BY JIM RASBERRY/Staff Writer
Foreword: This is a personal review of the 2024 edition of the D&D fifth edition player’s handbook. This is first hand information taken from a review of the book and comparison to the 2014 edition of fifth edition. This review does not serve as a full guide to every class change and does not take into account business decisions and controversies from Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro.
After many delays, play tests, and scrutiny from the community, the 2024 edition of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition Player Handbook (D&D 5e PHB) has just been publicly released . After getting my own hands on the book I am eager to share my thoughts on the book to tell you what is good, what is bad and what is just reprint.
The Good
I’ll go ahead and say it: I think the book looks gorgeous. It has become a bit of a joke just how much the D&D team put an emphasis on how nice their art is, but it can’t be denied that the art is wonderful and really makes the book nice to look at.
Art aside, the layout of the book does feel very nice. Chapters are arranged in a good order: the rules, step-by-step character building, class and equipment. Each of these sections are very nicely organized and adorned with more art to keep a nice polish to the book.
Likewise, the wording of the mechanics and classes are very concise. There is little question about what the function of abilities are and how to use them. Additionally, the spell section has received an overhaul. It not only gives a longer spell list but also new and clear definition on new, changed or returning spells. In their own section, each spell-casting class is given a list on what spells they are able to cast. This provides for less digging around the book.
Martial classes get something new. As do classes (such as the fighter and barbarian) getting quick access to the new ‘Weapon Mastery’ traits of weapons. These give new passive effects to weapons used by the martial characters which gives a much needed edge in a game dominated by magic casters.
Surprisingly, my favorite section of the book is the backgrounds. This is the section used in character creation to provide backstory and minor abilities. I find the layout of this section very comprehensive and pleasing to the eye even compared to the other art and sections in the book.
The Bad
This is what many might expect to hear after months of negative and mixed reviews of the book from content creators and play testers: the book is a pretty mixed bag.
It is very flashy with its art, but that art is what causes the increase in page count. In fact, the majority of these pieces take up roughly half a page they are featured on. Likewise, the increase of art does not appear to bring an increase of actual play content.
Classes are the prime example of this mixed bag. Many classes considered relatively weak were not fixed. Instead of fixing its more likely problems, they were either moved or attempted to be hidden. In many cases, some classes are now stronger while others are just broken when they weren’t before.
A prime example is the ranger; it was often thought to be one of the game’s weaker classes. Over many different changes in play-test, some very good and some not so good, the final decision they landed on was to remove one of the class’s key features, ‘Favored Enemy.’ This feature was replaced with an even stronger reliance on the ‘Hunter’s Mark’ spell. The main issue with this is it further narrows down play-style with the class. Unlike the original feature, ‘Favored Enemy,’ or its optional feature from the book “Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything,” ‘Hunter’s Mark’ has far more limited uses especially in the early game where most campaigns take place.
Furthermore, there is a far fewer number of classes and subclasses available in the book’s 2014 predecessor. In the 2014 PHB, there was 12 classes to pick from with 40 subclasses split among them. In later books, a 13th class was added, the Artificer, along with many more subclasses. This brought the grand total of subclasses in the 2014 edition to 117. In this 2024 PHB, there is only the original 12 classes and a total of 48 subclasses. Only three of those subclass are new.
Another vital part of character creation in D&D is the choice of player species. In the 2014 edition, this section gave around two to four pages detailing abilities, lore and general descriptions of each. In the 2024 edition, each one gets either a page or a page and a half, with half of each page being art. The descriptions are very short, and a proportional amount of lore has been removed . On one hand, this leaves them more open to interpretation; this allows the crafting of your own lore. On another hand, many play options were removed, and the creation of new lore can be daunting for newer players.
On the topic of lore, a major issue is the removal of a lot of lore and character to the text. The book reads more as instruction than before which can be helpful for play but not world construction. This comes off as trying to further enforce the purchase of other supplemental books to fill these gaps. This point of concern is only heightened due to the fact that this new edition is to take place in a different setting from the 2014 edition. This means that while playing in the default setting for 2024, you will need to dig up either much older material detailing the Greyhawk setting or purchase the future books.
The biggest issue is the barrier of entry to begin a session of the game. For 2014 D&D, the barrier was low and the purchase of just the PHG or Dungeon Master’s guide was enough. However, this new book is reliant on new players purchasing other materials.
The Reprint
Another point of concern is this edition’s drastic changes and reprint of the content from other books. In fact, the majority of the reprinted materials come from “Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything,” an already widely successful book from the 2014 edition of the game. Thus, from the 378 pages of material in this book, a majority of it is already is available in other books, some of which are cheaper than this one today.
That said, this isn’t all bad. After all, a new player could pick this up as a condensed package of existing, favorable published material. The only issue is the aforementioned need to additionally purchase the later coming 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual.
Final Thoughts
As a whole, I can best describe this year’s D&D 5e PHB as an incredibly mixed bag. There are many good points, many bad points and various changes that aren’t as bad as originally thought.
Furthermore, my thoughts alone don’t cover everything. I reviewed the material with my own D&D group; in some points, there were things I liked that my group didn’t and vice versa.
A newer player could grab this book alone should they join experienced players who welcome the use of it; they might be able to quickly join in with its fairly easy format.
Regardless of your feelings on the new content, the most important takeaway is you can still enjoy the game whether you are playing the 2014, the 2024 or even an older edition. These books are not the game itself but simply tools to help facilitate play. It is your choice what material your group will use and what material you enjoy. By no means should you let other dictate what aspects of the game you are allowed to enjoy.
