D&D (2024) D&D Monster Manual (2025)

[Morrus]

This thread is for the general discussion of the Monster Manual (2025). Click on Overview for more information.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The book I am looking most forward to.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I can't imagine it would be better than Level Up's Monstrous Menagerie, but I admit that it might worth looking at their takes on the WotC IP-only monsters (beholder, mind flyers, etc.)

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

The book I am looking most forward to.

Agreed, and I'm glad it is the last one. It has the most impactful art, as DMs should be able to say... "You are fighting... this!" and reveal the MM picture to the players. I love the look on players' faces when they see the cool monster that they have to face. Are they pumped? Or are they groaning with fear?"

I am a little concerned whether they will reduce lore like they did in MoM. I like reading the lore, getting a baseline, and using it if I like it, or making a choice to go another way.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Agreed, and I'm glad it is the last one. It has the most impactful art, as DMs should be able to say... "You are fighting... this!" and reveal the MM picture to the players. I love the look on players' faces when they see the cool monster that they have to face. Are they pumped? Or are they groaning with fear?"

I am a little concerned whether they will reduce lore like they did in MoM. I like reading the lore, getting a baseline, and using it if I like it, or making a choice to go another way.

Yeah, WotC's increasingly anemic and/or wildly divergent take on lore is a real concern for me. Fortunately I have access to a wealth of good lore I can draw from instead.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I’m curious to see what kind of new monsters they will be adding, and I’m very excited for all the new art.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I’m curious to see what kind of new monsters they will be adding, and I’m very excited for all the new art.

I could take or leave the art, but I do like new monsters.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Let it be known that I'm not happy about the approach where caster NPCs have unique spell like abilities that don't actually count as spells, as seen in MoM etc.

I like having all the info I need to run a monster in the stat block so that I don't have to look up spells in the PHB, but if an "arcanist" is waving his hands and creating something that looks like a Fireball, it should be declared as a spell so that it can interact with other game features that relate to spells.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Let it be known that I'm not happy about the approach where caster NPCs have unique spell like abilities that don't actually count as spells, as seen in MoM etc.

Yeah? I love it, myself.

I like having all the info I need to run a monster in the stat block so that I don't have to look up spells in the PHB,

Precisely why I love it. You can't have both.

but if an "arcanist" is waving his hands and creating something that looks like a Fireball, it should be declared as a spell so that it can interact with other game features that relate to spells.

Other than this. I mean, if it's a spellcaster casting a spell, then it's a spell. It doesn't matter if it 100% matches a name or crunch entry of a particular spell. It's a spell. If you mean, you need to know what level it is and that sort of thing, yeah, I guess that would be a problem if you needed that information for any reason, but AFAIK, they're taking pains to get rid of that sort of thing (IE making a spell like Counterspell simply force a save on the target, as opposed to a check against the spell level).

 

[Micah Sweet]

Let it be known that I'm not happy about the approach where caster NPCs have unique spell like abilities that don't actually count as spells, as seen in MoM etc.

I like having all the info I need to run a monster in the stat block so that I don't have to look up spells in the PHB, but if an "arcanist" is waving his hands and creating something that looks like a Fireball, it should be declared as a spell so that it can interact with other game features that relate to spells.

Yeah, I'll have to convert those over to actual spells when circumstances require it. Annoying, but I can stop WotC from doing what they want.