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


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It's a weird choice because the Mummy Lord is basically a high level undead cleric.

Change out some descriptions and spell choices and it works. Dreadful Gaze=Evil Eye, rotting fist works as is just describe after the attack the impacted players skin grows pale and wart covered, blinding dust can be reskinded as fog or darkness, blasphemous word and negative energy work as is, whirlwind of sand just reskin as transforming into swarm of flies or something.

The heart thing even works, assuming the hag removed its own Heart and stores it in a locked chest like a litch does.
 

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.

That was one of 4e's aspects I appreciated, the iconic monster "families" with different roles to add variety.

I also applaud low CR iconic monsters for GMs who may want to run a shorter, lower prep game. Having our GM let our lower level party tackle a weaken dragon so my "Monster Hunter" goblin hero could claim that title for real was one of my most fun gaming moments.

Before for that, it was:
"Wut? But I am a monster hunter, I'll show ya!" Pulls a giant, dead rat from a sack. "Look dat monster! Do ya want to eat it? Oh. Okay, Guess more for me then." 😢
 

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.

This is why I wished 5e had brought monster templates back in 2014. This probably why the first 5e adventures stick with Dragons and Elementals , as you have variety and a theme, mostly. Dragon cultists? They really hadn't been on my radar since Dragonlance and my hazy memory doesn't seem to remember them sticking out that much in that setting either.
 


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.
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.
 

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.
Also running Vecna, and I generally agree. They seem to be using the alternate encounter creation guidelines from Xanthars set to a 5 player party. However, most monsters hit below their CR, and higher level monsters are even worse in this regard. I've had to bump up the number of enemies significantly, and most solo monsters have about +75% HP just to make a challenge.
 

This is why I wished 5e had brought monster templates back in 2014. This probably why the first 5e adventures stick with Dragons and Elementals , as you have variety and a theme, mostly. Dragon cultists? They really hadn't been on my radar since Dragonlance and my hazy memory doesn't seem to remember them sticking out that much in that setting either.
well 5e had those, to some extent, in the 2014 MM & DMG, copied from my post in the other thread on this topic:

The 2014 MM has a large section of NPCs (the roles you speak of). Then the 2014 DMG has a table of "NPC Features" that modify the NPC stat blocks in the MM to give NPC roles of a specific monster type.

So if you want an orc berserker, you take the NPC berserker stat block from the MM...

1735399950587.png


...and then modify it as follows (from the DMG):
  • +2 Str
  • -2 Int
  • add "Aggressive" trait
  • add Darkvision 60 ft.
  • speaks Common and Orc.
1735400095719.png
 
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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.
Then you should really dig 5e, lots of changes and new lore!
 

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