GamesRPGDungeons & DragonsD&D’s new 2024 Player’s Handbook will have 10 species to choose from including goliaths, and drow will be closer to their Baldur’s Gate 3 versionWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRPGDungeons & DragonsD&D’s new 2024 Player’s Handbook will have 10 species to choose from including goliaths, and drow will be closer to their Baldur’s Gate 3 versionWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
Aasimar are mortals of celestial descent, and though never as popular as their counterpart tieflings—mortals of fiendish descent—it makes sense to have both in the same book. And the upgrade from half-orcs to orcs fits with the removal of half-elves as a mechanically distinct choice. In the playtest, players who wanted to play characters of mixed descent were advised to “determine which of those Race options provides your game traits: Size, Speed, and special traits. You can then mix and match visual characteristics—color, ear shape, and the like—of the two options.” That may change in the final version, of course.
The more familiar options have also been tweaked, with an emphasis on removing weaknesses. It was always a bit of an oddity, and presumably a leftover from editions with a different design philosophy, that some species had glaring restrictions while others did not. The dark elf’s sunlight sensitivity, which sure was a hassle when I played one, is simply gone like it was for drow player-characters in Baldur’s Gate 3. The reduced speeds of gnomes and halflings is gone too—both now have a speed of 30 feet per round, like most species.
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
“When working on the revisions for each of the species for the 2024 Player’s Handbook,” the blog says, “a decision was made to focus on what the fantasy of each species is. Dwarves were given enhanced Stonecunning and Darkvision to emphasize their legacy of toiling away in mountain mines and kingdoms. Goliaths lean much more heavily into their specific lineages to reflect being the descendants of Giants as we understand them in D&D. Dragonborn were given the ability to access wings because flight is absolutely one of the coolest things about dragons.”
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Don’t worry, the wings aren’t permanent. Dragonborn can only use them to fly for 10 minutes, and get them at level 5, which is when wizards get access to the Fly spell. So it’s not going to break your game—or at least it won’t break your game any more than having a wizard in the party will.
As previously announced, the 2024 rules won’t tie ability scores to species. Instead, they’ll be modified based on your chosen background—a function of nurture rather than nature. “This makes backgrounds more important to character creation as the part of your character’s history where they honed their skills and abilities. The way ability score adjustments work for 2024 backgrounds is that each background has three ability scores tied to it. You can choose to add +2 to one of those ability scores and +1 to another, or add +1 to all three. For example, the Farmer background gives you Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom to choose from. The Wayfarer background gives you Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma.”
(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)
The 2024 Player’s Handbook is due out on September 17, with the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide to follow on November 12, and the 2024 Monster Manual on February 18. Yes, that is actually in 2025.
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