Aug 1

First Look at D&D Player's Handbook

Wizards of the Coast released the 5e Player's Handbook in 2014 and since then there have been 47 other suplements and campaign setting books published, not to mention all the third party materials that have been published. The newest 5e Players Handbook will be released on Spetember 17th by Wizards of the Coast. The Player's Guide is a total replacement for the 2014 edition but it is still usable with all the 5e material that is been published by Wizards of the Coast. We got our hands on an early copy and these are our first impressions of it.

The very first thing to note is that its much bigger than the last version. They have added a lot to the book. There are 48 subclasses in the book giving each class 4 backgrounds. There are three new subclasses in this edition; the Path of the World Tree barbarian, College of Dance bard, and Circle of the Sea druid. From looking through the book most of the subclasses and classes have a lot more detail and info on how they work and how to use them. There are also 75 feats in the book to flush out charecter. The charecter sheets have been revamped with a walkthrough on how to fill it out. This edition does something all the previous havent done. This Edition explains how the game works before you start building a charecter. The 2024 version of the Player's Guide is the most accesable version to new players yet.

If you want to be a spell caster there is some great news for you. There are 375+ spells in the book with 200 of them that are new or rewritten. For example the spell True Strike in the 2014 version it granted the castor advantage on its first attack. Now in the 2024 version it is an actual attack that uses the casters spell casting ability rather than strength or dexterity. There are modifications to spells where they have removed or added in concentration requirements also.

A new addition to the Player's Hanbook is the Weapon Mastery. These are special properties for weapons. They are accessable to players who gain the ability through a class feature or through gaining the Weapon Mastery feat. For an example the Barbaian class gets weapon mastery for 2 weapons at first level and has the ability to retrain after a long rest to different weapons. So if a Barbarian has Weapon Mastery for the Great Axe and in combat they attack a creature sucessfully then they may use the Mastery property "Cleave" associated with the Great Axe. Cleave allows the player who made a sucessful attack then attack another creature within 5 ft, however they do not add theirability modifier to this attack unless its negative.

There are now crafting rules in the 2024 edition. This means that all those tools that players were not quite sure what they did are now expanded and flushed out. Players now know that if you have glassblowing tools you can make a spyglass amongst other things. The tools are now a much more interesting thing to have and add a layer of depth to charecters. Players will get a real feel of what their charecters do in their downtimes.

The glossary is balenced in the specifics as well as the general catagories

Finially one of the best parts of this edition is the glossary. The glossary is specific enough that it takes little searching to get to the place in the Player's Handbook that you need to be. The glossary is balenced in the specifics as well as the general catagories in a manner that provides a consise and useful listing in the book. I have been useing it a lot to look up all the new stuff while writting this article. Its great.