Coming in May: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes! [UPDATED!]

So they just gave the title and showed the cover mock-ups; no specific info till Monday?

 

[gyor]

I'd be in the same group as haffrung in that I'd purchase a book of stated npcs with short backstory/motivation as a time saver. I've already bought the nord games 5e npc book and joined the Kickstarter for the new one.

I guess im partial to the old 2e heroes and villains lorebooks as after reading them in the supplement, I'd look for novels that might have them in book.

Not a huge monster book guy cause after the 3rd one for any system, your getting more fringe or limited use monsters that weren't popular enough for the first 3 monster type manuals. With that said, I'll be picking this up since the monster related entries are mixed with other cool things I might be able to use as well as a DM.

If you add VGTM and MGTF monsters together you MIGHT get two thirds of an MM2. This is assuming MGTF's monster stat section is equal to VGTM section.

So I think we are a whole MM and a third of an MM away from having the eqivialiant to MM1, MM2, and MM3.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Oh, good. Only four more months of forum posts speculating and griping about page counts, missing content, future products, incompetent game designers, past products, misplaced iconic personalities, potential game-breaking rules, neglected campaigns, nostalgic regurgitation, rules bloat, another revised ranger, snail-pace release schedule, market saturation, grognard angst, mishandled public relations, edition doom-sayers, and modrons. When's the next announcement already?

 

[plisnithus8]

Personally, I have no trouble coming up with a new monster if I need one. Bile Trolls. As per Trolls, except 3/day can spew acid in a 10 by 5 cone. 2d6 damage. Done.

Could it be that you have no trouble coming up with new monsters because the design doesn’t really work?
A troll has a (regeneration) weakness to acid so spewing acid seems to be counterintuitive.

 

[TerraDave]

What? Tome of Foes is amazing.

Agree.

Keeping in mind, we really don't know what's going to be in the book yet. I mean, a bunch of people here claim to know, in some surprising detail. But we don't really know.

 

[GarrettKP]

So I am expecting this to be a Planar Volo's Guide to Monsters book.

Chapter 1: details on the Planes of existences and the threats you find there.

Chapter 2: details on Planar PC Races (Gith, Eladrin, Elf Variants, Tiefling Variants, MAYBE Shifters and Warforged?)

Chapter 3: details on a large planar bestiary. Including HIGH LEVEL threats (Archdevils, Archfey, Demon Lords, Dread Lords of the Shadowfell, etc.)

An Appendix of Planar NPC templates (like Volo's but Planar).

An Appendix assigning which monsters go to which Plane (like the Monsters By Environments charts in the MM and VGtM).

 

[BMaC]

nostalgic regurgitation,

I'd love a nostalgic regurgitation sub-forum.

 

[Parmandur]

The title "Tome of Foes" sounds like a tribute to the two biggest 3rd party products for 5E; "Tome of Beasts" and "5th Edition Foes"

Seems likely, in addition to the obvious Volo's connection.

 

[Jester David]

Nice book... I am still waiting for errata reprints before buying Xanathar’s and recently I've been thinking of buying Volo's too, and now this one also. I am not in a rush tho

What I hope is there:

- higher CR monsters (5+)
- huge villains like archdevils and demon princes. If we have those already in adventure books, I don't mind reprints
- fantastic planar locations
- special magic items

What I hope is not there, or at least only in minimal amount:

- planar races: giths are ok, maybe a couple more, but I already feel we're quite bloated
- low CR monsters, particularly because they normally have no interesting features
- generic NPCs, if they feature NPCs they better be at least strongly themed to specific planes or factions
- subclasses: they did great in Xanathar but the latest UA shows they're out of inspiration now, plus they are the kind of thing that really needs public scrutiny before published (which is obviously too late for May), in addition a planar book carries a huge risk of just delivering a planar fighter, planar wizard, planar rogue...

Good ideas.

I agree that this might be a nice place to discreetly place some higher CR foes and more legendary creatures.
A few more demons and devils might be okay, but I'd really like more lore and variant powers than a dozen new demons and devils that weren't interesting enough to make the cut into either the Monster Manual or Volo's Guide to Monsters.
More Yugoloths would be nice though.

And since an archdevil adventure might not be in the works (not having a classic to riff off of) including them might be nice. Plus the oinoloth.
I feel inherently wary of reprinting the demon lords when that might be a big selling feature of Out of the Abyss. But they could do a couple key ones (Orcus and Demogorgon) and then include a bunch of new ones.

I do want a few planar races included. Eladrin, shadar-kai, and the gith are good choices. Bladelings might be nice. I can imagine some aasimar and tiefling variants as well.

I'm really not sure what to expect with the rest. I'd love more details on the planes to actually make them easier to use, more descriptions and details, with a few locations. But that doesn't mesh with the book's hook of focusing on the "conflicts" of the multiverse. But, then again, there wasn't a lot of Xanathar guiding in Xanathar's Guide so it's hard to tell if this will serve as a 5e Manual of the Planes or a 5e version of the Third Edition Fiend Folio...

 

[DeanP]

I love monster books! Always fun to delve into a new monster book and spring something new on the players.

 

[Parmandur]

So I am expecting this to be a Planar Volo's Guide to Monsters book.

Chapter 1: details on the Planes of existences and the threats you find there.

Chapter 2: details on Planar PC Races (Gith, Eladrin, Elf Variants, Tiefling Variants, MAYBE Shifters and Warforged?)

Chapter 3: details on a large planar bestiary. Including HIGH LEVEL threats (Archdevils, Archfey, Demon Lords, Dread Lords of the Shadowfell, etc.)

An Appendix of Planar NPC templates (like Volo's but Planar).

An Appendix assigning which monsters go to which Plane (like the Monsters By Environments charts in the MM and VGtM).

Good thoughts, though I think the first chapter will be less location based and more like Volo's.