From the other thread:
Aasimar Sounds like they want to redo them from the DMG. Makes sense: the DMG was a poor book to serve as a player reference product. Happier to have them given the full meal deal. I just hope they worked in a deva variant.
Already allowed at my table.
Bugbear A surprise. They're sneaky CE brutes. Murderers and serial killers. Hard to picture them as Player Character material. But I imagine the stealthy medium sized creature role is well served by them.
They're sociopaths!! Yeah... not at my table.
Firbolg This race does have some unfortunately changes to lore. It'd be nice if they kept the Celtic look with the big red beards to at least tie the visual similarities of the two races together. Hopefully there's more art in the book that offers and alternate take. Personally, I don't mind the slight lore tweak, as they could use a realignment to be closer to the mythological version. And more fey creatures are nice.
I'll probably allow, if a player asks. The Feywild is open enough for there to be lots of places a firbolg could hail from.
Goblin Expected. People love their gobos.
I'd probably allow.
Goliath Sad. I liked having Elemental Evil races remain there, to keep that product useful...
They don't really have a solid place in my world. So I wouldn't allow for that reason. Or I'd discourage/ ask for a great story hook.
Hobgoblin A bit of a surprise. But they fill a military/martial role that isn't served by most other PC races. They work for any mercenary race quite nicely.
Would allow if the player had a good story.
Kenku Unexpected but hoped for. I love kenku as a ravenfolk.
They don't have a strong presence in my current campaign setting sadly. So I won't push them towards my players like kobolds. But allowed.
Kobold Expected. People love their kobos.
Kobolds have a big presence in my world. Definitely allowed.
Lizardfolk Not a huge surprise.
Have a place in my world, and as a neutral race they're easier to work in than hobgoblins, orcs, etc.
Orc Expected. Warcraft and all.
Would allow.
Tabaxi Huh... I knew they were bringing in "catfolk" so I was expecting that. As a Monstrous Manual race - a book I have supreme nostolgia for - this is a bit of a surprise. And has some stronger ties to D&D history than generic "catfolk", while still allowing people to play catfolk. Okay, nice. I like when they go for a callback while also doing fan service rather than just inventing something.
They don't really have a place in my world. I could work them in if a player had their heart on the race, but I'd prefer not to.
Triton An aquatic race does fill a pretty big niche in the player toolbox. Great for a lot of campaigns.
But not mine. Not allowed: they're all dead.
Yuan-ti Pureblood Somewhat of a surprise. Like the bugbear they're a good human-ish stealthy race. For people who want to be a good rogue but not be a halfling.
If the player had a solid hook, I'd allow it.
The nine subjects of lore: most are good. No surprises there beyond hags: that's one's a bit of a twist. But all the rest are definitely worthy and obvious subjects of another 10 or so pages of lore and legends.
The bestiary features a lot of NPCs. That's a surprise. Some good choices.
Four varieties of cow. That's odd.
Some new dinosaurs. *Shrug* But the deinonychus is a good choice.
alhoon, annis, babau, banderhobb, barghest, bodak, boggle, catoblepas, cave fisher, devourer, elder brain, flail snail, flind, froghemoth (!), gauth, girallon, ki-rin, leucrotta, neogi (!!), quickling, redcap, shadow mastif, spawn of Kyuss, rot grubs, trapper, vargouille, vegepygmy, and yeth hound are all appreciated.
Wonder if the darkling and sea spawn are the same from Ravenloft.
Really, looking through the list there's only a dozen I feel "meh" about. And a couple of those it's because I'm not sure what they are and my opinion could change upon sight.
I mean, I'm not feeling the wood woad or draegloth. But that's like 10% of the monsters of the book, probably a far, far better ratio than any other second monster book I've purchased.
Pretty excited for this book.