Should You Buy the New D&D Handbook?

A critical update, but does it roll a nat 20?

Author

Robert Scarpinito
August 30, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

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Dungeons & Dragons is arguably the most popular it’s ever been, and the 2024 Player’s Handbook is coming out in time to reap those potential rewards. You can get all the details from our resident dungeon master Andrew Stretch.

Overall, the changes here include spell tweaks, altered subclasses, and a brand-new Origins system. It’s a huge rebalancing of the classes, though unfortunately, Druids get a little bit of a nerf, particularly in the new way Wildshape works.

However, the big worry with this edition is that, ironically, it sort of isn’t an edition. It’s not D&D 6.0, nor is it even 5.5. It’s mostly backwards compatible to the 2014 version of D&D, but there are just enough changes that it’s going to require lots of clarification at the table. Like Stretch put it:

“This messaging has resulted in a situation that ultimately makes it harder for those who play the game. If I'm playing in multiple tables, I will invariably have some questions: which rules are they using? Would cherry-picking certain rules and spells make the players or the DM too powerful? How much 'fixing' of things does a DM need to perform to make the game feel fun? What's the impact of one player using 2014 abilities and another is using 2024 abilities?”

Andrew Stretch, Tabletop Nerd Extraordinaire

For more D&D coverage, he also wrote up everything you need to know from the D&D Direct on Tuesday, which highlights the next step for Wizards of the Coast’s TTRPG machine.

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If you’re a big fan of Dropout TV content, you’re in good company. Both Andrews on the TechRaptor Podcast love them, and Stretch got to banter with the one and only Brennan Lee Mulligan ahead of Dimension 20’s latest season finale.

This season, Never Stop Blowing Up, is a love letter to ‘80s action movies, all orchestrated by Mulligan himself. And if you’re wondering, his favorite action film is, of course, Die Hard. How could it not be? It’s also a fantastic Christmas movie, if you ask Izzy Rowland and Alex Song-Xia, who were also on the season.

Stretch also chatted with Ify Nwadiwe and Jacob Wysocki about their characters on this season. This was Wysocki’s first time in the Dome, but it’s definitely not his first time with TTRPGs, as you’ll find out in our interview with him.

Prefer video? All the interviews above are also on our YouTube channel!

While we’re on a tabletop tangent, this week, we published my big project from the current Magic: The Gathering set. Bloomburrow is absolutely adorable, and I dug through 45 boosters to give you the hard-hitting journalism you deserve: to know some of the most adorable, absolutely precious critters we found in this set. Spoiler: one of them is named Hugs.

Our reviewer Erren Van Duine spent most of her last week playing Star Wars Outlaws, the latest Ubisoft open-world game set in a galaxy far, far away. She particularly liked the characters, with Kay Vess, Nix, and ND-5 being big standouts.

She joined me and Stretch on the podcast this week to talk more about the game, and we all came away with a generally positive outlook on the story. Pro tip, though: rush the main story on the first major planet. Getting stuck in the open-world checklist is a surefire way to ruin any sense of momentum.

Also, if you’re on PS5 and played it early, I hope you did it on the right version—otherwise, you might have to restart your progress.

And one extra tip from me to you (don’t tell Stretch or Erren) - you can turn off the mini games, and it makes the meals shared with Nix 10 times better.

Our news-writing powerhouse Joe Allen chronicled everything he saw from the Nintendo Indie World and Partner showcases from Tuesday. Some big highlights include:

  • Yakuza Kiwami is coming to Nintendo Switch

  • There’s a new Rune Factory game coming in spring 2025

  • All the Nintendo DS Castlevania games have been surprise re-released

  • Patrick Star, of SpongeBob fame, gets his own sandbox game

There’s a lot more from Nintendo’s almost-hour of announcements, and you can read it all in our roundup on site!

Brittany Alva, who’s new to the Mana series, found herself absolutely delighted by Visions of Mana, giving it a 9/10. She said it feels like a great entry point for series beginners, and she was able to finish the game in just 20 hours. Unfortunately though, the studio was hit with massive layoffs after it released the game.

Gaze upon the ultimate lifeform, in all his furry glory. The new trailer showcases Keanu Reeves’ performance as Shadow the Hedgehog, and I honestly can’t believe how excited I am for a third Sonic movie. But this looks pretty hype. They lived and learned, and now they’re showing us what they’re made of.