D&D (2024) D&D Marilith Is Far More Bestial In 2025

The new 2025 Monster Manual has all-new art, and one major change is the depiction of the marilith. Up until now, the marilith has been depicted as a six-armed humanish female from the waist up; while in the 2025 book, the picture is far more bestial in nature.

Not only is the imagery more demonic, it also features the creature in action, simultaneously beheading, stabbing, and entwining its foes with its six arms and snake-like tail.

Left 2025 Marilith / Right 2014 Marilith​

 

[Parmandur]

Heh. Looking at the 2014 Marilith art, I gotta ask, exactly how did she get into that swimsuit armor? I mean, seriously, what is she wearing? And why in the heck would a demon wear clothes?

To be honest, the 2024 version just seems more naturally "angry murderous snake demon".

 

[Incenjucar]

This is not about boobs. Even for the folks who explicitly want mariliths to remain strictly female this isn't about boobs.

 

[Charlaquin]

This is not about boobs. Even for the folks who explicitly want mariliths to remain strictly female this isn't about boobs.

I dunno, kinda seems like it’s about boobs, cause this marilith still has six arms and looks female.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I find that there is some terror with the juxtaposition of the human form with “other.”

Nagas without a human face are not as impactful. I think bone devils with human-like skulls are more fear inducing than twisted monster skulls.

Mariliths with human-ish faces and torsos are creepier to me than just a six armed monster.

To each their own.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

This one theme I actually do like with how demons and devils have been shifting over the years. Demons shouldn't be "tactical geniuses". That's not what a demon does. Demons are engines of destruction, overwhelming with power and brute force. "Tactical genius" is the realm of devils (or possibly Yugoloths). Advanced planning, tactics, strategy, that sort of thing.

Why do you need a tactical genius demon to tell this wave of demons to charge forward? Demons don't really use much in the way of tactics besides, "Overwhelm with force". If the important element of a marilith is it's ability to long term strategize, then it shouldn't be a demon at all. It should be a devil.

I don’t wholly agree. Demons particularly greater demons are very intelligent and wise. Strategy and tactics are not out of the picture though I can easily see a demon abandoning one plan for another, and it’s unlikely they would be able to want to properly organize the forces they command into more than screeching hordes.
Mariliths have excellent mental stats and are stated to lead droves of weaker demons into battle. Given that they are explicitly demons of cruelty and viciousness they no doubt lead from the frontlines. But they still would use strategy telling parts of the horde to flank and such.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

This is not about boobs. Even for the folks who explicitly want mariliths to remain strictly female this isn't about boobs.

It absolutely is about the lack of breasts. The only reason people aren’t saying “that’s not a Marilith” about the 3e art but are about the 5e24 art is because the new art doesn’t have prominent breasts. No one has been able to explain in any way what makes the new art so different and against the standard without bringing up the fact that it lacks the breasts the older art had.

 

[npick03]

Let’s not mince words: is all this because the new Marilith is no longer sexy?

Not for me, no. My taste in cheescake runs in a very different direction (ie dudes).

But the lack of sexiness is curious to me. Because there doesn't appear to be any reason for it, or for any of the changes.

She isn't sexy, but there are other sexy monsters in the book. If they didn't want to make a mono-female monster, why not give her male counterpart like the medusa, dryad, hag, etc? If her looking like Kali was an issue, why are the rakshasa and naga, directly lifted from Hinduism, still in the book? With the guardian naga's art making direct allusions to Southeast Asian culture?

This argument is part of why I can’t take some people on this site seriously. The same people who dismiss concerns about inclusivity as being overreacting or unnecessary discussion spend several dozen pages complaining that they got rid of the Snake Demon’s boobs.

I neither want nor need snake demon boobs. I just want the warrior snake demon to slay.

“But they only gave one example in the art, so clearly all Mariliths look like that now!” WotC made male and female presenting versions of most of the formerly monosex monsters in the new Monster Manual, and WotC definitely doesn’t follow the rule that all monsters of the same type look the same.

If the MM had male and female presenting mariliths that would be great! I would prefer that to what we got. The "all mariliths look like this now" comes from the fact that is the Monster Manual. This is the tone setting, ground zero text for monsters in 2024 5e. I think its reasonable to assume that this is what Wizards wants mariliths to look like. It would be strange to not be consistent with one of the three core rulebooks. For better or worse, these are the mariliths we have.

Also, why is it bad that this changed? “Because that’s the way it’s always been” is not a valid argument.

It's bad for me (and bad is bit too strong a word for it) because this design doesn't impress me. Old mariliths were more interesting to me, and this doesn't improve on what we had. It's a new direction that I don't care for. It doesn't read to me as a marilith or even that much of a snake demon. Honestly I think even just giving her real weapons and smooth scales would have helped a lot.

I think this discussion is hitting on something deeper than just the marilith. Like, what is the purpose of the Monster Manual? What is the role of art, lore, and legacy in Dungeons & Dragons? Could, and probably should, be its own thread.

 

[TiQuinn]

This is not about boobs. Even for the folks who explicitly want mariliths to remain strictly female this isn't about boobs.

Narrator: it was about boobs.

 

[Incenjucar]

I dunno, kinda seems like it’s about boobs, cause this marilith still has six arms and looks female.

"Seems like" indeed. It's been pages of gaslighting and people seeing the argument they want to argue against. It's like if the contrary conjecture was erasure of strong feminine characteristics. You can certainly imagine such an argument but it is also not the case.

The real arguments going on are full of enough contention and hardly need strawmanning to keep things interesting.

 

[npick03]

It absolutely is about the lack of breasts. The only reason people aren’t saying “that’s not a Marilith” about the 3e art but are about the 5e24 art is because the new art doesn’t have prominent breasts. No one has been able to explain in any way what makes the new art so different and against the standard without bringing up the fact that it lacks the breasts the older art had.

For me, its the lack of elegance, sleekness, and danger. The old marilith gives the impression of wicked grace. She's cunning, cold, a peerless tactician. She's war incarnate, and she knows it. And she will make sure every other demon in the abyss knows it, too.

2024 marilith, on the other hand, seems brutish and undignified. No jewelry or decoration to signify her rank and prestige. Not even the skulls of her enemies. Her scales are coarse, her weapons unrefined, her kills seemingly bloodless. The lack of boobs is the absolute least of her problems.