This review covers the 2014 core rules for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, as published by Wizards of the Coast. It does not cover the revised 2024 core rulebooks, which replaced this version as the current line.
History of 5e D&D
5th edition was developed under the name D&D Next, with a public playtest beginning May 24, 2012, that ran for roughly two years with around 175,000 volunteer participants before launch. Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford are credited as the edition’s lead designers, with Crawford specifically leading development of the Player’s Handbook.
The rollout happened in stages. A free Basic Rules PDF came first, on July 3, 2014, followed by the Starter Set (containing the adventure ‘Lost Mine of Phandelver’) on July 15 of that same year. The Player’s Handbook followed on August 19, the Monster Manual on September 30, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide closed out the year on December 9.
Wizards of the Coast has never released a single official lifetime print run figure for the Player’s Handbook. Third-party sales tracking through Nielsen BookScan recorded more than 1.56 million Player’s Handbook sales in the US alone by 2023, a figure that doesn’t include overseas sales, digital sales through D&D Beyond, or secondary market activity. By most public accounting, including a 2016 comparison from Mike Mearls stating that 5th edition’s lifetime Player’s Handbook sales had already surpassed the combined lifetime sales of the 3rd, 3.5, and 4th edition Player’s Handbooks, this is the best-selling edition of D&D to date.
The 2014 core books are no longer the current product line, having been replaced by a revised Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual in 2024, often referred to as 5.5e. Like AD&D and Basic D&D, the 2014 books can still be found through remaining retailer stock and the used market, and digital versions remain available through D&D Beyond.
Playing the Game
Armor class is ascending in this edition: the higher the number, the better protected the character, a departure from the descending AC convention used in AD&D and Basic D&D.
Initiative is rolled individually for each character, a d20 plus the character’s Dexterity modifier, rather than as a single roll per side. Monsters can have their initiative rolled individually by the DM, but it is more common for all monsters to act together based on a collective initiative roll.
Player character death works through death saving throws. At 0 hit points, a character falls unconscious and rolls an unmodified d20 at the start of each of their turns: three net successes stabilize them at 0 hit points, three net failures means death, a natural 1 counts as two failures, and a natural 20 brings the character up to 1 hit point and restores consciousness. Taking damage while already at 0 hit points counts as an automatic failure, two on a critical hit, and if that single instance of damage equals or exceeds the character’s hit point maximum, they die instantly instead of rolling.
Advantage and disadvantage are a key change in 5e compared to AD&D and Basic editions. Rolling two d20s and taking the higher or lower result, respectively, replaces the long list of individual situational bonuses and penalties found in AD&D and Basic D&D.
Character level advancement uses a single unified experience points table shared by every class, so a barbarian and a wizard need the same total XP to reach each level, unlike the class-specific tables used in both earlier editions covered in this series. The Dungeon Master’s Guide also offers a milestone-based alternative that skips XP tracking entirely, advancing characters at story beats instead.
Experience points are earned more heavily based on monsters slain or overcome, losing the 1 gp = 1 xp mechanic in older editions.
5e Player Characters
Nine playable races appear in the core Player’s Handbook:
- Human
- Dwarf
- Elf
- Halfling
- Dragonborn
- Gnome
- Half-Elf
- Half-Orc
- Tiefling
Several of these split further into subraces. Dwarves have hill and mountain variants, elves have high, wood, and dark (drow), gnomes have forest and rock varieties, and halflings offer lightfoot and stout variations.
Twelve classes are available:
- Barbarian
- Bard
- Cleric
- Druid
- Fighter
- Monk
- Paladin
- Ranger
- Rogue*
- Sorcerer
- Warlock
- Wizard
- What was called a thief in AD&D and Basic editions has been renamed rogue in 5e.
There are no race or class restrictions of any kind in this edition. Any race can be any class, a deliberate break from earlier editions covered in this series. This means a player rolling up a new character has a wide selection of race and class combinations to choose from. The variety goes up dramatically once characters reach third level.
Each class selects a subclass, though the number of options varies considerably in the core book. Clerics have 7 divine domains and Wizards have 8 arcane schools, while every other class has just 2 or 3 subclass choices, an imbalance later addressed through supplement books.
All characters cap out at level 20 across every class, with no race-based ceilings.
The Player’s Handbook contains 361 spells total across every spellcasting class, roughly two and a half times AD&D’s combined spell count and far beyond the much smaller list in Basic D&D.
Character creation involves significantly more decision points than either earlier edition. Race, class, subclass, background, skills, equipment, and spells for casters all require a choice. None of those choices restrict each other, though, unlike AD&D’s race and class rules. To create a first-level character, a first-time player typically needs 30-45 minutes with DM guidance, or significantly longer if figuring it out on their own. It is common for players to use online tools to expedite this process, especially when generating characters that start higher than level 1.
On the character sheet complexity scale, this edition sits at a 4. Skills, saving throw proficiencies, and spell slots for casters add real bookkeeping, with a fair bit of time spent calculating modifiers based on core stat values and modifiers determined by which class and race were selected.
5e Readability and Playability
The Player’s Handbook is 320 pages long and reads in a more conversational, tutorial style than either earlier edition, using sidebars, quick-reference tables, and short example call-outs to explain rules as they’re introduced rather than assuming prior familiarity with the game.
Chapter 1 walks a new player through building a character step by step alongside a running example. Combat and other rules sections use brief illustrative examples rather than a full narrated session. Color artwork is included throughout all three core rulebooks.
A free Basic Rules PDF has been available directly from Wizards of the Coast since July 2014. It includes one race option per race entry, four core classes (cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard), and a trimmed spell and monster selection, enough to build characters and run a complete game without buying anything.
Summary
5th edition removes most of the friction that makes AD&D demanding for a new player, but adds significant choice complexity during character creation and subsequent play compared to Basic D&D.
Compared to AD&D, there are no race or class restrictions to check, advantage and disadvantage replace a long list of situational modifiers, and a single XP table applies to every class. The tradeoff is a wider set of decisions to make during character creation, since race, class, subclass, background, and equipment are all separate choices with no built-in restrictions steering a new player toward simpler combinations. Leveling up introduces additional choices for the player.
From the Dungeon Master’s side, this edition is built to run with less table-side calculation than AD&D required, and the free Basic Rules make it possible to start a group without any purchase at all. The tradeoff for the DM shows up in subclass balance rather than rules complexity, with Cleric and Wizard offering considerably more depth than the other ten classes right out of the core book.
As an entry point to tabletop roleplaying, this is a reasonably approachable edition to play, but is very complex for character creation. The free rules, the removal of race and class restrictions, and the advantage and disadvantage system all lower the barrier for a first-time player, even as the sheer number of character build options can feel like its own kind of overwhelming at the table.
