2025 Monster Manual to Introduce Male Versions of Hags, Medusas, and Dryads

The upcoming Monster Manual will feature artwork depicting some creatures like hags and medusas in both genders, a first for Dungeons & Dragons. In the "Everything You Need to Know" video for the upcoming Monster Manual, designers Jeremy Crawford and Wesley Schneider revealed that the new book would feature artwork portraying both male and female versions of creatures like hags, dryads, satyrs, and medusas. While there was a male medusa named Marlos Urnrayle in Princes of the Apocalypse (who had a portrait in the book) and players could make satyr PCs of either gender, this marks the first time that D&D has explicitly shown off several of these creatures as being of both male and female within a rulebook. There is no mechanical difference between male creatures and female creatures, so this is solely a change in how some monsters are presented.

In other news that actually does impact D&D mechanics, goblins are now classified as fey creatures (similar to how hobgoblins were portrayed as fey creatures in Monsters of the Multiverse) and gnolls are now classified as fiends.

Additionally, monster statblocks include potential treasure and gear options, so that DMs can reward loot when a player character inevitably searches the dead body of a creature.

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

 

[dave2008]

Obviously a male Hag should be called a Coot.



I've always thought of fiends as elementally evil. A demon is evil and chaotic like a fire elemental is hot and dry. A change in aspect result in a change in form.

I get that. A quick search finds only 1 non-evil fiend in Beyond (the Stench Kow). However, I remind you of this from the 2014 DMG:

 

[SlyFlourish]

@SlyFlourish , now that the monster math is changing do you think an update / addendum to Forge of Foes is needed? Speaking for myself I would but such a book.

We’re almost certainly not making another book. A good deal of the book isn’t about mechanics at all. A lot of the mechanics are almost certainly still relevant to D&D 2024 and we already know it works with other 5e variants. The CR math would have to change by like 20% to warrant a big change and that doesn’t look likely either given the stat blocks we’ve seen.

What am I missing?

 

[Chaltab]

Honestly I find the A5E monster stats by CR to be perfectly adequate for any 5E variant.

 

[Demetrios1453]

seems to generally like it, but big negative for not having building rules / statistics by CR, which were cut from the DMG

I'm wondering if it's been kicked further down the line to the almost certainly upcoming Tasha's/Xanathar's-type book. They know that customization is popular, so i cant see it being ignored entirely (just moved for space considerarion), so in a book that will have more player customization, monster customization would fit in. Not that I wouldn't have preferred it in the DMG or MM, though.

 

[dave2008]

We’re almost certainly not making another book. A good deal of the book isn’t about mechanics at all. A lot of the mechanics are almost certainly still relevant to D&D 2024 and we already know it works with other 5e variants. The CR math would have to change by like 20% to warrant a big change and that doesn’t look likely either given the stat blocks we’ve seen.

What am I missing?

See the new Empyrean below.

• 10% increase in HP
• big jump in initiative
• 1 additional use of Legendary Resistance
• BPS resistance (not just to nonmagical weapons - all attacks)
• 68% increase in DPR (209 to 124)

By the old DMG calculator it would be CR 25 instead of 23 (and that doesn't include any impact for the BPS resistance, with that it might be closer to CR 26 under the old calulator)

 

[dave2008]

Honestly I find the A5E monster stats by CR to be perfectly adequate for any 5E variant.

I just checked the 2024 Empyrean vs the level up table and though is is very similar in HP and attack bonus, the 2024 Empyrean has better AC (22 vs 20) and much higher DPR (209 vs 125) than the levelUp table. Seems like WotC boosted them quite a bit.

Also, the LevelUp table doesn't account for any kind of resistance or immunity and the 2024 Empyrean is resistant to all BPS damage, not just nonmagical BPS.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I haven't listened to the video yet. Did they say anything about making demons and devils more distinct from one another? Other than some hair-splitting aspects (unless you're playing a Planescape game), they've been way too similar to one another for most of D&D.

I had been hopeful that devils would be more humanoid and enticing, but the bone devil shows that's not the direction they're going with them as a category.

 

[Chaltab]

I did say "Adequate" not perfect.

 

[Charlaquin]

Some might say that nothing is more explicitly evil than a furry

Some would be wrong.

 

[Charlaquin]

You’ve obviously never seen footage of orcas playing with their still living, soon-to-be food.

If any animals can be said to have the capacity for evil, it would be cetaceans. Even then though, I don’t think it’s correct to apply human morals to an animal’s behavior.