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?

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, I guess I’m not hardcore any more. Somebody else should have my job!

I don't follow half the stuff they use, I just wait until its talked about on the forums. It comes out in May, I don't really care about it that much until it is released and I do not buy everything they make.

 

[Remathilis]

So I got thinking...

The book is called the Tome of FOES. Not conflicts, wars, or planes, FOES. I have a feeling we're looking at something less like MotP and more like Elder Evils; a collection of powerful, mostly planar, threats that can serve as antagonists for a variety of games. So, it might take a particular foe or faction (lets say, devils) and discuss the Lords of the Nine, Baator/Hell, cults, new devils, tiefling bloodlines, and maybe a stray feat or spell. Lather rinse repeat for a variety of classic D&D foes.

* Vaalakith the Lich Queen and the Githyanki (with mentions to Ithilids and the GIthzerai)

* The Raven Queen and Shadar-kai

* Asmodeus and the Devils of Baator

* Torag, the King Who Crawls

* The Demon Princes (esp those not mentioned/statted in OOtA)

* Lolth and the Drow

* The Queen of Air and Darkness and the Unseelie Fey

* Tharizdun

Beyond that, there is still plenty of options: The Archomental princes, Tiamat, Iuz, Vecna, Kyuss, the list goes on and on without even really touching any specific prime world.

 

[Parmandur]

Do you want me to answer “yes” or “no”?

I'm curious as to your reasoning.

 

[Olive]

So I got thinking...

The book is called the Tome of FOES. Not conflicts, wars, or planes, FOES. I have a feeling we're looking at something less like MotP and more like Elder Evils; a collection of powerful, mostly planar, threats that can serve as antagonists for a variety of games. So, it might take a particular foe or faction (lets say, devils) and discuss the Lords of the Nine, Baator/Hell, cults, new devils, tiefling bloodlines, and maybe a stray feat or spell. Lather rinse repeat for a variety of classic D&D foes.

* Vaalakith the Lich Queen and the Githyanki (with mentions to Ithilids and the GIthzerai)

* The Raven Queen and Shadar-kai

* Asmodeus and the Devils of Baator

* Torag, the King Who Crawls

* The Demon Princes (esp those not mentioned/statted in OOtA)

* Lolth and the Drow

* The Queen of Air and Darkness and the Unseelie Fey

* Tharizdun

Beyond that, there is still plenty of options: The Archomental princes, Tiamat, Iuz, Vecna, Kyuss, the list goes on and on without even really touching any specific prime world.

I'm sure some of those will be mentioned but I'd be astonished if the focus was CR20+ named creatures...

 

[Parmandur]

Gets viewed by 500 people on Twitch. Doesn’t get posted by primary D&D news site with reach of half a million.

Well, it's posted here now, and they have a backlog of preview material out already laying down what they are thinking about. A quick search didn't show the Twitch numbers, not so sure if they make that information public: the YouTube videos have tens of thousands of hits, and those are posted later. The numbers of folks using D&D Beyond is pretty significant, is my understanding.

 

[Olive]

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).

I'm expecting mroe or less this except with class options and maybe feats as well. Chapter 2 will have more than just races.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm expecting mroe or less this except with class options and maybe feats as well. Chapter 2 will have more than just races.

Feats and class options, almost certainly not: feats haven't been approved by the player base as a whole, and XGtE already has planar class options covered. Backgrounds, I can see.

 

[GarrettKP]

I'm expecting mroe or less this except with class options and maybe feats as well. Chapter 2 will have more than just races.

This seems unlikely. They won't add more class options with Xanathar's having just come out. This fills a different player niche.

 

[Parmandur]

This seems unlikely. They won't add more class options with Xanathar's having just come out. This fills a different player niche.

The large number of planar classes in XGtE was somewhat notable.

 

[darjr]

It got posted to their YouTube page, and it prompted one of those viewers to post it in the 5e face book group with tens of thousands of active users. And the other d&d Facebook group also with tens of thousands of active users changed the cover page to the cover of the book beacause of the stream.

Then on reddit and the piazza and all over Twitter. This little off the cuff leak generated quite a bit of buzz.

Not to forget here on ENWorld itself.