to subclasses. Some of the changes feel pointless while others are a big improvement. Again, I’m not detailing everything here or this review would never end.

Paladin changes:

• Weapon Mastery.
• Can now use spells starting at level 1. Can now only change one spell per long rest.
• Lay on Hands: Now a Bonus Action. No longer can be used to cure disease.
• Fighting style – Changes here mirror that of Fighter. Can pick from any Fighting style. Or player can elect for Blessed Warrior to get two cantrips.
• Divine Smite changed to Paladin’s Smite and is always “prepared” like a spell but used as a bonus action after a successful hit.
• Divine Health has been removed.
• Channel Divinity – Can be used twice per short rest and scales up to three. Incorporates Divine Sense.
• Faithful Steed – Can use Find Steed without preparation.
• Aura of Protection – Slight changes to the way auras work. All auras are now “Aura of Protection”
• Abjure Foes – Like Abjure Enemy with some minor tweaks and now available to all Paladins.
• Radiant Strikes – A rebranded Improved Divine Strikes.
• Cleansing Touch has been removed and replaced with Restoring Touch – Can use five points from Lay on Hands to remove various status conditions.
• Paladin Oaths have seen a number of changes. Most of them improvements. Will not detail them all in this review.

Ranger changes:

Probably one of the most needed refreshes in the game. The new Ranger incorporates several changes from Tasha’s but also adds a few new twists.

• Weapon Mastery.
• Spells are now available at level 1 and you can change one prepared spell per long rest instead once per level.
• Favored Enemy – Hunter’s Mark is always prepared for free and has two free casting per long rest (scales up to 6 as character levels up)
• Natural Explorer has been removed and is replaced with other abilities such as…
• Deft Explorer – Similar to the Canny class feature but with some tweaks.
• Fighting Style – Similar changes seen in Fighter and Paladin. Rangers can now choose from any Fighting style. Or players can pick Druidic Warrior to get two cantrips.
• Roving – Similar to the class feature of the same name except speed is increased cannot be used if wearing heavy armor.
• Expertise – Rangers can now get expertise in up to three skills.
• Tireless – Similar to the Tireless class feature but uses Temporary Hit Points based on a Wis modifier instead of a proficiency bonus.
• Relentless Hunter – Taking damage doesn’t affect Hunter’s Mark
• Nature’s Veil – Similar to the Nature’s Veil class feature except uses are now based on Wis modifier instead of a proficiency bonus.
• Feral Senses – Changed to Blindsight at 30 feet.
• Foe Slayer – Improves Hunter’s Mark damage to 1d10.
• Major subclass revisions for Ranger. Almost all of them are improvements. Too much to detail in this review.

Rogue changes:

• Weapon Mastery.
• Thieves’ Cant now also gives the player an extra language proficiency.
• Expertise – Can no longer select Thieves’ Tools.
• Steady Aim – Same as the Steady Aim class feature but now available to all Rogues.
• Cunning Strike – Player can now choose to reduce Sneak Attack damage in exchange for various other effects.
• Reliable Talent has moved from level 11 to level 7.
• Improved Cunning Strike – Can use up to two cunning strikes on the same attack.
• Blindsense has been removed and has been replaced with Devious Strikes (more Cunning Strike effects).
• Slippery Mind – Now adds proficiency to Wis and Cha.
• Stroke of Luck – Automatic 20 on any d20 check per rest.
• Rogue subclasses have a number of tweaks to make them each a bit more unique. Overall good changes but too much to get into in this review.

Sorcerer changes:

• Major changes to the available spell list and the cap has increased to 22. Players can now change a cantrip at level up.
• Innate Sorcery – Advantage on spell attacks and increase the save DC by 1 for one minute.
• Metamagic: Pretty big tweaks here.
  • Careful Spell – Protected targets now take no damage if the spell would normally deal half damage on a save.
  • Extended Spell now grants advantage on saves to maintain concentration.
  • Heightened Spell – Cost is reduced from 3 down to 2 and the target has disadvantage on saves against the spell.
  • Seeking Spell – Cost is reduced from 2 down to 1 and it can stack with other Metamagic spells.
  • Subtle Spell now waives material component requirements if they are not consumable and no cost is specified by the spell text.
  • Twinned Spell now only affects spells that add more targets when cast at a higher level. This costs 1 point per target.
• Sorcerous Restoration – Once per long rest you can recover some Sorcery Points during a short rest.
• Sorcery Incarnate – Players can spend 2 sorcery points to invoke Innate Sorcery with the added bonus of two Metamagic effects.
• Arcane Apotheosis – When using Innate Sorcery, Metamagic can be used one for free with each turn.
• Sorcerer subclasses have received some minor but welcome tweaks. Most of these make sense without a lot of crazy changes. Big improvements to Wild Magic. Too much to detail in this review.

Warlock changes:

• Invocations – Changes to progression (starting at level 1). Maximum increased to 10.
• Pact Magic – Can now change cantrip when gaining a level.
• Magical Cunning – Can recover half of your pact magic slots by performing a short ritual once per day.
• Contact Patron – Essentially a free Contact Other Plane once per day.
• Mystic Arcanum – Allows for the retraining of Mystic Arcanum spells.
• Eldrich Master – Now Magic Cunning restores all Pact spell slots
• Pretty in-depth changes to Warlock subclasses. A lot of changes made for lore reasons it seems. Welcome stuff. Too much to detail in full in this review.

Wizard changes:

• Can now change cantrip with each long rest.
• Ritual Adept is now it’s own feature, but functions essentially the same.
• Scholar – Players can choose expertise in one sill from the Wizard class list.
• Memorize Spell – Allows you to replace one prepared spell per short rest. – This is an excellent change!
• Spell Mastery – Now limited to spells that are cast as an action. These spells are always prepared and can be changed with a long rest.
• Minor tweaks here. Mostly welcome. I would have liked to have seen more subclasses included with this revision. Too much details to cover in this review.

Magic: 

The 2024 update also see a slew of revisions to existing spells. Again, there are too many changes to list in this review. Seriously. There’s A LOT of spell changes. But after browsing through them, the changes seem to be easy to validate. Yes, there’s nerfs and yes, there’s buffs. Both will cause various players to complain. That’s normal. But there’s also some pretty unexpected changes made to some of the more popular spells. For example, Polymorph now grants temporary hit points of the creature the caster is changing to and the spell is dropped when these points run out. Another big change comes in the form of Counterspell. Counterspell is now a Con saving throw instead of a check against the spellcasting ability. This was an extremely controversial change when originally announced but now that gamers have had a chance to put it into practice, it seems that the controversy has died down a bit.

Sharp-eyed players will notice that Chaos Bolt has been removed. This is because it was a bit redundant. Some of the more popular aspects of this spell have been added to Chromatic Orb, so the removal doesn’t really have an impact to gameplay.

A handful of new spells have been added. But I’m not going to detail them here.

Feats:

Feats have now been organized into four types: General Feats, Origin Feats, Epic Boons and Fighting Styles.

There are now more Feats than ever and there’s no way I could details all of the changes here. It is important to note that a number of 2014 Feats (mostly all Epic Boons) have been removed. All in all, I have no issues with most of these changes. They seem to have been made to give players more interesting options when engaging in battle.

Equipment:

Most everything regarding equipment remains unchanged with a few exceptions. Some items that previous took an action to use in combat now only require a bonus action. (Matt Mercer’s famous “quaff a potion” house rule is now official!). Once interesting revision to the equipment list is the inclusion of Firearms. The Player’s Handbook now also includes a new item crafting mechanic. I’m not really sure this was necessary. It doesn’t seem to really add anything of value. But I will have to see it in action to really gauge its worth.

Status Conditions:

Some minor changes to the way some Conditions are handled have been implemented. Exhaustion has been simplified. Grappled has been clarified and modified to make a bit more sense. Incapacitated is now much more perilous. There some other changes, that I won’t go into there. But overall, I have no issues and I think these updates make a lot of sense.

Combat:

Players can now draw or sheathe weapons as part of an attack. Doing this not require an action.

Weapons that do “flat damage”, meaning fixed numbers, do not benefit from damage modifiers. The only exception to this is Unarmed Strikes.

The new rules also include some clarification regarding damage taken from spells that target multiple enemies.

Surprise now means that the “surprised party” now has Disadvantage on their Initiative Roll.

Wow. That’s a lot. – And I didn’t even cover everything! There’s a plenty of other rule changes that effect everything from Picking Locks to how Short/Long Rests work. Again, if I were to try to document them all, I’d be basically writing a miniature book. But as you can see, most of the changes in this revision revolved around character creation as you can plainly see from the details above. This makes the majority of the updates very modular. This is by design in order to keep the new rules compatible with existing products. I appreciate this.

Having now had time to digest all of the changes that this revision makes to the game, I can honestly say it’s not as bad as I initially anticipated. It is perfect? No. In fact, there’s a few serious issues. But is it the complete and utter trash that so many people are claiming? Also no. However, after a careful review, I’m not sure this book will replace the 2014 PHB at my table. Whenever there’s a major revision or edition change, there’s always a window where players don’t know which version to use. I guess time will tell the tale. There’s still two other core rulebooks to consider before I can honestly make a call.. What I can tell you is that as an old school player that started with 1E AD&D, if I ultimately do embrace these new 2024 rules, I plan to impose a number of house rules to help correct some of the things I don’t like in this new version.

If you’re like me and you heard all the negative hype about this new book. I urge you to take a look at the changes for yourself before you just decide to toss it to the dogs. There’s some issues here, yes. But the verdict is still out.

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