D&D 5E Volo's Guide to Monsters: General Discussion.

[Sword of Spirit]

How I think hobgoblin stats should have been done:

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Strength or Intelligence score (your choice) increases by 1.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

As others have mentioned, the goblins will make for interesting bards, warlocks, or bardlocks. They lack stat boosts to Charisma, but the Hide/Disengage provides a nice rogue-like ability without requiring either class to dip rogue.

Also, goblin Moon Druids get to make better use of the absurdly-broken Pass Without Trace spell, without losing their capstone or delaying spell or wildshape progression.

Goblin Moon Druids are probably even better now than human Moon Druids.

 

[UnadvisedGoose445]

Oh, I'm sorry. Is your goal to play your character with a -1 penalty to 75-90% of the rolls you make during the game in exchange for absolutely nothing? Well, I apologize then for not realizing there is someone who actually has that as their specific goal.

There is a show that literally hundreds of thousands of people watch each week where voice actors play D&D. People that don't play D&D watch this show. It has two Gnome characters on it. Neither of them is a Wizard.

My friend played an Elf barbarian, and was similarly successful, contributing just as much to the party as my mountain dwarf barbarian (they were adopted brothers). Yes, he was one point "behind" on attacks and guaranteed damage. Yes, he had an awesome time and I valued his presence in the game, even from a gamey perspective. You are making a massive deal out of something that is relatively minor.

 

[JonnyP71]

I've DMed games with 3 Gnome characters... a Paladin, a Bard and a Druid.

All 3 players had fun with them! That's what matters.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

It occurs to me that the hobgoblin, as is, makes for a good eldritch knight. Hmmm, hobgoblin empire a la Glen Cook's Dread Empire........

 

[zaratan]

Also, goblin Moon Druids get to make better use of the absurdly-broken Pass Without Trace spell, without losing their capstone or delaying spell or wildshape progression.

Goblin Moon Druids are probably even better now than human Moon Druids.

A ranger archer would be better? At least de +2 of dex would be good for something. And with the ranger revised...

 

[Corpsetaker]

Well I finally picked up a copy and while this is a good generic monster book, it's not so good as a FR product. I wish they would have given more lore on the monsters with regards to how they interact with Faerun. I mean if you are going to call this a "Volo's Guide", then I expect write ups on their connection to the Realms.

 

[robus]

As my players are about to hit a Yuan-ti lair in RoT the details (and options) there are going to be very helpful in beefing up/fleshing out those encounters. Also the gnoll expansions will be great if we ever make it into the underdark.

Finally the Aasimar could be a fun option in my Curse of Innistrad campaign (it was just going to be humans only, but having a fallen angel in the party could be quite interesting.

So I'm pretty happy with the content after my first skim through.

 

[robus]

Well I finally picked up a copy and while this is a good generic monster book, it's not so good as a FR product. I wish they would have given more lore on the monsters with regards to how they interact with Faerun. I mean if you are going to call this a "Volo's Guide", then I expect write ups on their connection to the Realms.

agreed that I'm always looking for where in the realms you might find the monsters. And that's often missing. I guess just use the terrain guide in the back and assume it applies anywhere that terrain appears?

 

[Corpsetaker]

I just want to say that Kobolds should get a +1 to Cha.