D&D 5E New Monster Manual Cover

From IGN, the cover of the 2025 Monster Manual!

@Morrus

 

[Parmandur]

Did he? When was that? As far as I knew that statement - where every iteration of the brand was its own separate canon with no continuity between them - was the last word.

It is, and pretty clearly part of the groundwork for the approach in the upcoming revisions which were already in development.

 

[pukunui]

Really, it goes to show how poorly thought out the Spellplague /time skip was that they ultimately needed Marvel levels of handwavium to bring all the important named characters back rather than let the world evolve. But I get it, those names are synonymous with the Realms and WotC has gotten very protective of their named characters (Which is why Van Richten and Lord Soth both came back).

Still, if there was ever a setting to clean up mucky continuity with, it's Faerun.

Oh, I don't disagree. It was very messy and, frankly, unnecessary. I mean, I don't dislike the Spellplague as a concept, but the time jump was not needed. They should have kept the Nentir Vale as their Points of Light poster child, instead of forcing Faerûn to fit that same format. I mean, the Sword Coast has always been fairly "points of light"-ish anyway with vast distances between city-states and no real nations or kingdoms. They really didn't need to do anything to it.

 

[Zaukrie]

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if someone used them to good effect in their campaign and fell in love with them.

I love roleplaying nothics in my game. As a combat encounter, meh, but as an ongoing social encounter they are a lot of fun.

"A nothic is a monstrous creature with terrible talons and a single great eye. When driven to violence, it uses its horrific gaze to rot the flesh from its enemies’ bones." Meh.

But read the rest of the flavor text. I don't know how DMs can pass them over. They are awesome.

One of my favorites. I have them read minds and put bad thoughts in PCs brains. They share what they learn with cultists....etc.

 

[PyroArrow]

A game called Dungeons and Dragons and a Dragon is not on the front cover of a monster manual at all? Lame, just really lame and sad. Sigh.

 

[PyroArrow]

A game that is called, "Dungeons & Dragons", and there is no Dragon on the front cover of a monster manual at all? Lame, just really lame and sad. Sigh.

 

[MNblockhead]

A game called Dungeons and Dragons and a Dragon is not on the front cover of a monster manual at all? Lame, just really lame and sad. Sigh.

Well there is an eye of a dragon on the back cover, and we all know that that is where the thrill of the fight is.

 

[mamba]

A game called Dungeons and Dragons and a Dragon is not on the front cover of a monster manual at all? Lame, just really lame and sad. Sigh.

so just like 5e 2014, 4e and 3e then...

 

[Cadence]

so just like 5e 2014, 4e and 3e then...

I confess that the thing in the top center of the original 1e MM never really struck me as a dragon, and I just realized I had no idea what I thought it was instead.

So I just pulled my copy off the shelf and asked my teen, who is a huge dragon fan, what he thought it was. "Uhm... I'm not sure. Some kind of dragon I guess?". Even when we had dragons on the cover they weren't always great!

 

[Reynard]

A game that is called, "Dungeons & Dragons", and there is no Dragon on the front cover of a monster manual at all? Lame, just really lame and sad. Sigh.

Dragons feature prominently on both the other books, so...?

 

[Remathilis]

1e: Dragon, Unicorn, Centaur, Troll, Owlbear, Beholder
1e/Reissue: dragon and unicorn
2e Monstrous Compendium (binder): beholder, displacer beast, umber hulk
2e: Monstrous Manual: Beholder, Lich, thri-kreen, minotaur, dragon
3e/3.5: none
4e: Orcus, Demogorgon and Lolth.
4e Monster Vault: Owlbear
5e: Beholder
5e revised: Beholder, mimic, displacer beast, kraken, ogres, and some type of humanoid

Legit speaking, the beholder has been on more Monster covers than the dragon!