So Much Art From the 2025 Monster Manual

Here's some preview art from the 2025 Monster Manual, courtesy of Wizards of the Coast's "Everything You Need to Know Video" on the new book.

A classic Faceless Stalker:

A demon of some kind:

Arch-Hags:

Some kobolds:

A Nalfeshnee, perhaps?

A revenant:

Blue dracolich:

Death Knight:

Death tyrant:

Chimera:

Githyanki (with the central warrior recreating a classic pose):

A mummy lord:

A marrow:

A balrog balor:

Mimics:

While I'm tempted to say a tressym, this actually might be a new sphinx design:

Bone fiend:

Sladd:

Rust monster:

Platinum(?) dragon:

Bronze dragon:

Hezrou, perhaps?

Fire giant, not Karlach:

Cloud giants:

Zombies:

Red dragon:

Hags (including a male hag):

Dryads (including a male dryad):

Horned devil:

Incubus and succubus:

Vampires:

Vampire:

Colossus:

Spirit naga:

Copper dragon:

White dragon:

Blue dragon:

Gold dragon:

Black dragon:

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I'm really liking the new art. I've already stated a few times that the dragon redesigns are some of my favorites, especially my new chonky little white dragon child. I'm also happy to see art for younger dragons as well.

I really love the new look of the Empyrean, very epic looking. The Slaad and more monstrous vampire art is also really cool. The death knight with its army of skeletons is very spooky and ominous, really nice. A lot of the fiend art is also dope as well.

All in all I'm loving what I've seen so far.

 

[MNblockhead]

like the whole game is marketed towards 9 year old kids.

Curous how old you are. This isn't a set up. I had a conversation with my son and his girlfriend recently, both are 18. We argued which has the better art, Pokemon or Magic the Gathering. I had a hard time accepting that they strongly felt Pokemon had the better art. So much so that they spend quite a bit of money and time buying and collecting that cardboard crack with cute pictures.

But I can't get too high on my horse about it. I'm 53 and from my dad's perspective, I have the tastes of a 9 year old kid.

 

[Parmandur]

Something about Lord Soth's help with the glowing red eyes in the 5e art always looked a bit goofy to me.

Strong Scooby-Doo real estate mogul disguise vibes.

 

[MNblockhead]

I am just not a fan of the 5.5 style of art. It all look digital or tweeny.

From Platos Republic and Horace's Ars Poetica; to Tertullian, Augustine of Hippo, and Christine de Pizan; to Leonardo da Vinci and John Calvin; and many others, on through the industrial revolution and into today; history is full of people complaining about others' "tweeny" tastes. If the Monster Manual was illustrated completely in an anime or Chibi-inspired style, I would not like it, but I find it hard to argue that my preference is more mature.

 

[MNblockhead]

see at my next response (post right above this one), do you think all of those images look like captain planet or he-man?!

No, but can we please stat up a tentacled centaur?

 

[dave2008]

No worries. In addition to the jarring "familiar but different" thing, I also just don't like the aesthetics of the new designs. It's purely subjective, I won't argue that point. Things I don't like in no particular order:

Thanks for the additional feedback. Here are some of my thoughts

*White faces on a black dragons

I agree with you there, but I like the overall head shape compared to the 3e black. I really disliked the 3e mouth. Not a fan of the white-washing either, but I like the shape and dentation better so it is a net win for me (and I can ignore the white or make it black in photoshop!)

*The green dragon's cobra head

I actually like this, and the whole green design, but no need for me to go into that here.

*All the underbites

I agreed. I don't like that look for my dragons. Fine for some, but prefer to not to be the standard. However, from the art posted, it looks like only the reference designs are heavy on the underbite. Look at Tiamat below, only the green has an underbite. I noticed at least the red and blue (maybe more) in the MM don't have the underbite. So the underbite seems to be an artist stylistic choice, not a definitive trait (thankfully)

*All the extra spiky bits

I used to feel the same way, but then a read the book Dragonsbane (by barbara hambly) and she went into detail about why dragons have a profusion of spike bits and why they are located where the are that I got won over somewhat. I definitely like some, but I don't have to have them one way or the other. Though I say the 3e design were pretty spikey so I don't feel at first glance the the new ones are more spikey. The blue is definitely more sleek than the 3e version.

*The white dragon looking more like a snow lion than a dragon

Not sure about this one. I have seen some images that give that impression and some that do not.

*The copper dragon's ridiculously long, thin neck

Agreed, that is the one new dragon that I find disappointing compared to previous designs.

*The bronze dragon's butterfly patterned wings

I can take it or leave it. To be honest I care less about the metallics!

*All the ankylosaurus / stegosaurus tails

How many have this? I can only think of the white (which fits my idea for the theme of the white), are there other ones? The red, blue and green don't have it. The black has the tail spike since 3e. Maybe it is in the metallics? Again, I pay less attention to them.

*How some dragons have been made chonkier while others seem overly stretched out

I am for that in general, but I don't think the execution has always quite hit the mark. I like the greater variety in body types.

 

[MNblockhead]

I kinda think there's a bit of a "it's new so it sucks" feeling going on...

I miss the much more thoughtful discourse during the Great Eyeglasses Debate ignited by the PHB art.

 

[MNblockhead]

The hot vampires do not look like Twilight vampires, hot vampires have been a thing for a very long time, and not all of the vampires in the book are hot. Unless you find the weird Nosferatu-ish vampire attractive, I guess.

 

[InkTide]

Take the black dragon, for example. While I like the idea of its acid melting its face off, leaving its skull exposed, in practice I don't like the look of a black dragon with a white face. It just doesn't do it for me.

It's clearly a "death = goat skull" thing, too, which feels... a bit on the nose. Or the exposed nasal cavity, as the case may be.

With the green dragon, I was more OK with some of the added serpentine features in the initial concept art, but the final version's long snake-like neck with its flattened cobra-like head just doesn't do it for me either. It just looks weird to me.

It looks like a moray eel + cobra to me. I love moray eels, so it's not all that weird to me. Also, I like its stubby legs with the gecko toe pads.

...How weirdly cute I find the new green dragon is a big part of why I like it. I understand that's probably not what most people want from a chromatic dragon especially.

Another example would be the bronze dragon. Again, I like the idea that its scales get patina on them as it grows older, but in practice, the dragon now just looks like a cross between a dragon and a butterfly.

The butterfly looking ones to me are the brass dragon and potentially the copper dragon; the bronze has almost explicitly the wing silhouette of a bird of prey (including a fanned tail shape), and the patterning is trying to emulate feathers (not a huge fan of that choice, TBH). I think the patina should be darker, because bronze doesn't generally patina like copper (the copper dragon gets patina, too), and I think their chin gets too pointy with age (common problem in the new dragon designs), but I like the new bronze a lot.

It seems like they're steering it more towards being a "storm" dragon rather than a "desert" dragon.

I don't know how the actual description and statblock will play out in the end, but the new bronze to me so far feels like its design is saying, "this is a fast, highly mobile dragon," in a way the other dragon designs don't. If blues take the storm theming of lightning, I think bronze is taking the speed theming, and might end up being the fastest of the bunch explicitly - but of course, as with all of it, I'll have to wait and see.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

Also going through the video myself now, there are other standout pieces of art for me.

• The Hobgoblin Army
• Flumph
• Otyugh
• Tarrasque
• Bone Naga
• What I think might be a sea hag
• The treasure room of mimics
• A battle between two creatures with one summoning centipedes and the other summoning a large clawed hand with magic (don't know the monsters themselves but the piece is really cool)
• A piece showing a few different plant monsters
• The horde of various skeleton monsters
• What I think is a lich
• Quaggoth
• Kraken
• Roc
• The Earth Elemental

I can't wait to see the rest of the monster art when the books come out.