Summary

The new 2024Dungeons & DragonsPlayer ’s Handbookis at last on the view , and that signify that theDnDcommunity is heavily place in anticipation , speculation , and deliberate about what the new rules will look like . Arriving a decennary after the lastPlayer ’s Handbookin 2014 , the revamp version seeks to freshen things up and handle vulgar complaint while maintain backward compatibility with all 5th edition content release to escort . It ’s an ambitious goal and a precarious balancing act , and it ’s easy to see why excitation is still mixed with uncertainty .

Changes in the newPlayer ’s Handbookcome at the end of a farsighted line of playtesting throughDnD’sUnearthed Arcanaprocess , but a lot of what appears in the Good Book is n’t necessarily identical to where the playtesting left off . gruelling answers about every detail might be hard to amount by until the book releases , first on August 1 in alimited supply at Gen Con 2024and more widely in September . Even so , there ’s more to learn now than just what ’s been shown in prescribed stuff covering the newPlayer ’s HandbookfromDnDpublisher Wizards of the Coast .

The 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Player ’s Handbook is still a few month off , but a new look at its contents helps clarify what it ’s focusing on .

A D&D party fighting hordes of enemies in a hellish landscape in art from the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

The man in kick of the newPlayer ’s Handbookis lead designer Jeremy Crawford , who also diddle a primal part in the creation of the 2014 version . Screen Ranthad the opportunity to discuss some of whatDnDplayers can expect from the new playscript with Crawford , a conversation that answered some dubiousness about red-hot button issue like Texas Ranger ' admittance to Concentration spell and broader perspectives on the hereafter ofDnD.

Moving Over To The 2024 Player’s Handbook

How Players Can Expect To Make The Transition

Screen Rant : 10 years after the 2014 heart and soul rulebooks , the new 2024Player ’s Handbookwill be a big refresh forDnD.For someone commence into the secret plan for the first time , what makes the new book the effective way to do it ?

Jeremy Crawford : The Modern book of account , for the first time inDnD ’s history , actually teaches you how the game works before we ask you to make a character . And then , once we get you into the lineament founding convention , we have more tools for you than ever before to facilitate make the reference creation process as legato as potential . Then on top of that , the whole game has been heighten , not only with many young option , but then the options that we ’ve carried forward from 2014 have been tuned up , expanded , all with an heart toward making the game run smoother , to give you more dissimilar options to sink your teeth into , and always with the Bob Hope of making the whole experience more fun .

For a group looking to play something likeCurse of Strahd , a great campaign from 2016 , are the newfangled rules still going to be the full fit for this ?

D&D Spellfire Art

Jeremy Crawford : Yes , you’re able to make a fictitious character using the 2024Player ’s Handbookand borderland right into Castle Ravenloft , whether you have the originalCurse of Strahdor the one inCurse of Strahd Revamped .

If a party wanted to move characters developed with the lastPlayer ’s Handbookover to the new rule , how difficult would that be ?

Jeremy Crawford : It really depends on which class you ’re transition over . So , some classes , like two of the prime examples , the Ranger and the Monk , have seen such significant redesign that they ’re effectively novel classes . For a form like that , I recommend rebuilding your character , so that you’re able to learn what all the new lever and buttons are for you to use while you ’re play the game . Whereas there might be another class where you may rake through and see okay , what changed in the base class , and then take a flavor at your subclass , becausesome subclass have been all redesign , whereas others have been enhanced in a few ways .

A character holding a trunk in art from Eberron: Forge of the Artificer

I think at the destruction of the day , because of how streamlined the character construction summons is in the newPlayer ’s Handbook , if you just decide , well , I ’m basically going to wager the same persona , but reconstruct it from the ground up , you ’re going to have a tranquil experience of doing so .

Class Changes & More In The 2024 Player’s Handbook

Some Big Overhauls Are On Their Way

There were some big changes floated throughout theUnearthed Arcanaplaytesting leading up to this book that ultimately did n’t make the cut . Are there any particular examples where residential district feedback really help clarify the direction of this ?

Jeremy Crawford : Yeah , there were some direction that we were exploring in — the Druid is one case , where we explore induce Druids use pre - made Wild Shape guide rather than selecting wildcat statblocks . This is really something we experiment with over a decade ago in theDnD Nextplay trial run . And just like that time , there were more multitude who said “ Please keep ease up us beast statblocks ” than the other direction . And so that ’s one example of the feedback being influential .

There were also some core rules changes that we were toying around with . And as we sometimes do with theUnearthed Arcanaprocess , where we ’re just not certain if it ’s something that the residential area wants , or if it ’s really going to help up the play of the game , we sent those out and saw , well , no , that ’s not really landing . One example there iswe experimented very early on in theUAprocess with embracing the very coarse house rule that rolling a 20 is always a achiever and rolling a one is always a failure . We were actually very hesitant to transport that out because that really has a act of issues for sure types of office in the game , but we thought , hey , it ’s anUnearthed Arcanaprocess , let ’s see what the residential district thinks . Well , it work out the community mostly agreed with us that no , let ’s just dumbfound with , in the official rules , the 20 only being an reflexive success in combat , and the one being an robotic failure , also only in combat

An image of D&D lead designer Jeremy Crawford in front of art from the 2024 core rulebooks.

Custom Image by Simone Ashmoore

The young Wildheart Barbarian subclass is a name a lot of players were first exposed to inBaldur ’s Gate 3 . That ’s not the only modification in the newPlayer ’s Handbookthat carry over fromBaldur ’s Gate 3 , right ?

Jeremy Crawford : So , that is the only modification that specifically connect toBaldur ’s Gate 3 . And the intellect why I say that is we were actually a part of the determination to name the subclass that inBaldur ’s Gate 3.So I was in the meeting when it was determined that that ’s what we were lead to call it inBG3 . And as a part of that conversation , I was also avail to pinpoint down what we were going to be telephone it in thePlayer ’s Handbook . So in a room , that ’s really an lesson of a determination that , Larian and Wizards , we made together . And it appeared first inBaldur ’s Gate 3 , and is now appearing here .

Now , there are other changes that are sure as shooting sort of broadly influenced by some of our team playingBG3 , where sometimes the context shift of seeing something you ’ve used over and over again at the table , but now using it in a TV game ; it gives a nice , different perspective on how certain affair function . Andwe would see how some of our own rules work inBG3and then switch them in the tabletop game , hoping that then in the nextBaldur ’s Gatewe could apply our new design and not the erstwhile one . So it was much less about usadopting aim decisions fromBG3 , but instead react to our own design that was inBG3and state we want to transfer it .

A sorcerer bursting with innate magic in art from the 2024 D&D Player’s Handbook.

Another exciting savage change is the ability to regain a Rage charge through a inadequate rest . Every class has a reason to look forward to shortsighted rests now , do n’t they ?

Jeremy Crawford : Yes . And that was one of our design destination is we want to verify , peculiarly for those form that heavilyrely on the short rest , that all of their chum would also be happy to take a short rest . Because we wanted to battle the experience that some players have had , where they might be playing a Warlock , for example , who heavily rely on brusk rest , but they ’re in a radical where no one else cares about them . And the Warlock ’s “ Please , please give me a short ease . ” And so we wanted to make it so that everybody is happy to do it .

And that ’s really also just a school of thought we had in the purpose throughout . Anytime we were asking characters of many unlike types to engage with a particular part of the rules , we wanted to check that that they all had something they were happy aboutwhen it came to interacting with that part of the secret plan .

An illustration of a wizard casting a spell with books floating around, made by Billy Christian for the 2024 D&D Player’s Handbook.

Ranger overhauls are a big part of this . One business organization with the new Ranger is there ’s a openhanded emphasis onhunter ’s Deutschmark , and the penury for Concentration withhunter ’s markhas branch with how many other Ranger spell have assiduousness and how of import that is for Rangers in general . What does the newPlayer ’s Handbookdo to equilibrise a Ranger ’s manipulation of Concentration ?

Jeremy Crawford : So we have — not only for the Ranger , but for a number of our classes — looked very closely at what spell and other issue necessitate Concentration . And people are rifle to see that , while there are certain things likehunter ’s markthat required Concentration in 2014 and keep to need it in 2024,there are other thing that used to require assiduousness that no longer do . And we were particularly aware of that for stratum like the Ranger that have central feature that take Concentration .

Now , there ’s still going to be Concentration selection . That ’s a part of the Concentration mini - game . And that alternative is important . And the Ranger particularly at higher level will perhaps have spells that they ’re very happy to be concentrating on instead of hunting watch ’s mark , for instance .

Dungeons and Dragons Game Poster

Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the ’70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.

Along those line , to make it easier for people to make their assiduousness choices as a part of the Concentration mini - biz , is every class ’s spell list now tells you if that particular charm on the listing command Concentration , so that it will be really easy for you at a glance to see it as you ’re preparing your spells each day , how many competitors you ’re lining up for your precious density .

Do you have any favorite among the many new effort and spells in the 2024Player ’s vade mecum ?

Jeremy Crawford : So I am really well-chosen about , in the spell chapter , our adoption of the summoning spells fromTasha ’s Cauldron , because I think these spells really bring summon to life in a path that is a lot of fun for the biz . And we ’ve not only work those spells in , but we ’ve enhanced them . So even people who already have played with theTasha’sversions of the spells are going to have some nice surprises wait for them , include cool new art for a number of these summonable creatures .

Dungeons and Dragons

I also really revel our redesigns of the various conjure spells . These now all , rather than unleashing drove of beast sometimes onto the secret plan mesa , now make some really not bad game event , consanguineal tothe Cleric’sspirit protector . And we basically took this really funspirit guardiansplay experience and have give other version of it to other spells .

The Past & Future Of Dungeons & Dragons

Where The 2024 Player’s Handbook Stands In D&D History

Is there anything in the newPlayer ’s Handbookthat goes back and takes intake from elements in older edition ofDnDthat did n’t make the cut in 2014 ?

Jeremy Crawford : So one of the biggies is us going all in on having psionic choice in this Player ’s Handbook . So in 2014 , when we were build thatPlayer ’s Handbook , we talked about psionics experience a bang-up footprint than it ended up bear . And we just did n’t have time to full gain it , and really ended up with our sole sorting of psionic instance very subtly in the word form of the Great Old One patron in the Warlock .

This time — and this hearkens back to first editionDnD , because first editionDnDhad Psionic option built into it — we now have multiple psionic themed subclass in this book . The Psi Warrior , the Soulknife , Aberrant Sorcery and the Sorcerer , and , of grade , the returning Great Old One Warlock .

The 2014Player ’s Handbookhas conduct a lot of great games over the past decade , but it ’s definitely in pauperization of the refresh . Where do you have a bun in the oven the 2024Player ’s Handbookto be a decennary from now ?

Jeremy Crawford : I ’m expecting us to continue the really fun operation that has capture us to where we are now . And that is continual fun , continual DMing , and perpetually checking in with theDnDcommunity to see “ What are you loving about the game ? Where do you desire the game to go next?”And so I ’m worked up to see this evolution continue , as this biz we love just gets better and better .

Dungeons and Dragons is a pop tabletop plot to begin with invented in 1974 by   Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson .   The fantasy role - playing plot brings together players for a campaign with various component , including abilities , race , character class , monsters , and gem . The secret plan has drastically expanded since the ' 70s , with numerous updated box sets and expansions .