The Evolution of D&D 5th Edition – part 2B Overall Structure of 2024 PHB

This is one of my posts on the evolution of D&D. See here for other related posts.

This is the either the third post in my series comparing the different editions of D&D 5E and its successors, or an addendum to the second…

Previous posts:

• The Evolution of D&D 5th Edition – part 1 Introductions and Character Origins
• The Evolution of D&D 5th Edition – part 2 Overall Structure

The previous post compared the overall structure of the 2014 PHB with Tales of the Valiant and Level Up A5E. At the time of writing that, I didn’t have the 2024 5^th edition Players Handbook. I have now got access to it on D&D Beyond, so I can add the new edition to the comparison.

A reminder of what this is about.

D&D 5^th edition has been around for ten years now, and has proven the most successful edition yet. Now there are several successors looking to take the legacy on (as well as other different systems), and I am writing a series of blog posts comparing them.

The products I am comparing are as follows:

• D&D 5^th edition, as published by Wizards of the Coast in 2014 – this is the baseline they all come from.
• Level Up! Advanced 5^th 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.

As I said in the previous post, 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 didn’t feel any of the previous three options – 2014 PHB, Tales of the Valiant or A5E – did a particularly good job of the introduction to play (certainly nothing like the Mentzer Red Box Basic set which was my starting point), although ToV was the best of the bunch.

I now have access to the new PHB. Can it do any better?

2024 PHB Organisation

In short, yes. It’s almost like they read my last blog post and decided to act on it…except, of course, that they went to press months ago and my blog post only came out a couple of weeks ago…

The Introduction has been streamlined and reformatted to make the information easier to access, with three paragraphs talking about roleplaying and what it’s about, before a section on what you need – a DM, players, the PHB, DMG and MM, dice and a character sheet, plus optionally a DM’s screen, and miniatures and battle grid to taste – then a quick summary of the book’s structure, and finally reference to the multifarious worlds of D&D. For those of us familiar with the 2014 edition, a sidebar also gives a very high-level overview of the changes.

Then, rather than going into character creation with no frame of reference (as the 2014 PHB does), the 2024 PHB dedicates the whole first main chapter to the game rules and how the game works, leaving the mechanics to later chapters once the reader has a good idea of how play works and what the mechanics fit into.

Chapter 1: Playing the Game

Chapter 1 replaces most of the introduction section of the 2014 PHB, but whereas the 2014 PHB has two and a half pages on “How to play” at the most superficial level, the 2024 edition really covers most of the rules and situations players will encounter, at least at a high level (full excruciating detail is deferred to a rules glossary in an appendix).

It starts with the short adventure session lifted from the 2014 (and it later actually explains this is inspired by Curse of Strahd), before explaining the different responsibilities of the players and the DM – yes, they are sticking to Dungeon Master rather than the now more common Games Master.

The action loop comes next, much more concise and clearer than in the 2014 edition, along with Specific Beats General (now renamed as Exceptions Supersede General Rules and in a sidebar). Adventures and campaigns are followed by an introduction to the dice and dice notation (e.g. 3d8+5). This leads on to the d20 test, along with damage dice, random tables and percentages.

That’s pretty much where the 2014 PHB left it until chapter 7. The 2024 PHB brings forward a lot of the material from chapters 7-9 so that the reader has the context before they get into the nitty gritty.

The next section is Ability Scores, and everything related to d20 tests: ability modifiers, ability checks, proficiency, saving throws, advantage and disadvantage, inspiration (now with a “heroic” prefix). A summary of the Skills follows, along with Saving Throw and Equipment proficiencies.

Now we get the actions – they have brought the Charisma checks together as “Influence”, the Wisdom checks as “Search” and the Intelligence checks as “Study” – along with Bonus Actions and Reactions.

The section on Social Interaction has been given a spine of another adventure transcript from Curse of Strahd, which allows them to illustrate ability checks and influencing NPCs as sidebars; although it contains a lot of the same information, I find this much clearer.

Exploration introduces Equipment, Vision and Light, special senses and hiding, before we get onto interacting with objects. A quick list of hazards (referencing the rules glossary) is followed by travel, and then an exploration-style Curse of Strahd session, again using sidebars to annotate specific features.

We’re now into Combat: Initiative, Your turn, different types of movement, creature sizes, attacks and cover. It also talks about mounted and underwater combat, before going into damage, resistance, vulnerability, immunity, and healing. Death and dropping to 0hp follows, along with temporary hit points, and then conditions – like the hazards, this is just a list of references to the rules glossary.

The chapter finishes with a final Curse of Strahd session illustrating combat, again with sidebars to call out specific rules and cases.

In general, I feel they have done a great job of actually introducing what this game is about and how it works so the reader has a framework to hang the nitty gritty details of the rest of the book on.

Chapter 2: Creating a Character

Now we know what game we’re playing, we have the chapter which all the other rulesets use as Chapter 1: the overview of creating a character. And it’s nice to see right at the start an admonition to talk to your DM about what type of game they are running.

Character creation here takes the order:

• Class
  • This has a useful table of what each class likes, their primary ability, and how complex they are to play, along with a sidebar on balanced D&D parties, starting from Fighter+Cleric+Rogue+Wizard and offering substitutes for each
• Origin
  • Background (and hence ability score bonuses…although we haven’t yet rolled our scores)
  • Starting Equipment
  • Species
  • Back story; and this assumes your DM does this – I prefer to let back story emerge during play
  • Languages – now including Common Sign Language
• Ability Scores, with the normal three ways of generating – including a suggested assignment of the standard array for each class
  • There’s a sidebar here about adjusting older backgrounds and species to accommodate the fact that ability score bonuses have moved from species to background
  • This also suggests descriptions to go along with high and low ability scores – for instance, a character with high strength might be muscular, sinewy, protective or direct, while a character with low constitution might be frail, squeamish, lethargic or fragile.
• Alignment – again, this has a table of traits associated with Lawful, Chaotic, Good, Evil and Neutral, both good and bad, which a player can decide to attribute to their character
• Other details – saving throw proficiencies, skills, PP, hp, hit dice, initiative modifier, AC, attack bonuses and spell save DCs, and any spell slots. And, of course, a name.

Having gone through that, it goes on to level advancement, tiers of play and starting at higher levels, before covering multiclassing. It finishes with d% trinkets the character may possess.

Chapters 3, 4 and 5 – Classes, Origins and Feats

Chapter 3 covers the classes, in much the way you would expect. One thing I do think worthy of calling out here is the quick summary at the start, with a line of general summary of the class, plus a line for each subclass (and they all have four). For example, a Bard is described as:

Bard. Perform spells that inspire and heal allies or beguile foes. Then join the College of…

Dance to harness agility in battle.

Glamour to weave beguiling Feywild magic.

Lore to collect knowledge and magical secrets.

Valor to wield weapons with spells.

Interestingly, they have decided to list the class spells at the end of each class, just before the descriptions of the subclasses.

Chapter 4 is for the Character Origins: Backgrounds and Species (the new name for Race).

Sixteen backgrounds each listing a set of three ability scores, a feat, skill and tool proficiencies and starting equipment. The ability scores are those which can get a starting bonus – either +1 to all three, or +2 to one and +1 to another.

Ten species giving creature type, size, speed and special traits.

Chapter 5 covers the feats, which have been revamped and extended for this edition. It starts with an overview of the feats and how they are described, with a Category, Prerequisite, Benefits, and whether the feat can be taken more than once. The overview finishes with the complete list of feats as a summary table, before going into the detailed descriptions, category by category.

There are now 75 feats, and they have been organised into four categories:

• Origin feats, which appear to be those which can be taken at character creation/level 1. There are only 10 of these.
• General feats, which require at least 4^th level, and some have other prerequisites. There are 42 of these, plus the Ability Score Improvement – a lot of the 2014 feats have moved into this category.
• Fighting style feats, which all have a prerequisite of Fighting Style Feature but no level prerequisite. There are 10 of these, giving a total of twenty feats to choose from for those with a fighting style.
• Epic Boon feats, gained at level 19+. There are 12 of these.

Chapters 6 and 7 – Equipment and Spells

This chapter covers everything you might use or buy, starting with the basic currency (which is unchanged).

Weapons come next. These have been slightly extended, and there is an illustration of each one. Each weapon now has a mastery feature – an extra effect you can impose if you have mastery in it. Weapon Proficiency is followed by the properties (these are as before). The new Mastery properties follow: Cleave, Graze, Nick, Push, Slow, Topple or Vex, although the detailed explanation of Weapon Mastery is left to the Glossary.

Armour is the next section, again starting with the summary table (usefully this now lists how long it takes to put on or take off for each armour category) and a set of illustrations before talking about the impact of training/proficiency with the armour.

Tools follows, and now the different tools kits list the ability required for checks to use them, things which they enable , and things which can be crafted using them. For example, Carpenters Tools cost 8gp, use Strength as the Ability, can be used for sealing or prying open a door or container with DC20, and can be used to craft a Club, Greatclub, Quarterstaff, Barrel, Chest, Ladder, Pole, Portable Ram or Torch.

The list of Adventuring Gear feels slightly longer; interestingly it lists spell scrolls for cantrips (30gp) and level 1 (50gp) plus healing potions, which your DM may or may not feel are for sale. Quite a few are broken out into their own sections – Ammunition and Arcane Foci, for example – of different types with their own weights, costs and potentially other features.

Mounts and vehicles come next, followed by services. The previous lifestyle expenses and food, drink and lodging are now accompanied by travel costs per mile for different situation, hireling costs, and spellcasting services (along with where you might find them – don’t look for level 7 spellcasting in a village…

The chapter finishes with a section on magic items – the rules for identification, attunement and use – followed by some simple rules on crafting non-magical equipment, brewing healing potions and scribing spell scrolls.

Chapter 7, Spells, combines the previous chapters 10 and 11 – the rules of spellcasting, and then the spell lists

Appendices

Appendix A is The Multiverse – covering much the same ground as the previous Appendix C Planes of Existence, and Appendix B are the creatures which a player might need to know about as mounts, familiars or wild shapes.

The book finishes with Appendix C, Rules Glossary, which pulls together all the detailed rules, from Ability Check to Weapon Attack, in one alphabetised, easily referenced section. Since I only have D&D Beyond to consult so far (my physical book should arrive next week), I can’t give you a page count, but I feel this is a very large section; interesting that they have made it the final appendix – although maybe the thinking is that this will make it easy to find.

The 2014 Appendix A: Conditions has been subsumed into the Rules Glossary, and they have lost the material in Appendix B: Gods of the Multiverse, and Appendix E: Additional Reading, which means this is the only player’s handbook not to talk about gods.

Conclusions

Having skimmed through this, I have to give them credit for thinking about the organisation of the book. It feels like they have really thought about how to introduce a new player to the game, bringing in the concepts of how the game works before they go into the nitty gritty detail of classes, species and background, and with the detailed rules in a dedicated section in an easy-to-find place (although right of the back does feel a little strange).

I’ll need to see how it plays in practice, but I’m not completely sure about completely deferring some descriptions (such as Conditions) to the alphabetically organised Rules Glossary. But I can see that having all the rules together may make reference easier.

And with that, here’s the updated comparison table.

Chapter	2014 PHB	Level Up! A5E	Tales of the Valiant	2024 PHB
Chapter 1	Character Creation	Character Creation	Character Creation	Playing the Game
Chapter 2	Races	Origins, Background, Destiny	Classes & Progress	Character Creation
Chapter 3	Classes	Classes	Origins	Classes
Chapter 4	Personality & Background	Gear & Equipment	Backgrounds Talents (= Feats)	Origins (Backgrounds & Species)
Chapter 5	Gear & Equipment	Multiclassing & Feats	Gear & Equipment	Feats
Chapter 6	Customisation, Multiclassing, Feats	Ability scores & Checks	Adventuring & Playing the game, Combat	Equipment
Chapter 7	Ability scores & Checks	Adventuring & Playing the game	Spellcasting Spells	Spells and Spellcasting
Chapter 8	Adventuring & Playing the game	Combat
Chapter 9	Combat	Combat Manoeuvres
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 Multiverse Creature Statistics Rules Glossary

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	Playing the Game: Play rolesThe action loopD20 testAbility scores, checks, proficiency, saving throws, advantage & disadvantage, inspirationSkillsActionsSocial InteractionEquipmentVision & LightInteracting with ObjectsHazardsTravelCombat, damage, resistance, vulnerability, immunity, death and death saves
Chapter 2	Races	Classes Spellcasting Progression, Proficiency Bonus, Hit Points & Hit Dice Starting Equipment	Heritage (genetic), Culture (upbringing), Background, Destiny	Character Creation: ClassOriginAbility ScoresAlignmentOther details Levelling up & multiclassing Trinkets
Chapter 3	Classes	Lineage (genetic) Heritage (upbringing)	Classes	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	Origins: Backgrounds and Species
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	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	Equipment: Currency, weapons, armour, tools, adventuring gear, mounts & vehicles, servies, magic items, crafting
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	Spellcasting Spells
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	The Multiverse Creature Statistics Rules Glossary