Preview VOLO'S GUIDE TO MONSTERS

Polygon has scored a look at the upcoming Volo's Guide to Monsters from WotC - six full pages, in fact, which give a very clear idea of what we can expect from the book when it arrived next month! From the looks of their article, it seems that WotC is using this as a testbed for the way they handle future sourcebooks. Polygon confirms the overall product description - 96 new (to 5E) monsters, tons of rules for monster PCs (goblins, orcs, firbolgs), and a buch of deep dives into some iconic monsters. The beholder section is nearly 14 pages on its own. Check out the article at Polygon for more!

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[Henry]

Not really. Still have 1e books that are in fantastic shape. My 5e books wouldnt last 4 years of regular use, let alone 35-40.

Wow! My 5e core books are still in great shape, and i've been using 'em for two years now. Got them from Barnes & Noble brick & mortar, don't know which print run, though.

Of course, my 1e books are in somewhat worse shape, but that's to be expected with them being 30+ years old, and all.

 

[Prakriti]

Or, y'know, buy Kobold Press' Tome of Beast with its 65 monsters of CR 12+

I have it. It's great. But it's not enough. If it were, then there would be no market for Volo's Guide.

It's not like more than one copy is going to be purchased per table.

What's a "table?" I play online. Groups are ephemeral.

Really, regardless of who the book appeals to, more often than not a DM will be the one who buys.

That's arguable. Volo's Guide is full of player options. Players outnumber DMs. It's possible that players will represent a larger share of the book's market than DMs. The most comparable product here is the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, not the Monster Manual.

 

[Jester David]

What's a "table?" I play online. Groups are ephemeral.

Cool.
Probably still not the norm.

That's arguable. Volo's Guide is full of player options. Players outnumber DMs. It's possible that players will represent a larger share of the book's market than DMs. The most comparable product here is the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, not the Monster Manual.

That's been argued for years but I'm unsure it's actually true. The theory is that there are four to six times as many players to DMs, but I'm not certain that works out in practice. Most (non online or organized play) D&D groups are built around one key player who buys all the stuff, supplying books for the table. The one fan and the people willing to play with them. Often times, that person becomes the DM because they're the one who knows the rules.
WotC did a survey a while back which found that people willing to DM are willing to spend five times as much on the hobby.
Yeah, many players will buy a PHB and there might be doubles of that (especially in organized play or online where no one can share a book) but otherwise an accessory might sell a single copy per table.

 

[Jester David]

Not really. Still have 1e books that are in fantastic shape. My 5e books wouldnt last 4 years of regular use, let alone 35-40.

I destroyed my 2nd Edition books after just a couple years. Life in a high school backpack and such. And my 3e books are a little rough, since they went to Living Greyhawk games across the city.

My Pathfinder and 5e books have seen a lot of use, but I'm careful with them, and so far they're holding up just fine. But I take care of them and broke them in:
http://lifehacker.com/break-in-a-hardcover-book-without-ruining-the-spine-1509842301

 

[Demetrios1453]

I have it. It's great. But it's not enough. If it were, then there would be no market for Volo's Guide.

I'm not sure why you're worried about the lack of higher-CR foes. I know the two stat blocks we saw are low-to-mid level, but we saw everything but the stat block for the alhoon, and it's going to be well into the higher CRs (in 3e it was CR 18). Not to mention that the preview states that the elder brain will be detailed in Chapter 3, and that's almost certainly going to be CR 20 or higher (CR 25 in 3e). We also know we're getting giant variants, and those should also be mid-to-high-level CRs. I'm sure those won't be the only examples from the book...

 

[Demetrios1453]

I destroyed my 2nd Edition books after just a couple years. Life in a high school backpack and such. And my 3e books are a little rough, since they went to Living Greyhawk games across the city.

My Pathfinder and 5e books have seen a lot of use, but I'm careful with them, and so far they're holding up just fine. But I take care of them and broke them in:
http://lifehacker.com/break-in-a-hardcover-book-without-ruining-the-spine-1509842301

2e PHBs were notorious for how quickly they fell apart in my college gaming groups...

 

[AngryFire]

I'm less against it than I used to be, but I still note the low CRs of the previewed creatures.

Alhoons and Neothilids, my friend. I'm sure there'll be more in the final book.

 

[ninjayeti]

You say "filler" I say plot hooks.

Sure, I get that there are people who find value in this stuff, and I am not trying to bash those who do.

Here's the thing though - I don't need a book of plot hooks. I don't need a bunch of deep lore that may or may not work with my campaign. I don't need droll Elminster anecdotes. I just need some damn monsters.

Earlier editions understood that there were different markets for different products. They had rules-heavy monster books and more lore oriented stuff like Monstrous Arcana and Elminster's Ecologies. By contrast 5E has ... $12.50 worth of monsters packaged with $37.50 of stuff that I couldn't care less about.

 

[Vampyr3]

Well at least you linked the article you took the pics from...

 

[dave2008]

I've made peace with the fact that if I want high-level monsters, I'll have to design them myself, so it's not a huge complaint, but... one of the issues with these monsters is that they -- like many of the high-CR monsters in the Monster Manual -- are rare and solitary. There's only one Elder Brain in an illithid colony, for example. You can't roll on a random encounter table and say, "You encounter four Elder Brains!" Whereas in low-level adventures, you can make random encounter tables for every single terrain type and never run out of options.

So it's not just that we need high-CR monsters. It's that we need high-CR monsters that can roam dungeons and forests and deserts and mountains in great numbers. Almost everything that we have now -- behirs, dragons, beholders, purple worms, liches, etc. -- are rare and solitary.

I understand your thought, but it would be rather odd if there we just loads of high CR monsters strolling around. Typically as you get closer to the top of the food chain, so to speak, you see less and less individuals. I don't think surfing would be so popular if every fish in the sea was a great white shark