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.

 

[Bae'zel]

I don't mind the mythical concept of "malevolent creature that takes an attractive or sympathetic guise to trick people into getting drowned" as this idea exists in so many cultures all over the world, mostly as a story to warn children to stay away from dangerous bodies of water (strong currents, thin ice, predators etc...).

What I do mind is the lazy trope that these beings are always "hot young women who trick men". Like, the idea is that these being entice all kinds of mortals to their doom. Why be so limited? The original Tome of Beasts from Kobold press has at least half a dozen varieties of this exact same idea (evil pretty seductress who tempts men to their deaths). Boring.

It makes more sense to me that a Fey creature may have a grudge against mortals encroaching on their natural terrain, maybe changing their appearance to better lure different kinds of targets. Or maybe they're just predators who feed on people, not specifically "evil" per se, just sentient things that need to feed. Cruelly, perhaps, but that's nature.

I think that's the direction that WotC is going; more flexibility and a departure from dull, limited tropes.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

For Yuan-Ti I have them being of different cultures and different Serpent Gods or beings. They could be about something like Apeps, Jormangandr, Coatls, Vasuki, Mucalinda and more. They can vary in their agendas, some of this is based off of Eberron having a Coatl inspired order of Yuan-Ti along with the other types of Yuan-Ti.

 

[TwoSix]

I'm sorry I wasn't being snarky. It was just a Castlevania reference.

No worries, I think we're all worldly enough to recognize a common meme and a reference to the 1997 magnum opus that is Symphony of the Night.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

The sphinxes were mentioned in other thread, I wonder whether they remove or rename andro- and gynosphinxes? I never liked that they were gendered that way. It was not even anything interesting, the female ones were just weaker. I use both statblocks, but do not tie them to the gender, they're just sphinxes of different power levels but of any gender.

Though with hags I did something I usually do not do, and made them super sexually dimorphic. In my world male hags are trolls (I also gave hags regeneration.) To me they just visually went together, and I like to combine species so that there aren't so absurd amount of them. But yeah, usually I do the opposite and make things less sexually dimorphic.

But I think for the official role, making male hags possible is the right call. As noted, the concept has misogynistic overtones so this lessens it. Though old witchy crones are very well known and thematically powerful concept, so I'd expect most hags in people's games to remain female.

And how did they even procreate previously? I have some faint recollection of some lore of human women being transformed into hags? Or maybe I'm imagining that... In any case, monogendered species that nevertheless have an obvious gender are weird, and invite questions of how exactly does it work.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The sphinxes were mentioned in other thread, I wonder whether they remove or rename andro- and gynosphinxes? I never liked that they were gendered that way. It was not even anything interesting, the female ones were just weaker. I use both statblocks, but do not tie them to the gender, they're just sphinxes of different power levels but of any gender.

Isn’t the main mechanical difference between the two that Gynosphinxes are Clerics and Androsphinxes are Wizards? Maybe they could just change the names to something like Arcanosphinx for the wizard one and, I don’t know, “Deosphinx” for the cleric one? And then let both sphinx be of any gender.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

And how did they even procreate previously? I have some faint recollection of some lore of human women being transformed into hags? Or maybe I'm imagining that... In any case, monogendered species that nevertheless have an obvious gender are weird, and invite questions of how exactly does it work.

IIRC, they kidnapped and ate babies and later gave birth to hag version of that child.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Interesting. Wonder what the art will look like for a male nymph, if there is one.

 

[Remathilis]

What I do mind is the lazy trope that these beings are always "hot young women who trick men". Like, the idea is that these being entice all kinds of mortals to their doom. Why be so limited? The original Tome of Beasts from Kobold press has at least half a dozen varieties of this exact same idea (evil pretty seductress who tempts men to their deaths). Boring.

Serious question, when was the last time anyone fell for the "scantily clad pretty girl in the dungeon" trope? Every player who has played for 15 minutes knows she's a succubus/medusa/siren/doppelganger/mimic or something like that. If she's lucky, they will escort her out shackled and at swordpoint, at worst they will go full Spanish Inquisition on her. Does anyone fall for this anymore?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Interesting. Wonder what the art will look like for a male nymph, if there is one.

There a couple examples in the Theros book. They’re quite good, too. But they play up the elemental nature of them, as there are several types of nymphs in Theros, based on those from Greek mythology.

 

[Voadam]

And how did they even procreate previously? I have some faint recollection of some lore of human women being transformed into hags? Or maybe I'm imagining that... In any case, monogendered species that nevertheless have an obvious gender are weird, and invite questions of how exactly does it work.

Ravenloft had that as a thing in the Van Richten's Guide compilation book with the bonus guide to Hags from near the end of 2e. Evil women who brought down a curse upon themself from their corruption turned into hags. They were contrasted with benevolent mother figure worshipping supernatural secret society witches in Ravenloft.