D&D 5E D&D Beyond Will Delist Two Books On May 17th

D&D Beyond will be permanently removing Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on May 17th in favor of the upcoming Monsters of the Multiverse book, which largely compiles and updates that material.

As per the D&D Beyond FAQ for Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse:

Can I still buy Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on D&D Beyond?
Starting on May 16, you can acquire the streamlined and up-to-date creatures and character race options, as well as a plethora of exciting new content, by purchasing Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. On May 17, Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes will be discontinued from our digital marketplace.

If you already own these two books you will still have access to your purchases and any characters or encounters you built with them. They won’t be removed from your purchased sourcebooks. Therefore, if you want the "fluff" and tables in those two tomes in D&D Beyond, you need to purchase them soon.

This is the first time books have been wholesale delisted from the D&D Beyond Platform rather than updated (much like physical book reprints are with errata and changes).

There’s no word from WotC on whether physical books will be discontinued and be allowed to sell out.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Any word on whether they'll be sending their goons around to confiscate existing physical books?

WotC ninja watch is on

 

[GMforPowergamers]

You're being paranoid.

If there's one thing I know about computers its that online databases never ever go down for any reason and are as certain as death and taxes.

I don't have an example (and it may not have happened yet) but there WILL be a day whena book will be 'updated' without permission by an online system... how we react when it happens out in the open is going to mean alot.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

It's been decided for you, don't you feel relieved?

Welcome to the glorious future.

Makes me yearn for the TSR days more and more.

 

[Juomari Veren]

It's been decided for you, don't you feel relieved?

Welcome to the glorious future.

I think permanently disappearing that Orc lore is part of the point, isn't it?

WoTC: I have no idea what you are talking about. Orcs are a multi-cultural group and heritage of beings who have nowhere been nor ever a savage race of morally and questionable wording and description. Therefore, the so called "all of those orcs" don't have to worry about being brought over because Orcs have already been brought over and present in Monsters of the Multiverse. Which our wonderful customer base can look forward to purchasing on May 17th. No changes whatsoever were made to the Orcs. Nor have any changes been made been considered. EVERYTHING IS FINE!!!!

Just to be clear; I could not care less if they take the lore out back and send it the way of Ol Yeller. I wholeheartedly support efforts to strip the oftentimes harmful presuppositions from individual races as a tool of agency with regards to making each fantasy world meaningfully distinct in their own ways, and to unmarry the concepts of cultural identity as an absolute among respective fantasy races. Plus most of that lore is useless in the grand scheme of a system that doesn't presuppose a setting like they're trying to have the rules update do.

But the statblocks people, the statblocks! There's half a dozen perfectly good orcs vanishing from DDB and Roll20, and the only attachment they have to the old orc lore are some usages of orc god names in the titles/traits that can just be scrubbed so as to keep them setting agnostic. Hopefully they rerelease them with some spit and polish (to be fair, a couple of them were spellcasters so they'd need to refresh those ones with the modern spellcasting conventions they're pushing in NPCs). I weep for them only because I see the merit in cleaning them up and rereleasing them as a $10 standalone product on DDB later.

Actually, IIRC they made a megadungeon that has like 80 rooms or something and is mostly populated by orcs, I wonder if that's gonna get pushed out with those statblocks (I think it used them, but I can't recall if it was all MM orcs or not).

 

[Parmandur]

Just to be clear; I could not care less if they take the lore out back and send it the way of Ol Yeller. I wholeheartedly support efforts to strip the oftentimes harmful presuppositions from individual races as a tool of agency with regards to making each fantasy world meaningfully distinct in their own ways, and to unmarry the concepts of cultural identity as an absolute among respective fantasy races. Plus most of that lore is useless in the grand scheme of a system that doesn't presuppose a setting like they're trying to have the rules update do.

But the statblocks people, the statblocks! There's half a dozen perfectly good orcs vanishing from DDB and Roll20, and the only attachment they have to the old orc lore are some usages of orc god names in the titles/traits that can just be scrubbed so as to keep them setting agnostic. Hopefully they rerelease them with some spit and polish (to be fair, a couple of them were spellcasters so they'd need to refresh those ones with the modern spellcasting conventions they're pushing in NPCs). I weep for them only because I see the merit in cleaning them up and rereleasing them as a $10 standalone product on DDB later.

Actually, IIRC they made a megadungeon that has like 80 rooms or something and is mostly populated by orcs, I wonder if that's gonna get pushed out with those statblocks (I think it used them, but I can't recall if it was all MM orcs or not).

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some newer take on orcs in the future, but maybe in a more Eberronian or Exandrian tone.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The actual game rules are in Part 2 of the PHB: the stuff you mention are not there, they are all modular options appended to thecore mechanics. Are there rules for an Elf? Sure, there is an Elf module. But you can remove the Elf rules and replace them with those from Tasha's and nothing in Part 2 actually changes. They could remove and rewrite every Race, Class, Spell, Feat, Background, and piece of Equipment..without touching the actual rules.

Did they change anything you would consider an "actual game rule" in the 3.0 to 3.5 shift? Or was that instead a lot of changes to all those other areas you mentioned? Still felt like an edition change to a lot of folks.

 

[jasper]

Was anyone here somehow of the expectation that the world was going to freeze in place, or something?

Holmes, BX, BECMI, Rulesy
There's not a thing on that list that suggests, "Oh, wait, this will never change again."

maybeee all the time when wotc personnel kept saying "evergreen edition" or words to that effect.

 

[Parmandur]

Did they change anything you would consider an "actual game rule" in the 3.0 to 3.5 shift? Or was that instead a lot of changes to all those other areas you mentioned? Still felt like an edition change to a lot of folks.

I am honestly somewhat fuzzy on what they changed, since I started playing after 3.5 dropped and we used stuff from both Editions without much care. Though we did spend a lot of time trying to figure out how grappling worked every time it came up.

I don't think the 2024 changes will be as dramatic as those, though, since I think we've seen most of the big ones already that do nothing to break "full compatibility." Short rests going away may be a possible decent sized change, but they also just may keep them but remove powers from being associated with them and make them hit Die only affairs. I expect an overhaul of Feats and Classes to some extent, but nothing that would prevent a 2014 monster stat block from being useable.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some newer take on orcs in the future, but maybe in a more Eberronian or Exandrian tone.

I don't think so. Orcs are going to go the same lazy way they did with the PH races in the MM. Generic statblocks in the back of the book that they tell you can reflavor as any race.

Keep it up guys. I'm sure there's more content you can cut out if you try.

 

[jasper]

Any word on whether they'll be sending their goons around to confiscate existing physical books?

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