On June 18th, Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins, Lead Rules Designer of Dungeons and Dragons and Game Designer respectively, sat down to answer questions and discuss the upcoming 2024 Player’s Handbook that will hold the next edition for the next generation of Dungeons and Dragons players
What’s in the New Player’s Handbook?
Not only was there a lot to unpack, but when fans order the next Player’s Handbook, they’re going to be receiving the biggest book in the game’s history.
“This is the biggest Players Handbook to date,” says @JeremyECrawford and @ChrisPerkinsDnD.
The player’s handbook is to come with 75 feats, epic boon feats at level 19, new feats, and feats that used to be exclusively class features. WoTC will also finally be listening to players taking inspiration from common homebrew rules, such as health potions taking a bonus action now instead of full action.
A shift in how people play their characters level by level and new updates for player weapons. Along with an increase in rules for story optimization in your games and ways for weapon users to be optimized outside of fights. New Crafting rules are being introduced into the game, and combat changes such as using sneak attacks to knock someone out besides killing them
@ChrisPerkinsDnD is especially excited about the organization of the book itself and delighted by the new weapon master properties. Martial classes are getting a huge upgrade. “We are using the last 10 years of feedback to grant the wishes of our players,” Chris Says.
Bastions
“The DM’s guide is bigger, will come with 5 short sample adventures, a complete campaign setting, a lore glossary, and a bastion chapter,” says @ChrisPerkinsDnD.
DMs and Players will be finally able to create a stronghold or “home base” that levels up alongside them in the new edition. This will finally give options to groups that have strung together rules and tried to figure it out themselves.
Whats New in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Monster Manual?
There will be over 500 monsters in the Monster Manual with 75 of them having never been published before. Arch hags, colossus constructs, and expansions in the elemental categories are to be expected in the new release.
The three books (Dungeon Master’s Guide, Player’s Handbook, and Monster Manual) are being viewed as “one big book that we couldn’t publish as one” and are supposedly more intricate in weaving the content of the three books together.
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The New Dungeons and Dragons Covers
Lots of returning artist came back to help with the art of this new book says Emi Tanji, Art Director at Wizards of the Coast.
Josh Herman (@DroidsForSale, Head of Art at Dungeons and Dragons) “We definitely referenced 2nd edition to bring back some of that flavor and evoke some of that classic fantasy vibe.” The new art should use a variety of different methods, and it is supposed to reflect the “creation process” when creating a character.
Will There Be AI Art In The New Player’s Handbook
Nothing was said in this interview but after the recent controversy with the Bigby Presents: Glory of Giants artist who allegedly used Artificial Intelligence to assist their art (which was later proven false in an interview with the artist), many players are curious to see if anything will be added to the final version of the books that aren’t quite human.
This leads me to ask… will we see AI in these new books?
Dungeons and Dragons Orc Art Controversy
A lot of players were saying negative things online when the official YouTube video showed how the new book would showcase Orcs in the new books. X user @HailOrcusdorkus had this to say:
“Technically proficient of course and orcs aside, contextually a fun scene, but for me these are not orcs as I am not a fan of the cosplayification of them. Essentially painting humans a greyish green and sticking tusks in them is palid and removes anything visually unique about what an orc in D&D is.”
Personally, the artwork for the Orc species in the 2024 player’s handbook is a great piece of art, but I have to agree with what a lot of people are saying. Are we leaning too much towards the “humanoid-ization” of these different species and leaving behind features that fantasy fans love so much?
Character Creation
Backgrounds have been redesigned and reimagined and is supposed to also offer a free feat with your background. Character origins are a major component of the redesign of this next edition. Three new subclasses are to appear in the new player’s handbooks among reimagined subclasses that were tweaked. @ChrisPerkinsDnD says that we can expect new spells as well in these new editions.
Inspiration is being changed to “Heroic Inspiration” and will be more readily available for players as “rerolls”. How do you feel about this minor change? Was it needed?
Sheets will be included to keep track of stuff such as NPCs, settlements, bastions, magic items, character information, and a session planner sheet (Do you know that we sell our own sheets on ETSY? Check them out here).
What Will Happen to My 5th Edition Character?
Your 2014 character should work seamlessly with 2024 characters when using the 2024 rules. The vice versa situation would encounter some “grinding”. That’s a wrap on “2024 Player’s Handbook | Everything You Need to Know | D&D“, was there anything else you wanted them to talk about or reveal? Leave your questions below and sign up for the Newsletter! If you want to read more, check out our homepage for the latest and greatest!
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