2025 Monster Manual Will Contain Over 85 New Monsters

Next year's new Monster Manual will include over 85 new monsters, a sizable increase over what was previously believed. In a D&D Beyond post made to celebrate the year end, Wizards of the Coast confirmed that the 2025 Monster Manual would contain 85 "brand new monsters." Considering that the new Monster Manual includes approximately 500 monsters, it's not a surprise that there are a significant amount of new monster statblocks, but this is further confirmation that nearly 20% of the statblocks will be brand new. A description of the Monster Manual also confirms that there will be over 300 new images in the book.

Many of these new statblocks will be to add either high CR or low CR variants of existing popular monsters, so that they can be used in a wider variety of scenarios. For instance, vampires will have several low CR variants (representing freshly turned vampires) along with a high CR vampire nightbringer. Also present in the game are arch-hags and a blob of annihilation, which are classified as titan-level creatures representing different kinds of monster types.

The new Monster Manual will be released on February 18th, 2025.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Fair enough. I guess I just don't quite grasp why you would want that, and then want it to be boring.

I think maybe you should stop calling other people‘s fun boring. Something that is boring to you is not necessarily boring to someone else. People have different ideas of what is fun.

 

[Imaro]

Fair enough. I guess I just don't quite grasp why you would want that, and then want it to be boring.

I find combat where my overhead is continually taxed by numerous tracking and implementing of mechanics to be...booring.

1. It leaves less cognitive space for me to be creative in description, roleplay, etc.

2. It drags out combats that are meant to serve as pacing or tension building elements vs. climactic battles.

3. It can create a sense of dissapointment or lack of a clear climactic feel when everything from goblin grunts to ancient dragons have unique and varying mechanics... just to have unique and varying mechanics.

 

[Imaro]

I mean I'm kind of in the same boat on that. Generally speaking I just put a bunch of weak, simple monsters or 4E-style minions in between the party and the strong monsters fully expecting them to get nuked by the Zeal Cleric so they can have some fun tearing through the weak enemies without the entire combat feeling like a waste of time.

...so as usual my solution to the flaws of 5E tend to come from 4E.

If they are having fun... why does the combat feel like a waste of time?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Given the amount of table time combat eats, I am legitimately confused why anyone would want to.spend it on rote combats.

There are other ways to make combat interesting that don't require the monsters to have fancy special abilities. Floor is lava, palaces being sucked into black holes, massive spider webs, narrow bridges, exploding wine barrels....

But the "purpose" of some combats is just to show how badass the PCs are. And some exist because it would make no sense for them not to, like the palace guards.

 

[Chaltab]

If they are having fun... why does the combat feel like a waste of time?

Well if they're having fun then it wasn't a waste of time. I'm talking about trying to prevent the feeling of tedium that comes when a combat poses no threat but doesn't resolve quickly.

 

[Imaro]

Well if they're having fun then it wasn't a waste of time. I'm talking about trying to prevent the feeling of tedium that comes when a combat poses no threat but doesn't resolve quickly.

Wait... in 5e you have combats regularly taking place that both pose no threat to the PC but also don't resolve quickly... why? And what kind of encounters are these. I'm genuinely curious because I've never experienced this.

IME most combats that don't pose any threat to my Pc's are wrapped up in 3-4 rounds max. What kind of encounters both pose no threat and take a long time to resolve?

To add I've had combats run past the point where it was in question whether the PC's would win or not but that's normal in nearly all versions of D&D.

 

[dave2008]

Wait... in 5e you have combats regularly taking place that both pose no threat to the PC but also don't resolve quickly... why? And what kind of encounters are these. I'm genuinely curious because I've never experienced this.

IME most combats that don't pose any threat to my Pc's are wrapped up in 3-4 rounds max. What kind of encounters both pose no threat and take a long time to resolve?

To add I've had combats run past the point where it was in question whether the PC's would win or not but that's normal in nearly all versions of D&D.

Nonthreatening encounters take 1-2 rounds IME. At my table that is less than 10 minutes of game time.

 

[Imaro]

Nonthreatening encounters take 1-2 rounds IME. At my table that is less than 10 minutes of game time.

Yeah 3-4 rnds for me is max where my PC's either have a string of bad rolls or maybe get caught of guard or something... but I'm struggling to think of an average non-threatening encounter in 5e taking excessive time for my players to beat.

 

[Chaltab]

Wait... in 5e you have combats regularly taking place that both pose no threat to the PC but also don't resolve quickly... why? And what kind of encounters are these. I'm genuinely curious because I've never experienced this.

Generally speaking it's because the monsters collectively have too much HP and too little damage output. It was something that happened often in early 4E due to the monster math being off, but still occasionally happens in 5E when DMs let the player take long rests frequently and then send them up against only Medium or Hard rated encounters.

 

[Chaltab]

Nonthreatening encounters take 1-2 rounds IME. At my table that is less than 10 minutes of game time.

Three of my players have ADHD so 1-2 rounds can be up to 30 minutes at my table.