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.

 

[Tonguez]

Shhhhhh! You're going to scare away a big chunk of the fanbase by mentioning that 5e's doing something like 4e!

you know, I never played 4e but the more I get in to 5e the more I’ve come to appreciate 4e Design ideas, its seems I may not be alone …

 

[pukunui]

I don't see what the issue is with the Spellcaster change. They are still "spells" even if they were changed to an ability. Cacophony is still "Shatter" just refluffed and modified a bit. You can still give players "Cacophony" but it would be Shatter with a refluffed name.

And if your players want to be able to use the new war priest's Holy Fire action, all they have to do is press C.

 

[Professor Murder]

I would like some clarity of how much this book is new material and how much is revamped.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I would like some clarity of how much this book is new material and how much is revamped.

We don't know it's too early. But my guess is the whole thing is revamp

 

[pukunui]

I would like some clarity of how much this book is new material and how much is revamped.

Here's what Jeremy had to say about it during the Future of D&D Panel:

This book is a treasure trove of creature-related material that has appeared previously in other products for 5th edition but are now all being brought together into one book and updated.

As we wanted to create a single book that would be a sort of one-stop shop of monsters and also playable races ... We thought: not only can we bring all of this into one place for this gift set, but we can also update some of this material because, as Ray revealed, we're already working on our 50th anniversary plans, which will include those new versions of the core books.

And as we're working on that update, we thought: now's our opportunity to update some of the material that people can use now to already give a feel of where we're headed over the next few years with Dungeons & Dragons.

And so as we gathered monsters from various sources into Monsters of the Multiverse, and also playable races, all of them have benefited from playtest feedback we've gotten over the last seven years.

So we've made improvements in clarity, we've added new abilities, we've rebalanced things, we've made some of the material easier to digest at the game table. There's new art in this book, as well as familiar art. I think people are going to just be delighted to have over 250 monsters in this book and over thirty playable races ...

These are all of the playable races we have published outside the Player's Handbook that are setting agnostic, meaning different playable options that are not tied to a particular D&D world but rather people who you can find anywhere in the multiverse.

And the multiverse, that's the theme of this book ... we wanted to make sure that everything presented here speaks to the multiverse as a whole, and so this is a place where you can find folk and monsters, friends and foes, who you can encounter really in any world of the D&D multiverse.

Emphasis mine.

We don't know it's too early. But my guess is the whole thing is revamp

Jeremy's statements make it pretty clear to me that there's not going to be anything new in it.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Assuming you are talking about the Bard, it looks to me like it says:

Thank you.

This underlines my resentment against Cacophony:

- Multiattack and Cacophony don't work together, as it is not listed under Spellcasting.

- Cacophony is exactly thunderwave cast at level 1.

So why not list it under spellcasting?
Why not make it:

Cacophony(recharge 4-6):
... casts thunderwave at level x and does...

 

[Charlaquin]

For me, at least, the main issue is that the new names don't make it obvious what their analogous spell is. Someone less familiar with the rules will not know that Cacophony = Shatter. For newer GMs (and those like me with bad memories!), it's not necessarily clear how to swap out one spell-ish ability with another of similar power.

Just call it what it is, OR at least give me a big table somewhere with customizations.

I’m a fan of the change to the way spells are rendered in monster stat blocks, but I agree that I would prefer they just use the name of the analogous spell rather than give it a new name.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I’m a fan of the change to the way spells are rendered in monster stat blocks, but I agree that I would prefer they just use the name of the analogous spell rather than give it a new name.

Yeah. Cacophony could be its own spell. Like an AoE version of Tasha's Hideous Laughter or something like that.

 

[Charlaquin]

Anyone else notice that Bard seems to have lost Song of Rest?

RIP short rests, I guess.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Will be He-Nam and the Monster of the Multiverse: Revelations a rehush of the two previous books? I bought Volo and Xanathar's Guide, and I was awaiting the rest of guides to be translated, but now I don't feel to buy the translated Moderkainen's tome of foes if later this will be replaced or update with the new book.

And who is going to buy the new translated corebooks if in the next years we will see a 50A edition?