Backwards compatibility in the 2024 revision of D&D 5e

Just how compatible is the 2024 revision of the D&D rules with older 5e publications?

Backwards compatibility in the D&D 2024 revision

First off, Wizards of the Coast have confirmed that the revised rules are backwards compatible with the 2014 version of 5e. There are some really clear and obvious ways in which this will work:

1. Campaigns like Curse of Strahd and Storm King’s Thunder made in 5e will all work with the new rulebooks.
2. Setting books will also work alongside the new rulebooks
3. Monsters from previous books like Monsters of the Multiverse or Spelljammer: Adventures in Space can work alongside updated monsters in the new Monster Manual (in fact, a lot of the design philosophies were already incorporated into the way stat blocks were created for more recent books)
4. A party can consist of characters built using the 2014 rulebooks and the 2024 rulebook

The designers of the revised rules have actually gone to great lengths to ensure that the revisions remain highly compatible with previous publications.

For example, monsters in the revised monster manuals have been created with the same CR as they had previously. This means that if you’re playing an adventure that tells you to use a vampire stat block from the monster manuals, it will be of an appropriate challenge for the players at that stage in the campaign.

While some changes have been made to monster stat blocks, they will mechanically work in a very similar way. It’s more that the stat blocks have been streamlined or that variations of creatures have been added in. We’ve actually already seen this evolved design philosophy in Monsters of the Multiverse which, for instance, gave creatures spells they can cast once, 3 times or at will each day rather than DMs having to track spell slots for creatures. This is not a mechanical change, just a practical change to make DM’s lives easier.

What challenges might we face with backwards compatibility?

Mixing classes from the 2014 and 2024 versions

When it comes to mixed parties of 2014 and 2024 characters, presumably WOTC wanted to anticipate the fact that some tables may have players with the new rulebooks while others won’t. It’s clear that both types of characters can work alongside each other in the same campaign however, a word of caution on this. Having read some of the class changes coming to the 2024 revision, I suspect that characters using the 2014 rules may feel underpowered or less useful in comparison. Not by a large margin, but maybe enough to feel noticeably disadvantaged.

This may require some adaptation (for instance, giving 2014 characters weapon masteries). We have been assured that there will be commentary for incorporating these characters into the 2024 ruleset, but we’re yet to see exactly how this will work.

Using old subclasses with the 2024 class revisions

Some have asked whether we’ll be able to use older subclasses with the 2024 versions of classes, especially those subclasses that won’t be updated for the revised rules. This wasn’t clearly explained in WOTC’s official reveals, however, Christian Hoffer at comicbook.com has done some sleuthing and been told by a WOTC representative that these subclasses will be compatible with the revised classes.

Its not clear exactly how this will all work as there are fairly sizeable changes to how the classes are working. However, we have been assured that there will be lots of bits of commentary to address exactly these types of issues in the new PHB. It will be interesting to see just how well these subclasses integrate into the revised classes as there could potentially be some clashes here.

Update: In a new interview, Christian has delved further into this topic with Jeremey Crawford (lead rules designer). To accommodate some of these changes, the new class rules explain that when plugging in 2014 subclasses, it’s worded in a way to make clear when subclass features come into play. This is because many subclass features come into play at a different level now to retain parity with 2024 subclass progression. Presumably this helps with the likes of clerics who now get their subclass at level 3 instead of level 1.

You can see the full interview below with some other tidbits to discover:

Combining old races with the revised classes

One area of character creation that should be easier to integrate will be including old versions of race into the new classes. I imagine there will be some kind of provision that the ability score increases you get will be replaced by those from your background rather than stacking with background ability score increases. We’re yet to see exactly how this will work, but expect to find this out soon.

Update: In the interview above, Jeremy Crawford confirms this accommodation to be the case with ability score increases removed from 2014 races/species and taken from your background instead. Specific explanations in the character creation allowance you to use any 2014 race/species as long as it hasn’t had updated rules yet.

Old backgrounds with revised classes

On the point of backgrounds, these are getting a big overhaul with the aforementioned ability score increases. This may be a case of simply using the new backgrounds, but there could also be some provision for determining what ability score increase go alongside older backgrounds.

While there are still a lot of unknowns over exactly how backwards compatibility will work moving forward, I do certainly appreciate the ability to use previous books I’ve invested a lot of money in over the years. I’m especially glad that I can still get mileage from my campaign books, some of which I’ve not had chance to run yet.

Hopefully though, these options will end up merging well together. I’m optimistic for this working easily with campaigns and monster rules, but am concerned that mixing character options could be a little more challenging.

What do you think of the changes to the heroic inspiration? Let me know in the comments below.

Spotlight on the D&D 2024 revision

All the latest updates on what’s changing with the 2024 rules revision.