D&D (2024) I have a Monster Manual. AMA!

[DEFCON 1]

I'm saying if you want to produce new materials for an existing edition, publish a new book. Don't try to sell your consumers the same book again and manipulate them into believing its somehow worth it or they have no choice.

I think the rest of us are strong-minded enough to know whether or not we are being manipulated, thanks. I don't need your protection on this matter.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I miss "magical beast". Think I'll bring that back.

But why are they elementals? What purpose does it serve?

What purpose does anything serve? Creature type is just a category - a descriptor. These lizardfolk are elementals because they've been altered by elemental magic to make them powerful.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think the rest of us are strong-minded enough to know whether or not we are being manipulated, thanks. I don't need your protection on this matter.

Ok. But you're also the one who has said many times that rules don't matter, so your point of view is just as specific and personal as mine.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

doesn’t sound like there are a lot of them

All the golems go berserk when they're bloodied.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What purpose does anything serve? Creature type is just a category - a descriptor. These lizardfolk are elementals because they've been altered by elemental magic to make them powerful.

I just don't see this change (making the same creature two different types in two different parts of the book) as having enough value to counteract how jarring and off-putting it is to me.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm still shocked that people were using stat blocks for bog-standard humanoids. I haven't done that in decades.

What do you mean? Do you stat 'em up like PCs or handwave them or something in between?

Unfortunately I don't have early access.

Apparently I do, so I can cut-n' paste now! Here's the answer to your question:

Gear
Monsters have proficiency with their equipment. If a monster has equipment that can be given away or retrieved, the items are listed in the Gear entry. The monster’s stat block might include special flourishes that happen when the monster uses an item, and the stat block might ignore Player’s Handbook rules for that item. When used by someone else, a retrievable item uses its Player’s Handbook rules, ignoring any special flourishes in the stat block.

The Gear entry doesn’t necessarily list all of a monster’s equipment. For example, a monster that wears clothes is assumed to be dressed appropriately, and those clothes aren’t in this entry.

Equipment mentioned outside the Gear entry is considered to be supernatural or highly specialized, and it is unusable when the monster is defeated.

Ammunition and Ranged Attacks
A monster that requires ammunition to make ranged attacks carries the necessary ammunition.

Equipping a Monster with Other Items
You may equip monsters with additional gear however you like, using the equipment chapter of the Player’s Handbook for inspiration. You decide how much of a monster’s equipment is recoverable after the creature is slain and whether any of that equipment is still usable.

Beware of giving a monster combat-oriented magic items, since those might alter the monster’s Challenge Rating. If you do give a monster a magic item, the monster can have Attunement with magic items as noted in the Player’s Handbook. A monster with a class tag after its creature type is considered a member of that class for Attunement purposes.

 

[J.Quondam]

Wait... Did they really change quipper to piranha?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I just don't see this change (making the same creature two different types in two different parts of the book) as having enough value to counteract how jarring and off-putting it is to me.

I mean, do what you like, but I think that "jarring and off-putting" is awfully strong for something like a descriptor line that I barely ever think about myself. You can think that WotC is silly for the change if you like, but I think anything beyond "shrug, I like my way better" is a gross overreaction.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Wait... Did they really change quipper to piranha?

They DID!

 

[J.Quondam]

They DID!

Ack! So many menus to change in so many port towns across the realms!