Level Up (A5E) Monster preview thread!

[dave2008]

People fight all kinds of monsters as solos. Ogres, giants, dragons, all kinds. I get not everyone agrees with me.... I'd like more options. The lower level dragons.... Are they actually different than the MM much? If not, why include them?

Not terribly different at least for the black dragon. Though Ambusher is a nice addition. I took legendary actions down to young adult ages when updated the chromatics, I just feel that any younger than that and your not dealing with a "legendary" monster.

 

[Kozos]

@Morrus just a heads up the dragon's strength is written as 6 instead of 26.

 

[tetrasodium]

I noticed something interesting with the dragons. None of them have a pointless resist nonmagical b/p/s. They have an immune:acid but no vulnerability or resistance. That got me curious so I went looking through the earlier monster previews. There are quite a few with one or more energy immune. The cambion has a number of "Damage Resistances" including one for "nonmagical weapons".

 

[dave2008]

I noticed something interesting with the dragons. None of them have a pointless resist nonmagical b/p/s.

Just to clarify, neither do the MM dragons.

Also, I don't find resistance to nonmagical b/p/s pointless. In my setting magic items are very rare and our whole party wasn't equipped with a magic weapon until lvl 10. For most of the time in our campaign resistance to b/p/s was very relevant.

 

[Morrus]

H is for .... Hippogriff!

A short entry, this one, but you do get a peek at the monsters on either side of it!

 

[Darkwynters]

Oooo Hobgoblin lore!

 

[Faolyn]

Sign: Enormous nest atop of peak or ancient tree.

Now I'm picturing these guys as being like those wood ducks where the ducklings leap out of the tree and hopefully don't die when they land. They jump out of the tree, hopefully land well, and then have the entire ground for their foalish zoomies.

Edit: Reread the entry. Wait a sec. It has a predator's beak and seems to eat grass... my gods, these are the giant pandas of the fantasy world! Do they fall of things in adorable ways?

 

[Tonguez]

Edit: Reread the entry. Wait a sec. It has a predator's beak and seems to eat grass... my gods, these are the giant pandas of the fantasy world! Do they fall of things in adorable ways?

Yeah thats the first thing I noticed, that despite the head and claws being those of a eagle apparently the horse aspect is dominant and hippogriff are a grass eating prey species. Makes you wonder what the chick-foals are eating in their mountain top nests. (I’d make them omnivirous scavengers myself)

and whats with hobgoblin blue noses?

 

[Faolyn]

and whats with hobgoblin blue noses?

That's actually one of those somewhat obscure bits of D&D lore that date back to really early editions: some hobs have blue or red noses, and they usually have some position of authority on hob society. Why this is, I don't know. I have an image of Gygax or one of his group running a game and having to come up with an improv way of having the leaders stand out.

 

[Zaukrie]

I was really excited for the monster book, but now I'm not sure if the new versions are all that different than the old ones .... The lore and encounter stuff is great, but I'm just not convinced at this point. I'm all in on the other book for sure.....