D&D 5E New Monster Manual Cover

From IGN, the cover of the 2025 Monster Manual!

@Morrus

 

[beta-ray]

I think if it literally said "Boo" with a red arrow like that on the cover, it would become a must-buy for me.

I got one here for $100! (grabs red marker) I'll send you my paypal link…

 

[beta-ray]

Anyone posted a Twitter link to the artist and the clean art yet?

Same artist as the Player's Handbook and DMG, Tyler Jacobson.

https://twitter.com/jacobsontyler/status/1798089064576360858

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPQYFW4XcAArpBx.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GPQYGdjW0AAggQU.jpg

EDIT: Also Instagram:

 

[Parmandur]

I'm growing to appreciate that WotC is resetting most of their settings back to their original date and just not advancing the timeline. Considering all the hoops Faerun had to go through to reset things back, it probably would have been simpler to just go back to 1392 or whatever it was...

1357, or thereabouts, but who is counting?

That's what I would have done.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Just did a little more research and in Ben Riggs book "Slaying Dragons" he claims to have a copy of the contract Ed got for selling the Realms (and at least some pictures of it). The contract for the sale was $4000 for the Realms and $1000 for services. Nothing else. TSR, nor WotC, have any contractual requirement to make anything Ed does canon or nor does Ed have any rights to the Realms at all. IT was 100% owned by TSR and now WotC.

PS - here is an EnWorld story about: Ed Greenwood's $5K Contract To Sell The Forgotten Realms

View attachment 366177

Be that as it may, Im pretty sure Ive heard him flat out say WotC isn't allowed to change the past. Doesn't mean they can't add to it, I suppose.

IE Lord Soandso died during 2E, he still apparently did but WotC can be like "It was really his twin brother! Or a doppleganger!" Or whatever.

I really figured they would use this Vecna thing to pretty much reboot. "Oh all that stuff still happened... until Vecna collapsed the multiverse and now Faerun is remade! Kelbhan is back! Huzzah!"

 

[beta-ray]

Not sure why the twitter (aka x) ones are not embedding. Let's try a different url…

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Be that as it many, Im pretty sure Ive heard him flat out say WotC isn't allowed to change the past. Doesn't mean they can't add to it, I suppose.

IE Lord Soandso died during 2E, he still apparently did but WotC can be like "It was really his twin brother! Or a doppleganger!" Or whatever.

I really figured they would use this Vecna thing to pretty much reboot. "Oh all that stuff still happened... until Vecna collapsed the multiverse and now Faerun is remade! Kelbhan is back! Huzzah!"

That would be a bad idea as everyone is pretty used to how the Realms currently are.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Not bad, though like the other covers there's a (smudged/blurred) quality to them like they are incomplete, as if this is the pre-production/work-in-progress version of the art.

Will be curious what the alt cover will be, and curious what monsters have been dropped/added (betting mostly NPCs added and several beasts being shortened/dropped).

Some shorted maybe, but none dropped and around 200 monsters being added (I don't know if NPC templates count as monsters, did they count towards the 300+ monsters of 2014 MM, because 2024 has 500).

I think roughly 70 are brand new, so that means around 130 come from other books, but updated. The only reprints I feel certain of are those little elemental cuties from ToA that then appear in other stuff like Spelljammer and Frostmaiden.

 

[Epic Meepo]

Very nice action cover, but it confuses me: is that beholder an ally to the Players or an enemy the Players have not taken seriously yet?

Seriously. What's with so many of the characters on these covers staring intently at things off to the side? The composition makes my eyes want to follow these characters' lines of sight, and then I'm left staring at whatever's sitting next to the book cover at the time.

 

[Tonguez]

It's keeping up the 5e cartoon style, especially all those eyeballs

 

[beta-ray]

That Beholder looks Huge, as in Beholders have maybe 7 or 8 feet in diameter and therefore large. But this one looks like its diameter is more than twice Minsc's height whose someone that's at least 6 feet tall.

I think she cast an embiggen spell by mistake