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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If you are only looking at the quantity of monster lore, there can be no doubt that 2e wins hands down over any other edition, simply based on the volume of products. I too tend to view 2e lore with rose-tinted hind-sight, probably because there was so much of it and it expanded the D&D monsterverse so significantly. That much content has got to include something that gets the creative juices flowing.

But I think the quality of 2e lore is a bit more debatable. There is plenty of inspiring lore, but also a lot that feels like word-count padding. When I take the time to study the lore for any particular monster in detail, I'm often frustrated by the lack of coherence and consistency of 2e. Strangely. the opposite is true for 4e. In my head, I tend to think of 4e as the edition that has the least interesting monster lore, but when I take the time to study a particular critter, 4e usually fares much better than I expect it to.

Fair enough. For me, more leads to better given time. I always want more detail. The better to maintain a sense of realism and verisimilitude for the many worlds all that content is describing. No need to use all of it if you don't want, but I'd rather have it and not need it than the other thing.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I can't imagine any binder with would survive the torture I put my MC through when I was young. That would be a pile of ripped pages in months.

Yeah, I used those circular stickers to protect the ring holes in the pages. Nowadays I use sheet protectors in my binders.

 

[Faolyn]

Actually naked mole rat inspired mammalian eusocial monsters would be pretty sick too.

Oh, man, yeah. I'd love to see more mammalian (or avian or reptilian) eusocial monsters in D&D. Eusocial vertebrates are a special type of creepy.

 

[Faolyn]

Spiders make better bad guys. And it's weird to see where everyone draws their line in the sand. (Except for me. I am the standard by which all others are judged.) Some people argue it's fantasy and we can do whatever we want. In a world with flying dragons it seems odd to draw the line at eusocial spiders. But like I said, I guess we all draw our line in the sand somewhere. (Again, I am the standard by which all others are judged.)

Well, it's mostly that they make everything eusocial. If it's a monstrous invertebrate in D&Dlandia, it's gotta have a queen and soldiers. Level Up did it with ankhegs. It's just horribly overdone. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't been done to thri-kreen yet, but I'm probably forgetting about a supplement where they did just that.

 

[wizard71]

Medusa was not the only gorgon nor was Medusa universally given as being cursed, that shows up much later. She is more often said to be born to the same divine parents as the immortal gorgons, Stheno and Euryale, but born mortal. Much like some sometimes in a group of dryad sisters there will be a mortal hamadryad.

The greek gods would seem to be genetically unstable since they produce everything from winged horses to fish.

That depends on the myth interpretation. In the Greek myths she was a gorgon and not cursed. In the Roman myths she was. Interesting that you note the Greek myths and then blame the Greek gods for the creation of Pegasus when Pegasus was born from the death of Medusa and has nothing to do with the Greek gods.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I can't imagine any binder with would survive the torture I put my MC through when I was young. That would be a pile of ripped pages in months.

Which was what happened, unless you went out and got the special binder reinforcements for each sheet. I wouldn't say it was a total mess, but it was inevitable that you'd accidentally rip out several sheets over time, no matter how gingerly you handled the pages and binder.

 

[MGibster]

Well, it's mostly that they make everything eusocial. If it's a monstrous invertebrate in D&Dlandia, it's gotta have a queen and soldiers. Level Up did it with ankhegs. It's just horribly overdone. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't been done to thri-kreen yet, but I'm probably forgetting about a supplement where they did just that.

It occurs to me that the descriptions of some of these creatures are so terrible that it doesn't say anything about how spiders or phase spiders live. i.e. It doesn't say anything about how their organized, how many you might encounter, etc., etc.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

That depends on the myth interpretation. In the Greek myths she was a gorgon and not cursed. In the Roman myths she was. Interesting that you note the Greek myths and then blame the Greek gods for the creation of Pegasus when Pegasus was born from the death of Medusa and has nothing to do with the Greek gods.

Wasn't it the result of Medusa's intercourse with Poseidon? Childbirth through decapitated neck doesn't preclude a sexued origin.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

It occurs to me that the descriptions of some of these creatures are so terrible that it doesn't say anything about how spiders or phase spiders live. i.e. It doesn't say anything about how their organized, how many you might encounter, etc., etc.

And the %age of them being liars.

 

[wizard71]

Wasn't it the result of Medusa's intercourse with Poseidon? Childbirth through decapitated neck doesn't preclude a sexued origin.

Yes, in Roman mythology Medusa is a human cursed because she had involuntary sex with Neptune in Athena’s temple. In the Greek tales she is one of three sisters born of supernatural parents. Her sisters were immortal, Medusa was not. The Pegasus was born from Medusa’s death and was ridden by Belpheron when he defeated the Chimera.