D&D (2024) D&D Monster Manual (2025)

[dave2008]

(Mind, I'm not getting this book, so if they actually show them with metal rapiers, I won't know or care.)

It is not a book, a free adventure available only on DnD Beyond IIRC. As far as I can tell there is no picture of the "Bullywug Warrior" or any of the monsters for that matter

 

[Faolyn]

Oh, and the succubus block is included as well!

Okay, no real synergies with the Incubus, but losing the Ethereal abilities is fascinating. Instead, this version can through out an 8 hr concentration domination every round. Grab somoene, either draining kiss them or use them as an attack dog against their friends. Hypnotic Pattern and Shapeshift still allow them to escape easily enough, but this is a much more direct combat form than the Incubus form was, which is better suited to infiltration and assassination.

This is really cool

I'm somewhat weirded out that the incubus doesn't get a draining kiss. Are they going to be vastly different forms? Can we have female incubi and male succubi? (I mean, of course we can, but what does the lore say?) Are they trying to avoid the tang of man(-shaped monster)-on-woman sexual assault (while ignoring that it's still assault if a woman-shaped monster does it)?

 

[Faolyn]

To me, a change in lore (as opposed to an expansion of it) really should be accompanied by an edition change. That's how they've (pretty much) always done it, and shifting it in the middle like this extremely off-putting to me.

Well, it's a half-edition, so that sort of counts. It's not like they put out a book in the middle of an edition and changed it.

(Which they did, when they shifted goblins into fey in the first place.)

 

[Faolyn]

It is not a book, a free adventure available only on DnD Beyond IIRC. As far as I can tell there is no picture of the "Bullywug Warrior" or any of the monsters for that matter

Well, I'm still not getting it, because that would involve me getting a DDB account, which I'm not doing.

And whether they're "savage" or "refined" bullywugs would depend on how the adventure treats them, of course. If it treats them like the fairy tale Alice In Wonderland-type frogfolk of Witchlight, then the rapiers are steel. If they're living in a swamp, then they're stingers or carved bone or giant thorns.

 

[dave2008]

I'm somewhat weirded out that the incubus doesn't get a draining kiss. Are they going to be vastly different forms? Can we have female incubi and male succubi? (I mean, of course we can, but what does the lore say?) Are they trying to avoid the tang of man(-shaped monster)-on-woman sexual assault (while ignoring that it's still assault if a woman-shaped monster does it)?

I don't remember the D&D lore, but generally succubae are female and incubi are male. Some folklore, IIRC, has them being female/male versions of the same creature (they can change sex) and some have them being essentially male and female versions of the same "species." So no, you can't have a female incubus.

 

[dave2008]

Well, I'm still not getting it, because that would involve me getting a DDB account, which I'm not doing.

That is fine, I was just letting you know it is not a book in the traditional sense

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well, it's a half-edition, so that sort of counts. It's not like they put out a book in the middle of an edition and changed it.

(Which they did, when they shifted goblins into fey in the first place.)

I don't recall any lore changes from 3.0 to 3.5.

 

[Bae'zel]

I think the statblock said "insectile rapiers," I think, so I'm assuming they're actually giant insect stingers, or or long, thin tree branches tipped with a giant insect stinger rather than a sword made of actual steel.

I certainly hope that "insectile rapiers" are big, gross chininous insect stingers/heads. And, just like the evil fae creatures in the movie Legend, any poison darts that they use are literally giant mosquitos.

And even if they aren't (ie, if the artist that WotC hires is wholly unimaginative and literally depicts metal swords with insect-like flourishes) I'll just ignore all of that and go with my own interpretation.

EDIT: and since Green Hags are Fey (in the 2014 book, anyway) I can see all kinds of ominous fey creatures infesting swamps. I love that Goblinoids are Fey here, I'm sick to death of cartoony, comic relief Warhammer and Pathfinder goblins dominating the fantasy mind-sphere. Bring back the Unseelie Court! Bring back nasty folkloric creatures that make peasants shudder at the dark of night!

 

[Faolyn]

I certainly hope that "insectile rapiers" are big, gross chininous insect stingers/heads. And, just like the evil fae creatures in the movie Legend, any poison darts that they use are literally giant mosquitos.

And even if they aren't (ie, if the artist that WotC hires is wholly unimaginative and literally depicts metal swords with insect-like flourishes) I'll just ignore all of that and go with my own interpretation.

Exactly.

D&D has put out plenty of lore or illustrations I like or even love, but I still use my own ideas and interpretations at least three-quarters of the time.

EDIT: and since Green Hags are Fey (in the 2014 book, anyway) I can see all kinds of ominous fey creatures infesting swamps. I love that Goblinoids are Fey here, I'm sick to death of cartoony, comic relief Warhammer and Pathfinder goblins dominating the fantasy mind-sphere. Bring back the Unseelie Court! Bring back nasty folkloric creatures that make peasants shudder at the dark of night!

Definitely agreed! I love fey more than just about any other type of creature, and I adore dark fey the most.

 

[Faolyn]

I don't remember the D&D lore, but generally succubae are female and incubi are male. Some folklore, IIRC, has them being female/male versions of the same creature (they can change sex) and some have them being essentially male and female versions of the same "species." So no, you can't have a female incubus.

Yeah, but that is what makes it so weird. Why are the females the only one with a draining kiss?

I wouldn't put it past D&D to decide that incubi are much more monstrous than succubi--they get their own statblock and can inflict nightmare, after all--but also say that incubi and succubi can be of any sex, or say that succubi can be of any sex (since they can shapeshift) but incubi are locked in the same sex they were when they were succubi.

Because otherwise, we're left with either monstrous male, sexy female (which is both sexist and dumb), or the idea that the succubus is yet another female monster (which is both sexist and exclusionary to non-heterosexual male PCs and players).