My Thoughts on the 2024 Player’s Handbook

Ah, it’s nice to be firing up the Hipsters & Dragon’s dashboard after so long! As explained in my last post, back in autumn, I was commissioned by an American publishing house to write a book for fantasy RPG Game Masters (compatible with 5e obviously!). And with a very tight deadline I had to buckle down and give that my full concentration. Subject to the publisher’s approval, I’ve now completed all the content. However, the book isn’t due out until September, so there’s plenty of time for me to introduce it down the line.

For today, I think it’s time to finally react to the biggest recent development in the world of D&D … which was the publication of the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

It feels weird, because I thought I’d be blogging about this nonstop in 2024, but a) the aforementioned book commission came up b) the advance copies given to Youtubers meant I had no motivation to get stuff out quickly and be the first voice on various matters, as the Youtubers were given a chance to cover everything pre-release, and c) it just doesn’t seem to have been that big news in the end.

Maybe I’ve had my head in the sand a little bit these last months, but I’ve seen very little excitement over – or even criticism of – the new rules. The new core books seem to have mostly been greeted with a huge “whatever”, and people just carrying on as before. While I pre-ordered my Player’s Handbook with no small degree of excitement, I’ve yet to speak to a Dungeon Master who has bought them, let alone someone who is switching over from 2014 to use them. I guess it’s reassuring in some sense, as it means DMs are the confident custodians of the games they run and they don’t feel beholden to splash out on what is more or less the same game. I suspect the majority are probably pretty happy right now to continue using the 2014 Player’s Handbook, together with whatever House Rules they’ve amassed over the years. (This is only my impression of course, rather than based on any hard stats).

2024 vs. 2014 Player’s Handbook

Enough preamble, let’s crack this bad boy open…

Cracking open the new core rules… (green fluorite dice reviewed here!)

The Good

Here are some things that I view as positive changes for 2024…

1. Better Organised

The first thing you have to say about the 2024 PH is that it feels way better organised than its predecessor. First come the game rules, followed by character creations rules, starting with class, which makes sense as that’s the biggest decision a player makes, followed by “Character Origins” (background and species). Feats are next, and thankfully not separated from the rest of the character mechanics by the Equipment chapter… I never seem to be able to find them in the 2014 edition. The book’s Table of Contents itself is more complete than the 2014 edition’s, with page references for subclasses as well as classes, for example.

2014 vs 2024 TOCs side by side…

2. Handy Rules Glossary

Related to better organisation of information, it’s great to see a dedicated rules glossary covering basically everything you need in an a-z of mechanics at the back of the book, including Exhaustion, conditions like Paralyzed and Grappled, Cover, Difficult Terrain, Rests etc. It needs road testing before I can definitely say whether its a great resource, but it certainly feels like a winner.

3. Improved Exhaustion Rules

Speaking of Exhaustion, they settled for almost the exact system I proposed on this very here blog, so that’s something I am pretty happy about. (Check out my post though, because I also created a rule for “Powering Through” exhaustion by spending hit dice… making Exhaustion easier to use in your game without it becoming tedious).

4. More Versatile Character Creation

Races/species no longer give you predetermined ability modifiers. In 2024, players can choose to augment three scores related to their background. For example, a Guide can choose to increase their Dexterity, Constitution or Wisdom (+1 to all three, or +1 to one, and +2 to another). It’s similar to how everyone has been playing since Tasha’s anyway. The upshot is that when choosing a species you’re not automatically also pushed into playing a certain class, or vice versa. This is great for variety and versatility, and it means that D&D tables won’t see the same stereotypical characters again and again. Another change I noticed is that it seems that pretty much all the classes can change their spells, or similar features, after a long rest, meaning players don’t get stuck with a bad decision for sessions on end, offering them more adaptability and versatility.

5. Some OP’ed Abilities Dealt With

I pretty much hated Divine Smite more than any other 2014 mechanic, so the fact that it’s officially now a spell (as I proposed it should be back in 2017ish!) which requires some tax on the action economy is great. Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Master are no longer throwing out that awful -5 +10 mechanic, while action has been taken to clean up the Sentinel and Polearm Master combo that has driven many a DM insane (unfortunately PAM itself is stronger than ever and looks like an almost required choice for a fighter, which is not ideal). The Lucky feat is much more reasonable now (offering advantage, not a reroll), and Wild Shape has been reworked (…players maintain their own hit points, which is probably fairer, although it will lead to some incredibly tough rats, fleas and spiders).

6. More Balanced Class Mechanics

With the caveat that I haven’t done a deep dive into everything presented in 2024, my initial research suggests that overall the various class mechanics are smoother and more satisfying, particularly with regards to some problem classes like rangers and monks, which both look way more playable now. The latter for example can do a basic Patient Defense or Step of the Wind for free (spending Focus Points for an improved version of the same ability), and they also get an opportunity to regain Focus Points without taking a rest with the new Uncanny Metabolism ability. Stunning Strike is now limited to once a turn, but still creates a kind of mini-stunned ability even on a save.

7. Spell Mechanics Also Look Better

While quite a few annoying spells haven’t changed significantly (see Missed Opportunities below!), there are what look like better versions of a good many frequently-cast incantations. The wording of guidance means it should now run smoothly, sleep feels less awkward, barkskin no longer requires concentration, meaning it is no longer pointless, you can now move cloud of daggers around, making it a more fun and powerful option. Those are just a few random examples that I’ve noticed so far. Overall, whenever I look up a spell that I was not too fond of in the 2014 PH I’m finding what looks like a better version in the 2024 PH about 50% of the time.

8. Capitalising Game Mechanics In The Text

It really is a crime that the 2014 Player’s Handbook left DMs to work out if certain words were just being used in their normal sense or if they referred to some mechanic in the game. Thankfully that mistake wasn’t repeated in 2024.

The (In)different

Here are some things that I could take or leave about the new edition…

1. More Codification

A fairly significant change in the core rules are the clear codification of non-combat actions within combat. Players can now take the Influence action, for example, to try to deceive, intimidate or persuade NPCs or monsters. The new rules on this are pretty good, I must say, and give DMs a good framework of what might be possible in combat. But I am not really sure I like this kind of rigid structure for adjudicating social interactions, even in combat. Also, I’ve always allowed players to shout a command at an ally, or a quick attempt at negotiation with an enemy as a free action. No player is going to give up their significant action to offer a truce, or demand an enemy lay down their weapon. Meanwhile the codification of Stealth in combat looks like a hot mess.

2. Cleaner Mechanics

There’s clearly been a conscious effort made for the 2024 edition of Player’s Handbook to clean up some unnecessary bloat / repetition, and to replace some disruptive mechanics. Two cases in point. Forest gnomes no longer have a bespoke ability to speak to small mammals, instead they can cast speak with animals a number of times a day, meanings folks only have to learn one mechanic. Meanwhile, conjure animals is now a tidy damaging dealing spell with a bit of an animal theme that isn’t going to tie the DM in knots or bog down the game. On the surface these are two improvements, but hey, I kind of like the little charms of finding weird little unique powers in a rarely-played race’s list of traits, while conjuring specific animals with a specific stat block plays up to our fantasies of being a primal conjurer in a way that the rather dry 2024 version of conjure animals just doesn’t. Would Dylan Sprouse think to summon an army of beavers with Italian mobster accents, to attack a shambling mound, using the 2024 version of the spell? I doubt it somehow…

3. Species Reshuffle

In 2024, we wave goodbye to half-orcs and half-elves, while hill dwarves are no longer a thing, and we say hello to aasimar, goliaths and orcs. I always liked half-orcs and half-elves because they come with some gritty background baked in to a character’s back story. But I can understand why WOTC got rid of them… too many awkward questions, starting with: “half-orc and half what?”, going on to “what about quarter elves?”, and finishing with “can I play a half-dwarf?” In my mind, you can still play a character of mixed ancestry in 2024, you just choose one set of species’ traits and that’s your dominant lineage. Or, if you want to play a half-tiefling, half-goliath, you can just mix and match their traits a bit in consultation with your GM. So for me, nothing much has changed… want to play a half-orc? Just use the orc traits.

4. Weird/Rigid Subclass Selection

The 2024 rules offers each class the same amount of subclasses… four each. The problem with this rigid approach is that now you get a random selection of Wizard schools, instead of all eight, and what feels like a fairly limited range of Cleric domains (goodbye Tempest), while a few more of the “supplement subclasses” like the Rogue’s Soulknife and the fighter’s Psi Warrior have been promoted to make up the numbers. I quite liked the fact that the classes behave a bit differently in the 2014 PH, while I also feel that the Player’s Handbook is for all your classic fantasy archetypes (Thief, Assassin, Arcane Trickster) and then you can add the more weird and wonderful ones, like Soul Knife, in the supplements. I’m also not sure we need four Druids, nor four different Bards, and I still don’t like any of the Sorcerer subclasses. For a while there I thought my beloved Path of the Totem Warrior Barbarian had disappeared to be replaced by some tree nonsense, but on closer inspection it is has morphed into the more catch-all “animal-themed” Path of the Wild Heart. It’s another trade off where we get smoother mechanics, but the end result feels a bit more generic.

The Bad

So plenty of good and inoffensively different, but what about the bad?

1. Missed Opportunities

I was pretty disappointed to find that the OP’ed hypnotic pattern is unchanged, while the extremely annoying banishment is more or less the same (I guess the reduced range forces a spellcaster to get closer to the danger zone at least…). I am not too convinced that the new version of counterspell is any less annoying than its predecessor. It just makes the War Caster feat even more of a must-take, and probably means counterspell is only going to happen to NPCs and monsters, and rarely players. Meanwhile, zone of truth is still a zone of tedium.

2. Dual Wielding Anomaly

Minor point, but the rules for dual wielding are hidden in various sections of the book, mostly in the section on Weapon Properties. Twice I’ve wasted half an hour looking for them, and even then I misunderstood the rules and a bit of online research was required to clarify the picture. Would it really hurt to have something about this in the Combat section?

3. Stripped Back Backgrounds

Backgrounds no longer come with tables of Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws. That’s a shame, I thought these were one of the coolest features in 2014, and I also have a theory that they helped push 5th edition players into a more RP style of play, which has been great for the evolution of the game (although possibly they not needed any more).

4. Weapon Mastery Looks OP

I have been vocal about the fact that weapons in the 2014 Player’s Handbook are really boring. And I even made a product on the DMs Guild to try and fix that. So I definitely wanted some more crunch from 2024, but when I read the Weapon Mastery section I was absolutely incredulous that this made the cut (was it even in the playtest material?). Admittedly, I’m going on instinct here, not on experience, but it looks wildly intrusive and overpowered. Every martial class now gets something akin to a battlemaster manoeuvre that they can use on every turn, one of which (Cleave) includes an extra attack and another (Push) enables one to move an opponent back 10 feet with no save. Possibly the worst thing about these properties though is that they don’t really make sense. Is it really possible to cleave through two opponents with one attack? You’re more likely to get your axe stuck in their guts and lose your weapon, I reckon. And do any of the properties really match the unique characteristics of that weapon? A few perhaps, albeit rather tenuously, but most of Sap, Graze, Push, Topple, Vex could conceivably apply to any weapon attack, so the whole system feels arbitrary and just a bit of a random bone thrown to martial classes without fulfilling the fantasy of being a master of that particular weapon. As I learnt with my own weapon rules, these types of rules should really apply to monsters and NPCs too. Using the 2024 rules, I can imagine a ludicrous scenario where players are scared to fight NPCs on a cliff specifically because they are armed with warhammers and/or heavy crossbows (both of which arbitrarily have the Push property).

House Rule Prediction: I suspect that DMs will quickly house rule that you can use Weapon Mastery properties a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, between short rests, which would probably soften these enough to make them inoffensive.

5. Artwork’s Overall Vibe is Off (For My Tastes)

The art has been one of the strong points of the 2014-2023 run of books. It seemed to strike a great balance of capturing how we play the game, with a lot of really original character depictions, all done in a semi-realistic style, not only in the Player’s Handbook, but in Xanathar’s and Tasha’s. In fact, for almost every book release, D&D championed an art style that was realistic but not too glossy or photographic. Unfortunately, I feel like the 2024 PH has tampered with that identity a fair bit. While all of the character art is technically impeccable, and no single piece is problematic by itself, the overall impression the art makes is giving off the wrong vibe for me. After analysis, I realised that a lot of the art feels clichéd, featuring stereotypes that I’ve seen before. There’s also lots of video-game-style weapons and armour, a stupid amount of glowing eyes (D&D isn’t a superhero game!), and just way too many whimsical depictions of tieflings, and other pointy-eared species that people on DeviantArt seem to love drawing, but which contribute in giving the handbook a cheesy anime-comic look in many places. Additionally, the character art is so glossy, colourful and “fabulous darling” that it just feels removed from the game I want to play. In my games, I imagine characters wielding vaguely historical medieval weapons and armour, as they traipse through forests and back allies killing monsters and criminals, getting battered and bloodied in the process. At least half of the characters depicted in the Player’s Handbook look like they are on their way to trade fair to cosplay at D&D, rather than actual adventurers who might be found in a dungeon battling a gelatinous cube, or fending off an attack of harpies in a dank swamp. Anyway, that’s my rather grognardian take on things. I prefer some grit and real world credibility to ground my fantasy in, but the 2024 edition of the Player’s Handbook is very much “all in” on the high fantasy aesthetic.

Some artwork compared. I love this 2014 piece on the right, featuring a realistic-looking fighter wielding real weapons, but still with a look I’ve not seen before. We might expect a typical medieval knight here, but instead we have this pretty cool mash-up of human cultures that feels like an original depiction. The dwarf fighter on the left, however, is a totally generic depiction of a fantasy dwarf, down to the colour of his beard. It’s a visual cliché. It’s also an aesthetic that comes from Warhammer and feels out of place in a D&D handbook. While the shield and sword, again, look like they come from a computer game and nothing someone would credibly wield. Technically it’s a brilliant piece, and the action is dynamic, but the branding and vibe is off for me.

Comparing the barbarian art we have a kind of superhero version of a barbarian on the left (who is miraculously unscarred for a 50-year-old battlerager!), who again feels video-game-inspired, and not at all like the realistic gent on the right, who doesn’t have a gym membership but does hold his axe properly at least. Aside from the basic “credibility” of the character depictions, I also have a personal preference for the flatter, muted tones of the art that characterised 5e from 2014 to 2023. I like my art to look like art, not a glossy hyperreal photo. I also think the picture frames of the new handbook aren’t helping, somehow creating a more cheesy vibe.

Looking at some rogue art, and again we have a straight-up video game character on the left, and a clichéd one at that. I feel like I’ve seen this dude a thousand times. And the lightning bolts and glowing eyes (argh!!!) are the finishing touch of cheese.

Ok, mini-rant over. I think the majority of people will probably be pretty happy with the 2024 art, and there’s certainly lots of it. I’ve showcased some of the stuff I don’t like, but there are plenty of original character depictions too, in between the many cheesy tieflings with luminescent eyeballs. Here’s a couple of cool characters for balance…

Which Should I Buy? (2014 vs. 2024)

I guess now I need to answer the question of whether I would actually recommend the 2024 Player’s Handbook over the 2014 edition. Hmmm, it’s a tough one. The 2024 rules are smoother overall I believe, with many problem points smoothed over and unsatisfying issues dealt with; but a lot depends on whether Weapon Mastery is going to affect gameplay negatively or not, as that’s a core part of the game which is going to feature in every session from the very first combat… and I’m not at all convinced by it. So for now, I’m not sure what I would recommend for new Dungeon Masters. Let me get back to you!

For those who already have the 2014 edition, I would definitely invest in the 2024 edition as well, at least for those smoother running spells, and for the better versions of the various classes. Then it will be up to you what other parts of 2014 you keep and what parts you replace with 2024 mechanics. Personally, I like to have more and different options, but it is certainly going to create a lot of confusion, not having one biblical source for all the rules.

Anecdotal Addendum

So, after writing the first draft of this post on Friday, I went to a Meetup of the Barcelona Roleplaying Community on Saturday night and I did manage to find a couple of DMs who have bought the 2024 Player’s Handbook, one of whom had even already run a short adventure using the new rules. I asked about Weapon Mastery and he said they worked fine for him. So, hey, let’s keep an open mind and see how they pan out…

An addendum to the addendum… I also went to the hairdressers today, and the guy who cuts my hair is big into D&D (it’s nice not to have to make 45 mins of awkward conversation about holidays!). He hasn’t bought the new rules himself, but a DM in his group has, and he’s now playing a monk in a new 5.5e campaign, and loving his character abilities. So I guess the shift to 2024 rules is happening a little faster than I thought!