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Two points: the new MM doesn't give you rules to modify the humanoid stat blocks. If it did then 90% of the gripes I have would evaporate. And second, the MM is a DM tool and resource. D&Ds closest direct competitor Pathfinder handles this exact issue just fine by providing stat blocks for all...

I thought those rings didn't stack? EDIT.....also, I am trying to wrap my head around the idea that the OP's group when from 2 to 18 in a bit under six months. How often were they meeting to play?

For many it's not just absence of a stat blocks but all the missing text. I was thumbing through older edition monster manuals and was reminded just how much interesting and useful expository info used to be included in monster entries. Also, I disagree on the statblocks, they have often been at...

How DROHLL! ;-)

I deliberately rotate between DROH and DRAU equally just to see if my players are awake.

Honestly, if they aren't going to lean in to providing some lore and insight into the newer interpretation of noble nomadic orcs that a DM can use to explore the concept, then maybe removing them entirely would be fine. Orcs are in fact no more problematic than any other species in the Monster...

No that's great actually, but it works best if you have stat blocks for all the relevant creatures. And right now, it looks like the DM has some work cut out for them if you want to make orcs, drow or duergar one of those warring underground factions.

I'm with you on this. The point of the MM is to provide the DM with tools, not restrictions. Even if they wanted us to use the generic humanoid statblocks, rules on customizing by species would have been welcome. As it is, this is just a bridge too far for me. Took six editions, but I am finally...

As a follow up, here's a freebie for what WotC could have done in the MM 2025: Orc page: talk for more than 2 paragraphs about the new orcs. Give us a feel for them. Give us three statblocks: Orc Nomad, Orc Pathfinder of Gruumsh, Orc Tradesman. BAM! We have an entirely new representation on...

I have my MM 2025 now and while it has some interesting stuff and improvements, I think I am most bothered by the organizational structure. I am secondarily irritated that phylactery is too esoteric (I cannot imagine who may have been offended at the term's use) for mainstream player audiences...

If there's one thing I'm getting out of all this is that it's like 1989 all over again.

D&D 3.0 did it just fine.

Maybe orcs and drow will return with dedicated stat blocks in a year or two in a future book. They can even get a cool new name like Tanar'ri or Baatezu or something.....

Also the age old problem of it being much easier for a crunch fan to ignore flavor text than it is for a flavor text fan to have to add in missing lore to a contextless statblock.

As an ancient DM I would much rather have some actual flavored statblocks for Drow, Orcs, Duergar and Deep Gnomes that I can use precisely because they are tailored to each species. Unfortunately, having to manually "add flavor" to generic statblocks is not ideal. Heck, I wish they had...

As a home campaign DM I only really have use for books with content I can crib for my own use. Much harder to do that with full length adventures, much easier with short form adventures. That said, the DM I rotate with only uses the big books, so each form has appeal to certain styles.

This change seems cool and even possibly appropriate to me. It's only issue is in the way D&D hard codes classifications, such as the humanoid group not being a description of something with two arms, two legs, a torso and a head that walks upright, but rather a group of things subject to hold...

Monster Manual II for sure. Maybe an Advanced Player's Handbook and Advanced DMG and/or a "Alternative Rules Tome" that reintroduces the idea of gritty mechanics and other options that are currently 2014 relics, or never made in to 5E Also, a modern "Lords of Madness: Aberrations" guidebook, and...

Won't lie, the new MM is looking really good right now. I'm very excited for this to come out!

Those were just terrible, and honestly, its why the only aftermarket monster books you can find anymore from the 2E days are the later bound Compendiums, because that original Monstrous Manual pretty much guaranteed loss through wear and tear, falling out pages, misplaced pages.....it was (I...