Dungeons & Dragons is due for a 2024 rules revamp, and today we had an old moan about its inexplicable pre-order bonus nonsense, but overall we're interested to see what games come out of this debacle.

As promised by lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford in an interview posted on the Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel (thanks, Eurogamer), a backwards compatible reworking (but not a new edition) of the game's ruleset The 2024 rules, advertised as a "new version of the game," are going to rework many of the game's spells for the better.

Overall, Crawford's statement seems accurate, but many of these issues have been around for a decade and are relatively unaddressed in the rules errata, such as changing Blade Ward and Resistance so that they "may actually be used in play."

However, some of these changes were inspired by Crawford's personal frustrations while playing Baldur's Gate 3, Larian's very popular RPG that uses 5th edition D&D as its rule set. He cites Cloud of Daggers and Produce Flame as two bugs that particularly bothered him.

For reference, Cloud of Daggers is a two-level spell that fills a five-foot space. This is because most creatures can leave that space using about 1/6th of their abundant mobility.

Regarding Cloud of Daggers, Crawford revealed after casting it, "This spell allows me to move.

"When I cast Cloud of Daggers as a player, it often becomes a source of frustration for me. [Even when I cast Cloud of Daggers in Baldur's Gate 3, as a player I think, 'I want to be able to move! '"

.

In fact, I think this spell was much more useful in Baldur's Gate 3. This is because we could shove this spell through a doorway and watch our enemies (usually after struggling with Spike Growth and Hunger of Hadar) get torn to shreds. We cheese the Honor mode.

"We also made some spells (that were a real pain to cast in terms of action economy) much less painful," says Crawford." "Produce Flame" is a "prime example: ...... He cites that cantrip as "a real pain to set up.

To reiterate (sensibly) the context, "Produce Flame" is a cantrip that requires one action to be spent in preparation before the cantrip has the honor of dealing 1d8 flame damage. Alternatively, if one is sensible, one could include a Light Cantrip and a Firebolt Cantrip in the party.

He added that the Firebolting Cantrip "was, interestingly enough, not only a pain to cast in tabletop games, it was excruciating [to cast] when I was playing Baldur's Gate 3."

Again, this is a fair enough assessment. However, it is a bit odd that Crawford didn't realize that "Generating Flames," a cantrip that no one uses, is not absolute dog water until he played the game released almost a decade after PHB had summoned its cursed self.

But all in all, I like the story; D&D's 2014 ruleset had a few spells, like Witch Bolt, that could not be cast at gunpoint and needed absolute tweaking. Let's hope the final Dungeon Master's Guide and the rest of the rules revisions are equally sensibly designed.