D&D (2024) 2025's Ancient Green Dragon Stat Block From The New Monster Manual

The new ancient green dragon from the 2025 Monster Manual was previewed at Gen Con.

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[Parmandur]

Could be, but I don't think that is what they are doing. If that was the case, giving the dragon extra abilities in the Lair like this stat block does seems like a bit of overkill. Not that I would have a problem with that!

Actually was reading an interview with Perkins, and he addressed this:

"One of the key pieces of feedback we got on the Monster Manual concerned lair actions and regional effects of some of our more iconic monsters. A lot of dragons and high level monsters have these things. The problem is those lived outside of the stat blocks. Lair actions were kind of in the story text, but a lot of our DMs use Monster stat blocks off of D&D Beyond."

"So they would get the stat block and they got none of that other information. So they were essentially missing a key part of the monster when they were trying to run it. In some cases, they didn't even know it was there. Like, Oh, this monster has lair actions? I wish you had told me. There's nothing in the step block that tells me this. There's something else I need. So one of the things we did was we folded all the lair action stuff, the coolest bits, into the Monster stat block."

"So whether you're running a monster out of the Monster Manual or using D&D Beyond, you have all the information in the steat block. That's a key piece of user feedback that we just got. It's like, Oh, well, yeah, duh, of course we need to fix this somehow."

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[Demetrios1453]

I'm a bit torn. When running and prepping games, I prefer to have green dragon under G. Just easier to flip to that page. I don't want to flip to dragon and then further flip through the many dragon pages to the one I want. But when reading through and browsing the book, it is more flavorful to have a section on dragons and have some nice fluffy lore to read about dragons in general. I fear that putting each dragon in alphabetic order in the book based on the type of dragon will mean cutting down on fluff. One thing a learned over the course of the 2014 edition is that most DMs seem to prefer a fluff light approach and getting as many stat blocks as possible into the page count. I fear that the Volos Guide approach is as obsolete as Volos Guide, which bums me out a bit as it was by far my favorite 2014 era D&D book.

I know we have Fizban's Guide and the Giants book. But having a monster book with a good collection of monsters well fleshed out and with sample lairs was a real treat.

I wonder if they're going to have a section near the front or back that covers general flavor information for monster groups that are now separated out. Actually, now that I think of it, that would be pretty reasonable appendix material...

 

[dave2008]

Actually was reading an interview with Perkins, and he addressed this:

"One of the key pieces of feedback we got on the Monster Manual concerned lair actions and regional effects of some of our more iconic monsters. A lot of dragons and high level monsters have these things. The problem is those lived outside of the stat blocks. Lair actions were kind of in the story text, but a lot of our DMs use Monster stat blocks off of D&D Beyond."

"So they would get the stat block and they got none of that other information. So they were essentially missing a key part of the monster when they were trying to run it. In some cases, they didn't even know it was there. Like, Oh, this monster has lair actions? I wish you had told me. There's nothing in the step block that tells me this. There's something else I need. So one of the things we did was we folded all the lair action stuff, the coolest bits, into the Monster stat block."

"So whether you're running a monster out of the Monster Manual or using D&D Beyond, you have all the information in the steat block. That's a key piece of user feedback that we just got. It's like, Oh, well, yeah, duh, of course we need to fix this somehow."

Chris Perkins Reveals That Matt Mercer Consulted On The New 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide

Chris Perkins talks professional DMs & DMG!

screenrant.com

That's disappointing. I also wonder how they gathered this feedback? It was never part any poll or questionnaire I have seen.

Also, the information is available on DnD Beyond. I would be easy enough to have the stat block mention or link to it in Beyond. I don't think this was the correct solution, oh well.

 

[Parmandur]

That's disappointing. I also wonder how they gathered this feedback? It was never part any poll or questionnaire I have seen.

Also, the information is available on DnD Beyond. I would be easy enough to have the stat block mention or link to it in Beyond. I don't think this was the correct solution, oh well.

They have been collecting feedback through various methods for a decade. Not just the UA polls.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

That's disappointing. I also wonder how they gathered this feedback? It was never part any poll or questionnaire I have seen.

Also, the information is available on DnD Beyond. I would be easy enough to have the stat block mention or link to it in Beyond. I don't think this was the correct solution, oh well.

I use the encounter builder on Beyond a lot and the lair actions don’t show up when I bring up the monster statblock. So I understand what is being gotten at.

 

[Chaosmancer]

It's not a "confusion" per se. It's more of a visual distraction.

For example, if you had a line like:
Immunities: Acid, Blinded, Lightning, Poison, Poisoned, Stunned, Thunder, Unconscious; Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing from non-magical, non-silvered attacks

I think it's just hard to read.

Versus
Condition Immunities: Blinded, Poisoned, Stunned, Unconscious
Damage Immunities: Acid, Lightning, Poison, Thunder; Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing from non-magical, non-silvered attacks;

Maybe. I can see it either way. I think most people will be looking with intent for a specific word, so I imagine that it will be easier to spot in those circumstances even if it is in a single line.

Currently, no - you are correct; however, I am thinking of what has been reported in the 2024 printing (there is a Bloodied condition). If a Bloodied condition exists, then it might trigger other events (some feature that turns on when the creature is Bloodied).

I think this has, so far, largely been regulated to things like enemies gaining effects when the player is bloodied. Thinking of things like sharks which had a similar ability already, and potentially a rework of gnolls. It so far does not seem to be something that applies when the monster itself is bloodied, and may be referenced then in that monster's specific statblock.

 

[cbwjm]

I use the encounter builder on Beyond a lot and the lair actions don’t show up when I bring up the monster statblock. So I understand what is being gotten at.

It would be nice if they were brought into the encounter notes when selected at least. Mind you, I'm so bad at reading things on dndbeyond that once I got through half an encounter before I realised that an NPC (that I had created) had legendary actions; would have seen them had I scrolled down. That's clearly a me issue though.

 

[pukunui]

Also, the information is available on DnD Beyond. I would be easy enough to have the stat block mention or link to it in Beyond. I don't think this was the correct solution, oh well.

I use the encounter builder on Beyond a lot and the lair actions don’t show up when I bring up the monster statblock. So I understand what is being gotten at.

In the encounter builder, at the bottom of every official statblock, there’s a button you can click on to bring up the full entry that would include lair actions and such.

 

[Parmandur]

In the encounter builder, at the bottom of every official statblock, there’s a button you can click on to bring up the full entry that would include lair actions and such.

Still, though, they have talked about how they have brought in UX experts to help with the design of these books, and while it is not necessarily the only solution, I think it does make sense that they are trying to help make the stat block easier for more DMs to use efficiently.

 

[dave2008]

Still, though, they have talked about how they have brought in UX experts to help with the design of these books, and while it is not necessarily the only solution, I think it does make sense that they are trying to help make the stat block easier for more DMs to use efficiently.

The thing is, I personally think having the lair info in the stat block is less user friendly. Maybe I am just off that way, buy my group doesn't typically try to encounter a boss type monster in its lair, so having this info the stat block just muddies it up for me.

Also, you can more interesting lair effects if you remove them from the stat block. That is the really cool thing to me.