2025 Monster Manual Will Contain Over 85 New Monsters

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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.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

Why would I want that?!? I don't need that. Monsters are already low CR. Vampire spawn ARE the low CR vampire variant. Do you need even weaker vampires? CR 5 is about right IMO for the low CR vampire.

What monster do you need a low CR variant for? I mean, maybe a baby Bullette or something would be fun to throw in, but honestly I'm not expecting much from this concept. We'll see, they might surprise me.

I'll be more interested in the new monsters CR 15 and under.

Also, my post more more in response to the artwork on the cover. I've never realized with had gargantuan Beholders? Must be new. ;)
wait, in the other thread you complained about having high CR monsters, and now you are complaining about having low CR monsters. I guess...IDK, I got nothing. I guess I will just disregard your posts, IDK.
 

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wait, in the other thread you complained about having high CR monsters, and now you are complaining about having low CR monsters. I guess...
No... It isn't that hard to figure out:

1. In the other thread I complained about the increased power curve higher CR (20+ say) monsters create (and why they are bad for the game because of it).

2. And here I compained about low CR variants, not new low(er) CR creatures. Oh, the the ridiculous size of the beholder in the artwork...

That's pretty much it. New sub-CR 15 additions will be welcome.

IDK, I got nothing.
That's ok. Nothing says you have to have anything. 🤷‍♂️ This isn't a problem you can solve or anything.

I guess I will just disregard your posts, IDK.
Feel free. You'll probably sleep better if you do. I'm a complex person. :)
 

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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.
I hope this doesn't cut into @Nixlord 's customer base too much. Variant statblocks for classic monsters are a big part of their jam, based on the Monster Manual Expanded books I own.
 



The first D&D book I ever owned was the 2014 Monster Manual. I got it for Christmas in 2016 and had only started playing the game a couple months before. It was my first introduction to most of the classic D&D monsters and I spent the whole day reading the book.

One of the problems I had in my first campaigns as a new DM was how thematically disjointed all of the monsters in it were. I had a hard time finding monsters that felt like they fit together in my first campaigns. Now, diversity in the types of monsters is one of D&D’s strengths. You can easily create whole campaigns around a monster theme, such as Fey, Undead, Aberrations, or Fiends. But if I wanted to make a Mind Flayer-centric campaign entirely using the 5e MM, I would only have Intellect Devourers, Mind Flayers, and Mind Flayer Arcanists to use. Which are solidly Tier 1-2 monsters. And for the first few levels before the party can face a Mind Flayer they’re stuck battling thralls and Intellect Devourers. After the first two tiers, there was nothing. No Mind Witness, Alhoon, Illithilich, Ulitharids, Neothilid, Cranium Rats, Oblexes, or Elder Brain. Those all came later.

If I wanted Dragons, well there are tons of Dragons for every tier of play. They all are pretty similar enemies and fighting only dragons and kobolds all game definitely gets old, but you could do it. Same with Undead. There are thematically coherent undead for most levels of play. You couldn’t really do this for most enemy types in base 5e (Fey, Aberrations, Celestials, Elementals, Giants, Oozes, Plants, Beasts, etc).

I know the new Monster Manual has a limited amount of monsters it can add, but I am glad that they have chosen to focus on giving more powerful and weaker versions of more monsters. I think that will really help new DMs that want their campaigns to have more cohesive themes through its enemies.
 

Forever DM here. I hope they made all the monsters 50% tougher. I'm currently running the Vecna adventure, and I swear no one at Wizards has any idea how to challenge a high-level party. All the fights are much too easy for high-level characters. Obviously, I can do things on my own to make them harder, but it would be great if the monsters as written were tougher.
It's one of those things where circular logic ends up creating a suboptimal experience. We know that early level adventures are more popular because of accessibility but higher level content can't get get it's due if it doesn't exist. There has been a player bias in content development that has been widening since Tasha's in my opinion. Glad you cited Vecna as an example of this because both Vecna and Miska the Wolf Spider are incredibly underpowered for their CRs.

Here's hoping the monster manual goes the other direction.
 

Are they “new” new, or are they old monsters from splat books from earlier editions that they’re re-hashing for the occasion? I love D&D, but they sure have a way to recycle things.
 



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