So Much Art From the 2025 Monster Manual

Reynard · Jan 11, 2025

Faolyn said:
I've always just wondered how it was supposed to get food into its mouth with those horns in the way!

You didn't know? Black dragons have acid breath because once they have dissolved their prey, their tongue extends like a tube and slurps up the remains.

Faolyn · Jan 11, 2025

Reynard said:
You didn't know? Black dragons have acid breath because once they have dissolved their prey, their tongue extends like a tube and slurps up the remains.

Oh, I like that idea!

dave2008 · Jan 11, 2025

Reynard said:
You didn't know? Black dragons have acid breath because once they have dissolved their prey, their tongue extends like a tube and slurps up the remains.

Kind of like a fly!

occam · Jan 11, 2025

BB Shockwave said:
Found this on a youtube video called Dungeon Dudes. Apparently, the (originally from Planescape) Animal Lords are making a return to D&D in this book, as CR20 Celestials! Depicted are the Cat and Wolf Lords, but the stat blocks have three variants of the creature (Forager, Hunter and Sage) that can be applied to any type of animal's Animal Lord.

Being pedantic... I believe the first Animal Lord in D&D was the Cat Lord, published in 1e's Monster Manual II (i.e. pre-Planescape). Very interested to see what the new ones are like!

BB Shockwave · Jan 11, 2025

Faolyn said:
I've always just wondered how it was supposed to get food into its mouth with those horns in the way!

Nah, the horns are on the sides, they are excellent to skewer their food with and then they can lick it off with their long tongues! (or they can use their hands... Dragons can grasp with their forelegs). Don't forget, Black Dragons like to leave their prey to marinate and rot in swamp water, so it tends to be... runny.

occam said:
Being pedantic... I believe the first Animal Lord in D&D was the Cat Lord, published in 1e's Monster Manual II (i.e. pre-Planescape). Very interested to see what the new ones are like!

Thanks! I have read the 1E stuff only once, I did not remember that.

Chaosmancer · Jan 11, 2025

BB Shockwave said:
Found this on a youtube video called Dungeon Dudes. Apparently, the (originally from Planescape) Animal Lords are making a return to D&D in this book, as CR20 Celestials! Depicted are the Cat and Wolf Lords, but the stat blocks have three variants of the creature (Forager, Hunter and Sage) that can be applied to any type of animal's Animal Lord.
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I really liked that preview. I feel like these Animal Lords are the types of beings the Druids make pacts with, and they FINALLY represent some of the primal nature spirits I've been wanting in the game for a long while.

BB Shockwave said:
So it gets more black because it breathes fire and walks on fire?
You know... FIRE... The thing Red Dragons are famously IMMUNE to?
I think this shows how little logic there was behind these redesigns...

Immune to fire does not mean you can't get stained by soot. Soot, which famously, is not fire.

Chaosmancer · Jan 11, 2025

Tonguez said:
Yeah I agree, winged lions seems a step backwards

I'm really confused by your and @BB Shockwave 's assertions that these are a change or a step backwards.

2014 Androspinx

2024 potential Androsphinx

Both are tattooed, winged lions with jewelry indicating royalty. I don't see the "step backwards" here. It is the same design philosophy.

TravDoc42 · Jan 12, 2025

BB Shockwave said:
I went through the topic, and a lot of the art shown remains unposted... So since I already took the screencaps and posted them for Minisgallery, here they all are! I will also repost a few where I have bigger/better pics than the ones posted in the first post.
(Except Flumphs... someone mentioned them in this topic, but I did not see them... if anyone has that art, please post it!)

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Beholder

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A very very filthy Otyugh!

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Zombies - specifically, the same ones we had in 2014, regular humanoid Zombie (Human and Dragonborn depicted), Ogre Zombie and Beholder Zombie!

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Flesh Golem in a classic "It's ALIVEEEEE!!!" pose.

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Spectre - they do mention their sunlight aversion while this pic is shown, hence why I think this is not the Ghost.

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Unicorn

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Blue Dragon

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Tarrasque

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All sorts of animals

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Bone Naga and its master

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Ancient Red Dragon

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Ancient Green Dragon

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Now this, I am not sure about. I hope it might be finally art for the Lacedon - aquatic Ghouls - but it could be a Scrag too. Or some other watery undead?

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Lamiae (female and male, lion-bodied variety) attacking a Copper Dragonborn on a Camel. Oddly, the Dragonborn still has the older style Copper horns.

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Magmin setting fire to a library.

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Oni/Ogre Mage doing its best Gowron impression!

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Hill Giants going shopping.

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-"Goblins!"
-"They are fey now?!?"
-"They are fey now."

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The stream mentioned more NPC stat blocks for entertainers, acrobats, musicians. I am guessing this is the art for them.

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Frost Giants. Guess they brought back the 4E ice axes? Those won't be useful on raids to arid lands, just saying...

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Bandits! Love the art, a lot more varied than the old one with many species. And looks like we will get Bandit spellcasters too.

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They mentioned Warlocks, my guess is this is the Warlock of the Great Old One (those worms are a dead giveaway of a Kyuss worshiper) fighting a Warlock of the Fiend.

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Most likely the Assassin. Poisoned bolt and all.

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War Priest, or healer, maybe? Some cleric NPCs.

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The other two Vampire art pieces were posted, here is the third, looking more traditional Dracula-style.

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Gnolls! Who are now fiends, and seem to come in all the colors of the rainbow. Is the one on the right a green Gnoll Mummy?
From the bone flail, I am guessing the one in the center is the Flind. If so, that is a mighty obscure Baldur's Gate 1 reference - Flinds had purple fur with a red mane in that game!

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Remorhaz! And, erm, Penguin? More like lunch.

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Probably a new stat block will be added for Unicorn Foals?

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Skeletons, Skeletons everywhere! Including the Warhorse Skeleton, Minotaur Skeleton, and probably a spellcasting variant.

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They mentioned there would be new weaker Liches like... apprentice Liches? Maybe those two on the sides are? Boggles the mind how that works... if you can become immortal even as a low level wizard, the world would be full of Liches...

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This was shown months ago, but here it is again, Kuo-Toa Archpriest.

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Quaggoth.

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Probably the Androsphinx? Can't say I am a fan of them being just winged Lions now.

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More animals, including Mammoth and Saber-Toothed Tiger.

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Some likely new plant creatures, including topiary animals and a weird tree.

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Shrieker and Purple Fungus.

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Behold.... erm, Gas Spore.

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Going out on a limb here, and guessing this is the Dao. The whole earth powers and crystals growing out of her shoulders thing.

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Unleash the Kraken! And yes, they are now back to being giant Squids instead of the Clash of the Titans inspired look.

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Giant Wasps

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Rodents of Unusual Size

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Griffons, arctic variety. And some very foolhardy egg thieving Kobolds!

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I am unsure if this is the Galeb Duhr, or an Earth Elemental.

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Sea animals - Orca, Shark, Giant Crab, Giant Eel. Plus a Sea Elf (or Malenti...)

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Are you ready to Roc?

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This is probably some higher level Earth Elemental.

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Bearded Devil/Barbazu. Guess they dyed their beards purple now from the 5E green.

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Barbed Devil (Hamatula)

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Rakshasas! I am really happy that WotC revived the original lore, where they can now have other animal heads - like Egyptian Vulture, Goat and Crocodile.

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This was posted, but was not mentioned what it is - pretty sure this is the Bar-Lgura. It seems having misshapen forms, multiple eyes and mouths and mutations is going to be a thing for Demons in this book. Goes well with all the chaos they embody, I guess!

Flumph!!

Yaarel · Jan 12, 2025

Regarding the sphinx, it derives from two reallife Egyptian traditions.

The sphinx at rest, reclining, is the pharaoh secure in ones power. It has the lion body. The Sphinx at Giza is a famous example.

The sphinx at war, standing on all fours, is the pharaoh ferocious in battle. It has the body of a leopard and wings. (Sphinxes at war are probably the two kruvim "cherubim" that are on the ark of the covenant.) Many pharaohs fought personally in combat.

Both sphinxes have the head of the reigning pharaoh. Women pharaohs and men pharaohs both manifest sphinxes, thus the head can be female or male. Also some sphinxes are the spouse of the pharaoh.

Sometimes a sphinx has human arms, palms held upward and facing outward, in a posture of prayerful supplication.

The Greek tradition amalgamizes both Egyptian traditions, transmitting a specific famous individual sphinx who has a womans head, wings. This would be expected to be the sphinx at war, and to have the body of a leopard, but sometimes is assumed to have a lions body. In any case, originally this Greek sphinx would be the representation of a specific historical queen.

The Greek term sphinx σφίγξ derives from the Egyptian word for a sphinx, shezep-anakh, literally a "living portrait". The image of the sphinx, whether a sculpture or a drawing, is understood to be the living presence of the sovereign.

Ultimately, the sphinx is the representation of the palpable influence of a sovereign.

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 culture. But once this is achieved, I feel it is good for fantasy to play around with it. So, for example, as long as some sphinx has a human head, other sphinxes can be whatever, like "Astral Sphinx" with a lion head, and so on. I would refer to the novel lion-headed sphinx as a "leosphinx" form to distinguish it from the proper reallife sphinx forms.

Yaarel · Jan 12, 2025

Crimson Longinus said:
Trolls are male hags in my setting too, but that was never the case in D&D canon. And I think it is fine idea to broaden the archetype which seems a bit misogynistic otherwise. And gender equal dryads are fine too. Either they reproduce sexually so they need both genders, or they're nature spirits so their appearance can be somewhat fluid anyway.

Totally agree.

Also, in Norway, analogous to the Greek dryad is the Norwegian version of the hulder. The encounters typically describe encounters with female hulder, but encounters with male hulder are also known.

Usually the female is referred to as "huldra", literally feminine for "the hulder". The male is referred to as "huldrekallen", the man of the hulders. But the form "hulderen", literally masculine for "the hulder" also happens.

Definitely, any kind of being of folkbelief can be any gender.

So Much Art From the 2025 Monster Manual

Christian Hoffer

Reynard

aka Ian Eller

Faolyn

(she/her)

dave2008

Legend

occam

Hero

BB Shockwave

Adventurer

Chaosmancer

Legend

Chaosmancer

Legend

TravDoc42

I just think monsters are Neat! (he/him)

Yaarel

🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage

Yaarel

🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage

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