D&D (2024) 2025 Monster Manual All You Need to Know video link is up.

At any rate, it looks like they didn't include monster creation rules. :(
This is close to a dealbreaker for me for 2024. Missing monster creation rules sounds like "play with the toys we give you, do not make your own" to me, and that's not why I play D&D. It doesn't sound like the kind of thing they'd do, so I'd be surprised if there wasn't a discussion, but them not mentioning it yet has me on edge.
 

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This is close to a dealbreaker for me for 2024. Missing monster creation rules sounds like "play with the toys we give you, do not make your own" to me, and that's not why I play D&D. It doesn't sound like the kind of thing they'd do, so I'd be surprised if there wasn't a discussion, but them not mentioning it yet has me on edge.
I didn't have any difficulty making monsters for 5e, whilst completely ignoring the rules.

I made monsters for 1e too, which did not have any rules for it.

The trick is, you decide what stats and abilities you want them to have, then give them that.
 
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I didn't have any difficulty making monsters for 5e, whilst completely ignoring the rules.

I made monsters for 1e too, which did not have any rules for it.


I'm gonna be real with you.
While you could totally do that ( and I have done that for multiple systems, up to and including including reverse engineering a basic mathematical formula to judge if the monsters are close enough to what players should be fighting), the entire point of buying extra game rules (and monster books fall into this category) is to lessen my burden.

Now you could argue that 500 monsters are far more monsters than anyone could reasonably expect to run over the course of several years. And that would be undoubtedly true for everyone who isn't a professional DM or who otherwise has the means to do nothing other than play games every day.

But I would counter that having less monsters, and a straightforward and easy way to modify those monsters or use their parts in brand new monsters, would be far more useful to the typical DM.
 

This is all fine and well until you get to the part where you need to assign them a CR. How do you determine a suitable CR for your made up monster based on the stats you've given them?
CR has always been useless, and since my group voted to switch to milestone levelling, not even relevant for the purpose of calculating rewards.

Make your monster as tough as your party can handle, then assign it the CR of an appropriate level encounter for the purpose of calculating XP.
 

CR has always been useless, and since my group voted to switch to milestone levelling, not even relevant for the purpose of calculating rewards.

Make your monster as tough as your party can handle, then assign it the CR of an appropriate level encounter for the purpose of calculating XP.
While I can understand this approach working for an experienced DM/group, it doesn't sound like a particularly helpful approach for anyone with less experience.
 

While I can understand this approach working for an experienced DM/group, it doesn't sound like a particularly helpful approach for anyone with less experience.
You only learn by doing. The truth is, there in NO magic formula that will enable you to design balanced monsters. There are far too many variables involved. The the best way to get a handle on if something works or not is extensive testing. Which I expect is the approach they used in this Monster Manual. They aren't sharing their formula, because the is no formula.
 

But I would counter that having less monsters, and a straightforward and easy way to modify those monsters or use their parts in brand new monsters, would be far more useful to the typical DM.
How do you know what the typical DMs need? Because both me and DM I personally knew rarely build new monsters, we prefer to pick from the catalogue. Maybe some adjustments. But that is of course also just anecdotical evidence ;)
 


It doesn't sound like the kind of thing they'd do, so I'd be surprised if there wasn't a discussion, but them not mentioning it yet has me on edge.
a reviewer with a preview copy has mentioned that there are none in the book, so I would not hold my breath for that one…
 

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