2025 Monster Manual Will Contain Over 85 New Monsters

Next year's new Monster Manual will include over 85 new monsters, a sizable increase over what was previously believed. In a D&D Beyond post made to celebrate the year end, Wizards of the Coast confirmed that the 2025 Monster Manual would contain 85 "brand new monsters." Considering that the new Monster Manual includes approximately 500 monsters, it's not a surprise that there are a significant amount of new monster statblocks, but this is further confirmation that nearly 20% of the statblocks will be brand new. A description of the Monster Manual also confirms that there will be over 300 new images in the book.

Many of these new statblocks will be to add either high CR or low CR variants of existing popular monsters, so that they can be used in a wider variety of scenarios. For instance, vampires will have several low CR variants (representing freshly turned vampires) along with a high CR vampire nightbringer. Also present in the game are arch-hags and a blob of annihilation, which are classified as titan-level creatures representing different kinds of monster types.

The new Monster Manual will be released on February 18th, 2025.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Maybe with an eye toward balance, but not with an eye toward making them actually interesting to run. I ended up with the impression that they were aiming for something closer to, say, A5E's monster book.

I got the exact opposite impression during the lead-up to Monsters of the Multiverse: They were trying to streamline them and make them easier to run. There may have just been poor messaging around the book generally.

 

[dave2008]

I'm not sure there is any sort of solid enough math behind CR to account for that sort of thing. If there is any math, it is about damage output and hit points.

We don't know what the new math looks like, but there is definitely math behind it and is is more than damage output and hit points. Anyone familiar with the DMG monster building guidelines would know this.

But, again, GM's ignore abilities all the time. That is not a reason to not include options.

It may not be a good reason in your opinion, but it is a reason and one with some merit IMO. If a DM gets in the habit of ignore parts of the stat block, that can be a problem. And that is not the only reason it can create problems.

For the record, I am pro "system wide options" generally -- maneuvers and stuff that are not gated behind feats or big penalties, then with specific creatures having bespoke thematic abilities.

I am not sure what you are getting at here, can you clarify.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Had the 2024 edition even been announced when it was released?

They have said since that it's compatible with 2024, which is broadly true, as they're using a very expansive version of "compatible."

In any case, they're 100% going to be replacing Xanathar's, Tasha's and Monsters of the Multiverse over the next few years, no matter what someone who may no longer be at the company might have said in the past. The artificer now being in UA suggests that we'll see a bunch of 2014 edition conversions in a book in early 2026.

I wonder if there is a Monsters of the Multiverse replacement that they will expand it to include updates of the monsters from Bigby's and Fizbans to the 2024 standard? After all, that's what MotM did originally. Or if we'll just see a third monster book with Bigby's, Fizban's, and other creatures...

 

[Reynard]

I am not sure what you are getting at here, can you clarify.

Like, instead of goblins having Nimble Escape and Wolves having Pack Tactics, there is a list of common traits that can be applied to creatures at an ad hoc basis. The Gm decides the goblin 4 is shifty, so gives him nimble escape, but goblins 1-3 are a cohesive unit, so gives them pack tactics. Liek that.

But beyond those, there would indeed be bespoke, thematic abilities such as the manticore having (for example) Spike Pin (Reaction): When a character within range of the manticore starts to move, the manticore can attack with its spikes and if it hits the target's movement drops to 0 until the end of its turn (or whatever; that's off the top of my head).

 

[pukunui]

Had the 2024 edition even been announced when it was released?

They have said since that it's compatible with 2024, which is broadly true, as they're using a very expansive version of "compatible."

In any case, they're 100% going to be replacing Xanathar's, Tasha's and Monsters of the Multiverse over the next few years, no matter what someone who may no longer be at the company might have said in the past. The artificer now being in UA suggests that we'll see a bunch of 2014 edition conversions in a book in early 2026.

Yes, we knew there was going to be a revision for the 50th anniversary, and part of the hype for MotM was that we’d be getting a preview of the revised monster design.

Now, of course, we know that they continued to tinker with monster design and stat block format between the MotM and the 2024 revision, but one thing they’ve kept is the new approach to spellcasters.

(I personally preferred the hybrid approach they tested in books like Descent into Avernus, where spellcasters still had spell slots but the spells that contributed to their CR were written out in full in their stat blocks, but I’ve gotten used to the new approach enough that I can tolerate it. I just don’t call attention to it when I use those monsters, and my players don’t seem to notice. The more experienced ones still assume the NPC casters use spell slots like their PCs do!)

 

[dave2008]

The promise of monster design overhaul that was completely false. I only have myself to blame. I did not read through it at the store before I bought it. I believed the hype instead.

It was not completely false, but not has deep as some hoped. The tweaks were mostly minor. Given the time frame it came out (January 2022), I am willing to bet some of the design considerations appearing in the 2025 monster manual were not even present in the design of this book.

For example, that book, the preceding Fizban's (October 2021) and the following Bigby's (August 2023) all use the same (old) monster math. Also, Fizban's, MMotM, and Spelljammer (August 2022) included monsters with Legendary Actions. These go away a year later in Bigby's (August 2023) and Planescape (October 2023). All along the way monster have continued to get more interesting actions, reactions, and bonus actions. Based on previews all of these minor tweaks along the way are cumulating into the 2025 Monster Manual. However, we also know from the previews that not every monter is getting the interesting actions, reactions, and bonus actions you want. The stat blocks are all getting revised and steamlined though.

So I think it is safe to say, there will be significant changes, but not enough for you.

 

[dave2008]

Like, instead of goblins having Nimble Escape and Wolves having Pack Tactics, there is a list of common traits that can be applied to creatures at an ad hoc basis. The Gm decides the goblin 4 is shifty, so gives him nimble escape, but goblins 1-3 are a cohesive unit, so gives them pack tactics. Liek that.

OK, I list would be helpful to some. A DM can obviously do this on there own too. I have enough experience to do this on the fly mostly and even make use of the DMG improv tools to make up abilities completely

But beyond those, there would indeed be bespoke, thematic abilities such as the manticore having (for example) Spike Pin (Reaction): When a character within range of the manticore starts to move, the manticore can attack with its spikes and if it hits the target's movement drops to 0 until the end of its turn (or whatever; that's off the top of my head).

They have been doing that for a while so I would expect more of that in the 2025 MM.

 

[Gorg]

The original post says "Many of these new statblocks will be to add either high CR or low CR variants of existing popular monsters..."

So, I'm going to assume most are new takes on old creatures, with a small minority of new ones. Just my gut feeling. You are correct that D&D does recycle a lot. If you have ever read various editions of Forgotten Realms products, they literally cut and pasted huge swathes of text over many editions in places. I recall reading books from 1E to 3E that read verbatim in sections. I once thought to myself while prepping for a session in Waterdeep, read stuff from 1E through 3E, and thought to myself didn't I just read this, I checked and sure enough most of it was nothing new. D&D to me has felt pretty stale for quite a long time because of this.

On the other hand, I found it irritating as heck, that with each new edition, the Realms suffered some earth shattering cataclysmic event that changed everything... My upcoming game will use the 3e version- prior to the spell plague, the dissolution of the Silver Marches, King Azoun's death, and all that.

I'm beginning to think I may actually buy the new Monster Manual. Partly because I've always been a geek for monster books, and partly because they say they've beefed em up. I still intend to run a 2014 game- I'll just plug in whichever version I like better. (the way we always did through each new edition, prior to 3e)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We unfortunately won't know whether alternative bestiaries are a better choice for any given table until February, but we now have three good Monster Manual replacements, for people who want different designs or stat weights, from A5E, MCDM and Kobold Press and that's probably not going to be the end of them, since we've only just heard that Goodman Games is working on their own set of 5E rulebooks.

I think it's likely that most DMs will be able to find a bestiary or bestiaries that work well for them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

OK, I list would be helpful to some. A DM can obviously do this on there own too. I have enough experience to do this on the fly mostly and even make use of the DMG improv tools to make up abilities completely

Forge of Foes has a nice list of abilities to apply to monsters, whether they're being created from scratch or applied to unique individual ones.