The new D&D core books feature nearly 400 spells and over 500 monsters, but disappointingly few new ideas

GamesRPGDungeons & DragonsThe new D&D core books feature nearly 400 spells and over 500 monsters, but disappointingly few new ideasWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

A group of adventurers being attacked by skeletons in the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual.

With pre-orders for the three new Dungeons & Dragons core booksnow live, Wizards of the Coast was kind enough to give me an early look at what you can expect from each. But while it’s clear that a lot of work and passion has gone into these reimagined releases, I’m concerned that so much of what I’m shown feels stuck in tabletop gaming’s past, rather than the foundation for a new future for D&D.

To be clear, I haven’t read the full books yet—WOTC’s presentation only offered a top-level view of what’s to be found within, with key examples. But the parts the designers were keen to highlight felt, to me, hugely revealing of what they see as important, and though I did like some of what I saw, Wizards of the Coast doesn’t seem to be addressing any of the game’s core problems, or ensuring its game feels modern and relevant through these partial updates.

You’d be forgiven for still not fully understanding why there’s a new set of D&D books to buy. WOTC has been clear that this isn’t a new edition of the game. What it’s been rather less clear on is what the new core rule books actuallyare. So, to put it in plain terms: this is an update for 5th edition, like a big patch or a new season in a videogame, based on a brand new Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual that replace the existing tomes. The core system isn’t changing, but it is being tweaked, added to, and reformatted. All this new material will, however, still be compatible with old books and adventures.

New content

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

A group of halflings having dinner from the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook.

From what I’m shown, these books have been really substantially reimagined—don’t fear that these are just minor updates to get you to buy the same things again. The new Player’s Handbook offers an easier ramp into the game, with more comprehensive examples and explanations of the rules, plus reworked backgrounds and classes with a huge selection of subclasses and spells to choose from. The Monster Manual rebalances existing monsters and adds plenty of new ones, including apex monsters for each creature type that serve as epic bosses (as soon as I hear the name “Blob of Annihilation”, I want to fight one).

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

The Adventures section of the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide.

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But, to be frank, a lot of this feels to me like D&D catching up to ideas other TTRPG designers cracked years ago—and, worse, it comes with a lot of elements that still seem miles behind.

Old ideas

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

A map of the Greyhawk setting from the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide.

The DMG including a sample campaign setting is great, but that sort of thing has been standard in other big TTRPGs for a very long time already, and the setting they’ve chosen is a fairly rough sketch of Greyhawk. If you’re not familiar, that’s literally the first official D&D setting ever, from all the way back in Gygax’s day. It’s a really important part of the game’s history, no doubt about that, but in a modern context it’s a well-worn and generic fantasy world—it feels difficult to get excited about in 2024, and I’m not sure it’s helpful inspiration to get a modern DM’s mind racing.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

A portion of the equipment section of the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook.

The Monster Manual is the biggest the game’s ever seen, with more than 500 monsters, including over 75 new ones, but it seems to be offering scale over innovation. One of the new creatures showcased is just a skeletal fire mage to add to an already long list of skeleton foes—another forgettable mook to churn through. Other additions seem even more niche, such as extra groups of NPC stat blocks (including “performers, pirates, and more”), and new kinds of merfolk said to be ideal allies for seafaring campaigns.

It harks back to the 3.5 days, when everything had to have a detailed statblock regardless of whether it was relevant to actual play, with books enormously bloated as a result. Far more useful would be better guidance on creating those yourself, or advice on when numbers aren’t needed at all. Just the suggestion that you might need to know the AC and HP of a “performer”, or know exactly what differentiates a pirate from a land-dwelling bandit, is a throwback to an unhelpfully outdated mode of game design.

The future is the past

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

A group playing D&D from the 2024 Dungeons & Dtagons Player’s Handbook.

Overall, there’s a real lack of genuinely new ideas. There’s plenty of added and reimagined content to justify buying three new books, but no sense of the game moving forward from 5th edition’s launch in 2014, which was itself in large part a throwback to how the game felt in the early 2000s.

I can certainly understand how the negative reception to the sweeping changes D&D 4e made to the game has left the company frightened of major change—that’s clearly why this is being presented so vaguely, rather than being officially a new edition or even a D&D 5.5. But that doesn’t make it any less unexciting to see D&D set out its stall for the future as “more of the same, but bigger, forevermore”.

The new Player’s Handbook releases September 17, the Dungeon Master’s Guide on November 11, and the Monster Manual on Feb 18 2025. All three areavailable to preorder now—you can get them separately, or all together, and there are preorder bonuses for jumping in early.

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