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:

 

[Stormonu]

I also feel like the WotC designers still can't quite figure out the blue dragon's niche. It seems like they're steering it more towards being a "storm" dragon rather than a "desert" dragon. The older design never really made sense for its environment (shouldn't the underside of the wings be blue and the tops be sandy colored instead of the other way around?). I think it makes more sense as a "storm" dragon, but then you're left without a chromatic dragon dwelling in arid environments.

IMO, dragons don't live in deserts. They make them (by polluting and destroying the ecosystem), then move off to "greener pastures".

 

[Henadic Theologian]

IMO, dragons don't live in deserts. They make them (by polluting and destroying the ecosystem), then move off to "greener pastures".

Brown Dragons live in Deserts.

 

[Stormonu]

Brown Dragons live in Deserts.

Only if you're using them. What book are they even in?

 

[pukunui]

even though I know that rust monsters are medium creatures, I always end up picturing them as tiny little bugs ...

You weren't the only one. The D&D movie creators must have thought so too, since the rust monsters in the movie are also little bugs. It's possible these are just meant to be juvenile ones, but I quite like them this size. I also like the way they look here and don't really understand why WotC has redesigned them to have shiny gold carapaces.

Only if you're using them. What book are they even in?

Not in any 5e books. They didn't make the cut for Fizban's. I think they were last featured in a 4e dragon book.

On a related note, I would personally like to see the return of 4e's iron dragon.

 

[Chaltab]

Only if you're using them. What book are they even in?

What book is what in now?

Post 262 in this thread just isn't showing up for me at all, weird.

 

[dave2008]

What book is what in now?

Post 262 in this thread just isn't showing up for me at all, weird.

what = brown dragons

 

[pukunui]

Post 262 in this thread just isn't showing up for me at all, weird.

That most likely means you're on that poster's ignore list.

 

[Chaltab]

what = brown dragons

Ah, okay. Nothing official for those, but they've been adapted by both Dungeon Dad and in Monster Manual Expanded 3.

 

[Hussar]

A lot of the reasons people don't like certain art are subconscious. Which makes it very difficult to explain.

The main problem being, people want to try to "justify" not liking something. It's never enough to simply say, "nope, not to my taste". It's always "Nope. I don't like this because it's bad" and then try to define why it's bad. If folks were far more content to just say, "Sorry, I don't like this" without trying to convince me why I shouldn't like it too, we'd be able to talk about art a lot more easily.

Look at the criticisms here - "too colorful", "not sharp or defined enough" and so on and so forth. All attempts to "prove" that the art is bad.

If you don't like something, why continuously try to convince others why you don't like it. You don't like it. Ok. Groovy. But, endless negativity won't actually make for better conversations.

 

[pukunui]

*White faces on black dragons

Just revisiting this a bit. As I think I mentioned before, I like the idea that a black dragon's acid over time essentially melts its face off, which is why they end up having white faces ... because it's exposed bone. It also builds on the previous black dragon's design, which gave it a very skull-like face even if it wasn't bone-colored.

The issue I have is that, while the 2024 concept artist seems to have taken that idea on board, the other 2024 artists appear to have gone with more of a "bleached scales" look rather than an "exposed skull" look.

Revised black dragon concept art:

Other revised black dragon art:

Interestingly, this one doesn't have a white face:

I will say I do appreciate the variation here. These are all identifiably black dragons but they also all look different enough to be individual creatures. They're not cookie cutter dragons.


I just prefer this style of skull-like face for the black dragon:

(And yes, I'm aware of the irony of me complaining previously about more spiky bits when it looks like the black dragon now has fewer spiky bits! C'est la vie!)