Everything different in DND 2024: All major changes to Dungeons & Dragons 5e

The DND 2024 Fifth Edition update has changed a lot about Dungeons & Dragons

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Everything different in DND 2024, every change made to Dungeons & Dragons 5e in the wake of the new books - it can all be found right here. DND 5e has been upended by the new 2024 Edition of the Player’s Handbook, and Fifth Edition is only likely to become even more different and distinct when the Dungeon Master’s Guide is released later this year.

With that in mind, I’ve compared the differences between Dungeons & Dragons 5e as seen in 2014 and 2024, and put together this page to lay out all the important, major changes to the way you play DND. The GamesRadar+ team and I will also be updating this page when the new core rulebooks come out, so keep your eyes peeled for future info on DND 2024 in real time!

Everything different in DND 2024 and how Dungeons & Dragons 5e has changed

The new differences in DND 2024 for 5e’s rules are largely (but not exclusively) on the player-side so far, focused on quality of life improvements, streamlining gameplay, balancing changes and responding to certain requests from the playerbase. In effect, the result is as though the last ten years of 5e – which is widely considered as one of thebest tabletop RPGsalready – have been used as a long-term beta test for an update that’s finally arrived.

Consequently, Dungeons & Dragons 2024 has changed a fair amount of the 5e rules from what they were when they came out in 2014,though the two versions of the game are still very similar and – more importantly – compatible. This means that for the most part, players should still be able to run old modules and adventures using the 2024 rules,with only minor changes needed… at least in theory.

Below, I’ll cover all the differences to DND 2024’s rules in detail, broken up into sections that you can easily navigate using the chapter tags at the side of the page. Or if you want a very specific rule, try using the search function on your browser to leap straight to it!

What’s different about Classes in DND 2024?

The DND 2024 classes have all been changed to some degree, some more than others. The broad trend I’ve noticed was that the new redesigns, beyond aiming for greater balance, seem designed to be crowd-pleasing, building on popular trends in play in DnD culture. There’s also an emphasis on class powers being more easily recharged, obtained, or harder to waste than before – effectively trying to ensure that characters can always do something cool.

Here’s all the major changes to DND classes in 2024:

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Obviously there’s a huge amount to cover here, so if you want further detail, we have a page onhow have DND classes changed for the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

What’s different about Species/Races in DND 2024?

Species is the new term that DND 2024 uses for the peoples of the world instead of 2014’s Races,owing to it being “a problematic term”. There’s also plenty of other changes, with the removal of several previous options, and addition of others.

Here’s all the major changes to DND Species in 2024:

What’s different about Backgrounds in DND 2024?

Dungeons & Dragons Backgrounds in 2024 are more mechanically impactful than they were before, with the associated features that generally pushed storytelling and out-of-combat moments now replaced by certain feats – and Ability Score buffs.

Here’s all the major changes to DND Backgrounds in 2024:

What’s different about Feats in DND 2024?

Feats in DND 2024 have a slightly larger emphasis, and have been categorised into several different types.

New rules in DND 2024

Dungeons & Dragons 2024 comes with a wide swathe of general rule changes both major and minor, the most significant of which we’ve listed below.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and raconteur with a Masters from Sussex University, none of which has actually equipped him for anything in real life. As a result he chooses to spend most of his time playing video games, reading old books and ingesting chemically-risky levels of caffeine. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at USgamer, Gfinity, Eurogamer and more besides.

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