Volo's Preview at Kotaku: Flinds, Yuan-Ti, & More

Kotaku has posted a new preview of Volo's Guide to Monsters. This one looks at gnolls, lizardfolk, flinds, and yuan-ti. Don't forget to check out all the previous previews of the upcoming 224-page monster book for D&D 5th Edition - the froghemoth, giants and orcs, mindflayers and beholders, fire giant dreadnoughts, giant lore, and the book's preface. Credit goes to EN World member Entsuropi for spotting this one!

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[Sacrosanct]

Man, this really makes me hope that they will one day rerelease the Monster Manual with updated and interesting monsters, like they did with the 4e Monster Vaults

Obviously I can't tell you what you find interesting, but I found lots of monsters in the MM interesting. Then again, I don't want everything spelled out for me. As the DM, it's my job to make the monsters interesting. All I want is a few nudges here and there, and the MM did that well. As is Volo (with things like the fluff about ninja hobgoblins lol)

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Obviously I can't tell you what you find interesting, but I found lots of monsters in the MM interesting. Then again, I don't want everything spelled out for me. As the DM, it's my job to make the monsters interesting. All I want is a few nudges here and there, and the MM did that well. As is Volo (with things like the fluff about ninja hobgoblins lol)

Too many bags of hp. These new monsters previewed have a ton of interesting abilities built into then compared to many MM monsters. Imo of course.

 

[flametitan]

Too many bags of hp. These new monsters previewed have a ton of interesting abilities built into then compared to many MM monsters. Imo of course.

It's probably a good idea to have some bags of hp monsters, however. If they have too many distinct abilities, it becomes more cumbersome to run when you need more of them. Oftentimes monsters with special abilities will also need you to use them in order to be fighting at proper efficiency. Which means ignoring them will make a fight even easier than it is on paper, which is not necessarily a good thing.

So as my general rule, what you want is a small number of interesting creatures to spice up a fight, and then have the rest be hit points and damage dice to help serve as padding, perhaps with one or two abilities to help set them apart. I think the MM might have been a little too meatbag heavy, but I'd rather not have the majority of monsters become mechanically complex creatures. I have a hard enough time remembering to use a goblin's nimbleness as is.

 

[unknowable]

Fantasy Grounds has spilled the beans on which races get playable stats

They are:
Aasimar
Bugbear
Firbolg
Goblin
Goliath
Hobgoblin
Kenku
Kobold
Lizardfolk
Orc
Tabaxi
Triton
Yuan-ti Pureblood