Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook Review

Written by Charlie Pettit

I’ll start this review with a bit of a disclaimer: I’m perhaps not the person you’d expect to be writing a review of the new Player’s Handbook from D&D. In fact, I’ve merrily described myself as an average player for a long time – I know more than the average Stranger Things enthusiast, but not as much as the phenomenal DMs with encyclopaedic knowledge. However, the Player's Handbook must walk the tightrope of suiting casual and professional level players, so why not?

What is the new D&D Player's Handbook?

Let’s start with what it is. D&D is no stranger to regeneration – only instead of getting a Time Lord in a police box, we get new versions. New rules, new focus. After the first in 1974, each edition came somewhere between 3-6 years after the former, sometimes including half steps. Ten years ago, we got the Fifth Edition (5E) core books, and with a huge celebration of 50 years of D&D this year, we’re getting a new set of core books, starting with the Player’s Handbook. 

This choice was a little confusingly marketed. Some saw it as a new version being announced (it wasn’t), some saw it as a money churner (I don’t think it is, though inevitably it will), and after a few missteps and take-backsies (most recently around digital releases), all we really had to go on was the playtest releases and the knowledge that it was “backwards compatible”. Given that the Player's Handbook releases a fair time before the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual versions, it kind of needs to be…

Regardless, I’m unashamedly not a fan of the original 5E Player's Handbook. It’s dense in information, confusing to follow, and after forcing myself through it the very first time, I learnt considerably more from my DM, with much less headache. As my first roleplaying game experience, it wasn’t the best. Having said that, the Player's Handbook isn’t designed to be a starter guide, and admittedly it has a tough job to do in being approachable and understandable enough for newcomers, whilst also offering all the information any player – new or advanced – might need. That’s not easy. There was every reason to re-do the book, and thankfully, this new version does all of that much better.

New D&D Player's Handbook Handbook 2024

I imagine there were meetings upon meetings about what would go in or be taken out of the book between the editions, but the jewel in the crown for me is the tone and layout change. The book is longer, and that extra space is well utilised.  You dive into how the game plays immediately, which means when you start to gather ideas for your own play, you understand the context of what you’re being asked to do, with clear examples and explanations. Then you move on to building your character and what you can do with them, before ending on a pretty good glossary and index – and one which recognises you might be looking for old terms, where it will take you to the new section. It all flows. 

In the former book, you didn’t get advice on playing until page 171, as it’s too busy explaining how to build a character. That meant you didn’t ever have enough context for why you’d want to build one or another. If I don’t understand what the bonus’ do, it’s hard to know why one character is better than the other. The new version explains things much more logically, and much closer to how one might explain it to an early player in person. 

A lot of the changes are small, but with big results that add up. The examples they provide are mostly the same, but reworded to remove unnecessary exposition or conflated explanations. They feel more real. The images are gorgeous and inspirational – I got plot or character ideas just from those. I really loved the shop-like feel of the weapons and armour illustrations, because it let me immediately understand the selections I was making. Such a small choice, which again, contributes to the wider feel of a considered handbook. This seems to be the theme, a whole littering of small changes that lead to the handbook feeling distinct. 

Admittedly, it’s not perfect. Some of the explanations are so-so, and I think it’s so easy to forget a two-line explanation of something that only crops up again 200 pages later without reference or explanation, but there’s an element of taking the rough with the smooth. Where I needed it, I found it does a great job with the index and glossary to help you find the bits you need to know, even if I grumbled at having to go there. If this is your first experience with D&D, and you’re thrilled to get started, it ticks a whole lot of boxes.

That set-up probably makes you think that if you’re an experienced player, you’ll find the opposite. That’s not true – I found that it’s a better version of the original for everyone. But, I have one key complaint when it comes to returning players. 

Over the last ten years, D&D has changed a lot. New classes, new rules, new play opportunities. Amendments to terminology, whole new mechanisms. All gradual, a change here and there, that have snowballed into actually, quite a few changes – much like how I think the handbook has been rewritten. This is the first time these have been collated into a single place to springboard your new games. There’s an element where we have to separate whether we like the changes to the rules from whether the Player's Handbook is good. I like both (the changes to feats especially). However – I don’t think that it does enough to clarify the differences from the 2014 version for those who do know it well. Do you want to read 370+ pages to find only a few changes relevant to your game that you may or may not use? But you may need to, in case you’re affected by the slightly bigger ones. 

There’s a small column early on that mentions the overarching changes, but it’s very generic. It would have benefitted from a page spread clarifying the differences and where to find them. With 70 extra pages, it wouldn’t have impacted too much. Backwards compatibility was often quoted, but nothing really supports that happening if you don’t fancy spending £40 and rereading everything you already know to find a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it alteration.  

The main differences – well, that’s a whole article. The character options seem to have changed the most, but there are new and revised subclasses, new species included, new weapon options and masteries, 30 new spells and how you use them has been changed, fifty-one new stat blocks, terminology changes, new rules and types of feats (this is my favourite change, even if not everyone agrees), minor rule changes and amendments on everything from grapple to surprise. There are now even rules for dehydration, which to be honest, I think most players and DMs will just ignore. The majority have been seen either in different books or Unearthed Arcana, so not a lot comes as a surprise, and most changes make sense. 

Do you need it? Well, no. You can always find the information online, or you can continue to play from the original and just keep an eye on changes – or ignore them completely. There'll be a Starter Set in future if you prefer to start with less, and there’ll still be more you can get from books like Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything if you already know what you’re doing. But, if you love a dive-in, this is a fantastic remaster of the original. It’s not a new version, but maybe a remastered one, which has been done really well. 

Should you buy the new D&D Player's Handbook?

Yes. This feels much more like what a Player's Handbook needs to be: easy and light to read for those who want to dive in, in a way that makes sense. The handling of a multitude of minor changes is a bit of a barrier to those wanting to capitalise on the backwards compatibility pitched, but overall the changes to the Player's Handbook are welcome. 

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About D&D Players Handbook

Pages: 384

Ages: 14+

Price: £41

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