D&D 5E Volo's Guide to Monsters - Which monsters do you want to see?

[Demetrios1453]

Yeah, you are right that surely something Draconic is likely in the book; but I realized in the morning that we know all seven sections in Chapter one already: six mentioned in the initial product description, and Giants. So, Dragons don't seem to be getting chapter one attention, at any rate...

Having read the Polygon article now, it mentions that hags will be covered in Chapter 1 ("Ever wondered what a hag is most likely to drive off the used car lot, or fancied a careful examination of the kobold pantheon?" Granted, I'm far more excited about that second part!). So we're getting more than seven featured types, or they are going to consolidate some of the seven we know about...

 

[Parmandur]

Not totally though. The section on Eye Tyrants states that there will be a description of an Eye Tyrant (the Xanatar to be precise) later in Chapter 1.

I'm wondering (and hoping) if certain variants that don't require full stat blocks will still be in Chapter 1, just given quick "This creature is the same as the one in the Monster Manual, except with the following changes and a CR of X" that you see in the APs. That's something I can definitely see them doing with the fire giant dreadnought, for example...

It says the Xanathar Guild, so my guess is they map out the HQ as an example of an Eye Tyrant domain.

 

[Parmandur]

Having read the Polygon article now, it mentions that hags will be covered in Chapter 1 ("Ever wondered what a hag is most likely to drive off the used car lot, or fancied a careful examination of the kobold pantheon?" Granted, I'm far more excited about that second part!). So we're getting more than seven featured types, or they are going to consolidate some of the seven we know about...

Good catch; Perkins hhaf said on Twitter earlier this month that he is pleased with what they did for hags in Volo's guide. Could be that some don't get a separate map (how different is a Gnoll tribal encampment from an Orcish one...?).

So, noodling over muc about tint details: Preface is on page 4, page 7 is already well into discussing Beholders, page 23 has Giant lore and the Mindflayer info about their life cycle etc. is on page 72.

Firnolg racial features are on page 107; what would be I'm thirty pages between those, more Mindflayers and Orcs...?

Gauth is on page 125, so chapter two doesn't go very far past the Firbolg on page count...

 

[Demetrios1453]

Good catch; Perkins hhaf said on Twitter earlier this month that he is pleased with what they did for hags in Volo's guide. Could be that some don't get a separate map (how different is a Gnoll tribal encampment from an Orcish one...?).

So, noodling over muc about tint details: Preface is on page 4, page 7 is already well into discussing Beholders, page 23 has Giant lore and the Mindflayer info about their life cycle etc. is on page 72.

Firnolg racial features are on page 107; what would be I'm thirty pages between those, more Mindflayers and Orcs...?

Gauth is on page 125, so chapter two doesn't go very far past the Firbolg on page count...

I was just about to do an analysis like this myself lol

The beholder section in Chapter 1 is "nearly 14 pages" from the Polygon preview, so given that it will start on around page 5, it looks like it will go to around page 18. Given that we're a bit into the giant section on page 23, either we go directly from beholders to giants, or we have at most 4 pages for something like dragons. That's still possible (Volo might complain that the good dragons refused to talk to him - presumably on Elminster's request - whilelthe evil ones just wanted to eat him), and give us a quick overview (quick history, pantheon, and role-playing tips), but I agree, that possibility is looking a bit grim.

We know that Chapter 1 will cover yuan-ti as well, which with the remaining mind flayer section and the orc section, would be enough to fill up the 30 pages or so. There might be another minor "featured" section two mixed in there as well, without a lair map, given that we didn't know about hags until now. Minotaurs, sahuagin, thri-kreen, troglodytes, and trolls would all be good candidates for such shorter sections.

The gauth is obviously in an overall Beholder section in Chapter 3, as you can catch the tail end of the Death Kiss section on the sample page. That means page 125 is relatively near the start of Chapter 3, probably at most 10 pages or so in, probably less. It looks like each "playable race" section will be about 1 1/2 to 2 pages long, so I would think a good estimate would be 4 to 6 full-fledged playable races after the firbolg, with a page for a chart for the "quick and dirty" races (unless this is either scattered among the monster info in Chapter 3 or in the NPC appendix)

 

[Demetrios1453]

It says the Xanathar Guild, so my guess is they map out the HQ as an example of an Eye Tyrant domain.

To be a bit pedantic here, it does say "For an example of an eye tyrant that leads an organization of humanoids, see the section on the Xanathar Guild" which, given the emphasis on the eye tyrant, implies to me that we'll see the the stats for the Xanathar as an example of a typical eye tyrant as part of that section. If it were just talking about the guild/lair itself, it would have said "For an example of an organization of humanoids lead by an eye tyrant..." instead. Then again, I may be going way to far into this whole parsing thing!

 

[Parmandur]

I was just about to do an analysis like this myself lol

The beholder section in Chapter 1 is "nearly 14 pages" from the Polygon preview, so given that it will start on around page 5, it looks like it will go to around page 18. Given that we're a bit into the giant section on page 23, either we go directly from beholders to giants, or we have at most 4 pages for something like dragons. That's still possible (Volo might complain that the good dragons refused to talk to him - presumably on Elminster's request - whilelthe evil ones just wanted to eat him), and give us a quick overview (quick history, pantheon, and role-playing tips), but I agree, that possibility is looking a bit grim.

We know that Chapter 1 will cover yuan-ti as well, which with the remaining mind flayer section and the orc section, would be enough to fill up the 30 pages or so. There might be another minor "featured" section two mixed in there as well, without a lair map, given that we didn't know about hags until now. Minotaurs, sahuagin, thri-kreen, troglodytes, and trolls would all be good candidates for such shorter sections.

The gauth is obviously in an overall Beholder section in Chapter 3, as you can catch the tail end of the Death Kiss section on the sample page. That means page 125 is relatively near the start of Chapter 3, probably at most 10 pages or so in, probably less. It looks like each "playable race" section will be about 1 1/2 to 2 pages long, so I would think a good estimate would be 4 to 6 full-fledged playable races after the firbolg, with a page for a chart for the "quick and dirty" races (unless this is either scattered among the monster info in Chapter 3 or in the NPC appendix)

So, we know the preface is on page 4; based on analogy to their other 5E publications, page 5 is probably an art splash page indicating the Chapter, and page 6 starts the Beholder info (so, to page 20, probably).

Page 23 has Giant info, I would suppose page 3 of 12-14, and by page 72 has to finish Giants and fo through Gnolls, Goblins, Kobolds, and start Mindflayers in 50 pages: crowded?

And between 72 and 107, it needs to finish Mindflayers,go into Orcs and Yuan-Ti and start chapter two: also crowded at 35 pages?

I am increasingly sure there are just seven sections to Chapter one, and we know what they are. Hags might fit in one of those seven categories: based on the Wiki article, maybe they are considered Giantki ?

 

[Parmandur]

Podcast this week has Lore You Should Know segment where Perkins discusses his favorite monster, Yuan-Ti.

Diversity in appearance and abilities, joined by grasping Machiavellian worldview. Combines worst mythological archetypes about snakes, pulp fiction flavor with decadent destroyed empires in ruins. Discusses Dwellers of the Forbidden City. Discusses three main categories from the MM, how different individuals will have different human snake features, history of humans making snake god pacts,and the Yuan-Ti pantheon.

In Volo's Guide, we get a temple lair mapped out and described. Mentions Broodguards as mooks, Anathemas as huge possible leaders "as big as Demon Lords...end if dungeon super threats."

Discusses how Forgotten Realms Yuan-Ti have a divergent origin from the Core, with the Creator Races. Mentions Najara and other Yuan-Ti kingdoms which number in thousands.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Podcast this week has Lore You Should Know segment where Perkins discusses his favorite monster, Yuan-Ti.

Diversity in appearance and abilities, joined by grasping Machiavellian worldview. Combines worst mythological archetypes about snakes, pulp fiction flavor with decadent destroyed empires in ruins. Discusses Dwellers of the Forbidden City. Discusses three main categories from the MM, how different individuals will have different human snake features, history of humans making snake god pacts,and the Yuan-Ti pantheon.

In Volo's Guide, we get a temple lair mapped out and described. Mentions Broodguards as mooks, Anathemas as huge possible leaders "as big as Demon Lords...end if dungeon super threats."

Discusses how Forgotten Realms Yuan-Ti have a divergent origin from the Core, with the Creator Races. Mentions Najara and other Yuan-Ti kingdoms which number in thousands.

Excellent! Great to hear both broodguards and anethemas are in there, although I would have been really surprised if they weren't. Anathemas will also help with the whining I'm already seeing over a "lack" of higher CR creatures (even if we already know the alhoon and elder brain will be in the book) - granted I believe some people would still whine about that even if every creature in the book was over CR 10!

 

[Demetrios1453]

So, we know the preface is on page 4; based on analogy to their other 5E publications, page 5 is probably an art splash page indicating the Chapter, and page 6 starts the Beholder info (so, to page 20, probably).

Page 23 has Giant info, I would suppose page 3 of 12-14, and by page 72 has to finish Giants and fo through Gnolls, Goblins, Kobolds, and start Mindflayers in 50 pages: crowded?

And between 72 and 107, it needs to finish Mindflayers,go into Orcs and Yuan-Ti and start chapter two: also crowded at 35 pages?

I am increasingly sure there are just seven sections to Chapter one, and we know what they are. Hags might fit in one of those seven categories: based on the Wiki article, maybe they are considered Giantki ?

I'm wondering if the more popular monstrous humanoids - kobolds, goblinoids, orcs, maybe gnolls - will just be combined into one chapter. That seems extreme, but it looks like there is a lot going on in Chapter 1...

 

[BigBadDM]

I want to see more dragons. Yellow dragons, sapphire dragons, stone dragons... Er wait, that is what I said 25 years ago (has it really been that long). How many times are you going to fight a dragon, or a beholder, or any solitary creature. Really, the first MM pretty much fills out 5 years of future gaming for me.

Now given that, what would I like to see if I was making my own product? More ghosts, or spiders, or banshees, or ropers, or mimics. I mean, not those creatures...they already exist. But creatures that can wreck havoc on a party no matter the level; creatures with some unique abilities/mechanics. Those can be intriguing; surprises are always intriguing.

I am curious what the final product looks like though, and it is looking to my old eyes they might have gone a good direction here.