Trying Out the New D&D 2024 Rules
If you’re a fan of Dungeons & Dragons, I have good news for you. The 2024 rules are just as fun as ever.
Shout out to the players that bring snacks for the whole table.
Those of you reading this might know me more from my video game writing, but I have also been a practicing Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master (or DM) for many years. This year, on the tenth anniversary of the hyper-popular 5th Edition of D&D, a new version of the rules was released. Many different names have been posited for this update. Everything from 5.5 (representing the major update to 5th) to D24 (just sticking the year on), but the publisher, Wizards of the Coast, is now simply calling it the new core rules for 5th Edition. Everything from the 2014 core rules is now ruled as “legacy.”
So how much of a change is this?
Ultimately, nothing drastic. Character classes generally got an upgrade across the board, particularly melee-focused classes like Fighter and Barbarian have more that they can do both in and outside of combat, while spellcasters like Wizard stayed mostly the same. Although I will say these new rules changes have personally made me want to try out a Sorcerer more than ever before. And they made a lot of great changes to Monk too.
One of the biggest changes might be the importance of backgrounds. Previously, it was the kind of thing new players would completely skip over if they didn’t know any better. But now, backgrounds include ability score bonuses (one of the most important choices in character creation) and a useful feature (also known as a “feat,” previously an optional rule, but now gives every player a unique and useful ability to start with).
Plenty of spells have changed, things like grapple and exhaustion are different now. But a lot of the changes are the kinds of things that I, as the DM, would either need to look up on the spot (for things like grapple), plan out before a session (like exhaustion), or expect the player to know (like how their class spells work). I still think it’s worth reading the new rules if you are an experienced player, and most of them are available for free online.
But it’s hard to tell how a game plays just by reading the rules. So of course I had to put these rules to the test. I decided to invite players to a short campaign that will take them through character creation and up to third level, though we eventually decided as a group to go to fourth. After talking about it with the players, we decided on a free adventure available right now on D&D Beyond called Frozen Sick. This short adventure appears in the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount supplement published in 2020 for 5th Edition.
The adventure begins at a funeral for a long-time adventure who has succumbed to a mysterious sickness that has left him a frozen statue. The town’s governor hires the players to investigate the cause of this sickness once other members of the town begin showing symptoms. There is a general story to follow, but it’s up to the players how they want to investigate.
Using the 2014 DM’s screen but avoiding looking at the old rules.
Let’s meet the players. My table had five of them. Bakthali, a goliath rogue with the criminal background, and Pippa Weeblewobble, a gnome barbarian with the entertainer background. These two were a criminal duo and often reveled in the dichotomy of their character choices. The giant goliath somehow avoids detection while the two-foot and change gnome swings a massive battleaxe to cleave enemies in half.
There was also Seledor, an elf wizard with the guide background, and Kru-boto, a human fighter with the sage background. These two trained together. The fighter wanted to learn magic and the wizard wanted to learn how to use a sword. This came to fruition later with their subclass choices: Kru-boto chose the Eldritch Knight subclass which gave him access to spells, and Seledor chose a 2014 subclass, the Bladesinger, a wizard that uses a sword alongside their magical bladesong. It was good to know that picking a 2014 subclass still worked easily enough with the new rules.
Finally, there was Appo, the human cleric with the acolyte background. As you might have guessed from the abbreviated name, Appo was a cleric who denounced the gods and religion, choosing instead to forge his own path through the world.
Our first session involved creating these characters using the freshly released Player’s Handbook, the first of the new core rulebooks. Once everyone had at least a solid idea of what kind of character they wanted to play, then we started thinking about adventures. As a DM, I am used to creating the right adventure for my players and characters, but next time I play with a group of strangers in a store I will probably pick an adventure first and have players bring characters to the first session. For this particular adventure at least, it did still feel ok since a new set of basic rules had just been launched with the new book.
We played four four-hour sessions over about two and a half months. During the first session, the barbarian gnome used the new Weapon Mastery ability Cleave to cut through two bandits with one strike. This was one of the most eye-opening moments early on. A group of seven bandits was dispatched in a few turns by the five-person party with barely any damage taken by the majority of the group. This was the first hint at the major change in running D&D with these new rules. Players are a lot stronger than they used to be.
A huge message that D&D has been pushing as these new books are marketed to the masses is that they are compatible with 5th Edition. This way all the people that bought into D&D’s latest edition since 2014 (which is a lot), don’t feel the need to toss out everything they have in favor of new books. But, it’s not quite as simple as that. In future sessions I threw multiple yetis, a helmed horror, and an upgraded big bad at the players and they had little trouble dispatching them. The written adventure had no yetis, an animated armor instead of the helmed horror, and big bad that is essentially a pushover. Luck swung both ways, there were good decisions and bad decisions, but ultimately I walked away from this adventure feeling that the monsters needed an upgrade to match the players.
The new Player’s Handbook was released in September, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide was released at the end of October, but the final rulebook of the trio, the Monster Manual, has yet to hit store shelves. The third core rule book is expected to release on February 18th, so that could be the salvation I’m waiting for, but only time will tell.
For now, any advice I would give to a new DM running these 2024 rules is be prepared to ramp up the challenge of your monsters. Give the boss monster a couple more minions, or give some creatures another interesting ability or attack. It’s going to take a little more calibration as you get comfortable with the new rules and what upgrades your players have, but it will still be fun.
Now, I was the DM for this scenario, but that’s not necessarily a role everyone will step into. So I asked my players if they had the time to answer a few questions about their experience. I asked them what they thought of character creation with the new rules and how they felt the new rules played out at the table. Anything added with parentheses is added by me for clarification. Here are some of their responses:
How was your experience creating a character using the 2024 rules? Did you enjoy it? Did it feel more complicated or more streamlined? How do you feel it compares to the 2014 rules?
Goliath Rogue: “...it wasn’t bad. The flow changed and gave more emphasis on the background, but that wasn’t a major hurdle.”
Elf Wizard: “I always enjoy making a new character. However, I actually see the 2024 rules as inferior because background is now much more important, which requires you to spend more time thinking about which one to choose… [the] 2014 [rules] did include the optional rule for separating ability score bonus from race… its positive impact in encouraging a variety of character types is clear. With the new importance of background in the 2024 rules, there is again a mechanical pressure to choose a particular background for a particular class, even if it doesn’t make much narrative sense.”
Human Fighter: “I enjoyed it overall, it was a little more complicated due to the addition of weapon masteries and adjusted feats. I like the addition for a martial [non-caster class] though, it gives them more to think about other than just run up and hit.”
A sticking point for a few players was the new emphasis on backgrounds. This was one of the major changes in character creation compared to the 2014 rules, so it makes sense that this would cause some friction. I agree that certain backgrounds provide more useful abilities to certain character types to the point where someone might consider certain ones “sub-optimal” comparatively. If this is something that worries you as a player, talk to your DM because while the new rulebook doesn’t make it obvious (in fact it’s a sidebar hidden in Chapter 2 as opposed to Chapter 4 where all the backgrounds can be found), there are options for using old or custom backgrounds instead of the newly provided ones. Some tables might not want players creating custom backgrounds, but if it’s not an issue you can create a background that works with your character’s story, and doesn’t leave you with a less-than-useful ability choice.
How did it feel to play your character at the table? Did they feel good/useful in combat? In social scenes? How did leveling up affect this? How do you feel it compares to the 2014 rules?
Goliath Rogue: “I didn’t know what I was getting into with a goliath rogue with a criminal background and the assassin feat but it seemed well rounded in combat… no noticeable change from 2014.”
Elf Wizard: “With origin feats, everyone is stronger than compared with the 2014 rules.”
Human Fighter: “Yes, in combat my character was fairly effective. In social situations, due to the adjustment to second wind, it added more versatility to the various skill checks.”
Most players agree that their characters were at least more “well-rounded” using these new rules. The fighter, a class traditionally seen as focused on combat, now has more versatility outside of it. In 2014, the fighter ability “Second Wind” was a way to quickly gain back some hit points in battle. In 2024, Second Wind still does this, but now at level 2, Second Wind can also be used to add to skill checks, the kinds of rolls typically made outside of combat when talking to NPCs or exploring the environment. So while yes, overall players are more powerful in combat, classes that typically only excell on the battlefield now also have some interesting options outside of it.
Did you have fun with the new rules? Would you try playing with these rules again or would you stick with a previous set of rules next time?
Goliath Rogue: “They were fun! Tracking weapon masteries wasn’t as bad as I expected and many of the masteries made mechanical sense. I’d be fine playing with new rules or previous rules, just depends on the table.”
Elf Wizard: “I would be willing to play with the new rules. Ideally, I would prefer to play with a mix of the old and new rules. For example, I am happy that classes such as barbarians, fighters, and monks got significant [improvements] which helps them keep up with [spell]casters, but I don’t like the general power creep that comes with the new backgrounds.”
Human Fighter: “I had fun and would love to try more in the future.”
At least for my table, the new rules seem like a success. The players generally had fun and they didn’t get tripped up on new rules as much as they thought they would. Of course, this is something that will change with every group of people, so always make sure to communicate with your players or your DM about what’s working for you and what’s not. These new D&D rules are meant to make players more versatile, and generally stronger, but ultimately easier to pick up and learn. Personally, I look forward to playing/DMing a lot more of these new 2024 rules. I am curious to see what kinds of tools the new Monster Manual will give DMs to challenge their players, but I still had fun without that.
Thanks to my players for being a great part of this experience and I hope you had fun!
A page out of one of my player’s notebooks featuring an excellent drawing of them (gnome barbarian) on the back of a huge frog named Croaker (who appeared in a cave in session two).
Have you tried the new 2024 rules for D&D? Are you interested in trying them? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!