D&D (2024) Monster Manual 2025 Aberrations & Oozes Video

[UngeheuerLich]

I'm pretty sure they said that Hard was the new Deadly.

Exactly. This is why I think, we should start looking at medium difficulty encounters as standard.

 

[Chaltab]

Not really. NPC stat blocks might be useful.
I guess there will be a warrior that can be perfectly used as Orc warrior.

And since I always think that orcs need a less dangerous variation, NPC blocks might be handy.

What I'm saying is, if you have an adventure that gives an encounter as "5 Orcs, 2 Ogres" but the new Monster Manual has no Orc statblock then it's going to be confusing to newer DMs.

 

[Zaukrie]

What I'm saying is, if you have an adventure that gives an encounter as "5 Orcs, 2 Ogres" but the new Monster Manual has no Orc statblock then it's going to be confusing to newer DMs.

How about we wait and see?

 

[Reynard]

What I'm saying is, if you have an adventure that gives an encounter as "5 Orcs, 2 Ogres" but the new Monster Manual has no Orc statblock then it's going to be confusing to newer DMs.

Yeah. Maybe there will be advice in there about matching CRs.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

What I'm saying is, if you have an adventure that gives an encounter as "5 Orcs, 2 Ogres" but the new Monster Manual has no Orc statblock then it's going to be confusing to newer DMs.

I think new DMs probably buy new adventures. And since the MM 2025 features a conversion guide, I am 99% sure they will be covered.

New DMs are not as easily confused as you think. Most are quite clever and creative people. And even if it is not in the MM, they will probably figure out that creatures with PC species names will probably be to find in the NPC section.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm pretty sure they said that Hard was the new Deadly.

Kind of, but if you analyze the math, it’s not really true. It looks like Medium became Low difficulty, Hard became Medium difficulty, Deadly became high difficulty, but only because the XP values shown were floors in 2014 and are ceilings in 2024. So the range of XP values is the same as before, and any encounter that goes over the High difficulty XP budget would be equivalent to Deadly.

Encounters will still tend to be harder, partly because there’s no XP multiplier for monster group size any more, and partly because they did increase the budgets across the board for higher level encounters - I don’t remember what level it started at, but probably either 11th or 16th. And, I guess DMs who were using the 2014 XP budgets as ceilings will probably see a difficulty increase, but that’s cause they were unintentionally lowballing their encounters.

 

[Charlaquin]

As a sidenote, orcs do not have their own Monster Manual entry and instead can be represented by NPC statblocks. Most creatures that used to be humanoids but are still in the Monster Manual are now other types (like the goblin, kobold, and gnoll).

That explains a lot, and makes me less angry about the gnoll change. While I want them to stay on the table for a possible playable version in the future, but I wouldn’t want them to lose their monster stat blocks.

Many creatures that formerly used mundane weapons now have unique ones, like the slaad's chaos blade.

Ugh, I don’t like that. Guess it explains the Kuo-Toas’s strange spear and sticky shield.

 

[Reynard]

I think new DMs probably buy new adventures. And since the MM 2025 features a conversion guide, I am 99% sure they will be covered.

New DMs are not as easily confused as you think. Most are quite clever and creative people. And even if it is not in the MM, they will probably figure out that creatures with PC species names will probably be to find in the NPC section.

I would actually be interested toknow the adoption rate of the books as they are coming out. Is it existing fans mostly at first, or did the new PHB result in a whole bunch of D&D novices now with nothing to do and no adventures to play?

 

[Stalker0]

Looking forward to seeing what they do with slaad. yeah they are ridiculously codified for how random they are supposed to be. Blatant push for my own version of the slaad:

D&D 5E - 5e Updates: Monstrous Compendium

OK, sorry to get to this so late. First a few quick general thoughts: I like that you are trying to make Slaad more unique and chaotic. The lore works. I worry that there is a lot of dice rolling to determine what this creatures. That is not something I would want to do at the start of an...

www.enworld.org

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Mind flayers other than the few exceptions that have escaped the illithid hive mind do not consider themselves people. DMs are explicitly advised in the video to keep mind flayers alien and prevent them from becoming a "human in a monster suit".

Someone at WotC didn't like some of the Baldur's Gate 3 NPCs, I guess.