Are The Character Recommendations In The 2024 Player's Handbook Any Good?

Druidcraft!? On a druid! Ludicrous!

The new D&D Player’s Handbook is now in the hands of players around the world who are building characters with the new options available. The new character options are generally very good and I’ve already found the increased flexibility and versatility of these changes to be a big step up.

There’s also a clear design philosophy geared towards making the book more accessible for new players which I applaud. One of those features is the inclusion of recommended choices in the character creation section. Useful if you’re a new player overwhelmed with choices and want some advice.

But are these recommendations really good options to choose for your character? After spotting a couple of questionable suggestions, I decided to look in detail at all the recommendations Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) gives in the 2024 Player’s Handbook to work out whether these are recommendations worth choosing.

Analysing the character recommendations in the Player’s Handbook

Below I’ve gone through every moment I can find where WOTC provides a recommended options when creating your character.

These seemed to come under 3 option types. Every class gets a recommended epic boon. Every spellcasting classes also gets some recommendations for spells known at level 1 (or level 3 for eldritch knights and arcane tricksters). There are also a few class features that get recommendations too:

Epic boon recommendations

Every class gets an epic boon at level 19. Most of the suggestions (which I’ve outlined below) are pretty good options But the challenge WOTC has, is that some epic boons are clearly inferior to others. It bypasses some of this by ignoring some of these poorer options altogether (like the boon of skill and speed). But it still recommends the boon of spell recall for 2 classes and their choice for the monk is just inexplicable!

Below I’ve analysed their recommendations for epic bons for each class and what I feel is a better option:

Barbarian – Boon of irresistible offense – This boon is alright and definitely fits flavour-wise, but it’s effectiveness is fairly situational (you’re relying on fighting enemies with certain resistances). For better damage dealing, I’d be more inclined to go for the boon of combat prowess. Or if you want better durability, the boons of fortitude and recovery.
Bard – Boon of spells recall – This is a mathematically poor epic boon regaining on average, just a handful of low level spells each day. I’d be more inclined to recommend the boon of fate or boon of dimensional travel as these work with both melee and spellcasting builds and are hugely effective.
Cleric – Boon of fate – An excellent choice for any class really.
Druid – Boon of dimensional travel – This works really well for a druid. Imagine a moon druid teleporting each turn to pop up and attack different enemies. Or a sea druid jumping in and out of melee to safely use their emanation.
Fighter – Boon of combat prowess – A great option for a fighter, especially as you make so many attacks, you’re bound to miss one and this way you can just land the hit.
Monk – Boon of irresistible offence – This is almost pointless on a monk as you can already turn your attacks into using force damage with empowered strike so you don’t even need to worry about bludgeoning, slashing or piercing damage resistance. This probably ranks as the worst recommendation in the book. I’d go for something to increase your durability like the boon of fortitude or recovery.
Paladin – Boon of truesight – This is extremely useful when it’s needed and pointless the rest of the time. It makes it hard to disagree with it, just be aware you may not always get use out of it.
Ranger – Boon of dimensional travel – Great option for martials jumping between enemies, ranged warriors trying to keep at a distance from enemies and for traversing difficult to access places. This makes it great for any ranger build.
Rogue – Boon of the night spirit – Near constant, automatic hiding and damage resistances is excellent. This is especially useful if you’re playing a campaign in lots of dungeons.
Sorcerer – Boon of dimensional travel – Great safety boon that fits nicely thematically. Just keep teleporting away from your enemies every turn.
Warlock – Boon of fate – Really great boon for any class.
Wizard – Boon of spell recall – Like for the bard, this boon doesn’t stack up in terms of impact, giving you just a few extra low level spell slots per day. This is even worse on a wizard that tends to be able to cast more spells than anyone else already. The boon of fate and the boon of dimensional travel are probably better options for a wizard.

Spell recommendations

There are loads of spells to choose from in the new Player’s Handbook (391 to be exact). While this is welcome, it’s also a pretty overwhelming number, even for experienced players! Recommending some good options is definitely a helpful idea. But how well does WOTC do?

Bard – All the recommended spells for a bard are good options that I’d take myself.
Cleric – The recommended spells are OK, but could be better. Guidance is a great choice. Sacred flame is alright but toll the dead is a better damage dealer. Thaumaturgy is mostly just flavour and does little practically. I’d go for word of radiance for a more aggressive cleric, which is great for crowds, or spare the dying for something more universally useful (like always being able to keep your friends alive). I have no qualms with the 1st level spells though.
Druid – Druidcraft is a pointless spell as the effects are so negligible. Spare the dying, guidance and thunderclap are all better options. All the other recommendations for the druid work well.
Eldritch knight – Ray of frost and shocking grasp are out-performed by toll the dead or you can go for something with AoE like thunderclap for dealing with hordes (as you’ll often be in the middle of enemies). Burning hands and shield are both good options but jump isn’t that useful. Thunderwave is a better option for damage or something like sleep for disabling an opponent.
Paladin – heroism and searing smite are both excellent options.
Paladin – Blessed warrior fighting style – Guidance is a great option but if you need a ranged, damage dealing combat for your paladin, toll the dead is better than sacred flame.
Ranger – Cure wounds and ensnaring strike are both great options for a ranger.
Ranger – Druidic warrior – Guidance is a good option but it’s hard to recommend starry wisp for a ranger. At low levels, standard weapon attacks do more damage (plus you have the likes of hunters mark and ensnaring strike to enhance this further). At later levels, extra attacks enhanced by spells are also going to be more powerful. I’d be tempted to go for something less combat focused for a ranger, like spare the dying.
Arcane trickster – Most of the recommended spells for an arcane trickster are pretty good. However, mind sliver is problematic as it means foregoing your very important sneaky attack. It may have a place if you can’t land a sneak attack for whatever reason, but there are so many ways to manage this that this should be rare. The other spell recommendations are; minor illusion, disguise self, charm person, fog cloud which all work nicely
Sorcerer – Sorcerous burst, shocking grasp, burning hands and detect magic are all good options. I’d switch out light or prestidigitation for minor illusion which has far more practical uses. Burning hands is difficult to recommend for a sorcerer as it relies on getting close to enemies which you want to avoid. Chromatic orb, sleep, fog cloud and magic missile are all better options.
Warlock – Eldritch blast is great but I’d be tempted to go for minor illusion instead of prestidigitation if you’re looking for an out of combat utility spell. If you want to be more aggressive and get in the middle of combat, you can go for thunderclap. Hex is pretty great for consistent extra damage, but works best against tough enemies. I’d go for Tasha’s hideous laughter over charm person to neutralise an enemy in combat, but if you intend to roleplay a lot of manipulating people, charm person could be a good option.
Wizard – Light could be a useful spell but often I’d prefer minor illusion over it. Toll the dead is better than ray of frost though. I’d also change thunderwave as a wizard shouldn’t be surrounded by enough enemies to make this worth taking. If you want a first level AoE spells, burning hands and color spray are better at keeping you out of arms reach. I might prefer the likes of protection from evil and good, fog cloud and Tasha’s hideous laughter for a wizard though as they allow you to stay further from danger. Mage hand, detect magic, feather fall, sleep, magic missile and mage armor are all good recommendations.

Class feature recommendations

A handful of class features also get recommendations too which includes:

Bard – Expertise – Persuasion is great but while performance works thematically, it comes up far too rarely and usually inconsequentially to prioritise. Deception, insight or intimidation would be far better for a bard.
Druid – Wild shape – A rat, riding horse, wolf and spider are decent options with a range of capabilities. However, you miss out on one important function by not having a creature you can transform into with a swim speed (which you can now have from level 1). A constrictor snake is your best option for this and is a solid damage dealer at low levels too. Fortunately, the rat is a bit redundant as the small sneaky creature when you already have a spider (which is better due to it’s climb speed) so I’d replace the rat with a constrictor snake.
Fighter – Fighting style – Defense fighting style is probably a really good recommendation here as a lot will depend on your approach to combat and the weapons you choose, but defense will work for basically any fighter so it’s a solid choice.
Rogue – Expertise – Both sleight of hand and stealth are great options for a rogue to have expertise in.

Are the recommendations any good?

Fortunately, for the most part, they are. Even when some options aren’t the best, they’re generally not bad either. And even then, some of those recommendations for with the flavour of the class, if not the optimisation of it (like with expertise in performance for the bard).

And it’s worth keeping in mind that not everyone wants to optimise their character. Some players want to get the right flavour and feel for their character which is also a perfectly great way to play (I personally like a balance of both).

However, a few options genuinely are poor. Mostly these are for epic boons with the monk standing out as a particularly poor choice. But for the most part, having recommendations for characters is a really nice, beginner friendly approach to character creation that’s mostly well executed.