D&D 5E Mordenkainens feedback.

[Gorg]

So, I ordered a whole bunch of D&D stuff off E-bay, and this was one of them. One I was most looking forward to. (call me a dork, I like monster manuals, lol)

I did little research, so was not expecting all the chapters of lore in the front. I like the ones on the Blood War, NOT a fan of the Elves chapter... It was like a complete rewrite of the entire race... Some interesting stuff, but I'll be sticking with the history/backstory We've used since the beginning.

The layout is cool, though. I like the quotes, and the "handwritten" sidebars from Mordenkainen!

About to dive into the chapter on dwarves and duergar.

The monster section looks awesome, though! Great art, and some really cool looking beasties!

I now eagerly await the arrival of Volo's guide to Monsters.

 

[Iry]

The elven lore was certainly polarizing. Love it or hate it, it does work as a plot hook for a small selection of elves, and the politics therein. Immortal Elves if you will.

 

[Prakriti]

The content in Mordenkainen's is more than a little unfocused. We have devils, demons, and gith on one hand, which neatly fit into a "planar monsters" category, then... halflings, dwarves, and elves. Huh?

I think originally there were two products planned: a book filled with lore on the playable races (elves, dwarves, halfling, gnomes), to help players roleplay their characters better, and a book about planar monsters (gith, demons, devils, etc.). One of those products probably got cancelled, and Wizards must've decided to smoosh the two books together. So now we have what is essentially The Complete Book of Elves/Halflings/Dwarves combined with The Book of Vile Darkness. It's an odd fit, to say the least. But if you can look past the confused theme, Mordenkainen's has a lot of good lore in it. More players should read it.

EDIT: My other theory is that the playable-race content in Mordenkainen's was originally intended for Xanathar's Guide, but wasn't ready in time. That would explain why Xanathar's Guide contains almost 20 pages of filler (Appendix B: Character Names).

 

[DeviousQuail]

Mordenkainen's was a worthwhile purchase imo. The lore portions were nice because I'd never really delved into the Blood War or Gith stuff before. Now I'm running a character that is a Githyanki War Wizard and I use things I learned from this book to really flesh out the backstory and motivation. The other lore sections were fine but I can't say I've made use of them much.

The part I enjoyed most though was all the CR 10+ monsters. By the time this book came out I was really looking for more high end challenges and it really delivered in that regard.

Volo's was fine. Perhaps a bit more useful session-to-session with so many low to mid CR monsters and the expanded lore for staple DnD monsters like Beholders, Orcs, Mind Flayers, Giants, etc. But it didn't get my creative juices flowing quite like Mord's did.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I think originally there were two products planned: a book filled with lore on the playable races (elves, dwarves, halfling, gnomes), to help players roleplay their characters better, and a book about planar monsters (gith, demons, devils, etc.). One of those products probably got cancelled, and Wizards must've decided to smoosh the two books together. So now we have what is essentially The Complete Book of Elves/Halflings/Dwarves combined with The Book of Vile Darkness. It's an odd fit, to say the least. But if you can look past the confused theme, Mordenkainen's has a lot of good lore in it. More players should read it.

I think it's simpler than that. I think they're trying to print books that are primarily for the DM which have enough player content in them that players buy the book, too.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I like a lot of it and volo’s. And there is some I don’t care for. Overall, I think they’re very good purchases.

what I struggle with is the fact that for those of us that like physical books, material is harder to find...

sales and my concerns are two separate concerns/issues. They (WOTC) are not likely to worry about it so it will continue.

layout aside, the material is pretty good. Not a fan of the goblin lore however nor elven...

 

[Quartz]

I have the book and I feel free to chuck or include whatever I want. If I want my elves to be plant-human hybrids and my orcs to be pig-human hybrids created by Suel mages then those are parts of my Greyhawk campaign world. They don't need to be part of your Greyhawk campaign world.

 

[Eltab]

Mordenkainen's elves are a good source for "I want elves that are not just 'the goodest of humanity +1'"; there are several ideas worth incorporating.
If WotC had introduced the Mordenkainen elves as "don't you know all Elves have always been like this ?!" then I would have been upset.

 

[Voadam]

I head there are some issues with new stuff on the dwarf/duergar lore too.

 

[Burnside]

I think it's simpler than that. I think they're trying to print books that are primarily for the DM which have enough player content in them that players buy the book, too.

Players buy books?