Yesterday afternoon the Changelog for D&DBeyond was updated to highlight what changes would be taking place with the launch of the Dungeons & Dragons 5e 2024 Core Rulebooks, such as the Player Handbook releasing in September. One aspect that has caught everyone’s eye is the section on 2014 Spells and Magic Items which stated that Magic Items and Spells that have a 2024 counterpart would replace their 2014 version.
In the changelog it is suggested that if a player wants to use the 2014 version of a spell or magic item that they use D&DBeyond’s Homebrew Tool to create those versions and add them to your character in that way.
D&DBeyond’s homebrew functionality at it’s most base functionality, creating Homebrew items for you alone to use, is a free feature.
If you are a subscriber at the Hero or Master Tier it offers additional functionality. As a Hero subscriber you can access all published homebrew material of other users, and as a Master Tier you have the same homebrew access but you can also share items in your Homebrew collection with members of your campaign. This is a way to create magical items or spells and allow your characters to simply add them to their character sheet.
How Different Are Spells In Dungeons & Dragons 5e 2024?
Reviewing these changes I was interested to understand what kinds of differences there are between Spells from 2014 and Spells from 2024 so I spot-checked a number of spells that are commonly used. I’ve listed the Spell names and any differences below.
- Acid Splash
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Arcane Lock
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Mechanical Change: The 2014 Arcane Lock can be suppressed by Knock for 10 minutes and when affected by the spell the DC to pick the lock increases by 10, the 2024 Arcane Lock states “This lock can’t be unlocked by any nonmagical means” but does not specify the effect of Knock
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Faerie Fire
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Fireball
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Goodberry
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Somewhat Mechanical Change: The 2014 edition states that “up to ten berries appear…” whereas the 2024 version states outright that “ten berries appear in your hand”
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Mechanical Change: In 2014 edition it takes an Action to eat a berry, in 2024 it takes a Bonus Action to eat a berry
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From the above we’re able to see that even from a spot check there are a lot of tweaks that spells have taken on from the 2014 to the 2024 release of Dungeons & Dragons 5e.
We have reached out to Wizards of the Coast for a comment on why the 2014 edition of a spell would be removed instead of being labeled as legacy, as well as how many spells have been altered from their 2014 rendition.
