D&D Monster Manual (2025)

D&D (2024) D&D Monster Manual (2025)


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Yeah, you'd think that they'd take the opportunity when revising the game to streamline and clarify the advice. Just giving up is....also, an option, I guess.
Here's the thing; I don't think they could create a system that is robust enough to make MM caliber creatures and still be accessible to new or casual DMs. It would be like creating a program as robust as Photoshop and as easy to use as MS Paint. It's too much art and theory and not enough science.
 

This plant monster might be the same as the one depicted on pg. 35 of the new DMG! I wonder what the light beams coming from the eye flowers are. Beholder related, perhaps?
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Here's the thing; I don't think they could create a system that is robust enough to make MM caliber creatures and still be accessible to new or casual DMs. It would be like creating a program as robust as Photoshop and as easy to use as MS Paint. It's too much art and theory and not enough science.
Yeah, I think your breakdown demonstrates both why the advice didn't work for so many DMs, but did work for those who pit the elbow grease into learning the ropes.

I do think WotC will give some more detailed tools and guidance, but the more I think about it, a "cool hackers guide" seems like a very good concept for a more targeted supplement.
 

I have skimmed it, and no, that is not what I am describing, their adventure outlines are much more flimsy than what I was thinking of

You can argue that the Flanaess content is what I am describing, but then I’d say that it is describing too big a region / has too many countries at the right level of detail.

I do not need Central, Eastern, Western, Northern and Keoland for this, we have that because it is GH, not an example setting

And the Free City of Greyhawk is also not what I consider the starting town ;)
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they do more than that in some ways, less in others. I would shift the emphasis

Either way, I’d rather they included solid monster creation rules than either bastions or GH, to bring it back to where this started ;)
Fair, though I definitely prefer the Greyhawk section for my own purposes.

And it seems that WotC weighed the greatest utility for the greatest number of DMs in these matters: there are guidelines for customizing Monster state, and for many that is probably good enough for starters.
 

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