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:

 

[Yaarel]

Those are Incubi


Those are just Incubi both of them, they split Incubi and Succubi into two separate stats, each with both Male & Female in the art. The Incubi are dream sex fiends (I'm guessing they are aren't solid creatures), and Succubi are the physical titillating sex fiends, either can be any sex and apparently there is a way for one type to switch to the other.

I didnt realize that is the approach, but that is awesome.

I suspect the actual succubi will still be titillating, both of them.

It is archetypally important for certain concepts to be "titillating".

 

[Yaarel]

I don't get the star skin? Is that what the kids are into these days?

I'm with you. Probably just keep them out of the book if you are afraid of the the possible controversy of a very mature concept.

The "star skin" is a new D&Dism. The first time I personally saw this kind of iconography is in the D&D Theros setting. It signifies the manifestation of the Astral Plane. It functions similarly to an otherworldly halo, but its meaning is more specific.

I love it!

 

[Moonmover]

I recently came to own a pet bearded dragon. I love the new gold dragon art - the pose is exactly how my "beardie" lounges around. It's very convincingly reptilian.

This is absolutely awful. It reminds me of rotoscope or early CG animation.

The death knight of the 2014 Monster Manual was Lord Soth, the most iconic death knight in all of D&D. The art was gorgeous. They didn't need to re-do the art because the existing art was gorgeous.

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I couldn't disagree more. The 2014 death night looks quite cartoony, with his red eyes bulging out of that soup-can of a helmet. The new death knight looks awesomely gothic.

 

[MGibster]

When D&D borrows from reallife traditions, I feel it is important to take pains to represent the original reallife concept, because these are often significant to the respective reallife concept. But once this is achieved, I feel it is good for fantasy to play around with it.

I kind of feel like that ship sailed away a long, long time ago.

I couldn't disagree more. The 2014 death night looks quite cartoony, with his red eyes bulging out of that soup-can of a helmet. The new death knight looks awesomely gothic.

I never thought of that as a soup can but now I can't unsee it. It's basically a great helm which does look like a soup can.

 

[Yaarel]

I kind of feel like that ship sailed away a long, long time ago.

Every once in a while D&D returns to the source material, to update a D&D concept.

The 2024 dragons being more serpentine, more like actual snakes, is an example of this mythological accuracy. I love it! They feel more mythic, more archetypally vibrant. Dragons are literally "serpents", and the medieval bestiaries categorized them as kinds of snake. I strongly prefer the slithering snaky dragons.

3e dragons are more like dinosaurs.

At the same time, 2024 dragons vary. They officially include a range of body types, and it depends on the particular individual, and what it happens to look like personally. Dragons are magical creatures and to some degree each develops in its own way. It is ok to use dragon artwork from earlier editions, because there will be certain dragons that look like these.

All that said.

I love the 2024 dragons.

 

[AstroCat]

Wow... it's so horrible, my goodness. I'm amazed just how bad it's gotten... good grief. Too hilarious at this point, it's like a parody.

 

[Chaltab]

Wow... it's so horrible, my goodness. I'm amazed just how bad it's gotten... good grief. Too hilarious at this point, it's like a parody.

This is actually a very good parody of how some people have reacted. GJ.

 

[AstroCat]

This is actually a very good parody of how some people have reacted. GJ.

Naw, it's legit awful, beyond cringe inducing embarrassingly bad. It's a like someone said let's make some lame bubblegum fantasy art with some ai prompts and spent about an hour or two messing around. This is that, it's souless and uninspiring, it's at times just plain silly. The more "humanoid" characters are just so lame looking, hahaha... compare to something for example, from Elmore or many others, seriously not even in the same universe.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Naw, it's legit awful, beyond cringe inducing embarrassingly bad. It's a like someone said let's make some lame bubblegum fantasy art with some ai prompts and spent about an hour or two messing around. This is that, it's souless and uninspiring, it's at times just plain silly. The more "humanoid" characters are just so lame looking, hahaha... compare to something from Elmore, seriously not even in the same universe.

You can't be serious.

 

[AstroCat]

You can't be serious.

As in thinking the MM art is really bad, yep I'm serious, I think it's really bad compared to so much other "d&d" monster art I think is awesome.