D&D Beyond’s New Free Rules Update Appears to Change Parts of the 5.5E Player’s Handbook
Yesterday D&D Beyond released a free rules update, and in the update, a small but meaningful number of fixes seem to be in for the new rules.
I don’t know if you’d call it errata or a stealth update or what, but yesterday D&D Beyond released a “foundational introduction” to D&D’s new 5.5E ruleset. It’s not the full SRD 5.2, which is still coming next year (more on that in just a minute), but it’s more like a comprehensive set of starter rules. Like the 5E Basic Rules you could find in the D&D Beyond Compendium.
It’s a cool way to dip your feet into the 5.5E rules without having to go all in on the new corebook, either digitally or physically. But, what’s also worth mentioning is that this ruleset appears to have a few rules fixes that differ from the print edition. We’ll take a look at both, below!
D&D Beyond Releases 5.5E ‘Free Rules’ Update
According to D&D Beyond, the new update is “a free experience for those looking to explore what the new 2024 Player’s Handbook has to offer.” And indeed, it is. It’s a streamlined version of the rules—it puts me in mind of the Starter Set rules that came with D&D. You don’t get all of the classes or all of the spells, but if you didn’t have the Player’s Handbook you might not notice the latter part.
Here’s what you do get though:
- Four Base Classes: Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard
- Four Subclasses: Life Domain, Champion, Thief, Evoker
- Four Species: Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human
- Four Backgrounds: Acolye, Criminal, Sage, and Soldier
You’ll also get 12 feats, 48 monster stat blocks, and 320 spells, which is a lot, but not all of the spells in the book (I know, right?).
But you’ll also get something that the folks who got copies of the Player’s Handbook at Gen Con, and possibly people who are awaiting physical copies of their books won’t get: a series of rules fixes. They’re small, but not insubstantial. For example, Shields now take a “utilize” action to don or doff, which solves a potential exploit many forum optimizers had been playing with—equipping or unequipping a shield as part of an attack.
But that’s not the only fix. The Giant Insect spell’s HP formula has been changed from “30 + 10 for each spell level” to “30 + 10 for each spell level above 4” which feels like what it was supposed to have been. True Polymorph, the 9th level spell, has had language removed about the spell wearing off if the target loses the temporary hit points granted by the spell.
BUT, it gets even stranger. Because it all depends on where you look. If you go to the Free Rules Compendium, linked below, and read the spell entries, you’ll find the updated versions. But if you just type the spell you’re looking for into the search bar, and use the site’s lookup feature, you’ll instead get the same version that appears in the print version of the book. Screenshots below:
It’s not clear which is intended and which isn’t just yet, but I imagine that’ll be sorted out soon enough. It’s worth knowing, though. Because these differences are important. Enthrall, for instance, requires concentration in the print version of the book, but not in the Free Rules Update. And the Lance, depending on which version you look at, has different properties.
Even so, I’d look at the free version as being more correct, since it seems to address issues in the book that don’t really do anything. And that seems to be the case with the digital version of the Player’s Handbook, which is also available now to Master Tier Subscribers on D&D Beyond.
There, you’ll find a laundry list of other changes as well. For instance, the Goliath’s Powerful Build feature no longer refers to “Saving Throws” meant to end the Grappled Condition, but grants advantage on any ability check you make to end the Grappled Condition.
But even then, there are differences between the Player’s Handbook and the Free Rules. Again, the official release date for the rules isn’t even out yet—I imagine we’ll see an errata document that clarifies and unites everything around release. Because, as WotC gets to be more like a video game publisher, they rely more on the same tools available to any game dev, including day 1 hotfixes. Though in this case, it seems like day-13 hotfixes. Either way, D&D Beyond has the free rules available for all. But there’s more!
D&D Beyond Updates Player’s Handbook/Character Sheet
Alongside the Free Rules Update, the D&D Beyond Toolset was updated with the most current ruleset. Though, it’s worth mentioning, WotC has not opted to make you homebrew old versions of spells onto your character sheet, and won’t be changing access to rules, thanks to the vocal outreach of the community.
But here’s a look at what they did change.
“The 2024 Core Rulebooks are revising fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, updating everything from base classes to spells to monster stat blocks. As the official digital toolset for the game, D&D Beyond is undergoing updates so that you can jump into play as soon as the new core rulebooks become available.
When you use the Character Builder to create a new character, you decide which sources will be used. The 2024 content will always be available, but you can choose to show or hide other sources in the Sources section. For example, 2014 content will be marked with a Legacy tag and will default to ‘on.’ If you do not want to see Legacy content, you can change the toggle to ‘off’ to hide those options.
Rules and tooltips for 2014 characters with Legacy sources enabled will provide access to both 2014 and 2024 spells, actions, and items. Conditions, like Exhaustion, will show both the updated 2024 ruling and the 2014 ruling. Some terminology will be updated, but descriptions will stay consistent with the 2014 game mechanics.”
– D&D Beyond
You can find a full list of the changes at the D&D Beyond Changelog.
Happy adventuring!
