PHB art is weird in color and happy-go-lucky attitude which I don't like. It's like a rainbow-colored birthday cake with no edge. The art itself is very good, but it's just the implementation.
The best in more ways than one, I'd say, not only do I think it's the best looking of the monster compendiums (at least of the ‘basic’ ones, Broom and terlizzi won a place in my heart with Darksun and Planescape respectively), but I also think it's the best art as far as usability is concerned. Not only are they cool drawings of critters that make me want to use them just because of how they look, they're also cool drawings that give me ideas of what to do with them. The move from ‘portrait’ to ‘action figure’ seems like an excellent idea to me. Kudos to WoT whith this.
@@trckstr2888 Ok. I've just been playing since the 80s so my idea of D&D is fantastical medieval style with naturalistic art and dressing. Gloominess is not part of it though. I know it has changed throughout the ages to reflect the trends but up to 3rd edition it kept its style. After that it became this videogamey a-mythical mmorpg corporate style that has no grounding in real world or even fiction. Characters are just posing or in a freeze frame in a nonsensical epic situation which doesn't reflect gameplay.
remembering the early questionnaires about "would you like to see professional art in these books? how much would you pay for excellent art? how important is art in your books? would you buy a book solely for the good artwork? how much artwork would you like to see in these new books? how important is art for your gaming experience?"
Minions? Greater variety? Monster roles that synergize off one another? Thank you for bringing back a little bit of what made 4th Edition monsters so much better than other editions.
I never played 4th edition, but I am running a 2024 campaign right now and have been looking through the 4e Monster Manual. I really like the tactic tips and the variety of monsters of the same type, like the different types of skeletons and what their tactics for the specific type. Like the flaming skeleton would stay back and throw fire around. If more than one zombie is targeting the same person then one zombie will attempt to grapple. I did have to change the stats to fit 5e/2024, but it was mostly about the tactics. In 4th it also told us if they had loot or not.
4e is very fun, I ran a one shot of it for our group and everyone enjoyed it. It's also the crab of D&D, people keep reinventing it the way animals keep evolving into crab-like forms.
If you love monster types then in "every day somebody reinvents 4e" you may want to look into flee mortals from mcdm, their own 5e designed monster book that does categorise monsters in similar ways to 4e.
I used to go to book stores and look through the monsters in the monster manual when I was a kid. I didn’t even know it was a game, I just knew I wanted it just for the art! Then when I was 18 my brother introduced me to DnD and I saw that books used to look at whe I was a kid! And I’ve been playing for 17 years now!
I am fine with Gnolls and Goblins no longer being Humanoids (I think the lore for that can be good), even if it means Hold Person will no longer work. Of course, DMs can always tweak as they wish.
Technically by DnD's definition of humanoid, they never qualified anyway, because I had to homebrew some animal-folk as a monster and I remember kind of getting hung up on that bit because humanoid by their standards was like- human in appearance and it's like- are gnolls and goblins though? Like their bodies maybe, but it kind of ends there.
@@Baraz_Red I have a house rule I copied from Baldur's Gate 3 regarding Scrolls. Anyone can use a scroll, but creating one requires you to follow the crafting rules.
Chapter 9, creating a monster, creating a monster by challenge rating. Shows you exactly what the stats of a monster of a given cr should be, and just later it shows how to modify those stats. Wether these rules are good is another question, but they do exist
They better have buffed tf out of these monsters. The biggest issue that I've experienced as a DM is how to balance things for my players. Nearly 100% of the time PCs are so strong that nothing can pose a real threat
Nothing??? What level are you playing? Just up the CR and balance to what feels good rather than the D&D maths... Like yeah the CR system is broken and I hope the monsters in 2024 fit better But if you can't threaten your players then your players are either cheating or you aren't using the whole Monster Manual
Granted, I do my homework and make my character the best it can be.... 5d6+13 DMG per turn, and that's without using any special items and such. Oh yeah, by the way, that's a level 3 ranger. You, as a DM, have to plan accordingly for the party. Yes I have high DMG, but not so high hp, I'm a ranger, so I also play smart, I'm not a tank.
@@laterbot two weapons fighting style, 1d6 for scimitar attack (Nick, +Dex), 1d6 hunters mark, 1d6 short sword (Vex, +Dex), 1d6 hunters mark, 1d6+2+Wis wolf companion attack. All fall under standard rules for two weapon fighting and weapon mastery/proficiency.
Changed monsters that are female only in their mythology into one genderless one and invented male versions of the other one. I guess the idiots at WoTC don't know what an Incubus is outside of the music world.
It sounds like the 2025 MM is heavily inspired by MCDM's Flee Mortals. They also made Gnolls Fiends, have Minions and multiple CR scaling variants of the same monsters.
Good job guys i dont know if im the only one but i can tell the love and passion you put into these books and as a long standing player since 2ed when i was 12 i thank you.
A kreature, with spikes on the back, usualy needs to defend it self of geting bitten by another creature. So what creature, brougt the Tarasque to evovolve spikes on his back?
Very excited to dive into this book! Like Todd I'm a very visual person and the ART of D&D has been my biggest inspiration over the years for concepts and scenarios.
As there are now even more vampires there will be more work for old man Van Richten. Please, give as more Beholder and Displacer Beasts variations. Also, we NEED MORE DARKLORD STATBLOCKS!!!
Some things i love other i hate. Making each creature having male and female variant is clever, but applying it to hags seems at best weird. Whole point of a hag was that they are all "female" and in order to procreate they have to steal kids and eat them, since they don't have male counterpart. Incubus and succubus being two completely different creatures also seems like a stretch and devils and demons having no visual distinction again is just tiring.
The art in this book is amazing. The disappointment though is that the design team continues to deemphasize the lore aspect in 5th edition products. The lore is what makes something a D&D thing. I don't want to fight just a stat block. The lore builds the backstory for the monsters and is what makes them three-dimensional characters in an adventure, not just a bunch of numbers and dice roles. It is the way we can share stories outside of our groups and across tables and make us feel like we have had shared and understandable experiences. Curse of Strahd is the most popular campaign they sell because there is a shared mythos. While the particulars change from table to table, the lore unites all of those stories.
That's the problem with corporate fantasy that's aimed to offend no one and please everyone. It's rounded and bland with no identity. A garbage pizza - something for everyone.
Oh no,dnd always acting like the always do. Dnd always is mixed of all things,Lord of the Rings,Calll of Chtulhu,Conan the Barbarian,Elric of Melnibone,Greek and Norse Mythology,and its the contrary,the older editions,like 3.5,3e etc,has a bunch of numbers and dices, like creatures with 40 of AC,50 of str,a lot of actions,fighting or become literal gods.
This book won’t have it. James Wyatt has said that Wizards considers the math they use to determine damage, HP, CR, etc. to be too lengthy and complex to really fit into one of their publications.
@kennethray8473 so he doesn't want to do the math or explain it because he is lazy anf wants to sell books. You don't need a monster manual if you make the monsters yourself. I know how to read bs. No issue someone else will figure out the math
Okay, mostly a big fan of these changes. Main criticism: Can we stop acting like Faerun is the only setting? Making gnolls into fiends as a baseline, when I'm pretty sure they're only fiends in the forgotten realms and literally no other setting?
"We don't want DMs to feel like they need to have taken another class or have missed something..." I can see both sides to this, but I'm in the camp that DOES want there to be a class to take! I mourn the loss of lore that was present in the '14 PHB that's missing from the '24 version; I'll be doing the same with the MM. I understand that artwork can inspire creativity, but for me, it was the "classes" I took studying the lore/flavor text of the monsters in '14 PHB that most inspired the worlds and adventurers that I've crafted for my tables.
Just give your combatants special abilities which fit your campaign. These books are guidelines at their core. They don’t dictate what happens at your table. I had a Drow Wizard recently who, when she dropped to below 5 HP, shattered a jewel around her neck and transformed into a Drider Witch. Which was not something which was planned, but the PCs had a lot of battlefield control spells in effect which would have put her down too quickly. And the entire combat was better for it. The players weren’t done with her yet. So we all won.
@ActualChef I agree! That's awesome. I am going to introduce a Nosferatu or two soon, which are not in the campaign normally, but it definitely fits the vibe. Excited to see the three new vampire types they mentioned as well
I hope they added more beasts with more CRs as to play a druid, one of the classes THEY put out. They need to add more beasts. That's not entitlement that's expecting what was promised
"I hate when other people are happy. I can only be happy if nothing chnages and I alone stay represented and nobody new wants to try the game because they saw art that made them feel at home."
I want the different humanoids to feel different. Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Orcs, and Gnolls should feel like different opponents. Goblins and Kobolds should feel different in play.
2:29 Can you push this idea to the Magic: the Gathering team? I love to see more action-y cards rather than just cards with creatures on them standing menacingly but doing basically nothing.
The problem with Magic specifically is that they need to focus the art on the character themselves with Creature cards and distinguish them from the actions those characters take on Instants and Sorceries.
This book won’t have it. James Wyatt has said that Wizards considers the math they use to determine damage, HP, CR, etc. to be too lengthy and complex to really fit into one of their publications.
Next time I make a mimic, I'm going to make it a candy dish, not the dish itself but the candy inside. There's one character in my game who just constantly eats, so a bowl of candy would be a nice little trap.
I always loved the Periodicals (Magazines like "Dragon") that published new monsters and races and such. I think a huge Monster Manual is great but I think they need to reintroduce the Monster Compendium and should release a new Monster or Monstrous Species every month. With the infinite space of SpellJammer and the DARK Foreboding world of Dark Sun, a Compendium is the perfect way to Segway into those areas.
Hopefully in the 2025 Monster Manual we have a lot more options for high level Druids to wild shape into. That was a big missteps of D&D 5.0. Even if we are just getting a bunch of Dire Animals, I think that's fine - not interesting, but much better than being Mammoth being the only CR 6. And a pretty uninteresting one IMO. Good reason I feel most DM's chose to expand the Wild Shape list of options through other means to include different monster types.
All of that sounds really good. But you talked a lot about statblocks yet you didn't show a single one. It's cool to see monster art (some of that looks incredible, others less so), but what about the actual book interior, how does it look like?
Just hoping Moon Druid has more than 3 options at level 9, especially as beasts is all you get now :P You can always homebrew something but would be nice to see options
"Now the succubus can be a male and the incubus can be a female..... and they can change from male to female" Why even? A succubus us a female, and an incubus is a male. Why make it difficult?
Welp looks like gnolls arent gonna be playable unless there is a tiefling varient. Which if what they are saying is true is going to be a VERY rare thing. This is mainly because I don't think abyssal tieflings are going to be anywhere as common as devil tieflings, simply because of the nature of demons as a whole in DND.
Good. I am not i in favor of all monstrous humanoids being playable species. I realize other folks would like to play them. But the lore around them makes no sense to play them in my opinion.
Maybe there'll be another Eberron book, and they'll add "Znir Pact Gnoll" as a variant or something. Still holding my hopes up for that, but I have enough homebrew gnoll options that I allow for my games to tide me over / have as an alternative if it doesn't happen.
@@quillogist2875 Well, that's the thing, right? For every player who wants to dive into written lore about these species and monsters, there are just as many if not more who are just looking for neat stat blocks and art to be inspired to create characters and monsters for their own settings, with their own lore. It might not make sense to be a Lawful Good Orc in the Forgotten Realms, but it could very well be the case in a custom setting with different Orc cultures.
So - what I'm gathering is - that same as what celestials are for the upper planes and devils/demons are for the lower planes... Dragons are manifestations of magic in the material plane? Am I getting this right?!
Not a word about Beasts? Waited the whole video to see if they would touch on Beasts, expanded list with new CR0-CR6 options for Wild Shape. Did anyone get info that I missed?
That’s kinda been the theme for me with the 2024 books. Even with the lengthened page counts, the increased text size for easier reading, heavier emphasis on art, and adding more options than ever means that something had to give, usually the flavorful descriptions. The pro is that everything is less setting dependent, but it’s still sad. The traits, bonds, flaws, and ideals that came with backgrounds are a perfect example. At least the game is clearer, more organized, and better balanced than before, but I’m definitely going to keep my 2014 rulebooks for that flavor.
Cool to have images with an environment but will there be digital versions to use as tokens? Those pictures don't seem ideal. Also for vampires and monsters that are hurt by sunlight, I hope there is clarification that daylight is not strong enough to hurt them.
They don't make money off of us using theyre art for free tokens so I highly doubt they care about that. On the bright side MTG has great card art for a ton of things that also show up in DND. That's what I use for my wild shape tokens as a druid main.
@@edheldude This is true, but if anyone's concerned about it ruining Curse of Strahd, remember there are sections in Ch2 about 'Sunlight in Barovia' and 'Alterations to Magic' and you can easily rule that the Daylight spell only conjures weak Barovian daylight!
@@edheldude that's exactly the reason why I'm saying this. It's a spell that most parties facing a vampire would have access to (3rd level), lasts for 1h with no concentration, occupies a 60ft radius area which is plenty, and can stop all of the vampire's supernatural powers from working. Daylight was not sunlight in 2014, and it's fine that it became sunlight in 2024 but then sunlight should have less impactful effects on the vampires, otherwise they'd just be a joke if not homebrewed. I also hope they remove the running water thing, which is ridiculous. At least it should not block its ability to shapeshift and turn into mist.
@@TheVirusAJG I agree there are ways for the DM to deal with the issue in Ravenloft but 1) Curse of Strahd /Ravenloft is not the only setting for vampires 2) The DM being be able to make variant rules is not a solution, the published monster should be hard enough for their CR without the DM having to change things.
It's a wonder why they didn't update the playable goblin with the 2024 update cuz now they've introduced yet even more disparities between playable and nonplayable characters. Why do so many things follow different rules instead of one consistent ruleset?
They wanted to focus the species in the PHB on the most common and core options, there simply wasn’t room for updating every single species. Also player options and monsters shouldn’t be the same, they serve different roles in the game and should thus be designed differently. Insight Check has a good video on this concept.
@@BradTheAmerican It’s not bad necessarily, but that’s not a good enough reason to reprint it in the new PHB when it was just reworked for Monsters of the Multiverse. It’s more things like Pack Tactics, AC, weapon damage, etc. that I’m thinking about specifically as being different for players and monsters.
@@BradTheAmerican I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that the PHB is the core standard and many players feel entitled to everything in it. Therefore the options in it should be considered as “standard” in a lot of ways. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all of the species in the PHB are humanoids.
On a side note, I believe this player “entitlement” (not trying to use this word negatively, btw) is a big part of the reason why WotC put bastions and especially the custom background rules in the DMG instead of the PHB. Many people complained about this, but if they were there, min-maxxers would certainly demand that they get to choose which abilities to buff, origin feat to take, skill proficiencies to have, etc. likely resulting in a bit too much freedom. By making custom backgrounds an optional rule in the DMG, DMs have a bit of a buffer.
@3:52 I know it's going to be something different but I wanna imagine that horned monster right there was inspired by some monster from Filipino folklore.
23:53 Speaking of Goblin and other monster races that sometimes get stats to be PCs (Gobinoids/Doppelganger-as of ID:RotF) will those be in this book or another?
About goblins being fey now (as well as other creature types changing), how will this effect spells like Charm Person and the other ________ Person spells?
@B42UC4 what I'm saying is that large swaths of creatures are no longer affected by common enchantment spells unless you want to cast the higher level version. The _______ Person spells specifically effect humanoids only, you need the 3 levels higher _______ Monster version to hit fey and others.
@@Nemo12417 I agree with you 100%. I do in fact think that it is not the same Edition. I don't think the changes they made are any improvement. It is like a heavy homebrew that left no room for personal customization.
@@B42UC4 I wouldn't go that far. Whenever I DM, I always make changes to the official material in front of me. Whatever ends up being in this newest book, I can easily customize it.
@@Nemo12417 Sure, you can always customize. I just think that customizing 5e is way simpler than decustomizing and recustomizing 5.5e. At least for me, since I did not like most of the changes they did.
24:35 Can't use Hold Person on goblins or gnolls anymore since they are not humanoid anymore in 2024; fey and fiends are not humanoid for Hold Person to work.
What about the monsters in previously issued 5e adventures? Will there be a DM friendly way to run, say Tomb of Annihilation (and those module specific monsters - Acererak for example)?
So they made each monster with art have a full illustration... Does this mean every monster will still have art? Or will there be less illustrated monsters?
Just started a new campaign in greyhawk, the new DMG is so good, I can't even, I had no clue what to do for a first session, opened up the DMG, and had prepped in an hour By the time my game gets to higher levels, the new MM should be out, and then I'll get to play with the new toys, I'm very excited Oh and let's not forget the new D&D beyond map updates that let me incorporate monster statblocks and initiative counts much easier than before, now is probably the best time in history to play D&D, and realistically it only gets better from here
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
The art in this book is the best of all the 2024 books imo. And that's *saying* something.
PHB art is weird in color and happy-go-lucky attitude which I don't like. It's like a rainbow-colored birthday cake with no edge. The art itself is very good, but it's just the implementation.
The best in more ways than one, I'd say, not only do I think it's the best looking of the monster compendiums (at least of the ‘basic’ ones, Broom and terlizzi won a place in my heart with Darksun and Planescape respectively), but I also think it's the best art as far as usability is concerned. Not only are they cool drawings of critters that make me want to use them just because of how they look, they're also cool drawings that give me ideas of what to do with them.
The move from ‘portrait’ to ‘action figure’ seems like an excellent idea to me.
Kudos to WoT whith this.
Shout out if you're coming here from watching d4s Empyrean video!
@@edheldudeimo the PHB should feel more vibrant and exciting, not gloomy or dark
@@trckstr2888 Ok. I've just been playing since the 80s so my idea of D&D is fantastical medieval style with naturalistic art and dressing. Gloominess is not part of it though.
I know it has changed throughout the ages to reflect the trends but up to 3rd edition it kept its style. After that it became this videogamey a-mythical mmorpg corporate style that has no grounding in real world or even fiction. Characters are just posing or in a freeze frame in a nonsensical epic situation which doesn't reflect gameplay.
This video was great. Here are timestamps I hope y'all find helpful:
0:00 Intro
2:10 Artwork
4:30 Monster Descriptions
9:40 Introduction Chapter
11:25 Fantasy Monsters in a DND Context
18:50 Low-to-Mid-Tier Monsters
24:20 Creature Type Changes
30:25 Rules Revision Culmination
35:10 High CR Monsters
38:50 Monster Taglines
41:40 Table of Contents & Organized Tables
44:25 Monster Redesigns & Gendered Designs
50:00 Conclusion
Thank you!
God bless you
remembering the early questionnaires about "would you like to see professional art in these books? how much would you pay for excellent art? how important is art in your books? would you buy a book solely for the good artwork? how much artwork would you like to see in these new books? how important is art for your gaming experience?"
The answer to all of these questions was apparently a very resounding yes
Show, don't tell. A classic staple phrase in the D&D community! 😂
I am surprised that the answers did not lead to a coffee table DnD artbook. They got rid of lore as well after all.
Minions? Greater variety? Monster roles that synergize off one another? Thank you for bringing back a little bit of what made 4th Edition monsters so much better than other editions.
Hoping Lycanthropy and vampirism got updates 🤞
Second to that
Third to that, I'd love it to be fully fleshed out for players to take as well.
they lost immunity to non silvered weapons but got pact tactics
Ghostfire gaming already has really solid rules for lycanthropy if 5.5 doesn't scratch that itch.
@@laughingpanda4395true but some people just wanna stick with first party content. It can be hard convincing DMs of third party material
I never played 4th edition, but I am running a 2024 campaign right now and have been looking through the 4e Monster Manual. I really like the tactic tips and the variety of monsters of the same type, like the different types of skeletons and what their tactics for the specific type. Like the flaming skeleton would stay back and throw fire around. If more than one zombie is targeting the same person then one zombie will attempt to grapple. I did have to change the stats to fit 5e/2024, but it was mostly about the tactics. In 4th it also told us if they had loot or not.
4e is very fun, I ran a one shot of it for our group and everyone enjoyed it. It's also the crab of D&D, people keep reinventing it the way animals keep evolving into crab-like forms.
They brought that back but not as good the best part was monster types
Monster types and monster roles
If you love monster types then in "every day somebody reinvents 4e" you may want to look into flee mortals from mcdm, their own 5e designed monster book that does categorise monsters in similar ways to 4e.
@@Cassapphiccame here to say the same!
I love the art in this book. It's extremely beautiful and evocative. Also the cyclopes is now one of my favourite creatures
I hope the art for the invisible stalker is just blank
Or just a bunch of people being scared
I used to go to book stores and look through the monsters in the monster manual when I was a kid. I didn’t even know it was a game, I just knew I wanted it just for the art! Then when I was 18 my brother introduced me to DnD and I saw that books used to look at whe I was a kid! And I’ve been playing for 17 years now!
Crawford really said FAFO with the 2024 Tarrasque and I'm living for it 😂😂
I am fine with Gnolls and Goblins no longer being Humanoids (I think the lore for that can be good), even if it means Hold Person will no longer work. Of course, DMs can always tweak as they wish.
That's why you should take alternative spells like Maximilian's Earthen grip
Technically by DnD's definition of humanoid, they never qualified anyway, because I had to homebrew some animal-folk as a monster and I remember kind of getting hung up on that bit because humanoid by their standards was like- human in appearance and it's like- are gnolls and goblins though? Like their bodies maybe, but it kind of ends there.
@Baraz_Red as a DM, I would rule that at my discretion the _________ Person spells can affect nonhumanoids if they seem like they could be humanoid.
@@dragoninthewest1 I was thinking of the Cleric, but otherwise I like Earthen Grasp.
@@Baraz_Red I have a house rule I copied from Baldur's Gate 3 regarding Scrolls. Anyone can use a scroll, but creating one requires you to follow the crafting rules.
I hope building and calculating CR for custom scratch built monsters is in this book. Was disappointed that it wasn’t in the DMG.
Page 56 and 57 in the new dmg. Simplifies the process by taking a creature of the CR you want to make and then adjusting the skills, attacks, etc.
Chapter 9, creating a monster, creating a monster by challenge rating. Shows you exactly what the stats of a monster of a given cr should be, and just later it shows how to modify those stats. Wether these rules are good is another question, but they do exist
@ 2024 DMG doesn’t have it though
@@TomSmith-ll2lp again... pg 56 and 57
@@TomSmith-ll2lp that's disappointing
They better have buffed tf out of these monsters. The biggest issue that I've experienced as a DM is how to balance things for my players. Nearly 100% of the time PCs are so strong that nothing can pose a real threat
Nothing??? What level are you playing?
Just up the CR and balance to what feels good rather than the D&D maths... Like yeah the CR system is broken and I hope the monsters in 2024 fit better
But if you can't threaten your players then your players are either cheating or you aren't using the whole Monster Manual
Granted, I do my homework and make my character the best it can be.... 5d6+13 DMG per turn, and that's without using any special items and such. Oh yeah, by the way, that's a level 3 ranger. You, as a DM, have to plan accordingly for the party. Yes I have high DMG, but not so high hp, I'm a ranger, so I also play smart, I'm not a tank.
@@keebler_137 how are you getting 5D6 every turn as a level 3 ranger? Please explain your build
@@laterbot two weapons fighting style, 1d6 for scimitar attack (Nick, +Dex), 1d6 hunters mark, 1d6 short sword (Vex, +Dex), 1d6 hunters mark, 1d6+2+Wis wolf companion attack. All fall under standard rules for two weapon fighting and weapon mastery/proficiency.
So just use higher-CR monsters?
That flumph image brings me nothing but joy! I love flumphs so much, my favorite little D&D guys
Glad they had Wesley Schneider working on this. From some of his other work and interviews he's clearly very passionate about monsters
I am not none of the writers since xanathars have been giod
25:09 Penguins in dnd confirmed
I hope there's a high CR legendary penguin.
There are also space penguins in Spelljammer
@@edheldude its name? Piers Morgan ^^
I hope to see some good revisions that add some flavor to the monsters, other than rebalancing them mechanically
Pray for more angel depth. + Return of archons
I'm sorry what? 47:50 you did what to which monsters?
These people have weird fetishes.
Changed monsters that are female only in their mythology into one genderless one and invented male versions of the other one. I guess the idiots at WoTC don't know what an Incubus is outside of the music world.
It sounds like the 2025 MM is heavily inspired by MCDM's Flee Mortals. They also made Gnolls Fiends, have Minions and multiple CR scaling variants of the same monsters.
Sounds like a good thing to me, honestly.
Not complaining about that!
Good job guys i dont know if im the only one but i can tell the love and passion you put into these books and as a long standing player since 2ed when i was 12 i thank you.
A kreature, with spikes on the back, usualy needs to defend it self of geting bitten by another creature. So what creature, brougt the Tarasque to evovolve spikes on his back?
Could be for attractiveness among mature Tarrasques while providing protection for juveniles. That would make a fun campaign/adventure premise
Your mum.
The spikes could be a hold over from a Tarasque ancestor species, and it just didn't loose them in the process of becoming a Tarasque.
Ok new flesh golem art god tier
Honestly just having the monsters say their default loot they would have is such a plus 👌🏻
I hope there is a mention for monsters about useful materials to harvest from the corpse. Such as dragon scales, scorpion stingers, or a cyclops eye
You'll need 3rd party supplement for that.
That’s a Dungeons of Drakkenheim situation.
Nice to see all the works done to this book. I'm waiting with impatience this book.
I'm so excited! I'm having so much fun as a new DM! Thank you
Literal blood went into this book judging by Jeremy's hands there.
Yeah they kept that as a teaser. But the Monster Manual is actually a monster itself, lol :P
@@jaspermooren5883 Ah yes, the famous mimic manual.
Very excited to dive into this book! Like Todd I'm a very visual person and the ART of D&D has been my biggest inspiration over the years for concepts and scenarios.
As there are now even more vampires there will be more work for old man Van Richten. Please, give as more Beholder and Displacer Beasts variations. Also, we NEED MORE DARKLORD STATBLOCKS!!!
25:00 not sure I'm a fan of turning Goblins from humanoids to fey.
Some things i love other i hate. Making each creature having male and female variant is clever, but applying it to hags seems at best weird. Whole point of a hag was that they are all "female" and in order to procreate they have to steal kids and eat them, since they don't have male counterpart. Incubus and succubus being two completely different creatures also seems like a stretch and devils and demons having no visual distinction again is just tiring.
I am expecting 100% artwork coverage for all monsters in the manual from cover to cover and on DD Beyond too! No excuses for silhouette placeholders!
Ossified Evil is one hell of an album title 🤘
~_~
This looks and sounds amazing. The new art work is really impressive.
I miss when DnD was niche.
The art in this book is amazing. The disappointment though is that the design team continues to deemphasize the lore aspect in 5th edition products.
The lore is what makes something a D&D thing. I don't want to fight just a stat block. The lore builds the backstory for the monsters and is what makes them three-dimensional characters in an adventure, not just a bunch of numbers and dice roles. It is the way we can share stories outside of our groups and across tables and make us feel like we have had shared and understandable experiences.
Curse of Strahd is the most popular campaign they sell because there is a shared mythos. While the particulars change from table to table, the lore unites all of those stories.
That's the problem with corporate fantasy that's aimed to offend no one and please everyone. It's rounded and bland with no identity. A garbage pizza - something for everyone.
Oh no,dnd always acting like the always do. Dnd always is mixed of all things,Lord of the Rings,Calll of Chtulhu,Conan the Barbarian,Elric of Melnibone,Greek and Norse Mythology,and its the contrary,the older editions,like 3.5,3e etc,has a bunch of numbers and dices, like creatures with 40 of AC,50 of str,a lot of actions,fighting or become literal gods.
I feel like I might play 2014 5e with the 2024 Monster Manual
Was super hoping for information about monster creation rules that are more robust. Or really, just useful. :)
Just change the name and flavor of any monster to any other monster.
They do have lists of cool abilities to add to monsters but not as laid out as in the old book
This book won’t have it. James Wyatt has said that Wizards considers the math they use to determine damage, HP, CR, etc. to be too lengthy and complex to really fit into one of their publications.
@@kennethray8473 That's super disappointing. Because the rules as they currently stand are even worse than the 2014 rules.
@kennethray8473 so he doesn't want to do the math or explain it because he is lazy anf wants to sell books. You don't need a monster manual if you make the monsters yourself. I know how to read bs. No issue someone else will figure out the math
5:04 You can't tell me this cat doesn't look like someone's fursona
So, any animal with unnatural colors is a fursona?
@JaWick_WitaStick It's not so much the colors as much as their combination with that hairdo.
oh perfect timing. been itching for this one!
It's going to be almost impossible to top 'Flee Mortals!'
More vids like this :D love listening to you guys talk like this
Great video, crazy all three books are finished and out already. I hope these guys don’t get laid off now that they delivered these new gems
Okay, mostly a big fan of these changes. Main criticism: Can we stop acting like Faerun is the only setting? Making gnolls into fiends as a baseline, when I'm pretty sure they're only fiends in the forgotten realms and literally no other setting?
Just remember to buy more books. Buy buy buy buy
Are you being forced to buy this book? Blink twice if so. We can send help.
Nah
I could listen to Wes talk about adventure philosophy all day
The tables within monster entries sounds like they took a page from one of my fav bestiaries, the Monster Overhaul.
"We don't want DMs to feel like they need to have taken another class or have missed something..." I can see both sides to this, but I'm in the camp that DOES want there to be a class to take! I mourn the loss of lore that was present in the '14 PHB that's missing from the '24 version; I'll be doing the same with the MM. I understand that artwork can inspire creativity, but for me, it was the "classes" I took studying the lore/flavor text of the monsters in '14 PHB that most inspired the worlds and adventurers that I've crafted for my tables.
Running Curse of Strahd with 2024 rules. My players destroy everything. Hope monsters are better in the new monster manual!
Just change the combat as needed. Guess what? That hag has twice as many HP as usual.
That is my concern. I want to run this for my friends but may need to stay in the original rules because of this.
Just give your combatants special abilities which fit your campaign. These books are guidelines at their core. They don’t dictate what happens at your table. I had a Drow Wizard recently who, when she dropped to below 5 HP, shattered a jewel around her neck and transformed into a Drider Witch. Which was not something which was planned, but the PCs had a lot of battlefield control spells in effect which would have put her down too quickly. And the entire combat was better for it. The players weren’t done with her yet. So we all won.
@ActualChef I agree! That's awesome. I am going to introduce a Nosferatu or two soon, which are not in the campaign normally, but it definitely fits the vibe. Excited to see the three new vampire types they mentioned as well
add a number of creatures equal to 2 per each player that rolled stats or for each member of the party after the third
I hope they catered to my entitled needs!
This quote is for every hater who’ve flocked to this to complain about how they’re not a good DM.
Love this. Feels spot on for a ton of the 5.5 haters.
I hope they added more beasts with more CRs as to play a druid, one of the classes THEY put out. They need to add more beasts. That's not entitlement that's expecting what was promised
Lol
"I hate when other people are happy. I can only be happy if nothing chnages and I alone stay represented and nobody new wants to try the game because they saw art that made them feel at home."
I want the different humanoids to feel different. Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Orcs, and Gnolls should feel like different opponents. Goblins and Kobolds should feel different in play.
They keep talking about revision and new rules but are still insisting it is not a new edition.
Gnolls being humanoids was always an odd choice and glad they're doubling down on them being fiends
2:29 Can you push this idea to the Magic: the Gathering team? I love to see more action-y cards rather than just cards with creatures on them standing menacingly but doing basically nothing.
The problem with Magic specifically is that they need to focus the art on the character themselves with Creature cards and distinguish them from the actions those characters take on Instants and Sorceries.
It’s actually pretty explicitly laid out in the art briefs.
@@kennethray8473 You explain the reason why things are as they are. I offer my desire for it to change.
Please let this book have a more indepth guide on building custom monsters rathter that just change its name, description and damage types
This book won’t have it. James Wyatt has said that Wizards considers the math they use to determine damage, HP, CR, etc. to be too lengthy and complex to really fit into one of their publications.
@@kennethray8473 they only want money and treat players like cattle.
Next time I make a mimic, I'm going to make it a candy dish, not the dish itself but the candy inside. There's one character in my game who just constantly eats, so a bowl of candy would be a nice little trap.
PS2 Bearded Devil isn't real, ot can't hurt you.
PS2 Bearded Devil: 42:13
I always loved the Periodicals (Magazines like "Dragon") that published new monsters and races and such. I think a huge Monster Manual is great but I think they need to reintroduce the Monster Compendium and should release a new Monster or Monstrous Species every month. With the infinite space of SpellJammer and the DARK Foreboding world of Dark Sun, a Compendium is the perfect way to Segway into those areas.
Hopefully in the 2025 Monster Manual we have a lot more options for high level Druids to wild shape into. That was a big missteps of D&D 5.0. Even if we are just getting a bunch of Dire Animals, I think that's fine - not interesting, but much better than being Mammoth being the only CR 6. And a pretty uninteresting one IMO. Good reason I feel most DM's chose to expand the Wild Shape list of options through other means to include different monster types.
So a very setting agnostic monster manual then. Lore being changed from previous editions and whatnot.
I will need all this minis.
I would eagerly purchase a master box of painted minis for this entire book.
I am skeptical. WoTC has taught me that they usually over promise and under deliver.
I am still haunted by Spelljammer ship combat rules
All of that sounds really good. But you talked a lot about statblocks yet you didn't show a single one. It's cool to see monster art (some of that looks incredible, others less so), but what about the actual book interior, how does it look like?
They haven’t really done that for any of the videos on these new core rulebooks, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
If they're adding Greyhawk as the campaign setting are we getting some of the forgotten monsters back? Titans and titanothers for example?
Just hoping Moon Druid has more than 3 options at level 9, especially as beasts is all you get now :P You can always homebrew something but would be nice to see options
"Now the succubus can be a male and the incubus can be a female..... and they can change from male to female"
Why even? A succubus us a female, and an incubus is a male. Why make it difficult?
Gotta cater to the twitter freaks
Can't wait for Feb 8th. Also, can't wait for my Alt Cover to be delivered, but APAC always comes last.
Oh my! Now in hyped with this mm
Welp looks like gnolls arent gonna be playable unless there is a tiefling varient. Which if what they are saying is true is going to be a VERY rare thing. This is mainly because I don't think abyssal tieflings are going to be anywhere as common as devil tieflings, simply because of the nature of demons as a whole in DND.
Good. I am not i in favor of all monstrous humanoids being playable species. I realize other folks would like to play them. But the lore around them makes no sense to play them in my opinion.
I don't see an issue. There are already playable construct and fey species.
Maybe there'll be another Eberron book, and they'll add "Znir Pact Gnoll" as a variant or something. Still holding my hopes up for that, but I have enough homebrew gnoll options that I allow for my games to tide me over / have as an alternative if it doesn't happen.
@@quillogist2875 Well, that's the thing, right? For every player who wants to dive into written lore about these species and monsters, there are just as many if not more who are just looking for neat stat blocks and art to be inspired to create characters and monsters for their own settings, with their own lore. It might not make sense to be a Lawful Good Orc in the Forgotten Realms, but it could very well be the case in a custom setting with different Orc cultures.
How many more animals added? Asking for a druid :D
I can't wait to read this tbh, good job!
Can we talk about vulnerabilities?
Unique effects triggered by the right damage type would be cool.
Dude that monster manual is a mimic waiting to bite you. NICE
So - what I'm gathering is - that same as what celestials are for the upper planes and devils/demons are for the lower planes...
Dragons are manifestations of magic in the material plane? Am I getting this right?!
Not a word about Beasts? Waited the whole video to see if they would touch on Beasts, expanded list with new CR0-CR6 options for Wild Shape. Did anyone get info that I missed?
I was 100% on board unntil they said they backed off on the lore...that is one of my favorite things to read about the monster
yeah but you gotta understand the context. That is a book that is meant to inspire the DM and they didn't want to impose a story onto them
That’s kinda been the theme for me with the 2024 books. Even with the lengthened page counts, the increased text size for easier reading, heavier emphasis on art, and adding more options than ever means that something had to give, usually the flavorful descriptions. The pro is that everything is less setting dependent, but it’s still sad. The traits, bonds, flaws, and ideals that came with backgrounds are a perfect example. At least the game is clearer, more organized, and better balanced than before, but I’m definitely going to keep my 2014 rulebooks for that flavor.
Cool to have images with an environment but will there be digital versions to use as tokens? Those pictures don't seem ideal. Also for vampires and monsters that are hurt by sunlight, I hope there is clarification that daylight is not strong enough to hurt them.
They don't make money off of us using theyre art for free tokens so I highly doubt they care about that. On the bright side MTG has great card art for a ton of things that also show up in DND. That's what I use for my wild shape tokens as a druid main.
The new Daylight spell specifically says it's sunlight.
@@edheldude This is true, but if anyone's concerned about it ruining Curse of Strahd, remember there are sections in Ch2 about 'Sunlight in Barovia' and 'Alterations to Magic' and you can easily rule that the Daylight spell only conjures weak Barovian daylight!
@@edheldude that's exactly the reason why I'm saying this. It's a spell that most parties facing a vampire would have access to (3rd level), lasts for 1h with no concentration, occupies a 60ft radius area which is plenty, and can stop all of the vampire's supernatural powers from working. Daylight was not sunlight in 2014, and it's fine that it became sunlight in 2024 but then sunlight should have less impactful effects on the vampires, otherwise they'd just be a joke if not homebrewed.
I also hope they remove the running water thing, which is ridiculous. At least it should not block its ability to shapeshift and turn into mist.
@@TheVirusAJG I agree there are ways for the DM to deal with the issue in Ravenloft but 1) Curse of Strahd /Ravenloft is not the only setting for vampires 2) The DM being be able to make variant rules is not a solution, the published monster should be hard enough for their CR without the DM having to change things.
It's a wonder why they didn't update the playable goblin with the 2024 update cuz now they've introduced yet even more disparities between playable and nonplayable characters. Why do so many things follow different rules instead of one consistent ruleset?
They wanted to focus the species in the PHB on the most common and core options, there simply wasn’t room for updating every single species. Also player options and monsters shouldn’t be the same, they serve different roles in the game and should thus be designed differently. Insight Check has a good video on this concept.
@@kennethray8473 Why would it be terrible for both playable and non-playable goblins to be fey?
@@BradTheAmerican It’s not bad necessarily, but that’s not a good enough reason to reprint it in the new PHB when it was just reworked for Monsters of the Multiverse. It’s more things like Pack Tactics, AC, weapon damage, etc. that I’m thinking about specifically as being different for players and monsters.
@@BradTheAmerican I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that the PHB is the core standard and many players feel entitled to everything in it. Therefore the options in it should be considered as “standard” in a lot of ways. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that all of the species in the PHB are humanoids.
On a side note, I believe this player “entitlement” (not trying to use this word negatively, btw) is a big part of the reason why WotC put bastions and especially the custom background rules in the DMG instead of the PHB. Many people complained about this, but if they were there, min-maxxers would certainly demand that they get to choose which abilities to buff, origin feat to take, skill proficiencies to have, etc. likely resulting in a bit too much freedom. By making custom backgrounds an optional rule in the DMG, DMs have a bit of a buffer.
@3:52 I know it's going to be something different but I wanna imagine that horned monster right there was inspired by some monster from Filipino folklore.
Really hoping for return of Magical Beasts and not have them lumped in with Monstrosity
42:34 Is no one gonna question the use of AI art in the book? The tigerman has backwards hands!
Hurray for more kaiju!!! 🎉
It's funny how almost most of this video sound normal on 1.5x speed, it's insanely slow...
23:53 Speaking of Goblin and other monster races that sometimes get stats to be PCs (Gobinoids/Doppelganger-as of ID:RotF) will those be in this book or another?
hopefully this one, but a followup monsterbook has been the trend previously.
About goblins being fey now (as well as other creature types changing), how will this effect spells like Charm Person and the other ________ Person spells?
Worry not, it is still the same Edition. :D
@B42UC4 what I'm saying is that large swaths of creatures are no longer affected by common enchantment spells unless you want to cast the higher level version. The _______ Person spells specifically effect humanoids only, you need the 3 levels higher _______ Monster version to hit fey and others.
@@Nemo12417 I agree with you 100%. I do in fact think that it is not the same Edition.
I don't think the changes they made are any improvement. It is like a heavy homebrew that left no room for personal customization.
@@B42UC4 I wouldn't go that far. Whenever I DM, I always make changes to the official material in front of me. Whatever ends up being in this newest book, I can easily customize it.
@@Nemo12417 Sure, you can always customize. I just think that customizing 5e is way simpler than decustomizing and recustomizing 5.5e. At least for me, since I did not like most of the changes they did.
I’ll wait until I see what all is in the book, but I’m still sad we won’t be getting the rules on making custom monsters from scratch.
24:35 Can't use Hold Person on goblins or gnolls anymore since they are not humanoid anymore in 2024; fey and fiends are not humanoid for Hold Person to work.
What about the monsters in previously issued 5e adventures? Will there be a DM friendly way to run, say Tomb of Annihilation (and those module specific monsters - Acererak for example)?
I can't wait to shift my current adventure to this MM. 🤓😈
What is on Crawford’s hand?
So they made each monster with art have a full illustration... Does this mean every monster will still have art? Or will there be less illustrated monsters?
I suspect there’ll be a fair bit of combining monsters on the same page into one piece of art
I hope they gave the Tarrasque his 4e Earthbound Aura back.
I now want to take a group of Specters, give them Rogue levels, and have an organized crime group based on S.P.E.C.T.R.E from the James Bond universe.
Is that karlach at 1:53?
Well this is the last time you get to tell us what monsters do before they're all digitized
Genderless succubus dont make sense as succubus is the female variant and incubus is the male variant.
Probably would fix that before publishing this
Now expecting to see a Plant Folio
Just started a new campaign in greyhawk, the new DMG is so good, I can't even, I had no clue what to do for a first session, opened up the DMG, and had prepped in an hour
By the time my game gets to higher levels, the new MM should be out, and then I'll get to play with the new toys, I'm very excited
Oh and let's not forget the new D&D beyond map updates that let me incorporate monster statblocks and initiative counts much easier than before, now is probably the best time in history to play D&D, and realistically it only gets better from here
Can’t wait to accidentally TPK my party with these beefed up monsters.