D&D 5E Zooming In On Monsters of the Multiverse [UPDATED!]

Earlier, WotC announced Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse, a new D&D compilation of monster material from previous products updated to a new format. These screen grabs are as good as I could get them. They're not terribly clear, but you can make more out than in the original images.

The screenshots show the original entry in Volo's Guide to Monsters next to the new entry in Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse.

"The Future of D&D" (New Core Books in 2024!)

The online D&D Celebration event, which has been running all weekend, comes to a close with The Future of D&D, a panel featuring WotC's Ray Winninger, Liz Schuh, Chris Perkins, and Jeremy Crawford, hosted by Elle Osili-Wood. D&D is exploring the multiverse Revisiting classic settings. 1st of...

www.enworld.org

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UPDATE -- a cleaned up version of the War Priest has appeared on imgur.

 

[Omand]

I read that as that they weren't going to have appendices for regular animals and NPCs, but mix them in with the main text of the bestiary, but until we get more info, I could be very well misinterpreting it. If they do flat out alphabetize everything individually, however, it's really going to be hard to place flavor texts for related groups. They could, of course, just make the entries "Demon: Hezrou" in order to keep such groups together.

Watching the live stream it seems pretty clear that it will be alphabetizing everything by the name of the creature. So no Demon: Hezrou to keep it in D, it will be under H for Hezrou. In fact, it was the Glabrezu that was used as the example on how you could find it under G in the new format.

I suspect there is a chance we might still see a separate appendix (also alphabetical) for simple animals. But, I could also see them all thrown into the general list. It would be almost a return to the 1E Monster Manual format, where simple animals were mixed in with everything else. The only difference being the lack of monster groups for the traditional categories (mostly the D groups as I pointed out above).

At this point, time will tell.

Cheers

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I hope they tell us how to create monsters/NPCs with these spellcasting abilities. Or rather how to properly CR them

 

[Demetrios1453]

Watching the live stream it seems pretty clear that it will be alphabetizing everything by the name of the creature. So no Demon: Hezrou to keep it in D, it will be under H for Hezrou. In fact, it was the Glabrezu that was used as the example on how you could find it under G in the new format.

I suspect there is a chance we might still see a separate appendix (also alphabetical) for simple animals. But, I could also see them all thrown into the general list. It would be almost a return to the 1E Monster Manual format, where simple animals were mixed in with everything else. The only difference being the lack of monster groups for the traditional categories (mostly the D groups as I pointed out above).

At this point, time will tell.

Cheers

Ah! I was just going on the descriptions of the stream, and didn't know that had been brought up specifically. Thanks for the info!

 

[Omand]

Ah! I was just going on the descriptions of the stream, and didn't know that had been brought up specifically. Thanks for the info!

No problem. A lot to absorb from all of this. I am sure I missed a few things as well.

Cheers

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Special action abilities replacing spells in monster stat blocks seems like a great day for people who hate counterspell.

 

[pukunui]

I think it’s pretty obvious that monster stats aren’t the same thing as a playable race, which is what I expressed a desire to see.

All you need to do is convince WotC to publish the playable grippli stats that they cut from Graham Barber’s contribution to Candlekeep Mysteries.

 

[Charlaquin]

Isn't this the way 4E set up its monsters?

Once again, 4e did something right and 5e took forever to come around on it. What else is new.

 

[Azzy]

Heh, funny that.

At the time, all we heard was hue and cry over how they were ruining monsters. How could you possibly have a Marilyth that doesn't have Animate Dead!?!?!?! They've ruined D&D in their quest to make a D&D MMO.

My irony meter is going off.

To be fair, I'm not thrilled with this particular change. But it's apparently a done deal.

 

[TerraDave]

I read that as that they weren't going to have appendices for regular animals and NPCs, but mix them in with the main text of the bestiary, but until we get more info, I could be very well misinterpreting it. If they do flat out alphabetize everything individually, however, it's really going to be hard to place flavor texts for related groups. They could, of course, just make the entries "Demon: Hezrou" in order to keep such groups together.

They specifically gave the example of a demon, so they would break them up.

The reason was looking it up if it was in an adventure. Would anything in this book be in an adventure, that was not also reproduced in that adventure? Would it be in future adventures?

 

[pukunui]

I just hope they go with "Wolf, Dire" and "Spider, Giant" and the like, so you get normal spiders and giant spiders together, instead of a whole bunch of giant monsters in one place like we currently have.