To hype up the now-available pre-orders for the 2024 Core Rulebooks (note that the Monster Manual isn't going to be there until 2025) WotC has released a series of interview videos talking about the books, with the primary focus being on the Player's Handbook, which comes out in September.
For those of us who followed the Unearthed Arcana process, we already know a fair amount of what is discussed here. They do showcase a lot of new art (the art for the Soulknife Rogue would work great as character art for my current Air Genasi Rogue, though with a slightly different haircut). Still, there are some new bits to be gleaned. I'm going to break this down category-by-category.
Backgrounds:
So, this actually might introduce a slightly undesired change, though I think it won't be too bad in the long run. Ability score bonuses come now from Background instead of Species, meaning that the Tasha's-era total flexibility surrounding these bonuses is actually on the outs. Choosing a Background will now be something with a big impact on your build because it contains not just skill proficiencies, but also your "Origin Feat" (a selection of broadly-useful feats) and your ability score bonus options. Each background gives you three abilities to pick from, and you can take a +2 to one of them and a +1 to the other, or take +1s to all three of them. An example given was that the Acolyte background allows you to choose between Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. So, if you are a Druid, Cleric, or Ranger, you'll likely be taking some bonus to Wisdom, while if you're a Warlock, Sorcerer, Bard, or Paladin, you'll probably favor Charisma.
Still, this is not quite full freedom and flexibility like the Tasha's-era version. Acolyte, for example, would be a perfectly reasonable flavor-choice for a Paladin, but using Standard Array or Point Buy, there's no way your character can start with a +3 to Strength as an Acolyte.
However, the DMG will contain options for creating custom backgrounds, so while I felt a little defensive here, I don't think this will be too bad.
And, to be fair, assuming that level 4+ feats will carry a single ability score bump as they did in the UAs, I suspect we'll see a lot more characters without maximized ability scores who are still quite capable.
Species:
We did already learn about this, but to reiterate: Aasimar, Goliaths, and Orcs are being added to the playable species in the PHB (while Half-Elves and Half-Orcs are removed). Goliaths will be flavored more explicitly as being related to Giants, with essentially six sub-species corresponding to Hill, Stone, Frost, Fire, Cloud, and Storm giants (at least as of the UA, the existing Goliaths are the Stone Goliaths). Goliaths also appear to be getting a feature similar to the Path of the Giant Barbarian and Rune Knight Fighter where they can grow larger as a bonus action a certain number of times per day.
Notably, some species who had sub-races in the 2014 version are being consolidated. It appears that Dwarves and Halflings (and possibly Gnomes?) will now simply be a unified species. The intent here is to give more simple options, especially for the core, classic fantasy species.
Dragonborn will be integrating some of the Fizban's-era improvements to their breath weapons, letting them weave a breath attack into their attack action so that they can benefit from Extra Attack and the like. They can also grow wings to gain a fly speed at higher levels. The overall idea of this appears to be to let players use Species features without fully preventing them from engaging in their primary class features.
Aasimar will also become more flexible, as you no longer have to pick a single Divine Revelation as your only available choice - now, each time you use the feature, you can pick any of the three.
We didn't get any word on the Tiefling sub-species (I'd love to have Abyssal and Chthonic Tieflings, but I didn't see any art indicating that they were going to be there, so I'm not holding my breath).
Weapon Mastery:
Once again, it looks like all the "martial" classes other than the Monks are going to get access to this.
The only really notable and new thing that I hadn't considered is that Todd Kenreck suggested a Rogue fighting with a shortsword and a dagger could use the Nick property to make their off-hand attack with the dagger as part of the attack action, but then also make a bonus action off-hand attack. This, to me, means that it might be extremely powerful for a class like a Barbarian to dual-wield - by level 5, if this is true, a Barbarian wielding a pair of Handaxes (I think they get Nick) can thus make four attacks.
But the system, which was maybe the most approved thing in the UA process, is absolutely making it to the live game.
The Rules Hierarchy:
The manner in which the PHB is going to work is that if your campaign is using it, its rules will supplant anything found in the 2014 book. Among these are some changes that integrate common house rules, such as making drinking a healing potion into a bonus action.
There will be guidance on using subclasses and other character options published prior to the 2024 PHB, but I wonder if this will extend to the Cleric and Wizard subclasses that are not getting republished from the 2014 PHB - for example, the Necromancer Wizard.
Importantly, it looks like they've taken great care to arrange the books for ease of use. The PHB will have a "Rules Glossary" that contains all the things like Cover or Concentration or Jumping - a quick reference for all those fiddly little things.
Crafting:
The PHB will contain rules for crafting potions and spell scrolls, but crafting non-consumable magic items will be covered in the DMG.
Summons, Mounts, etc.
With the exception of the higher-CR Beasts that a Moon Druid can Wild Shape into, they say that any stat block that can be purchased or summoned by players can be found in the PHB. In the equipment section, for example, when they list mounts, you'll find all of them in the PHB.
PHB Structure:
The PHB is going to be arranged a little differently. It begins with a short introduction and then a relatively extensive bit of sample play. The general rules of how the game works are then going to come before character creation, including the Rules Glossary. The intent, I think, is that if a player is reading this the first time, they'll have a broad sense of how the game works in general before they get into the nitty-gritty of building a character. And further in there will be things like equipment and spells.
The PHB will include guidance for using older material, such as subclasses from Xanathar's or Tasha's with the new versions of these classes, or Species from, say, Monsters of the Multiverse.
DMG Structure:
The DMG is getting a similar structural overhaul. The first three chapters are The Basics, Running the Game, and then a big chapter of miscellaneous rules that you always seem to need to look up, like cover and the like.
The DMG will also include a bunch of downloadable Tracking Sheets to aid in keeping track of what has happened with certain NPCs, what treasure has been awarded to the players, and other things.
It will then also give an overview of Greyhawk as a campaign setting - using it as an example that players can either take and make their own, or to serve as inspiration for creating their own settings.
It will also include some sample adventures.
The DMG will include the Bastion system, which is being pitched as a very player-run system that can also be done on one's own - they suggested that if a session gets cancelled, the DM can simply give the players a Bastion turn, so that they can have fun stuff happening there and report it to the other players the next time they meet up.
Monster Manual:
Again, not a ton of brand-new information (to be fair, these videos were meant to be about the PHB) but there is both an effort to beef up high-CR monsters (given how effective the more recent releases like the monsters in Bigby's have been, I think they'll probably do fine) and to expand "monster families" so that you can have a monster of a certain flavor that fits the level of your campaign - such as a nascent vampire for lower-level parties or a super-powered vampire for high-level parties. They're also expanding the generic humanoid NPC stat blocks to be bigger.
These deep-dives are going to continue through the week, so we'll have more to pore over. I'm excited for these books - while each individual change is more of a light tweak, they do seem to be adding up to really tuning up the game in a fun way, and I'm optimistic about the impact it will have on the game.
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