This is one of my posts on the evolution of D&D. See here for other related posts.
This is the second post in my series comparing the different editions of D&D 5E and its successors.
Previous post:
A reminder of what this is about.
D&D 5th edition has been around for ten years now, and has proven the most successful edition yet. But ten years is a long time, and now there are several successors looking to take the legacy on (as well as other different systems). The playtests are over, and the official printed versions are now coming out.
I have been trying out all three during their development, but since the final versions of all three are imminent, I plan to work through in detail comparing all three against the 2014 edition and each other, showing their similarities and highlighting their differences.
The products I am comparing are as follows:
- D&D 5th edition, as published by Wizards of the Coast in 2014 – this is the baseline they all come from.
- Level Up! Advanced 5th edition (A5E) from EN Publishing.
- Tales of the Valiant from Kobold Press.
- The new edition of D&D from Wizards of the Coast, whatever it is called… D&D 5.5? D&D 2024?
More details of each of these in the previous post.
The previous post looked at the introduction sections and character origins. This post follows on from the introductions with an overview of the whole structure of the player’s handbook.
The structure of the book serves two purposes. First, it is integral in how a player encounters the game and what they are led to consider important. And secondly, it is as a reference during play, so the player needs to be able to find the information they need quickly.
I’ll start with how the original PHB is structured, then look at Tales of the Valiant and A5E. I gather that the 2024 edition from WotC has been radically reorganised, but I’m not one of those fortunate to get an early copy, so my review of its structure will need to wait.
PHB Organisation in 5E
The 2014 PHB starts with an overview of Character Creation through steps in this order:
- Choose a race (Species)
- Choose a class (and level – this also covers Proficiency Bonus)
- Determine ability scores
- Describe your character – this includes background
- Choose equipment
- Come together
It then talks about going beyond 1st level and the tiers of play.
The following chapters follow this order. Chapter 2 covers the Races, and Chapter 3 the Classes, before Chapter 4 covers Personality and Background. Chapter 4 is also where Height, Weight, Alignment, Languages and Inspiration are discussed. Chapter 5 covers Equipment, including starting wealth, weapons and armour. Chapter 6 then goes into customisation options. This is where Multiclassing is introduced, along with Feats.
It’s not until Section 2 that we get into how to use the information.
Chapter 7, Using Ability Scores, includes the Ability score modifiers, Advantage and Disadvantage and the Proficiency Bonus. It talks about Ability Checks and Contests, and the different skills, along with passive an group checks, and finishes with Saving Throws.
Chapter 8, Adventuring, covers Time, Movement and Travel, then goes into environmental effects – falling, suffocating, vision, light and the effects of obscured areas, food and water, and interacting with other objects. It covers Social Interaction, Resting and what to do Between Adventures.
Chapter 9 brings in Combat, before Chapter 10 explains Spellcasting, with Chapter 11 listing the available spells.
The PHB finishes with appendices on Conditions, Gods, The Planes of Existence, and Creature Statistics for creatures which characters might transform into or have as familiars, plus a final one suggesting literature which might inspire.
Player’s Guide Organisation in ToV
The first chapter of the Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide also summarises character creation, but it takes a slightly different order, and it usefully starts with a list of the materials you’ll need for character generation – pencil, blank character sheet, scratch paper and dice.
The ToV creation order is:
- Create a character concept
- Choose a class
- Determine ability scores
- Choose origins (lineage, heritage and background)
- Choose equipment
- Fill in any remaining blanks in the character sheet
It then also talks about levelling up, plus Multiclassing (which 5E doesn’t discuss until Chapter 6, under optional rules).
Uniquely, the ToV Player’s Guide finishes the Creation chapter with a detailed tour of the character sheet – a great idea. This also gives a chance to summarise concepts like Death Saves, Exhaustion and spells – known and prepared spells and spell slots.
Like the PHB, the ToV Player’s Guide follows the creation order listed in chapter 1, but they use these to introduce other concepts on the way.
Chapter 2 covers the classes. But before introducing the individual classes, they take the opportunity to explain spellcasting and the various elements of a class – the progression table, proficiency bonus, hit points and hit dice, proficiencies, starting equipment, feature descriptions and subclasses. The actual classes follow, and each includes a quick build recommendation, player advice, and an Epic Boon which they gain at level 20.
Chapter 3 gets into the upbringing – lineage (genetic) and heritage (upbringing). See Character Origins below for more on this. Then Chapter 4 finishes the origin information with the Backgrounds and Talents. Each background lists a range of available talents to choose from at first level (to be clear, you get one choice), and then the Talents follow here as part of standard character creation, rather than getting pushed into the later optional section as done with the PHB Feats.
Chapter 5 covers Equipment and Magic Items, including weapons, armour and adventuring gear. This pretty much follows the structure of the Equipment chapter of the PHB, including the rules for selling equipment and improvised weapons. This is where currency is covered, and interestingly, they’ve dropped Electrum. Weapons have additional weapon options compared to 5E, such as Bashing to inflict disadvantage on the target’s next attack roll, disarming, pulling, tripping, pinning shots and ricochet shots, and it talks about adamantine weapons as well as silvered ones.
Chapter 5 also includes poison rules and three poisons which can be bought (though notably fewer than in the 5E DMG), and then goes into the rules for objects and structures and their damage. It covers tool kits, along with (usefully) examples of what you can do with different toolkits, talks about mounts, services, and food, drink and lodging. Vehicles follow, including rules for travel, crew, cargo, movement and repairs, and then it finishes with a surprisingly large section of magic items, including prices. Not sure how I feel about this – I don’t feel magic items are generally on sale in my worlds, but your preferences may vary…
Chapter 6 talks about playing the game, very similar to Chapter 7 in the PHB, covering the d20 check – attack rolls, saving throws and ability checks – the proficiency bonus, group checks, and advantage and disadvantage.
It introduces their new mechanic of Luck, which replaces 5E’s Inspiration – this is gained when a check fails, or when the GM awards it, and is spent by adding the points to a roll, or spending 3 to re-roll. If the Luck total goes above 5 (which seems quite easy to do), the points get lost again and you revert to d4+1.
Chapter 6 also covers the information in 8 of the PHB: Adventuring, including tracking time, movement, speed, travelling, difficult terrain, interaction, roleplaying, lifting and carrying, and senses. It brings in mention of the planes and travel between planes.
It then goes into the information in the PHB Chapter 9, Combat, with life, death, and death saving throws, temporary hit points, damage, healing, and resting. It covers other forms of harm, including conditions, curses, diseases, starvation and dehydration, and references a new mechanic of Dread (but just briefly, deferring to the forthcoming equivalent to the DMG).
Finally it goes into Encounters, including Initiative, Rounds and Turns. We still haven’t got onto Combat, though – Exploration Encounters, Wilderness Survival and Hazards (such as extreme cold or heat, gale winds), traps, social encounters and settlements come first before it finally goes into Combat.
Having finished with Combat, they round out the chapter with downtime activities.
Chapter 7 is spellcasting. They have four “sources” of spell – Arcane (Bards, Spell Blade Fighters, Sorcerers, Wizards), Divine (Clerics and Paladins), Primordial (Druids and Rangers), and Wyrd (Warlocks), and rather than spell levels, they refer to Spell Circles.
The spell descriptions follow, and interestingly, spells appear to be either castable or rituals, never both. Certainly there are two sections, with the Ritual Spells following the spell descriptions.
And that’s it, apart from the same set of appendices – Conditions, Gods and Pantheons, and Creatures.
Adventurer’s Guide Organisation in A5E
The A5E Adventurer’s Guide also starts with Character Creation, but it almost takes it in reverse:
- Origins, including Heritage (genetic), Culture (upbringing), Background (training), and Destiny
- Class and level – and already it introduces hit points and hit dice
- Ability Scores – which are explained inline here
- Gear, including a summary of Defence (AC), and Offence
- Bring your character to life with a back story
- Levelling up and the tiers of play
The chapters follow this order, too.
Chapter 2 covers Origins – Heritage (genetic), Culture (upbringing), Background (training), and Destiny (ambition). As with the others, more on this in the previous post on Character Origins.
Chapter 3 covers the classes, starting with a handy quick-reference summary table, and then going straight into the class details in the same way as the PHB. Very usefully, the top right of each double-page spread lists which class you are in, making it much easier to flip through and find a particular class.
Having covered origins and classes, Chapter 4 gets into Equipment, currency and trading. Electrum is kept here along with copper, silver, gold and platinum, and it also references goods as a form of currency, and as a guide to the buying power of each coin. Weapons, unusually, come before Shields and Armour, which I have to say matches my expectations better – I always have to remind myself armour comes first when looking up details in the PHB.
This being A5E, it lives up to the “Advanced” by having additional weapons and armour, and the weapons have many more special properties. There are also a rang of cultural weapons and some rare weapons like an assassin’s gauntlet or boot dagger, a double weapon or a ring blade. Armour includes special details for Helms, and both weapons and armour can be made of special materials to gain additional properties. There are also special properties which can be added such as camouflaged or spiked armour, flamboyant (distracting), quickdraw or rebounding weapons, and items with hidden storage compartments. Also, weapons and armour need maintenance and have situations which can damage or break them.
The chapter then moves on to adventuring equipment. This is much more broken down than the PHB. It starts with medicinal herbal remedies and potions to replace or supplement magical healing, then moves on to assorted spellcasting foci. Then come poisons, survival gear (tents, maps, compass, bedroll, hunting traps, rations etc) and containers before it gets into “miscellaneous adventuring gear”.
Equipment packs, tools, gaming sets and musical instruments come next, followed by mounts and vehicles (land, water and air) which can have special features and malfunctions. Trade goods are detailed, and lifestyle expenses along with examples of meals at each level. The chapter continues with assorted services (including renting a demiplane – a snip starting at 1200gp/10 days or 3000gp/month and with no warranties…). It gives options of donations such as a bridge, sewer system, hospital or orphanage, and benefits that accrue from such a donation (such as getting the blueprints to the sewers and being able to get secret tunnels installed. The chapter concludes with starting wealth at higher levels, plus detailed rules for strongholds and followers.
Chapter 5 is titled Multiclassing and Feats, and starts with the multiclassing rules, which are pretty much the same as other systems, albeit extended with the new items like combat manoeuvres. The rest of the chapter is taken up with the Feats. There are plenty of these, and they include feat chains (where one feat depends on already having another) and prerequisites like a certain number of levels in one class (or sometimes two), or a minimum ability score. I’ll look at the feats in more detail in a future blog post.
Chapter 6 covers ability scores. This starts with the classic modifier table – still (score-10)/2 rounded down – followed by a discussion of ability checks. It does talk about not using a roll where the character stats or actions make the outcome pretty certain, and also about failing forwards – providing some way forward from a failed check which allows the adventure to continue albeit with complications. It covers passive checks, contests, advantage, disadvantage and expertise (a new mechanic), and critical successes and failures – note in A5E, critical failures are written into the rules.
It then looks at the ability scores, giving more detail of the type of thing covered by each than is in the PHB. For example, under Dexterity it lists Sneaking up behind a distracted guard, staying on your feet on slick ice, concealing a playing card up your sleeve, steering a chariot around a tight turn, tinkering with a mechanical device, securely typing a prisoner, wriggling free of bonds and crafting a tiny device.
It also puts ability-related rules here. For example, lifting and carrying is under strength, attack rolls and damage are under strength and dexterity, hit points are under constitution, and Intelligence gives bonus knowledge per point of modifier – a skill speciality from within the lore skills.
Proficiency bonus and saving throws come next, and then we’re into the Skills. This is where the skill speciality gets explained – it gives an expertise die on that skill. Slightly confusingly, here it says you get two skills on character creation, but like with the PHB, each class lists a number of skills which can conflict with this (four for rogue, for example). This is also where hiding is discussed.
The list of skills is followed by a useful table of examples of check DCs for each skill. Interestingly, it finishes the chapter with examples of critical success and critical failure for Arcane checks, Facts and Discoveries, and Medicine.
Chapter 7 talks about Adventuring. This covers Time, Movement (including Jumping), Travelling, Falling, Suffocating, Underwater and Sight. It briefly reviews food and water before talking in detail about objects and how to work out statistics for an object. Social Interactions and styles of representing role play follow. Then we’re into resting and downtime – and as you’d expect there is a lengthy list of downtime activities with detailed results. The chapter finishes with a new rule Prestige Rating which determines how well-known a character is, and hence who they can get an audience with and who might be willing to do them a favour.
Chapter 8 is dedicated to combat and turn-based action. This covers turn order and initiative, and surprise. It also introduces the idea of world actions, which come before anything else in the round, and emphasises that players should still be active participants when it’s not their turn – planning for their next action, being ready to use reactions.
This is where it covers size and space, including squeezing through tight spaces, along with movement in turn-based action, and a discussion of ways of representing the action – abstract, gridded or theatre of the mind. This is also where mounted combat and being prone is covered. It then goes into tactical positioning, including attacking from above, pulling from below, dragging an ally, flanking and being back to back.
The actions in combat are next, and they have a larger selection than the PHB, including Press the Attack, Fall Back, Search, Sprint and Tumble. It talks about unseen attackers, ranged and melee attacks, two-weapon fighting and opportunity attacks. Damage and recovery follow, including a discussion of hit points (and that they don’t necessarily represent physical damage, so much as ability to keep fighting). It also has a useful table of the damage types with examples. This is also where resistance, vulnerability and immunity is covered.
Death follows. Massive damage and instant death (here the threshold is 20 + 3 x level, which makes it less likely at lower levels and more likely at higher levels), 0hp, death saving throws and stabilization. It also covers fatigue and a new condition Doomed (though the details are put off to an appendix). This is also where knocking a creature out is covered, followed by healing and recovery, and temporary hit points.
The next section talks about World Bonuses and Penalties. This where Difficult Terrain and Cover is discussed, as well as world actions…and it has examples for different environments, such as Frigid Environments which can have frostbitten surfaces (which cause cold damage when touched), icy patches and snow, and can have a world action of Cold Chill.
The chapter finishes with Controlling summoned and multiple creatures, and finally a discussion of some alternative turn-based scenarios – suspended movement in water, the sky or a space-like environment, rolling movement (where everyone is moving) and countdowns.
Chapter 9 explains the Combat Manoeuvres which are a new rule in A5E, giving martial classes special abilities. However, this is also where basic combat manoeuvres are covered – basic melee damage, disarming, grabbing on, grappling, overrunning and shoving.
Chapter 10 is spellcasting. This starts with the basic mechanics of knowing and preparing spells, casting spells and spell slots, casting spells without slots (from magic items and scrolls), cantrips, rituals (which here are modifiers to spells which can also be cast normally, like in the 2014 edition), and casting spells in armour. The rest of the chapter is devoted to the descriptions of the spell themselves. One interesting twist here is that some spells have rare variants which can’t be generally learned, but can be picked up if the GM puts them into scrolls, etc.
And now we’re into the Appendices. As with all the others, we start with the Conditions, although this is where fatigue and stress are covered (they have split fatigue into physical and mental aspects), and examples of effects which mental stress can cause. Appendix B covers religion, gods, faiths and beliefs. This is a much more detailed discussion than in the PHB, talking about different types of religion such as ascended hero worship, nature worship, cosmic warfare, philosphies, atheism and secularism and humanism (which does include a sidebar on this being a species-specific term). It lists sample gods and pantheons, including the different domains covers, and religious conspiracies and plots. Finally, Appendix C details stats for beasts and creatures, typically those which might be used as familiars, mounts or wild shapes, and Appendix D discusses compatibility and mixing A5E with the 2014 rules.
Conclusions
That’s a lot of detail, so I’ll try to summarise. Here’s the high-level outline.
| Chapter | 2014 PHB | Level Up! A5E | Tales of the Valiant |
| Chapter 1 | Character Creation | Character Creation | Character Creation |
| Chapter 2 | Races | Origins, Background, Destiny | Classes & Progress |
| Chapter 3 | Classes | Classes | Origins |
| Chapter 4 | Personality & Background | Gear & Equipment | Backgrounds Talents (= Feats) |
| Chapter 5 | Gear & Equipment | Multiclassing & Feats | Gear & Equipment |
| Chapter 6 | Customisation, Multiclassing, Feats | Ability scores & Checks | Adventuring & Playing the game, Combat |
| Chapter 7 | Ability scores & Checks | Adventuring & Playing the game | Spellcasting & Spells |
| Chapter 8 | Adventuring & Playing the game | Combat | |
| Chapter 9 | Combat | Combat Maneouvres | |
| Chapter 10 | Spellcasting | Spellcasting Spells | |
| Chapter 11 | Spells | ||
| Appendices | Conditions Gods Planes of Existence Creature Statistics Further Reading | Conditions, Fatigue & Strife Religion & Gods Creatures Compatibility | Conditions Gods & Pantheons Creatures |
The 2014 PHB concentrates on creating the character first, starting with Race, then Class, then other aspects of the character. Having done that, you get into equipment and further character customisation before anything about what you’ll be doing with the character. Only once we reach chapter 7 do we start to get onto playing the game.
A5E has quite a similar structure to the PHB, although the chapter breaks come slightly differently, and backgrounds come with the other aspects of character origins, before the classes. I do like the way things like lifting and carrying come along with Strength under the Ability Scores, rather than mixed into the other adventuring rules.
ToV at a very high level has a similar structure, although it puts the classes before the origins, and combines into fewer chapters. What I do think it does better is the first chapter – particularly the way it goes through the character sheet, which feels a good way of giving an introduction to the concepts that the player will encounter in the rest of the book.
But none of them come near to what is, for me, the gold standard of D&D introduction – the initial red box Basic Set. After a brief talk on role playing, it starts with the absolute minimum you need to know, then takes you (as a fighter) immediately into a very simple encounter with first a goblin (who never hits) then a snake who does hit – introducing attack rolls, damage, and a (poison) saving throw. Once the snake is dead, you meet a cleric (Aleena) who heals you, and then a magic user (the infamous Bargle) who tries to charm you and kills Aleena with a magic missile.
Having introduced the concepts via actual play, it then goes back and explains them in more detail, before taking you through a dungeon in Choose Your Own Adventure style – “Go North? Read 21; Go East? Read 53; Go back? Read 36”.
Only once that introduction has been done does it go into the details of the classes, equipment and spells; and the process of creating a character comes after that, followed by discussion of group play and Adventuring Rules.
Now that is an introduction for a new player.
Next: a comparison of the classes.
Appendix – the detailed structure comparison
Here are the comparative structures in a lot more detail, in case this is an easier way of reading it.
| Chapter | 2014 PHB | Tales of the Valiant | Level Up! A5E | 2024 PHB |
| Chapter 1 | Character Creation: RaceClass & levelAbility ScoresDescribeEquipmentCome together Beyond level 1 | Character Creation: ConceptClassAbility ScoresOriginsEquipmentThe rest… Levelling up Multiclassing Tour of char sheet, Death Saves, Exhaustion, Spells and slots | Character Creation: OriginsClass & level (hp & HD)Ability ScoresGear, ACBack storyLevelling up & tiers of play | |
| Chapter 2 | Races | Classes Spellcasting Progression, Proficiency Bonus, Hit Points & Hit Dice Starting Equipment | Heritage (genetic), Culture (upbringing), Background, Destiny | |
| Chapter 3 | Classes | Lineage (genetic) Heritage (upbringing) | Classes | |
| Chapter 4 | Personality & Background Height & Weight, Alignment, Languages, Inspiration | Backgrounds Talents (= Feats) | Equipment, currency & trading Weapons, Shields & Armour, Adventuring Equipment, herbal remedies, poisons, survival gear, equipment packs, tools, gaming sets, instruments Mounts & vehicle Trade goods & lifestyle expenses, Services & Donations Starting wealth at higher levels Strongholds & Followers | |
| Chapter 5 | Equipment, starting wealth, Armour and Weapons, Adventuring Gear | Equipment Magic Items Weapons, Armour, Adventuring Gear, Currency, Poisons, Objects, Tool kits, Mounts, Services, Food, drink & lodging Vehicles | Multiclassing & Feats | |
| Chapter 6 | Customisation, Multiclassing, Feats | Playing the game d20 checks (attack rolls, ability checks, saving throws), Proficiency bonus, group checks, advantage & disadvantage Luck Adventuring: time, movement, speed, travelling, difficult terrain, interaction, roleplaying, lifting & carrying, senses, planes Combat: life, death & death saving throws, Temporary hit points, damage, healing, resting Conditions, curses, diseases, starvation & dehydration, Dread Encounters: Initiative, Rounds & Turns, Exploration Encounters, Wilderness Survival, Hazards, traps, social encounters, settlements Combat Downtime | Ability scores, Advantage, Disadvantage, & Expertise, Ability Checks & Contests, Proficiency Bonus & Saving Throws Skills & DCs | |
| Chapter 7 | Ability Scores, Advantage & Disadvantage, Proficiency Bonus, Ability Checks & Contests, Skills, Saving Throws | Spellcasting Spells | Adventuring: Time, Movement, Travelling, Falling, Suffocating, Underwater, Flight, Sight Food & Water, objects Social interactions & role play Resting & downtime Prestige | |
| Chapter 8 | Adventuring: Time, Movement, Travel, Environmental Effects – falling, suffocating, vision, light, obscured, food & water, objects, social interaction, resting, downtime. | Combat & turn-based action Turn order, Initiative, Size & Space, Actions, Damage & Recovery Death & saving throws, fatigue, Doom, non-lethal, healing & recovery, temporary hit points Difficult Terrain & Cover | ||
| Chapter 9 | Combat | Combat Maneouvres | ||
| Chapter 10 | Spellcasting | Spellcasting Spells | ||
| Chapter 11 | Spells | |||
| Appendices | Conditions Gods Planes of Existence Creature Statistics Further Reading | Conditions Gods & Pantheons Creatures | Conditions, fatigue & stress Religion & Gods Creatures Compatibility |
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