D&D (2024) New Constructs, Plants, Beasts & Humanoids | 2024 Monster Manual | D&D

[dave2008]

Oh, good, another MM thread to discuss orcs and drow in!

Anything of interest otherwise? Any new plants, or existing creatures reclassified as plants?

they clarified that humanoid stat blocks will appear in setting books to reflect that settings culture / version of the humanoid. So the forthcoming FR book will have drow in the bestiary. They set this was true all monsters actually.

Also, gorgons are constructs now

 

[Scribe]

Also, gorgons are constructs now

Hows that work?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Hows that work?

They cast animate object on the concrete cows of Milton Keynes.

 

[Scribe]

for this to work some more setting books need to be released though. Dragonlance, Ravenloft more 'urgently', PS and maybe SJ only need a little freshening up, and FR and Eberron are on the way already. Without additional support everything but Eberron is just FR

"Boss, they just want a reprint of everything with updated stat blocks!"

"LOL, perfect."

 

[mamba]

"Boss, they just want a reprint of everything with updated stat blocks!"

it's more that they never did that for most settings in the first place... but I assume there are plenty people who would buy updated stat blocks (with better / new art) too, that basically is what 2024 is and it is selling great

 

[Scribe]

it's more that they never did that for most settings in the first place... but I assume there are plenty people who would buy updated stat blocks (with better / new art) too, that basically is what 2024 is and it is selling great

I don't think you are wrong.

I also don't think that's great, but hey.

 

[Mistwell]

That is a perfect solution: this allows for different Settings to bend further away from the "D&D Standard", whilet he FR DM can provide that old school Setting flavor. For people who like trad D;D lore, even if they don't run the FR I imagine the FR DM guide will be a good booster of generic High Fantasy material for Greyhawk or homebrew (like a sidebar suggesting using Baldur's Gate for Dyvers or something).

Oh man, "buy another book to get a few Drow for your campaign" is so not in any way the "perfect solution." They could have included a few in the MM, like they have every MM for decades, and then included some more variations in a setting book. That would have been much better.

Instead I have to pull up a Pirate (or whatever), reskin it as Drow, add Drow racial traits, hold my finger up in the air and feel if the wind blowing says it's a +1 CR or not for adding in those racial traits.

 

[dave2008]

Hows that work?

I imagine it stems from them being covered with iron/metal plates/ scales since at least the 1e MM.

Do you want to know the 2024 lore? Well there are 6 paragraphs of lore and a table of command keys. Since my DnD Beyond version is not active yet to copy and paste, I am not going to post the whole thing. Short answer: created by magic-users to serve as guardians.

 

[dave2008]

Oh man, "buy another book to get a few Drow for your campaign" is so not in any way the "perfect solution." They could have included a few in the MM, like they have every MM for decades, and then included some more variations in a setting book. That would have been much better.

Instead I have to pull up a Pirate (or whatever), reskin it as Drow, add Drow racial traits, hold my finger up in the air and feel if the wind blowing says it's a +1 CR or not for adding in those racial traits.

I like using the NPCs as templates for any species, but you could do that in the 2014 MM too and we had humanoid stat blocks. I think both is they way to go. You can have a generic drow, dwarf, whatever, in the MM and setting specific ones in setting books. That is the perfect solution IMO.

 

[dave2008]

Another thing of note is that they said don't get hung up on an NPCs name: pirate, performer, etc. Just look for a statblock that does what you want, the name is irrelevant. So a "tough" can be a pirate if needed, etc.