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.

 

[Faolyn]

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.

Well, not them. But a lot of others. Especially in 3e.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I loved the binder. I just wish it was formatted with one monster per sheet.

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.

I'd be neat if someone took another crack at a binder style MM. Full art on one side and stats on the other, with mylar reinforced edges where the holes are.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'd be neat if someone took another crack at a binder style MM. Full art on one side and stats on the other, with mylar reinforced edges where the holes are.

Sounds good in theory, but at this point I'd have to ask, "for what game?"

 

[talien]

Ugh. I don't think I've ever seen the binder in person, so I often forget how bad that supposedly was.

I wrote a letter to the editor in Dragon Magazine about this.

What would happen, which is absurd now in the age of digital, is people would open boxed sets that had monster pages and STEAL THEM. So you'd get a boxed set with the plastic torn open, and the only thing that would be missing was the binder pages.

It was an epidemic. Every set would be missing pages. And of course there was the aforementioned "pages ripping constantly." And the worst of all: they didn't put a single monster on two pages, since the pages were double-sided, thereby making the binder unnecessary since you couldn't sort monsters by name. There were dividers they published that implied you were supposed to sort by setting, but even that didn't work right.

And of course those binders were enormous. Carrying them was a chore. So you had to take out the monster sheets from each adventure and put them in a smaller binder (assuming you had every monster encounter planned out ahead of time) ...if this sounds like it really in the end didn't help DMs much, you're right, which was probably why they finally abandoned the format.

 

[Demetrios1453]

And the worst of all: they didn't put a single monster on two pages, since the pages were double-sided, thereby making the binder unnecessary since you couldn't sort monsters by name. There were dividers they published that implied you were supposed to sort by setting, but even that didn't work right.

They were all double-sided for the first two sets, but not for those afterwards (although some monsters still did get both sides). It was very frustrating once that started happening since you couldn't keep everything in nice alphabetical order any more if you blended more than one set together. To bring this discussion all around full circle, I distinctly remember that it was the maedar page in the third set that was one of the first to throw things off.

 

[Dire Bare]

I loved the binder. I just wish it was formatted with one monster per sheet.

I knew a guy back in the day who photocopied his Monstrous Compendium pages so that each creature had it's own page or pages . . . for every supplement in the series and all the monsters from adventures and setting books to boot. The dude had binders and binders of monsters . . . .

 

[Remathilis]

I knew a guy back in the day who photocopied his Monstrous Compendium pages so that each creature had it's own page or pages . . . for every supplement in the series and all the monsters from adventures and setting books to boot. The dude had binders and binders of monsters . . . .

Binders full on wome... er monsters!

 

[Dire Bare]

Binders full on wome... er monsters!

Yeah . . . that came to mind when typing up that post.

Dude also used those hole punch reinforcement stickers to try to keep the pages from tearing out . . . he must have spent a fortune at the office supply store!

It might sound like I'm being critical . . . but I was so jealous of his collection and dedication!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

With bounded accuracy, mobs stand a greater chance against the witch than ever before.

But still a much worse chance then they do in the real world where you'd just be murdering some innocent frail old woman. And it's likely to cost them a few people.

 

[Belen]

Ugh. I don't think I've ever seen the binder in person, so I often forget how bad that supposedly was.

It is sitting on my shelf now.