An initial review of the 2024 D&D core books
Are they worth it?
For the last few months I’ve been familiarizing myself with the 2024 rules in preparation for a campaign on StartPlaying. Now that the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual are all out a fuller picture is possible.
While I’ve been focused on Old-School Essentials and the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG for a few years, I’m interested in the D&D family of games as a whole. I’m interested in iterative developments, how game design problems are created, identified, and resolved with experiments and recalibrations. In that iterative process, you can find lessons applicable to all D&D family games and RPGs as a whole.
Overview
A list of positive and negative changes
Should you buy the 2024 books?
Addendum: Further analyses of 5e generally
Changes
A simple notation system indicating how I feel about the change follows each item:
Positive (+)
Negative (-)
Mixed (+/-)
Need to try (?)
Still dislike (N)
Rebalanced monsters
Many monsters have more accurate attacks, deal more damage, and/or have more hit points (+)
Encounter XP budgets are simplified, budgets are most dramatically increased for higher levels that few players ever experience (+)
Complex monsters such as spellcasters are easier to run (+)
Because more 2024 classes benefit from short rests, I wonder if it will be easier for a DM to judge the current strength of a party due to less fluctuation in what abilities are available to the party (?)
Monsters automatically apply non-damage effects if their attack is successful, instead of allowing the opponent to make an additional saving throw (+)
Too few monsters have proficiency in saving throws (how are more giants not proficient with Strength saves, resulting in player characters with higher strength saves than 5 ton giants?) (N)
Baseline power of both PCs and monsters is greater but uncertain how it will shakeout (?)
Classes
Moving class spell lists into the class section (+)
Adding which classes have access to a spell to each spell entry (+)
Simplifying which classes are proficient in which weapons, given all classes training in, at minimum, simple weapons (+)
Allowing Barbarians to apply their Rage damage bonus to thrown weapon attacks using Strength (+)
Moving Warlock Pacts into Eldritch Invocations (+)
Fewer possible results (25 as opposed to 50) on the wild magic table and it seems like a higher ratio of the results on the wild magic table are straightforwardly positive (-)
The Sorcerer’s new Innate Sorcery feature (?)
The Paladin’s Lay on Hands ability can no longer automatically cure a disease and trivialize their threat (+)
Separating Cleric subclasses from armor and weapon training with the Divine Order feature (+)
Multiclassing looks more thought out and less tacked on than it did in 2014; gamey multiclass combos may end up being less common (+/?)
Action Surge cannot be used for the Magic action, so levels in Fighter no longer make a Wizard cast spells faster than someone who just focuses on wizardry (+)
Backgrounds and character traits
Backgrounds rather than species determine whether a characters can boost their primary abilities at character creation, so we’ll see a much smaller range of backgrounds pairs with each class including some of my favorite pairings, far fewer Noble Rogues or Charlatan Wizards (+/-)
Removing Background Features (+)
Removing formalized Bonds, Flaws, and Ideals from the character sheet and character creation process (+)
One of the ability boosts for the Hermit background is Charisma, rather than Intelligence, Dexterity, or Strength. I don’t see it. The abilities associated with other Backgrounds can seem arbitrary but the idea of honing charisma through isolation seems opposite (-)
Removal of language allowing custom backgrounds from the Player’s Handbook (-)
Species and languages
Calling it species (+)
Removing the mountain dwarf and making all dwarves like the 2014 hill dwarf; I doubt many players could tell you the difference between the two beyond the mechanics anyway (+)
Removing the stout haflings and making all halflings like the 2014 lightfoot halfling, like with dwarves (+)
Adding variety to goliaths’ giant ancestry (+)
Removing half-orcs (+)
Changing half-orcs to orcs as a player character species (+/-)
Making non-infernal tieflings standard tiefling options as they were prior to 4th edition (+)
Allowing humans, aasimar, and tieflings to choose small or medium size (+)
Removing default languages from species and giving players the option to choose starting languages from the Standard Languages list (+)
Adding Common Sign Language as a standard language choice (+)
Abilities, skills, and tools
Clearer limits on when Charisma checks can persuade an NPC by explicitly instructing the DM to determine whether an NPC is “Willing,” “Hesitant,” or “Unwilling.” (+)
Greater clarity on the when to ask for Wisdom (Perception) checks versus Intelligence (Investigation) checks (+)
Advantage on rolls if you are proficient in both the skill and tool (-, from Xanathar’s)
Lock picking is now covered by Sleight of Hand which doesn’t make sense to me, and as per above if you are proficient in both Sleight of Hand and Thieves’ tools you get both your proficiency bonus and Advantage to all attempts to pick locks. (-, from Xanathar’s)
You can no longer gain expertise with tools (-/?)
Tools now occupy a stranger place in relation to skills (-/?)
Feats
Crafter feat’s ability to make an item that falls apart after the next long rest; I would not trust a grappling hook that I knew was guaranteed to fall apart in 24 hours; plus smithing without a real forge (-)
Fighting Styles are now a kind of feat (+)
Fixing the Lucky feat (+)
Changing the initiative bonus granted by the Alert feat from +5 to proficiency bonus and removing its immunity to being surprised, adding its ability to swap initiative positions (+)
Changes to Observant feat (+)
Fixing the Sentinel and Polearm Master interaction (+)
Durable gives advantage on death saves (?)
Removal of the Dungeon Delver feat, which always felt like a rules > fiction feat (+)
Character creation and options, general
Character creation is likely to be slower for people who don’t overthink things (it was always slow for people who do overthink things) (-)
On the other hand, allowing choosing different character options, either when a new level is attained or after a long rest, might reduce overthinking during character creation and leveling. You can go with the choices suggested in the book to speed things up and change them later (+, from Tasha’s)
Fewer “I win” type abilities from Background and Class (such as 2014 Outlander) and Class features (2014 Ranger, Paladin’s ability to cure diseases) (+)
More ways to get Expertise without it becoming too common (+)
Equipment
The Utilize action codifies possible actions with many pieces of equipment (?)
The rope entry no longer defines the rope’s length. Maybe its infinite. (-)
A single ordinary book weighing 5 lbs. can grant advantage on all rolls involving an entire Intelligence-based Skill. With just 4 books you can cover all areas of knowledge possessed by sentient beings (-)
No random starting money option (-)
Escaping manacles or rope bindings require a single action and a check. It seems retriable without any negative consequence. If so, they are a poor restraint (10 attempts per minute). While it might make these more useful in combat, it makes little sense for more typical uses of these items. (-)
10 foot poles explicitly gain the ability to pole vault, acrobats are so special anymore (?)
Spells
Improved wording limiting the number of spells per round (max of 1 spell requiring use of a spell slot per round) (+)
Removed mention of miscellaneous distractions prompting Concentration checks; now only casting another spell, taking damage, becoming incapacitated, or dying can end Concentration; not letting spells like Color Spray prompt Concentration checks (-)
Changes to conjure and summon spells (+)
Shocking grasp no longer has advantage on the attack roll against opponents wearing metal armor; a loss for fiction-first rules in the name of consistent encounter balance and brevity? (-)
Counterspell changes (+)
Strengthening the Witch Bolt spell (+)
Healing spells heal twice as many dice of hit points, which I think makes them keep up with the damage and hit point maximum inflation that the game has seen over the editions (+)
Sleep is better against higher CR opponents and worse against lower ones (+)
Retaining the Guidance cantrip, which slows play down for little impact when players want to make the most of it (N)
Some spells have less arbitrary limitations, Ray of Enfeeblement no longer only reduces damage from Strength based attacks for instance (+)
Raise Dead no longer requires the consent and freedom of the dead creature’s soul (-)
You can now block a spellcaster from sending you messages with the Sending spell for the next 8 hours, like slow mode in an internet forum (?!)
Banishment’s range has been halved (+)
Banishment’s material component is no longer specific to the creature and is now just a universal pentacle (-)
Spiritual Weapon and Forcecage now require Concentration (+)
Odd changes to some material components (?)
Changes to Resistance (+)
Pacing and play
Added option in the PHB to use initiative scores instead of rolling. This might save time but I imagine this will lead to many more ties that need resolving though, which could negate the time saved. (?)
Long and short rest changes, including clarifications and adding an hour to long rests for each interruption (+)
Classes benefit from both short and long rests more evenly (+/?)
Surprise at the beginning of a battle is now Disadvantage on initiative rolls for surprised creatures and advantage on the roll for “Invisible” creatures; leaves possibility of a character being first in initiative without any reason to realize combat is starting or that any opponents are present in the scene (-/?)
Not including the Slow Healing variant rule in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (-)
The timing of reactive bonuses to rolls (Bardic Inspiration, etc.) is easier to apply without slowing down play by replace the impractical text “after rolling but before knowing if the roll is successful or not” from 2014 (+)
Changes to the Exhaustion condition, 2024 Exhaustion is reminiscent of 1981 B/X D&D (+)
Players who don’t study their characters between sessions (and who don’t have a knack for memorizing rules) may struggle to fully understand what they can do on their turn and end up taking longer turns (-/?)
Battles may take longer to finish (-/?)
Reintroducing Bloodied from 4th edition (+)
Adding standard rules for being on fire with the Burning hazard, including to alchemist's fire and spells (+)
More keywords, codifying of ways of using equipment, and more default DCs could lead some DMs to restrict player creativity and reduce their confidence in making their own rulings (-/?)
Lack of true dungeon exploration procedure, especially lack of meaningful timekeeping during exploration (N)
Normal and slow exploration movement rates are too fast (N)
Common exploration actions are too fast (e.g. 6-second Action, or Bonus Action) to be relevant to time spent exploring, random encounters, consequences of failure and retrying, etc. (N)
Default climbing, swimming, and crawling speeds still too fast (especially swimming and climbing) (N)
No improvement to the dying rules; the “yo-yo healing” effect will likely continue, which can leave less room between unchallenging gameplay and TPKs, especially after early levels (N)
Falling at max velocity still only deals an average of 70 damage and most characters can safely survive if they are at full HP once they reach between levels 6 and 8 (N)
Other suggested damage rolls for traps and hazards are too low (eg. a “deadly” rated poison dart trap only deals an average of 14 damage to characters of level 5 to 10) (N)
Actions and rolls
Equipping a weapon as part of an Attack action (+)
Naming of the Search action (+)
Adding the Study action possibly borrowed from Pathfinder (-/?)
More abilities that allow rerolling “1s” or “1s and 2s” on a die, which I feel tend to slow things down with little benefit to play (-/?)
More ways Advantage is granted for character builds rather than circumstances or player creativity, inconsistent with much of the guidance for applying Advantage in chapter 2 of the 2024 PHB and I think the original intent of Advantage, which describe “temporary circumstances” and:
“Circumstances not related to a creature's own capabilities provide it with an edge.
Some aspect of the environment improves the character's chance of success.
A player shows exceptional creativity or cunning in attempting or describing a task.
Previous actions (whether taken by the character making the attempt or some other creature) improve the chances of success.” (-)
New Hide rules (?)
Heroic Inspiration and rules granting it will be an improvement over Inspiration (+/?)
Heroic Inspiration is now mainly for the person who receives it in the first place; they can give it to another person but only at the moment they receive it. They can’t give it to another for a specific roll. (+)
General utility and value
Player’s Handbook rules glossary (+)
Adding the lore glossary to the Dungeon Master’s Guide; contents are meaningless unless they are included in the adventure or campaign you are playing or have played; otherwise they are just an overview of Wizards of the Coasts IP (-)
Adventure examples in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (-; good intention, poor execution)
Adding Bastion rules (+)
It’s odd to me that it doesn’t talk about Bastions being destroyed by such commonplace story events as a villain attacking it. That may be a gift to cozy D&D seekers. Of course, it wouldn’t be hard to improvise that scenario. (-)
Dungeon Master’s Guide removing random dungeon generation tables (-)
Improved instruction for novice DMs in Dungeon Master’s Guide (+)
Less utility for veteran DMs in Dungeon Master’s Guide (-)
Art subjects, composition, level of detail, more like 2nd and 4th edition (+)
Fewer walls of text (+)
The Player’s Handbook is longer but better organized. Longer can mean more page flipping (or tab opening) and slower reference mid-game. But better organization can counteract that. Longer isn’t more desirable for every player. (?)
Changes to the layout and organization of monster stat blocs, even if they’re still too large (+)
D&D Beyond
On D&D Beyond, custom backgrounds seem to only work for the way 2014 Backgrounds were built (-).
When creating a character in D&D or purchasing equipment, there is no automatic way to deduct the cost from your coinage, slowing down this step of character creation and any shopping expedition (-)
When you export a character from D&D Beyond to a form-fillable PDF, the font sizes are really tiny and it doesn’t export it to the same character sheet that you can otherwise find on the site, which I prefer. (-)
Should you buy them?
Player’s Handbook
The Player’s Handbook is an overall improvement. Some of the improvements were already in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything or Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, so if you already incorporate those, you may feel it has less added value than someone who hasn’t done so. The rules are clearer and more consistent. The book is better organized. It fixes areas where 2014’s rules-as-written got away from rules-as-intended. I suspect play will run smoother. Characters with weapon mastery may take a little longer on their turns, but not as long as many spellcasters. Some rules still push against my suspension of disbelief and the narrative I tend to appreciate the game. Others support it. Non-optimized characters may be somewhat stronger than 2014, while optimized characters seem like they’ll be weaker (unless new optimizations and exploits are discovered, something I don’t care to look into and would be happier if I never feel the need to).
That said, unless you are playing in many in-person games, I am not sure the physical Player’s Handbook is a good buy for every player. You could end up buying a PHB and only end up referring to 5 to 10 pages of it during months of play, which just doesn’t feel worthwhile to me if I was a player in in just one or two 5e games. All of the key rules are in the “Free Rules” as are all of the classic classes (each with a single subclass), four of the species, and most of the spells. If these options weren’t fun it’d be a pretty bad edition of D&D. Once you’ve completed a campaign with a character built with the free rules, you will know better whether you want the Player’s Handbook. After that, two PHBs per table is reasonable.
If you are a typical 5e player, consider buying spell and ability cards once they are available before buying the new Player’s Handbook, especially if your group already has access to one or two of them.
If you are a DM or a player who plans on teaching your friends or players, then getting the Player’s Handbook makes sense for you. On the other hand, if you’re group plays it fast and loose with the rules anyway and you already have the 2014 books, you have less reason to get the new books since the differences are so technical you might not care about any of them.
Dungeon Master’s Guide
The Dungeon Master’s Guide has the least value to me. It has more value to a novice DM than the 2014 DMG but less value to an experienced GM than that book. The 2024 DMG has more explicit instructions for a new DM.
The Bastion rules seem cool but if you don’t have a game that’s reached 4th or 5th level yet, you can hold off on needing them even if you are interested. I would have preferred the Bastion Rules be in the Player’s Handbook.
If you heard about the adventures in the DMG, please don’t buy it on account of that. The adventures are nothing like those included in D&D core rules from the 1970s or 1980s which had great true adventures like the “Keep on the Borderlands,” “In Search of the Unknown,” “the Tower of Zenopus,” and the sample dungeon in AD&D’s DMG, or even “Kobold Hall” in the 4th Edition DMG. The adventures in the 2024 DMG are barely encounters or outlines. I can only imagine them being satisfying to a group with a brand new DM and entirely new players to dip the smallest pinky toe in the water of D&D. I don’t think they’d be satisfying for any other group and maybe not even that group. For 5th Edition, if you want a decent adventure for a completely novice group who want to learn the rules, I’d recommend the Crystalline Curse trilogy (First Blush, Second Glance, Third Times a Charm) by Jonathan and Beth Ball, which are free or PWYW duet adventures written 1 DM and 1 player (but they could accommodate up to 2 players).
If you are a novice DM, the new DMG may help you quite a bit, especially if you plan on homebrewing an adventure. But you you’d probably learn more from buying a Starter Set and running its included adventure or running another teaching adventure (like part or all of the Crystalline Curse trilogy). If you already have an adventure under your belt and you feel like you are really missing something, then I can see the new DMG steering you in a helpful way. I suggest experienced DMs skip the new DMG. If you’re like me you might find more utility in the 2014 DMG anyway. Don’t clutter your shelves lightly!
Monster Manual
For my needs the book with the most value is the 2025 Monster Manual. When running sessions in person, it’s handy to have the whole book on hand. The new monsters such as higher CR variations of NPCs fill important niches. Many of the more complicated monsters will be easier to run from this stat block as opposed to their 2014 stat block. In addition, many monsters will be better balanced against player characters, with higher hit points, attack bonuses, and damage, and more impactful special abilities. It remains to be seen whether they will give the desired amount of challenge for 2024 characters in encounters built with the new XP budget math in the Dungeon Masters Guide. But it's at least an improvement and I’d prefer to use these versions whether or not I’m using 2014 or 2024 rules for the rest of the game.
The Monster Manual is completely compatible with both 2014 and 2024 rules, whereas the new Player’s Handbook has spotty cross-compatibility with the old one. At the same time, if you have one or more monster books (like Kobold Press’s Tome of Beasts or Goodman Games’ Dungeon Denizens) you don’t need the new Monster Manual, even if you are switching to the 2024 Player’s Handbook rules. You can run a great game without it. You can learn to boost monster stats or add to their numbers to make more challenging encounters. You may want to do this anyway even if you do buy the new Monster Manual, because the new Monster Manual doesn’t include monsters specific to published adventures and you may want to bring those up to par. (This Monster Manual on a Business Card is a great resource for doing that. Keep it with you.)
Final recommendations
Player’s Handbook - 7/10
Dungeon Master’s Guide - 3/10 (higher for complete novices)
Monster Manual - 8/10
2024 D&D is a net improvement in my book. While I still feel a desire to house rule some things, they are much fewer in number. Fewer house rules is better, everything else equal, especially when introducing novice players to a game.
If you plan to DM 5e and you don’t already have the 2014 Monster Manual, then I would buy the 2025 one. If you already have the 2014 one and you are dissatisfied with how the monsters in it perform in play, then consider getting the 2025 Monster Manual. If you are the kind of person who wings a lot and doesn’t care about the specific numbers too much, then you may not even notice the difference between the two books (beyond the art perhaps). A Monster Manual is more fundamental to a DM than either 5e DMGs.
If you are more of a collector or reader rather than a player or DM of 5e, I don’t see much reason to buy these books, especially if you already have the 2014 books. The differences are technical and hard to appreciate without playing a fair amount. If you are someone who just likes to keep up with trends in the hobby 2024 D&D is too similar to 2014 to be particularly notable. They are functional rulebooks rather than reading material. They have minimal stories or setting information. The art is pretty and fun but I don’t feel that is enough on its own to justify the price tag, especially since Wizards of the Coast has been repackaging so much art from their games into other cheaper products like art books, coloring books, cookbooks, etc.
Addendum: Recommended 5e Analyses
That’s the end of this review. If you’re wondering about my general thoughts on 5e (2014 but mostly still applicable to 2024), here are four analyses that describe my experiences well:
Ten Years by Knight at the Opera (11/2024)
Knight at the Opera wrote this excellent multi-part series about 5th Edition from 2014 to 2024. It raises so many points that resonate with my 8 years of experiences with 5e (I left it completely for two years).
Even though I’m not sure if Pathfinder 2e is my cup of tea based on playing in a Beginner Box game, I think The Rules Lawyer has an excellent understanding of D&D 3e, 4e, and 5e and describes some of the recurring issues and attempts to fix them.
Insight Check explains one of my biggest criticisms of 2014 D&D: character abilities that trivialize and negate interesting gameplay, especially if its non-combat gameplay. These turn situations that you could enjoy roleplaying through or problem-solving into a single instantaneous declaration of, “I cast,” and they resolve the situation in an abstract and ruled-focused way, rather than a setting- or character-focused way. 2024 D&D has fixed some of this problem but its still there in places.
DM David talks about the inconsistencies in how 5e treats hit points and healing.
All said and done, I believe 5e has some strong areas and is a good option for a certain style of play even if I still overall prefer games like Old-School Essentials and Dungeon Crawl Classics. I think 2024 D&D is a net improvement over 2014 D&D. Depending on what you like and dislike about 2014 D&D, it may or may not be worth giving 2024 a try.