D&D 5E A Compilation of all the Race Changes in Monsters of the Multiverse

Over on Reddit, user KingJackel went through the video leak which came out a few days ago and manually compiled a list of all the changes to races in the book. The changes are quite extensive, with only the fairy and harengon remaining unchanged. The book contains 33 races in total, compiled and updated from previous Dungeons & Dragons books.

D&D 5E - List of All 33 Races in Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse

Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse contains 33 races compiled from previous Dungeons & Dragons books. Aarackocra Assimar Bugbear Centaur Changeling Deep Gnome Duergar Eladrin Fairy Firbolg Genasi, Air Genasi, Earth Genasi, Fire Gennasi, Water Githyanki Githzerai Goblin Goliath...

www.enworld.org

D&D 5E - Full List of Monsters in Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse

Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse contains revamped stat blocks for 260 monsters previously published in previous Dungeons & Dragons 5E books. The list was compiled by YouTuber Bob Worldbuilder based on some blurry screenshots originally shared by Nerd Immersion (see the video...

www.enworld.org

 

[humble minion]

Why is it simplifying to call them Fey rather than Humanoid?

Because it's just casually assigning them a set of racial qualities that were largely invented for elves, rather than actually coming up with something new and original for goblinoids? When it's a questionable fit? Goblinoids, of all things, surely have a long enough history and deep enough body of lore in D&D to warrant some completely new and original qualities and origins being created for them, rather than being a square peg hammered into the 'fey' hole and given some copy-pasted elf abilities?

I have to say, while I was initially glad to see fey get some very belated love and decent lore in 4e (the poor judgement involved in shoving the Feywild into Athas being the exception that proves the rule...), and for that to continue into 5e, it's starting to feel a little bit overdone. The majority of classes have a fey-related subclass, we've had an entirely fey-focused hardback adventure, and now we're redefining goblins- possibly the most basic and fundamental D&D monster, to be fey-adjacent too? It's a bit like the epidemic of shadow- or darkness-related material that got spat out in the early 2000s when gloom and angst and black trenchcoats were all the thing and WotC hurriedly rewrote the FR so that the gothy goddess of darkness and misery was a major player and had her own private magic system, and a race of uberpowerful and elegantly black-clad worshippers in a flying city. It's a matter of taste of course, but personally I wish they'd lay off and focus on another theme for a while. Give us some lycanthropes, or celestials, or constructs, or aberrations for a bit.

 

[Scribe]

View attachment 149995

I read that in his voice.

 

[Older Beholder]

For the most part I understand the changes listed. The one that stands out to me as the biggest question why? is the Fire Genasi dark vision being changed from shades of red to shades of grey.

Not that it matters that much, I don’t really see what difference it makes.

 

[Mecheon]

Goblinoids, of all things, surely have a long enough history and deep enough body of lore in D&D to warrant some completely new and original qualities and origins being created for them, rather than being a square peg hammered into the 'fey' hole and given some copy-pasted elf abilities?

Honestly, I've sort of brought this up before in the orc threads, but.... D&D goblins sort of don't. They've just been "Generic Mook Enemy" for so long and not anything really delved into that. What did goblins have going for them before now? What was unique to them that you couldn't just replace them with particularly angry halflings? Pretty much nothing. They were just "The mook race" with nothing unique to them. Kobolds had their whole dragon connection to get their whole unique thing, but goblins? Nothing. Just "They're here and they're gonna be mooks"

Eberron of course being the difference here but, Eberron be Eberron

That's why this fits this well, because its something. And heck knows its bringing goblins closer to say, Labyrinth or the like, so they can draw more from that side.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

LOL of what?!

Of a simplified approach to speed.
You can't even run per the rules. And as I said elsewhere, 30ft in 6 or 3 seconds if you dash is what my 5 year old son can do easily. And he could do it when he was 3.

 

[TrickyDUK2]

For me, I just want know how this will be implemented in D&D Beyond. I’m in the middle of a campaign and I hope that these changes are not retrospectively applied to any characters by default. Whether I like any of the changes or not, I accept that is it WotC‘s decision, I just hope that my game can still continue using D&D Beyond with option of not using the changes (even if that is only for my current campaign).

These changes feel more like a version change or alternative rules than errata, and so hopefully they will be optional within the official digital tools.

 

[dave2008]

One wonders why they didn't rename the ability to "Spell Resistance" like in 3E, then. If spells are now just a particular type of magic.

I agree, except spells have always been a particular type of magic (in 5e), that is nothing new. They have changed how "Magic Resistance" works, not how spells and magic work (or what they are).

 

[humble minion]

Honestly, I've sort of brought this up before in the orc threads, but.... D&D goblins sort of don't. They've just been "Generic Mook Enemy" for so long and not anything really delved into that. What did goblins have going for them before now? What was unique to them that you couldn't just replace them with particularly angry halflings? Pretty much nothing. They were just "The mook race" with nothing unique to them. Kobolds had their whole dragon connection to get their whole unique thing, but goblins? Nothing. Just "They're here and they're gonna be mooks"

You're not wrong, and that's one of the reasons I find this annoying. This was an opportunity to give goblinoids some unique and characteristic flavour, and instead WotC went the lazy recycled route.

Just brainstorming for a minute, they've done some work giving bugbears the 'boogeyman' feel. Big, furry, sneaky, can squeeze in anywhere, and extra damage when they jump on you when you're unaware. That's good. What I'd have done with goblins is emphasise that they're a race who are consummate survivors among bigger, nastier, more dangerous creatures. Give them 35 speed (that REALLY makes them stand out if halflings etc keep their 25 speed, as they do in my personal canon), and maybe give them advantage on any roll or save to avoid being restrained or grappled, and let them squeeze through holes two sizes smaller, like bugbears can. And maybe something like poison resistance, given that they get the last choice of food and they've acclimatised to noxious things. I don't think Fury of the Small is interesting or needed. The bonus action disengage/hide goes back to being a rogue class feature as nature intended This means that PC goblins will no longer be penalised for taking a very characteristic class by having one of their major racial abilities invalidated with no compensation at level 1, while NPC monster manual goblins may well have that ability because that's how NPCs work. And that gives you a goblin with some interesting traits, which CAN have a fey origin if it suits your campaign setting, but which also reasonably reflects how goblins have been portrayed though 40 years of D&D.

Hobgoblins are the hardest of the three, to be honest, because it's always been their militaristic culture that makes them stand out. But where does that leave you if your setting doesn't have militaristic hobgoblins, or your hobgoblin PC was abandoned at a monastery at birth and raised by unworldly monks? I'd maybe be tempted to say that they're a constructed race, magically created in the depths of time as soldiers perhaps by some long-forgotten goblinoid warlord. They're self-willed, but they were designed as sacrificial warriors and it still shows. Perhaps advantage vs fear effects? Second wind as a racial ability? Ability remove a level of exhaustion during a short rest 1/day? A fighting style at level 1? Or hell, give them a battlemaster maneuver and a couple of superiority dice - we hand out racial cantrips and spells like candy, why not martial maneuvers as well?

Just don't throw our hands up in the air and copy-paste some stuff from the elf statblock when there's no gobinoid lore in D&D ever that suggests it.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Of a simplified approach to speed.

Maybe, but I hardly think changing small creatures base move from 25 to 30 is important move towards simplifying things when it was more realistic to give them (or some anyway) a speed of 25. It is, for the most part, an inconsequential change to make so why bother doing it? Worse, it is moving in the wrong direction (no pun intended).

You can't even run per the rules. And as I said elsewhere, 30ft in 6 or 3 seconds if you dash is what my 5 year old son can do easily. And he could do it when he was 3.

That is a different issue but I agree the movement rules are severely lacking in many ways.

Your child at age 3-5 would be roughly kindergarten age (depending on when he started), which according to this paper would give him a speed of less that 25 feet (50 feet was walked in a mean 13.5 second, over two rounds, would be a speed 22.2 feet), appropriate for a small creature.

Results: Significant speed differences were found between children in kindergarten through sixth grade. The mean speed to walk 50 ft used by kindergarten line leaders was 13.5 seconds, and the speed increased to 50 ft in 10.6 seconds for sixth grade lines.

Expectations for Walking Speeds: Standards for Students in... : Pediatric Physical Therapy

he walking speeds of 370 children serving as class-line leaders were determined after measuring using a stopwatch the time that it took to walk along 50-ft paths in school hallways. Teachers were asked to demonstrate a “good enough” speed for a child with mobility limitations after instruction...

journals.lww.com

By the time a child reached Grade 6, their walking speed would be nearly 30 feet (50 feet in 10.5 seconds is a speed of 28.6 feet), which also is appropriate because by then they would no longer qualify as a small creature, but a medium-size one.

At any rate, "dashing" is not a "run" IMO, for most people it would be a quick jog. So, you are entirely correct in that "You can't even run per the rules", which is why if a book came out with better rules for movement and other things, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

But the types of changes listed in the OP are entirely fluff/pointless IMO and make this release by WotC another disappointment.

 

[Hussar]

I would have thought that in a game where combat is pretty much 100% abstract, an arbitrary movement speed would be the least problematic element.