The Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Core Rulebook update is just around the corner and last week we got to sit down with Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins to hear about everything that fans of the game have to look forward to.
2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. As part of the celebration, a Level 10-20 adventure has already been released in the form of Vecna: Eve of Ruin, and a book detailing The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons.
2024 Core Rulebook Release Schedule and Pre-Order Bonuses
The release schedule of each of the 2024 Core Rulebooks are:
- Player Hand Book will be released September 17th, 2024
- Dungeon Masters Guide will be released November 12th, 2024
- Monster Manual will be released Feb 18th, 2024
Pre-Order Bonuses include a 40th Anniversary Gold Dragon Mini for the upcoming Virtual Tabletop version of D&DBeyond, a Dragons of D&D Digital Art Book, and a D&D Beyond Gold Dice Set.
Chris Perkins, Creative Director for Dungeons & Dragons, and Jeremy Crawford, Game Director for Dungeons & Dragons, next spoke about their aims for the 2024 Core Rulebook set explaining that their intention was to review everything released and to create a 'best' version for what is also the 10th anniversary of 5th Edition.
Perkins added that it was a good opportunity to get the group together that originally worked on the creation of 5th edition to 'take another whirl at it and give them the glow up that they deserve."
"One of the keys to 5th editions success is that it was built in communication with our fans. It strives to take the best of D&D over all editions, but created in consultation with our dedicated community of D&D players and DMs" - Perkins
Players Handbook 2024
Starting with the Players Handbook we were re-introduced to the different covers; Standard Cover art by Tyler Jacobson, and the Alternate Cover artwork by Wylie Beckert. The alternate art cover will only be available in-game stores, and will be available 2 weeks prior to release dates
When deciding on the artwork for the 2024 covers it was explained that it was important to have a dragon on the cover. When looking over the range of dragons they settled on a gold dragon. This is the Gold anniversary of D&D afterall.
The PHB has been rebuilt to bring new game options to players, but to also provide a better starting experience for those new to D&D. A new Starter Set was teased to be in the work, but for all of the new players that begin with the PHB it was important that that was something they considered.
Learning Dungeons & Dragons as a new player in 2024
The PHB starts with Chapter 1 teaching you how to play the game now, traditionally it started with creating a character. "Before you get to all the fun details of fleshing out your character [...] you could have some firm ground under your feet for how to play" Crawford explained. All of the game's basic rules have been condensed into this first chapter helping players use it as a resource while playing.
A rules glossary has also been added to the game that will help players quickly lookup rules. This rules glossary contains rules for the whole game, not just player-related rules. Crawford commended that this will likely be the most used part of these books.
Additional assistance is included for new players and DMs with multiple examples of played sessions including each characters voice and detailed breakouts highlighting the different rules and steps to mechanics like combat.
When creating a character in D&DBeyond a new checkbox will be made available that lets people select what ruleset they want to use
Character Options, Classes, and Sub-Classes
After teaching the players how to play the game it then moves into the different Character Classes. Additional information in here includes recommendations of Ability Scores, breakdowns of each of the subclasses, and how to make a character of every level.
This book contains 12 classes and 48 subclasses (15 of which are brand new for PHB, and 3 are entirely new), Crawford explained that this is the largest number they've published in a 5th-edition book. One interesting omissions from the
Player Hand Book 2024 Sub-Classes by the numbers:
- 15 are brand new for the PHB
- 3 entirely new sub-classes - including College of Dance Bard and Circle of the Sea Druid
- 16 of the returning ones are very heavily redesigned to be essentially new
- Some Cleric and Wizard sub-classes are not returning as they attempted to restrict every class to four sub-classes in this book
Every sub-class now has it's own artwork to get a feel for the subclass before you get to read them out.
The Ranger and the Monk are the two classes that Crawford stated had been remixed the most. In recent satisfaction polls the Monk had previously had the lowest level of player satisfaction, however Crawford explained that upon completing the Monk Unearthed Arcana they ended up with the highest level of satisfaction among players.
D&D 5e Class Compatability
Crawford did clarify that if you're using a Class that has a subclass that appears in the 2024 version you need to use that version of the subclass, if there isn't an updated version of the subclass then you should be able to use the version from pre-2024 material.
2024 Barbarian with 2024 Path of the Berserker - Compatible
2024 Barbarian with 2014 Path of the Ancestral Guardian - Compatible
2024 Barbarian with 2014 Path of the Zealot - Not Compatible
Sorcerer Changes and Artwork
Sorcerer artwork was shown of a tiefling crackling with innate energy, Crawford jokingly said "I want to be her when I grow up". This artwork was meant to make sure that people know that sorcerers are bursting with innate magic, a vibe that they wanted to make sure to show off.
Feats are going to be used to further alter how classes play. A brief example given was that all weapon-focused classes have a weapon mastery feature that will unlock 'Mastery Properties' that will give you additional weapon features and tactical choices.
For the Sorcerer and other spellcasters, the Spell chapter has been rebuilt from the ground up and includes 30 brand new spells, 27 redesigned spells, and 162 significantly altered spells. There are 400 spells, and over 200 of them have changes including Counter Spell.
After the species and class for a character has been selected it's the background that's next. In 5th edition they felt that background faded away a bit too quickly, they wanted to increase the importance so each background now also gives you a feat so that there's a mechanical difference.
These types of feats are called Origin feats, they're designed to be useful for your entire career. There are 75 feats that will be in the book.
In the final version of the book the background will list three ability scores and you can pick which gets +2/+1 or +1 across all three. This means that backgrounds will interlock with different classes in a mechanical way.
As part of the shopping experience in the new PHB the designs for the pages are meant to look like shopping manuals. You'll see pages of the different weapons, their artwork, name and pricing.
There is also a crafting system allowing you to make your own unique or magical items. You can create spell scrolls, different potions, and other items.
Dungeon Master Guide
Next to get a deep dive was the Dungeon Master Guide. We were again shown off the covers with the Standard Cover by Tyler Jacobson and alternate artwork by Olena Richards.
Perkins took over to talk about how he's a 'forever DM' and the effort that they took to create the best resource possible for DMs. The covers, of Venger and Lolth, are a focus on enemies to show how much time DMs have to think about setting up adversaries for their parties.
"It was important this time around" Perkins began "to make sure this rebuild DM guide is accessible to both new DMs and seasoned DMs. That it was easier to find the information, and that it becomes in effect the Dungeon Master's companion"
"It shouldn't just be helpful when planning the game, but also running it."
The first chapter is based on "What does a DM do? What do they need? What makes them unique as a DM? What qualities do they have that can help turn them into a fabulous DM?" The second chapter is about working with your players, and the third chapter is an encyclopedia of topics including traps, hazards, environmental effects, etc.
The next portion of the book is about creating and running adventures as a DM. Included in these sections are adventure prompts. These streamlined adventures are created to help a DM create an adventure quickly when you're running your own adventures at home. There is even an example campaign setting included in the DMG, Greyhawk.
Greyhawk will also have a poster map included in the DMG, the other side will also have an isometric map of the city of Greyhawk. There is also a gazette of the continent and information on how to use the city of Greyhawk as a hub for your adventures.
The D&D Cosmology is also detailed along with 100 pages of magic items, many of which are new. There is also a chapter on different bastions that characters can start building at level 5 (at the DMs discretion).
The DMG also ends with an appendix of handouts and tracking sheets for the players. These handouts include campaign expectations, travel planners, NPC trackers, DM's character tracker, and Magical item trackers. These will also be available to print from D&DBeyond.
Monster Manual
The last book in the collection is obviously the Monster Manual. For this book Tyler Jacobson created the standard cover while Olena Richards created the alternate art cover again.
The Monster Manual will be the biggest monster manual that D&D has ever had with over 500 monsters. This is meant to help populate the world with monsters, but also prompt the DMs with ideas for how adventures could be created around them.
75 of the monster in the book are brand new. Certain groups, like skeletons, have been expanded to include new types of skeletal enemies. Attention was drawn to a fiery mage skeleton in an illustration. Artwork is going to highlight the monsters in their habitat to give an idea of not just what they can do, but their temperament.
NPC stat blocks have also been expanded, performers and pirates are two NPC types that have been expended.
Plenty of High CR threats have also been added so that there can be more challenging monsters for players to face off against. The Blob Of Annihilation, a high CR ooze, was one of the giant options thrown out.
Just like with the release of Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse any of the remixed monsters are remaining at the same CR, but it's important that if they weren't meeting that CR potential they have all been given a power boost and more options.
