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

[Mistwell]

With the hit points of monsters going way up, does anyone know if the DMG changed advice on number of encounters per adventuring day? I have the new DMG but have not read a section with advice on that yet, other than I recall they are using XP budgets.

 

[Faolyn]

Hmmm hobgoblins are fey because @thats getting back to their “roots” but not elves because “they are from Tolkien”. ? This is incoherent as a justification. Hobgoblins in D&D are unambiguously from Tolkien people! It’s why D&D preserves the etymological mistake of having them be bigger goblins rather than what the word should mean! There’s nothing inherently fey-ish about D&D goblins and this change is merely the manifestation of WotC’s post 2007 fey-boner.

According to a few Tolkien sites I looked up, the word hobgoblin appears only once in his books, in a throwaway line. So I doubt that it's that unambiguous.

What likely happened was, they (Gygax, Arenson, and others) needed something slightly more powerful than orcs (orcs had 1 HD and hobgoblins had 1+1, and the higher-powered hobs always had at least one more hp than the higher-powered orcs). Maybe they took the name from Tolkien, maybe from the actual folklore creature but didn't realize that hobs were helpful household spirits. Maybe a combo of the two.

(Interestingly, the hobgoblin art in the 1e MM gives them vaguely Japanese-style armor, where the orcs were shown in more traditional fantasy medieval clothes and carrying what might be tower shields, so maybe they originally had a different type of culture as well.)

 

[Faolyn]

You do not really have to merge Bite and Claw into Rend to have interesting abilities in addition to them. What it does is save some page space, not enable actions.

You can argue that it saved them some space they could fill with a different ability, but inherently you do not need to remove Bite and Claw to make interesting creatures. I'd prefer they did both.

It may not save much space to merge Bite and Claw, but it looks like it would save time, since you only have to roll once.

Kinda like how back in earlier editions, you were expected to roll for each claw separately (claw/claw/bite--or sometimes claw/claw/bite/rake with rear claws if both front claws hit). So going from three-five attacks to two attacks to one isn't that big a deal.

(I'm not commenting on whether the damage shows that it's a combo effect or not, since I don't remember what the 5.24 statblock showed.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Interestingly, the hobgoblin art in the 1e MM gives them vaguely Japanese-style armor

I assume it originated because some of the hobgoblin face art resembled a samurai mask, but it’s a connection that becomes stronger in 2nd edition and still lingered in some early 5e. Hobgoblins in BG1 and 2 had this look (and red skin).

According to a few Tolkien sites I looked up, the word hobgoblin appears only once in his books, in a throwaway line. So I doubt that it's that unambiguous

I’ve been reading some W B Yeats, and I think Tolkien was quite anti Celtic folklore, and set out to replace it with a Northern European version.

 

[Faolyn]

There’s always a fuss when established RPGs alter lore. Every other day on the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit, there was a complaint about how Larian Studios took liberties.

Heh--just last Friday, one of the other players went on a rant about how they stopped watching the MCU after Ultron because they had brought in Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver but not Magneto. They cut their rant short so we could get back to the game (a Marvel supers game, mutant heavy, so at least it was on-topic), so I have no idea how they felt about switching Ultron's creator from Pym to Stark.

(I was kind of rolling my eyes internally, since I'm not an X-Man fan and don't care about Magneto. But then I reminded myself I'm still annoyed about how the Good Omens show did my boy Aziraphale dirty so it's not like I had room to talk.)

 

[Remathilis]

With the hit points of monsters going way up, does anyone know if the DMG changed advice on number of encounters per adventuring day? I have the new DMG but have not read a section with advice on that yet, other than I recall they are using XP budgets.

There is no advice on encounters per day. The DM only decides how hard a particular encounter is. The DM determines how many encounters to plan for depending on the adventure they are running.

 

[Mistwell]

There is no advice on encounters per day. The DM only decides how hard a particular encounter is. The DM determines how many encounters to plan for depending on the adventure they are running.

Woof. OK. I can see fights lasting much longer under what looks to be the trend for the new MM (blink dogs aside) and draining more resources per fight. Our DM however is pretty used to pushing us to roughly 6-8 encounters per adventuring day, interrupting rests if we try to rest too often. There is going to be a transition period with the new monsters that could be rough.

The party may need to pay more attention to optimization. For example I was looking to play a Barbarian in our next campaign and was unsure which sub-class. Monster design may influence whether I go big two-handed weapon with little thought to defense (beserker), or sword and board with more thought to defense (zealot, world tree).

 

[SkidAce]

With a published setting as a baseline. That's my point.

I haven't used a published setting since 87.

Created my own in 88 and haven't looked back since.

But I understand your point, and I do enjoy some established lore, and use it.

 

[mamba]

It may not save much space to merge Bite and Claw, but it looks like it would save time, since you only have to roll once.

Kinda like how back in earlier editions, you were expected to roll for each claw separately (claw/claw/bite--or sometimes claw/claw/bite/rake with rear claws if both front claws hit). So going from three-five attacks to two attacks to one isn't that big a deal.

it’s not one attack though, the green dragon now does three rend attacks instead of two claw and one bite, I am not seeing a savings here

Are you saying you roll once and use that result for all three attacks rather than rolling three individual attacks?

I could just use average damage -5 + 1d10 to speed things up too and still keep claw and bite distinct. If that is the reason, I’d rather see them go in that direction

 

[Stormonu]

Have they posted any versions of the lycanthropes? I'm curious how they will handle weapon immunity with them, especially considering the changes to the likes of the stone golem.