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.

 

[Parmandur]

I mean DC told me superman was really dead in the 90's...and bruce waynes back was snapped... and the XMEN got thrown into a perm age of apocalypse...

oh and don't worry the JLA is dead now too. none of them ever came back.

Yeah I take the 'evergreen edition' with the same pound of salt that I take the 'back compatable' and every other spin'

Monopoly is on their 8th or 9th Edition now. Pretty compatible across the board. I see no reason to suspect that WotC will want to repeat the mistakes of Edition churn instead of a more traditional gradual evolution as they have been practicing for 8 years now.

 

[Mistwell]

Ahem. So a pre-errata spell that you can't play at the vast majority of tables is "fully compatible"?

Again, there is a difference between compatible and fully compatible.

Yes. I will explain with an analogy:

Let's say you have a set of Legos that are all blue and which you made a cube from.
You're missing a piece, and someone hands you a red piece which fits perfectly in the space where the piece is missing.
You could use the red piece and finish your cube just fine. However it will have one red piece amongst all blue pieces and you're not happy with how that looks, even though functionally it fits fine.

The red piece is fully compatible with Legos of any color, including blue. However, for you it's not usable for your purpose because you wanted all blue pieces.

The older rules work perfectly fine with the new rules. It's just that some DMs choose not to allow them because they're red and the DM is running an all blue game. [Also, the Adventurer's League was always full of house rules which didn't apply to most games.]

 

[Mistwell]

Congratulations, you have described "compatible".

Fully compatible is "it's works at all tables unless the DM has a specific house rule changing it."

See the difference?

I do not see the difference. You're saying the same thing. These old spells DO work at all tables unless the DM has a specific house rule disallowing old versions of spells.

 

[teitan]

This is why I still buy physical. Fortunately they’re not taking the content of the books away from people who already bought them. For now. But I prefer to actually own my books, instead of paying to be allowed to access digital content.

Why the “for now”? There has never ever been a precedent nor a legal standing for anyone to take your books away. I hope you’re being tongue in cheek.

 

[teitan]

Yeah, I prefer the physical copies for this reason, and because i like having physical books for my analog game time (even on Zoom, analog pen and paper is preferable to me).

I've cracked and preordered the multiverse book from my FLGS, both to support the store and to support WotC working on the problematic parts of their lore, and the new art. But I'm keepign my crusty old books, too.

I don’t use DDB for these reasons. Also because people get sucked into their phones or tablets too much already.

 

[teitan]

it wont be fully compatible... it can't be.

most likely true in the next few months let alone 2024

home games DMs can call for what they want...

not according to TikTok and Twitter D&D media influencers! That’s a bad DM. Bad DM! Squirt squirt goes the spray bottle.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Monopoly is on their 8th or 9th Edition now. Pretty compatible across the board. I see no reason to suspect that WotC will want to repeat the mistakes of Edition churn instead of a more traditional gradual evolution as they have been practicing for 8 years now.

just remember that 'mistake' got us to the 50th anniversary to have this new book

 

[Parmandur]

just remember that 'mistake' got us to the 50th anniversary to have this new book

Sure, doesn't mean they can't learn to do better.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Yes. I will explain with an analogy:

Let's say you have a set of Legos that are all blue and which you made a cube from.
You're missing a piece, and someone hands you a red piece which fits perfectly in the space where the piece is missing.
You could use the red piece and finish your cube just fine. However it will have one red piece amongst all blue pieces and you're not happy with how that looks, even though functionally it fits fine.

The red piece is fully compatible with Legos of any color, including blue. However, for you it's not usable for your purpose because you wanted all blue pieces.

The older rules work perfectly fine with the new rules. It's just that some DMs choose not to allow them because they're red and the DM is running an all blue game. [Also, the Adventurer's League was always full of house rules which didn't apply to most games.]

unless like haste, the old rules DIDN'T work and that was why they needed to be changed (wasn't the ranger one too... I forget now)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

not according to TikTok and Twitter D&D media influencers! That’s a bad DM. Bad DM! Squirt squirt goes the spray bottle.

damn... the tic tok kids gonna yell