D&D Beyond users won’t lose access to the 2014 Basic Rules or 2014 Player’s Handbook, but some rules will be automatically updated on character sheets regardless as to what version of the rules users play with. This week, D&D Beyond formally announced plans for its rollout of the upcoming 2024 Player’s Handbook, which will functionally update the current Dungeons & Dragons ruleset with a number of changes that range from basic rules to character creation, spells, and other fundamental parts of the rules. Many have wondered how D&D Beyond would implement these updates, especially for players who choose not to immediately update to the 2024 rules. D&D Beyond has stated that players would continue to have access to all 2014 material, although some material will automatically be updated to the 2024 rules in their character sheet.
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All players will continue to have access to the 2014 Basic Rules (available for free) and any 2014 Core Rulebooks they paid for on their account. These rules will be available through the compendium and most “legacy” content involving character creation can still be used in D&D Beyond’s character builder. However, rules for spells, magic items, and mundane items are all receiving automatic updates across the board and will be implemented across D&D Beyond, regardless as to whether they paid for the 2024 Core Rulebooks. For instance, a Wizard with the Sleep spell on their character sheet will have their rulesheet and tooltips automatically updated to the 2024 rules. If a player wanted to use the 2014 version of Sleep, they’ll need to either look up the spell in their compendium or create a Homebrew copy of Sleep and place it in their character sheet.
The following rules will be updated automatically for all users, meaning that if they reference it from their character sheet it will show the new version:
- Core gameplay definitions
- Armor Class
- Saving Throws
- Skills and Abilities
- Alignment
- Senses (Blindsight, Darkvision, Tremorsense, Truesight)
- Area of effect definitions
- Spells (save for Feeblemind and Branding Smite)
- Mundane and Magical items
D&D Beyond will classify the following rulesets as “Legacy” rules, meaning they will not be automatically updated in the toolset and can still be used in character creation and on the character sheet:
- Classes
- Subclasses that have a new version in the 2024 Player’s Handbook
- Species
- Backgrounds
- Feats
- Monsters
As previously stated, players will be able to create characters using 2024 Class rules but with 2014 subclasses. Alternatively, players can still use the 2014 Class rules and 2014 subclasses and this will continue to be available in D&D Beyond. However, even if a player were to create a 2014 Cleric on D&D Beyond, they’ll have to use the 2024 spells rules unless they manually create a version of the old spell and add it to their character sheet. Alternatively, a player can still look up the 2014 versions of their spells in the compendium.
