D&D 5E Does anyone who got an mm at Gencon want to offer up spoilers to us?

[machineelf]

Looking through my MM, on the lizardfolk page and a few others it looks almost like a printing error. There is red and black text slightly overlapping that gives a fuzzy effect, like my glasses were off or something. Hard to read. Most pages look normal though. Anyone else with a MM notice that?

Well congratulations, you probably got a very early copy off the press run. When publications like these are printed, sometimes the color plates are not lined up exactly (so it looks like you have here a magenta plate that is not in perfect sync with the cyan, yellow, and key (black) plates. (CMYK.)) As the press gets started and pages are printed, the press workers will adjust the plates to make the match perfectly for the later pages and that come through.

So it sucks that it's not perfectly matched up, but it also means that you got one of the first copies that came off the press most likely. So there's that.

 

[Lawngnome4hire]

I'm kind of disappointed that the Pit Fiend isn't legendary. They're the top dogs in Baator, not counting the Arch-Devils. It makes sense that they would be legendary. And this most likely means that Balors are also not legendary.

I'm not as bothered by the incubus/succubus change as a lot of people are. Their behavior was always much more in line with devils than it was demons, so I don't have a big issue with them being made neutral. This approach is better than the 2e version when they made a devil version of succubus which was pretty much the same thing with a different alignment.

 

[TwoSix]

I'm not as bothered by the incubus/succubus change as a lot of people are. Their behavior was always much more in line with devils than it was demons, so I don't have a big issue with them being made neutral. This approach is better than the 2e version when they made a devil version of succubus which was pretty much the same thing with a different alignment.

I'm pretty happy with succubi being neutral, I ran them that way back in 2e. They made too much sense as the velvet glove over the iron fist of Hell to be restricted to one side of the Blood War. I was quite happy with 4e making them devils, and still happy with 5e having them play both sides.

To be fair, I've never been a fan of the slobbering demon hordes, and am quite happy to rescue any cool concept from the "demon" classification.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Mine is in my suitcase, so I won't see it again until this infernal journey home ends!

Oh poor you, our hearts bleed. There is you suffering a trip to Gen Con, getting all sorts of awful swag and now having to fly back to Blighty.

Thankfully I'm here in NZ and I will see the PHB some time early to mid September... I bet you're jealous now!

 

[Thaumaturge]

I'm curious: what to the rogue modron get? Are they PC-race-able?

They can choose their own alignment and lose the immunity to compulsion trait. Modrons should be as PC-race-able as any of the standard MM critters (orcs, lizardmen, etc.). They range from CR 1/8 to CR 2, with the main difference being number of attacks and stats. They all get truesight, which may or may not be an issue. Pentadrones also get a recharging paralysis gas.

What can you tell me about unicorns? Asking for a friend.

They get 2 pages, one of background and one of stats, a couple of sketches and a nice full-color painting. They have regional effects. They are legendary creatures. They can charge, have innate spellcasting, magic resistance, can heal, can teleport, and can shield themselves or others. CR 5.

They get the first kind of "regeneration" I've seen so far: they can heal themselves as one of their legendary actions. I guess vampires can, too, in their own way. As a legendary action, vampires can make a bite attack, if it hits they regain hitpoints.

Thaumaturge.

 

[fjw70]

What about sahuagin? How many varieties (and what they are called), and anything on stats?

 

[Grazzt]

Boredom isn't found in a monster's stat block. It is the failure of the DM to use a monster in interesting ways that make them boring. Atmosphere, context, and specific circumstances applied well by the DM can yield interesting encounters regardless of stat blocks.

Agreed.

[/I]Should the gnome's player be bored right about now because the lizard man has hold breath as his racial feature? I would imagine under the circumstances that knowing that would be terrifying.

Such as when the lizard man grapples a PC and then dives off the side of the boat, sinks to the bottom of the lake/ocean/sea/whatever and maintains the grapple...all the while holding its breath while said PC drowns?

 

[Thaumaturge]

What about sahuagin? How many varieties (and what they are called), and anything on stats?

• Sahuagin (CR 1/2)
• Sahuagin Priestess (CR 2)
• Sahuagin Baron (CR 5)

They all get blood frenzy, they have advantage on mêlée attacks against creatures who don't have their full hit points, so ouch. They can also telepathically talk to sharks, and they only need to return to the water every 4 hours or so to avoid suffocation.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Thaumaturge]

And distilling the book to just rules does it a disservice. There is much more to the MM than rules. I am enjoying reading it, and every couple of pages I have a new campaign idea.

Thaumaturge.

 

[MightyZehir]

Do giants have something cool aside from big hits and rocks?