2024 Player’s Handbook Review: A Beautiful but Underwhelming Celebration of D&D’s 50th Anniversary

While the 2024 Player’s Handbook boasts stunning visuals and updated mechanics, it struggles to justify its necessity for newcomers and longtime players alike.

The long-anticipated 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook is finally here, clocking in at nearly 400 pages and packed with content for both new and returning players. It’s a beautifully illustrated hardcover that promises to expand on the familiar 5e framework, but the question is: does it offer enough to justify its price?

At first glance, the handbook feels like a decent attempt to refine what made 5th Edition so successful, but many of the issues might leave long-time players wondering if the heart of the game has been lost in the process.

Presentation and Accessibility

The first thing that stands out about the 2024 Player’s Handbook is its beginner-friendly design. The book starts with a detailed explanation of what the game is, how it’s played, and the basics of a D&D session. From combat to social interaction to exploration, new players will appreciate the clarity provided.

The restructured flow of information, beginning with general gameplay before character creation, is a welcome change. Chapter One walks readers through what they can expect from a D&D session, what dice they’ll need, and what a typical game looks like. By the time players arrive at character creation in chapter two, they’ve got a solid understanding of the basics, making the process of rolling up a character feel smooth.

However, while the presentation is clearer overall, some sections suffer from confusing wording. Certain areas, like character creation, still have vague explanations that could leave new players scratching their heads.

Players who enjoy fine-tuning their characters will find endless ways to build unique heroes. But for casual players, the sheer amount of content may feel more like homework than fun.

The first part of the handbook—roughly the first 30 pages—lays out the core mechanics of D&D in a way that will be instantly familiar to veteran players. However, it’s the next 300+ pages that cater specifically to players who enjoy making character builds. This section is essentially a “game within a game,” where the focus shifts to exploring an overwhelming array of character options. With 12 classes, 48 subclasses, 10 species, 16 backgrounds, 75 feats, and more, players who enjoy fine-tuning their characters will find endless ways to build unique heroes. But for casual players, the sheer amount of content may feel more like homework than fun.

Character Creation

Character creation in the 2024 edition is more straightforward than ever before, but it’s not without its hiccups. The new background system, where backgrounds provide your ability score bonuses and a starting feat, is an interesting change.

The system simplifies character creation by offering ability score increases and a starting feat directly tied to your background. This change is meant to provide more flexibility, allowing players to separate species from stat boosts. While this flexibility is great for those who want to focus on role-playing rather than optimizing, it does come at a cost.

What’s missing are the flavorful, unique features that make backgrounds feel personal and immersive. The backgrounds feel more mechanical, serving as a way to power up characters rather than deepen the story. In a game about storytelling, this loss of flavor is a noticeable step backward.

While character creation is easy to follow, the process of leveling up could benefit from being presented in a more streamlined and user-friendly way. Though the rules are clear, they aren’t always laid out in the most accessible format, which can slow down the process for both new and experienced players. It seems likely that Wizards of the Coast hasn’t fully optimized this aspect, perhaps to push players towards D&D Beyond, where the platform’s automation makes leveling up much more intuitive and seamless. For those sticking to physical books, the experience can feel unnecessarily fragmented in comparison.

Stronger Classes, Streamlined Abilities, and Weapon Mastery

One of the major changes of the 2024 Player’s Handbook is the significant improvements made to the D&D classes. Classes feel more powerful, and key abilities have become easier to use and recharge more frequently.

Weapon Mastery, a new system that adds tactical depth to martial classes, allows fighters and other weapon-focused classes to manipulate the battlefield more effectively by inflicting conditions, creating advantages, and even guaranteeing damage on missed attacks.

Another change is the overhaul of the action economy. Many abilities that used to take a full action are now bonus actions or even free actions. This lets players make the most of their turns, focusing on the most crucial moves in combat. Weapon Mastery, a new system that adds tactical depth to martial classes, allows fighters and other weapon-focused classes to manipulate the battlefield more effectively by inflicting conditions, creating advantages, and even guaranteeing damage on missed attacks.

Balance Issues

Despite claims of balance from WOTC, the 2024 Player’s Handbook introduces a range of powerful new combinations and exploits that challenge the idea of a well-balanced system. Some spells, feats, and mechanics have been reworked, but rather than addressing all balance concerns, new opportunities for overpowered builds have emerged. For instance, the spell Conjure Elementals has been reworked to create a 15-foot radius that inflicts extra damage, but its scaling at higher levels leads to an extraordinary output of damage. A 6th-level Conjure Elementals spell, combined with other spells like Scorching Ray, can unleash an astonishing amount of damage in a single round.

Similarly, the Grappler feat allows for some extreme tactics. With certain combinations, such as using Spike Growth and wild shaping into a bear, players can drag enemies across hazardous terrain repeatedly, stacking massive amounts of damage. These combinations, while fun and creative, can quickly spiral into game-breaking territory, especially when optimized with other feats and abilities.

Spirit Guardians in the hands of a hasted character can result in devastating damage output across multiple enemies in a single round.

While the game promotes teamwork and creative play, certain feats and class features, like the revamped War Caster and Spirit Guardians, push the boundaries of balance. For example, War Caster now allows players to cast powerful spells on allies using a reaction, significantly boosting the action economy in ways that can outpace enemy challenges. Similarly, Spirit Guardians in the hands of a hasted character can result in devastating damage output across multiple enemies in a single round.

These combos, while entertaining, raise concerns about whether the new ruleset has fully addressed balance, especially at higher levels where action economy and stacking damage effects can make encounters feel trivial. While balancing mechanics to maintain fun and challenge is always a tightrope walk, the potential for exploits in the 2024 Player’s Handbook is undeniable and may require careful consideration by both players and dungeon masters.

Personally, I don’t mind an unbalanced game. Perfect balance is an unrealistic goal and often breaks immersion. Older editions and RPGs were never truly balanced—after all, a fighter and a spellcaster wouldn’t have the same power in the “real world,” and the difference in their abilities added depth to the game. Every class had its strengths and weaknesses, excelling in specific situations, which made the game dynamic and interesting. Today’s obsession with balance feels more like a symptom of power gaming, where players expect their characters to excel at everything.

The issue with the 2024 edition isn’t simply that it’s unbalanced—it’s that the game now leans so heavily into making characters feel all-powerful. When adventurers are so strong they rarely face real danger or death, the imbalance becomes more noticeable and frustrating. It’s harder to overlook when every class seems to excel at everything, and players no longer feel like normal adventurers navigating a dangerous world. Instead, they feel like superheroes, which diminishes the sense of adventure and challenge. That shift, where characters are overpowered and death feels like a rarity, makes the lack of balance feel like a much bigger problem.

Feats and Equipment: Stronger but More Homogeneous

The feats section has received some updates, and while most of the classic feats return, they now often include ability score increases, which can make them more appealing, but it also means feats feel less unique and more standardized, lacking the variety that 5e players have enjoyed.

The equipment and crafting system in the 2024 Player’s Handbook leaves much to be desired for players seeking depth in customization and resource management. While the Weapon Mastery system offers a few tweaks, giving martial weapons some unique properties, it’s not revolutionary and is already freely available on D&D Beyond.

There’s no interaction with materials, no skill checks, and no complications—just a straightforward, uninspiring transaction.

Crafting, on the other hand, is a major disappointment. The rules for creating items are overly simplified: you pay gold, wait a few days, and the item is yours. There’s no interaction with materials, no skill checks, and no potential for complications—just a straightforward, uninspiring transaction.

Additionally, the book introduces Spellcasting Services and Hirelings as part of the equipment chapter. The idea of hiring spellcasters or mercenaries for gold is interesting but poorly executed. For spellcasting, there’s no real detail on how it could impact your campaign beyond paying for basic services, and mercenaries can be hired for two gold pieces a day, but the rules give no stat blocks or guidance on what the hirelings can actually do. It’s another instance where a potentially exciting system has been left underdeveloped, offering little more than a superficial nod toward something that could have been much more impactful.

Art and Design

Everyone looks like a superhero rather than an adventurer. The characters, all smiles, and glowing eyes, seem untouched by the harsh realities of the world they’re supposed to inhabit.

The art and design of the 2024 Player’s Handbook are undeniably stunning, with Tyler Jacobson’s cover featuring a gold dragon—a nod to D&D’s 50th anniversary—immediately catching the eye. Throughout the book, the artwork is vibrant and polished, capturing the larger-than-life, heroic spirit the game aims to evoke. However, just as the power creep has made characters feel more like untouchable superheroes, the art reflects this shift strongly as well. There’s a brightness and almost “Fortnite-like” quality to the illustrations that makes the world feel less like a dangerous, medieval fantasy setting and more like a cheerful, risk-free playground.

Everyone looks like a superhero rather than an adventurer. The characters, all smiles, and glowing eyes, seem untouched by the harsh realities of the world they’re supposed to inhabit. In modern D&D everyone has a punchable face, but looks like they’ve never been punched in the face. There’s no grit, no dirt, and certainly no fear or hardship—whether it’s the band of orcs grinning in one illustration or adventurers looking like they’re on a vacation rather than a perilous journey. If you’re living in a world where everything wants to kill you—undead crawling out of the ground, dragons torching entire towns, and bandits ambushing you at every corner—this cheerful tone feels out of place.

A minor issue worth noting is that not all the artwork in the book is original to the book, with some pieces being reused from previous D&D products, such as the illustration borrowed from the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Magic: The Gathering set seen below. While this isn’t a major flaw, for a release of this scale and from a company the size of Wizards of the Coast, it’s surprising they didn’t invest in entirely new artwork for the occasion.

Lack of Identity

The 2024 Player’s Handbook also has a clear lack of identity. The new edition seems to stray far from the roots of previous versions, leaving many long-time players unsure of who this version is really meant for.

Fans of earlier editions, particularly those who appreciated the grittier, more complex nature of 3.5, the stylized feel of 4e, or the classic fantasy feel of 5e might find little to connect with in this updated rulebook. The visual shift from darker, more serious artwork to a neon-colored, almost cartoonish style has only amplified this disconnect.

D&D is slowly losing its sense of identity. While many other RPGs maintain a distinct and consistent style, D&D seems to face an identity crisis with each new edition.

While the changes may appeal to new and younger players, the drastic departure from the aesthetic and tone of earlier editions leaves veteran players questioning whether this new version was made with them in mind. It feels as though Wizards of the Coast is trying to appeal to a broader, perhaps more casual audience, but in doing so, they may have alienated the core base that has sustained the game for years.

Backward Compatibility Issues

While marketed as an update to 5e, it seems more like the 2024 Player’s Handbook is a mix between that and a new edition, changing and adding just enough to make switching from 5e to 5.5e troublesome. It introduces many small but impactful changes, akin to the shift between 3rd Edition and 3.5.

One of the key promises made by Wizards of the Coast for the 2024 Player’s Handbook was backward compatibility with all previous 5e content. However, while the new edition doesn’t completely overhaul the system, it’s clear that this compatibility claim isn’t as seamless as it sounds. The changes in the 2024 rulebook, especially the various buffs to classes and abilities, make characters noticeably more powerful than their 2014 counterparts. These power boosts, while exciting for certain players, could upset the balance of previously released campaigns and adventures, which were designed with the original 5e rules in mind.

The issue is further complicated by the fact that DMs are left in a tough spot. While seasoned Dungeon Masters might be able to make necessary adjustments on the fly, balancing the older adventures for more powerful parties will require extra effort. Moreover, with the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual delayed until 2025, DMs lack the updated tools they need to effectively challenge these new, stronger characters. Even when the 2025 Monster Manual arrives, it’s unclear whether the tweaks will fully address these balance issues or if DMs will still be left struggling to maintain the intended difficulty of their campaigns.

In practice, this backward compatibility isn’t as plug-and-play as advertised. While some elements of older 5e material can fit into the new framework with minimal tweaks, more substantial changes like revamped class abilities and spells will create challenges, especially in ongoing campaigns. The promise of backward compatibility sounds reassuring, but it seems that integrating the new rules with the old content will take more effort than many players and DMs may have anticipated.

Day One Errata and Issues

Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of the 2024 Player’s Handbook rollout is the overwhelming sense that it feels like an “open beta” rather than a polished, final product. Players who purchased the physical book are already noticing discrepancies between the printed rules and the digital updates being pushed to D&D Beyond. This is especially concerning for those who prefer physical copies, as it makes their newly purchased book feel outdated almost immediately. Additionally, the need for errata and fixes so soon after release reinforces the idea that this edition was rushed to market, possibly to meet deadlines tied to D&D’s 50th anniversary, rather than being fully ready. The staggered release of essential core books like the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual further exacerbates this feeling, as many players are left with the sense that they are playing an incomplete version of the game, waiting for crucial updates and fixes.

The release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook has quickly revealed a host of discrepancies between the printed physical copies and the digital version available on D&D Beyond. Almost immediately, players began noticing a variety of errors and inconsistencies, ranging from minor typographical mistakes to rules that didn’t seem to function as intended. For instance, specific spells, character traits, and even core mechanics were found to be different between the printed book and the online platform. In response, updates to D&D Beyond have quietly corrected some of these issues, but the physical copies remain outdated as soon as they hit the shelves.

These early issues have resulted in some “day one errata,” where fixes and clarifications are being implemented almost immediately after release. However, the lack of an official errata document or clear communication from Wizards of the Coast compounds the problem.

Moreover, D&D Beyond itself is experiencing technical issues. Users have reported bugs when trying to integrate 2024 content with older material, such as spell preparations and class features not working properly. The Issues and Support thread for the 2024 Player’s Handbook on D&D Beyond is currently 69 pages long with players reporting all sorts of issues.

Is It Worth the Purchase?

In the end, the 2024 Player’s Handbook feels like a product that was rushed to meet the deadline for Dungeons & Dragons’ 50th anniversary.

If you’re a player who loves deep character customization and wants the latest options right away, this book delivers in that regard. The updated layout makes navigating the vast array of rules much easier, and the new glossary is a welcome addition for quick reference. But it’s important to ask yourself if you’re really going to use all these new options. While 75 feats and dozens of subclasses sound exciting on paper, most players don’t reach the high levels where these options come into play. The majority of campaigns don’t even use a fraction of the content in the Player’s Handbook, making it more of a theoretical exercise for many players.

For Dungeon Masters, there’s even less reason to rush into this purchase. The bulk of the changes in the 2024 edition are geared toward players, not GMs. You won’t need to memorize every new feat or spell—those are for the players to dive into.

Ultimately, if you’re looking to expand your D&D experience with intricate character builds, this handbook will provide plenty of material to keep you busy. When considering the value of the 2024 Player’s Handbook, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the book offers a huge amount of content—12 classes, 48 subclasses, 389 spells, and a wealth of feats, equipment, and background options. At $30 for the digital version and $50 for the physical copy, it’s a relatively affordable entry into Dungeons & Dragons. However, much of the material will soon be available for free under Creative Commons.