Summary

• Dungeons & Dragons celebrates its 50th anniversary with revamped core rulebooks featuring new subclasses, monsters, and spells.
• The new rulebooks intricately weave together lore and mechanics, creating an exhilarating gameplay experience for both players and DMs.
• from the past decade has influenced the creation of the new core rulebooks, with a focus on making it easier for newcomers to jump into playing D&D.

Dungeons & Dragons is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year with three new core rulebooks, the 2024 Player's Handbook, the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, and 2025 Monster Manual. Each of the new core rulebooks has been completely revamped with completely new elements added including new subclasses, monsters, and spells. The Dungeon Master's Guide has also been rewritten to make it easier for newcomers to jump behind the DM screen. The Player's Handbook includes new species, subclasses, and completely revamped spells and subclasses.

The team behind the new rulebooks have taken from players from the last ten years into when working on the new core rulebooks. Jeremy Crawford and Chis Perkins have shared a number of details about each of the new core rulebooks that have intrigued fans. They seamlessly weave the lore and mechanics together to create even more exhillerating game play for players and Dungeon Masters.

While at Gen Con Wizards of the Coast hosted a press conference about their projects with a major focus on the new Dungeons & Dragons core rulebooks. Screen Rant had the opportunity to chat with Jeremy Crawford about many of the changes to the core rulebooks. He revealed details about two new monsters, the Arch Hag and Blob of Annihalation, new lore behind spells, and many of the changes with established classes and subclasses. He also broke down the new subclasses and revealed why the artificer is not included in the 2024 Player's Handbook.

The Rulebooks Have "Added More Spells That Are Named After People In The D&D Multiverse"

I know you said that with Wish it was the hardest and most fun to change because there's more lore behind it. Were there other elements, especially with spells, that you wanted to add more lore to in order to flesh that out?

Jeremy Crawford: Yeah, so there are spells like Legend Lore that now even have a bit of comedy in them. With every spell when we revisit it, we're not only looking at how does it function mechanically, but also how does it really contribute to the DM and the player's world building that is going on as they play D&D? So whenever we go to a spell, we're pondering what does this say about the D&D multiverse?

As a part of that, we also have added more spells that are named after people in the D&D multiverse. So for instance, there's a brand new Tasha Spell in the book as a nod to the book, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. There is now a new Tasha spell that summons Tasha's Cauldron and you can fish potions out of it. It's a high level spell, but we also now have a spell associated with Yolande, the Elf Queen of Greyhawk and spells associated with Jallarzi, she is one of this famous Circle of Eight in Grayhawk.

In addition to a lot of new sort of fun crunchy stuff, there's bits of lore and then aided by the lore glossary and the Dungeon Master's Guide where you can then go read up on who is this Tasha? Who is this Yolande? Who is Jallarzi? So it's a case of how the books work together sort of teaming up.

I love that all of the books are so seamlessly woven together.

Jeremy Crawford: We are so glad we were able to do it. It was also a tremendous effort because that's essentially over a thousand pages of content that we've been developing simultaneously.

Can you talk to me about the change with the origins and how it's more based on who a character was instead of their species?

Jeremy Crawford: As we reimagined the character creation process, we really wanted to center your imagination on your character class choice. So now when you make your character, the first decision you make is your character class because that really influences the fantasy that a person has, whether they're a wizard, a fighter, a cleric. And then what we do is we ask you to ponder, What did you do before you became a wizard or a ranger or a paladin or what have you?

And then once you figured out what you did before, which is represented by your background, you then sort of go back through your character's backstory and then ponder your birth, which then naturally leads to you just choosing your character species. And so it's really now about the narrative of it. It's really about walking you through that sort of story process of how you think about your character.

"The Artificer In Some Ways Didn't The Task Of Being Something Universal To All D&D Worlds"

How did you make sure that the narrative aspect of D&D is even more heavily influential in the new core rulebooks while still keeping the mechanics and crunchiness that so many players love?

Jeremy Crawford: So what we did is we not only amped up the narrative of your origin, but we also amped up the crunch, especially on the background side because one of the things we wanted to do is make your character's background more significant for your character. And so as a part of that, each background now gives you a starting feat, which is from a new category of feats called Origin Feats. And each of those origin feats, some of which appeared in a different form in the 2014 Player's Handbook, but then others are brand new.

Each of those gives you something that will benefit your character for the rest of your career. So examples are like the tough feat, which was in 2014, where just I simply have more hit points and you're going to enjoy the fact that you have more hit points for your character's whole career and I got that because of my background. Your background also now influences your ability scores. So in 2014, you got some ability modifiers from your species that's no longer the case.

Instead, backgrounds now each give you a list of three ability scores and you choose which of those three gets a plus two and which one gets a plus one. Or you can just decide that you get plus one in all three of them. The backgrounds all have different combinations for you to consider, which we also did to make sure each background interlocked with several different classes. We wanted to make it so that no background felt like it had to always be paired with a particular class.

So now we've made it so that a wizard is just as happy to get acolyte as their background as a cleric is. We wanted there to be some fun unexpected combos, which we encourage partly through the ability score choices that we give to each background. So again, your background is definitely a heftier part of your character than it ever was before.

How did you choose which classes to include? Many have noted that the Artifcer wasn't included.

Jeremy Crawford: So our focus was to carry forward the 12 classes that were in the 2014 Player's Handbook. We considered including the Artificer, but the Artificer in some ways didn't the task of being something universal to all D&D worlds. We love the Artificer. I have my artificer NPC in the acquisitions incorporated games that I've even also played on stage, Vi, who appears in a piece of art in the Player's Handbook incidentally, just to show how much I love Artificers.

But we just felt that the combination of Artificers being a bit niche, but also we had a limited number of pages in a book that we already had a hard time fitting everything into it. But as I mentioned, we have some fun new things in store for the Artificer because the Artificer hasn't gotten any official new options in a while. It's been since Tasha's Cauldron and we are definitely aware of that and we are going to address that.

Jeremy Crawford Explains How The New Subclasses Reveals A Side Of The 3 Classes "People Have Never Seen Before"

Can you break down the new subclasses and what inspired you all when crafting them?

Jeremy Crawford: So each of the new subclasses unlocks a side of their three classes that I think people have never seen before in the official game. Starting with the College of Dance in the Bard, one of the things we wanted to do with the Bard class itself this time around is really show the class is not all about words. Because typically Bards have been very much about either singing or poetry. We wanted to lean into the fact that in our world a major form of performance in all cultures is dance.

This also is combined with the fact that in the new Player's Handbook, we've been explicit about the fact that in the D&D multiverse there is a common sign language that people use. So we also wanted to drive home that communication doesn't always mean vocalization. So the College of Dance was a way for us to have a whole subclass that is about artistry through movement. That subclass also gives the Bard a little taste of monk by being really good at turning some badass dance moves into harm to enemies.

But then also we have some features in the College of Dance that we basically think of as internally when we were working on it, we would refer to them as the flash mob features because it's about helping your friends move with you. And I really hope that groups will describe it as them dancing together.

And then with the Circle of the Sea in the Druid, this was a chance for us to address what I considered to be a big gap in the Druid's class story, which the Druid is all about nature. And in most D&D worlds, just like in our world, a lot of nature is water. And so this here with the Circle of the Sea, you can play a Druid now that is all about creatures from the sea, the power of storms, water. One of our goals there was to not introduce essentially the Aquaman problem.

We didn't want to have a druid who was only useful if they were near a body of water, which is one of the reasons why we created a feature that appeared in the Unearthed Arcana for this subclass where they have this sort of swirling waters around them. So our solution basically was they bring the ocean with them. Also if people are missing the Tempus cleric from the 2014 Player's Handbook, I would say aesthetically you get a taste of that in the Circle of the Sea Druid in the 2024 Players Handbook because of also the storm element that is a part of it.

And then finally, the path of the World Tree in the Barbarian was our effort to have a barbarian in the Player's Handbook with a bit more magic than the other barbarian options, but also really leaning into a part of the D&D cosmology that the chord books haven't focused on in many years. And that is the World Tree that connects all of the worlds of D&D.

So we thought, how cool would it be to have this barbarian who's Rage is powered by the world tree itself. And the Barbarian is able to use the power of the World Tree to cause roots to spring up, grab people, pull them toward the barbarian, and then the barbarian can also use the magic of the tree to teleport themselves as well as their companions.

Do you have a favorite new monster in the Monster Manual?

Jeremy Crawford: Oh, it is a tie for me right now between the Arch Hag and the Blob of Annihilation.

The New Dungeon Master's Guide Is Meant To Make It "Easy For People To Jump Into DMing"

The new Dungeon Master's Guide feels like it's super easy for people to jump in as first-time DMs, which can be a very intimidating thing to do. What for you was the most important element to make it clear that as long as you have this book and you've at least got a basic knowledge of D&D, you can jump in and tell your own story?

Jeremy Crawford: So that perspective of making it easy for people to jump into DMing was a perspective we had working on every part of the new Dungeon Master's Guide. And so that led us to having not only an entire chapter of advice where we don't take it for granted that the reader knows anything about DMing. We talk through a lot of the basics of DMing, including even the logistics of getting the people together.

We talk about that in the Dungeon Master's Guide. But then also another side of that perspective was making sure we provide a lot of pre-made things for the DM. So that's why there are a bunch of maps in the book that the DM can just grab and use. It's why we have not only five sample adventures, but show the DM just how little prep you can do and have a successful session.

Because we realized that too often in the past, people would look at our big published books and think writing a whole bunch of stuff like that is how you prepare to run an adventure. And we wanted to show people in the book that's all about being a successful DM. You can have a successful night of D&D play with one piece of paper of notes. There's no need to do that much work.

Now if you want to do that work and it's your bliss, awesome, go for it. But a lot of DMs are times strapped and throughout the book we basically kind of give you cheat codes as a DM for how you can speed up your prep, how you can make running the game easier. So that's why throughout the book you're going to find not only that pre-made content, but also the worksheets that Chris talked about to help show how you can keep track of the information in a campaign.

What for you has been one of the most surprising parts of seeing the rise in Dungeons & Dragons popularity with things like Baldur's Gate, the movie, and actual plays?

Jeremy Crawford: I've just been delighted that so many people have come to see how magical D&D is. Because I think people even who maybe saw the movie and don't play D&D or who see the D&D stuff in Stranger Things and maybe even played Baldur's Gate but haven't played traditional D&D.

I think all of them though are seeing that magic of D&D of a ragtag group of people coming together, solving problems together and often solving those problems very badly, but in a very entertaining way and seeing just how, not only fun that is, but how nurturing that is to friendships to a sense of community. I've noticed with kids who play, in a way learning how to solve problems with other people. I think all of that combined, it's like people maybe who wouldn't in the past have given D&D and a second look now are like, Oh, maybe there's something to this game.

Some of the subclasses, feel really different from what fans have known before. Which of the subclasses was the most changed?

Jeremy Crawford: So of the 13 subclasses that have been completely redesigned, the one that is most dramatically redesigned is the Warrior of the Elements, which was formally known as The Way of the Four Elements in the Monk. There is almost no trace of the previous subclass there other than the theme. So the theme is still there of tapping into elemental power, but the gameplay is completely different. I think it's going to be way more rewarding, a lot more fun, at least it certainly has been in our play testing.

Jeremy Crawford Explains Why Paladins Will Want To Use More Than Just Divine Smite

Of the new spells or the new approach to established spells, which has had some of the most surprising outcomes during the playtesting process?

Jeremy Crawford: One of the things I really love seeing develop over the course of not only our development but also the Unearthed Arcana process was how all of the Paladin smite spells really came into focus. In the 2014 Player's Handbook each of the smite spells had its fans, but they were so often eclipsed by just the baseline Divine Smite that a lot of Paladins just never even bothered with those spells.

One of the efforts that we made was to keep the basic Divine Smite still fun, but also make it clear why you'd want to cast the other ones. So that included in some cases making them more powerful. In other cases it included changing their functionality. But I love that by the end of all of that work, it now feels like a true menu of meaningful options for the Paladin.

We have found in our internal play tests that of our staff who in the past would also ignore the Smite spells and just Divine Smite, Divine Smite, Divine Smite now are often looking to those other Smite spells and thinking, Nope, in this case this other Smite is actually more useful.

You talked about creating different levels of vampires allowing players to battle them throughout their adventure. What were some other monsters that really stuck out as monsters that people will want to fight againstmoe often throughout their campaigns?

Jeremy Crawford: So we now have a weaker Lich also in the book. I've mentioned the Apex monsters and probably the biggest jump between the CRs before and the CR now would be the jump between the hags that were in the 2014 Monster Manual and the Arch Hag who's in the new Monster Manual.

We also in a number of the NPC groups added, in most cases, not more low CR options, but more high CR options because we found that too many of our NPC groups sort of petered out CR wise between five and nine and some DMs need some of these NPCs at higher levels of play. So that's why you're going to see in many of those NPC groups more high CR representatives.

"We've Created Many Of These Apex Monsters, They're Examples Of Other Titans"

How do the newer monsters fit into the lore of this world?

Jeremy Crawford: So the Arch Hag in many ways is the easiest one for us to incorporate because we've already had the lore that in the Feywild there Archfey. Even one of our warlock subclasses is all about having an Archfey patron. So we just thought, how about we actually stat one up and put it in the Monster Manual, and we are hoping that some of our Warlock players will even have the Arch Hag as their patron. But then in other cases what we did is we expanded on other lore that was already there.

So an example of that is in the 2014 Monster Manual, we identified a few of the monsters including the Kraken and the Tarrasque as titans, and we had said the titans are monsters that were either begat by a God or created directly by a God. So what we've done is when we've created many of these Apex Monsters, they're examples of other titans.

So these are other monsters created by a specific God or pantheon of gods. In the case of the Blob of Annihilation, it's also a titan. It is a titan partly because it has, and you'll see this in the art, it has the skull of a dead God floating inside it. So that's sort of signaling to people how dangerous it is, it even absorbed a God.

I love that you added lore to the Wish spell. What were some of your favorite elements to really have the lore addition up the ante of a spell or even just a detail about the world?

Jeremy Crawford: I would say in every part of the book where we added new game options, there was also an additional lore element. So in the class chapter, part of us adding the Path of the World Tree to the Barbarian was a lore motivation because we wanted to get the roots of the World Tree into the book itself.

In a number of places, including some of the example patrons we refer to in the Warlock, we've added new examples, new bits of the D&D multiverse that we want to tease out because something we're repeating that we did in the 2014 core books is we've actually sprinkled these books with hints of stuff we're working on for the years. So a lot of these lore things relate to stuff that we are noodling with.

You'll see in the equipment chapter, there are now a couple of firearms that are available in the Player's Handbook because almost every D&D world in the multiverse actually has firearms. So this was actually being truer to the lore by providing that. Also there's an angle to lore that's less about sort of world details and more about world feel that also influenced a number of our decisions.

One funny example is in the equipment chapter, you can now buy a map that mechanically helps you get to a place which is we realized a funny thing that the game did not have, given that it's a game all about adventuring. Again, other things like now there is actually a costume you can buy that gives you a mechanical benefit. So that's, I mean, there's a kind of world feel that we think about as we come up with what we want to add to a book like the Player's Handbook.

D&D Has Added "Three Entirely Different Types Of Tieflings"

Which of the established species did you level up in the Player's Handbook?

Jeremy Crawford: So there are 10 species in the book. Three of them are new to the Player's Handbook. So the Goliath, the Assimar, and the Orc. Every one of the species has something special and new in it. I would say that the Tiefling is one of the most enhanced simply because we now include three entirely different types of Tieflings within the Tiefling.

Because we had explored in some of our past books that there were other types of Tiefling. Given the popularity of Tiefling, we wanted to bring that into the core and show that the Tiefling that we had before in the Player's Handbook were actually only one type, and now you have three types that you can choose from.

Why was this the right time to add Goliaths, Assimars, and Orcs to the Player's Handbook?

Jeremy Crawford: So those three species, we added specifically for lore reasons. When we looked at our species lineup, we view them not only as important character building choices, also each one is an aesthetic choice. When a person decides they want to play in elf versus a dwarf, part of that is an aesthetic choice that is distinct from any of the game design choices that they're making as they consider those options. Also each species represents a different aspect of the D&D multiverse.

So as we were firming up the lineup and looking at the species we had and what was missing, we realized that the Dragonborn, which is a great connection to D&D's, very iconic dragons, was missing a companion species that would be a connection to the game's very iconic giants. And so that's how then the Goliath made it into the book. Orcs we wanted to bring in, because Orcs had been an iconic part of D&D for many decades, had been playable for many decades, and we felt like it was long past time for them to graduate into the Player's Handbook.

And then the Assimar is there to be the celestial cousin to the Tiefling because we felt from a world building standpoint, it was actually bizarre that we had provided sort of a fiendish character option, but did not balance it with a celestial character option. That again allowed us to sort of point the camera at several different parts of the D&D multiverse.

Is there a particular part of the multiverse that you want to explore more in the future?

Jeremy Crawford: I always love venturing into the Feywild and also the Shadowfell partly because they are the closest to the material plane, which means they tend to be a bit more relatable for people than the more kind of far out outer planes, which get very metaphysical. But I also like them because they really encapsulate two very resonant types of fantasy.

There's the fairytale fantasy whimsy paired with sort of a perilous beauty where yes, that thing's beautiful, but it might also kill you or entrap you here for the next thousand years. And then on the flip side of that, the Shadowfell, which is the home of Ravenloft, D&D fans, myself included, love gothic horror and it's such a rich adventuring space. So I never tire of going to those two parts of the multiverse.

Jeremy Crawford On How The New Bastion System Is Fun For Players & A Cheat Sheet For DMs

What is the most impactful addition to the Dungeon Master's Guide for veteran DMs?

Jeremy Crawford: So there are several things that I think are going to be a huge hit with veteran DMs. One the new magic items because hey, more treasure, the magic items have all been retuned, so you're going to find some work better than ever before. Then also the Bastion system, which can provide a very rich backdrop for a DMs campaign, but also something we haven't talked as much about, about the Bastion system is that bastions can also turn into a sort of DM cheat sheet for what interests their players.

Because if a DM pays attention to what the players are doing with their bastions, that is a signal to the DM of the kinds of things they care about for their characters. The player characters will also be inviting in hirlings into their ions, and those become then NPCs that can help bring richness to the DMs campaign. Then also experienced DMs are going to be able to benefit from all that pre-made stuff. I've been DMing since I was a kid and I have and less time when I'm DMing at home. So I'm looking forward to looting all that pre-made stuff.

What has it been like for you to be a part of the celebration of 50 years of D&D?

Jeremy Crawford: It has been an honor. It's also been unreal because I've had to face the reality of my own age because I started playing this game in first edition as a teenager. I met both Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. And So in many ways it's been acknowledging I've sort of grew up with this game. It is corny to hear the game director of D&D say this, but all these decades later, it's still my favorite game. And so I love being able to celebrate that it's endured this long and that I feel that heavy responsibility of doing everything I can to keep it healthy so that someone else in 50 years can celebrate its century of existence.

What are you most looking forward to in the future? Either something specific or just a long-term goal that you're looking for in the future.

Jeremy Crawford: I have a combination goal of digging even deeper into beloved elements of the game from the past, because even in 10 years, Fifth Edition has really neat corners of the multiverse that it hasn't focused on yet. But I am also just as ionate visiting some truly new places in the years ahead. When I say places, I mean both worlds, but also new elements of game design, new ways of playing that people have never seen before.

About The New Dungeons & Dragons Core Rule Books

Introducing the 2024 Player's Handbook, the new and improved guide for fifth edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Packed with endless character options, striking illustrations, and a streamlined design, every part of this 384-page book is a joy to experience. Excite your imagination with the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, revised and expanded for fifth edition D&D! Whether you're a new or experienced Dungeon Master, here's everything you need to weave epic tales, build fantastical worlds, and inspire memorable moments for your party to enjoy. In the new and improved 2024 Monster Manual, meet a monstrous menagerie of creatures for fifth edition! Encounter iconic D&D favorites and a whole host of mighty new monsters. Let their stories, illustrations, and streamlined stat blocks fuel your epic adventures. 

Check back for more Dungeons & Dragons interviews soon:

• Chris Perkins
• Jess Lanzillo

Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player's Handbook will be released September 17, the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide will be released November 12, and the new Monster Manual will be released February 18, 2025.