D&D 5E D&D Beyond Confirms Monsters of the Multiverse's May Standalone Release

Monsters of the Multiverse comes out this month as part of a gift set along with Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and Xanathar's Guide to Everything. However, if you don't need those older books, D&D Beyond has confirmed that Monsters of the Multiverse will be available separately on May 17th.

DDB's entry refers to the digital release, but these are typically timed to match the hardcovers. You can preorder the digital version from DDB now.

The book compiles monsters from Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, and updates them to match WotC's current format; additionally it tweaks stats where needed to ensure monsters are worthy of their Challenge Rating, as some D&D monsters have been felt to be underpowered. In addition, it compiles over 30 races previously published in 5E D&D books, also updated to the current formats.

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

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...

www.enworld.org

Update! WotC has confirmed the standalone hardcover release date is May 17th.

 

[darjr]

So the scenario I THINK (maybe?) happened (happening) is.

This was to be the gift set for Christmas. Current situation of the world ruined that, also it ruined being able to spin up the stand alone book, probably because a contract was signed for the box set and there isn’t any bad width now for the standalone printing, finally someone didn’t want to upset the stores with a digital release before they got the book on store shelves.
So here we are.

All just wild conjecture on my part.

 

[Reynard]

I agree @Reynard. But normally with D&D and RPG books it's pretty trivial to know what you're buying, even from DNDBeyond. Here's it's bizarre.

Apparently the SRD isn't going to be updated, which is interesting (though this is from someone who interviewed the WotC devs, so could be wrong, we don't have it on video or anything), and would suggest these changes will be separate, so we will get 250 "new" monsters to junk up the already junky DDB search (which yes, is on DDB for sure) and 30 new races to junk up the race selection.

I presume the fact that they're opening preorders without saying is just further evidence that the current owners are solely in it to soak customers for as much as possible, even if it destroys DDB as a brand.

I don't use DDB. I have when playing in someone else's campaign, but overall the platform turns me off. I would much rather just be able to actually buy a PDF, and along with my very own unicorn have an updating SRD like Paizo allows for. And on top of it I don't want to buy a book a third time, since I generally also get D&D books on Fantasy Grounds (which I accept because at least there is real utility there).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Perhaps they are gonna wait all the way till 2024 to update it. That or murder the OGL.

Oooof let's hope they don't GSL themselves in their privates again like they did with 4E. That was a serious error of judgement.

I was thinking about this a bit in the shower, and I think obviously I don't pre-order things I don't know the content of, so I'm not too vulnerable here, and it's not really "the principle of the thing" that is issue for me either.

It's more that this approach - pushing it out for preorder without being able to answer questions, indeed implying they literally don't know what they'll be, that signals Beyond/DDB/DNDBeyond is its "final phase", where monetization like the ridiculous dice and so on has failed to produce as much cash as the owners want, so now they're just in that "screw it!" phase of grab everything you can. Which bodes extremely ill for the future of DDB.

And to be fair, maybe that was a big problem since WotC basically said they were doing their own DDB with hookers and blackjack, or I guess in Realmsfarian terms, turncoins and talis, thus potentially limiting DDB's future. Sad to see more evidence of the lack of care though.

@darjr Really interested in hearing what the discount amount you were shown was. I checked again just now, still not showing any discount, one click away from finalizing the sale. Are you sure you didn't just confuse the "all in" discount for this? You were saying "double" so that suggests not, but what was the percentage discount?

 

[Remathilis]

Apparently the SRD isn't going to be updated, which is interesting (though this is from someone who interviewed the WotC devs, so could be wrong, we don't have it on video or anything), and would suggest these changes will be separate, so we will get 250 "new" monsters to junk up the already junky DDB search (which yes, is on DDB for sure) and 30 new races to junk up the race selection.

Are there any races/monsters in the SRD that are IN Volo/Tome? I know there were a few free races from the Elemental Evil Players Guide (aarakroca, genasi, deep gnome and goliath) but those were all updated in subsequent print books and I don't think the EEPG has seen an update since the spells got redone for Xanathar.[/QUOTE]

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Are there any races/monsters in the SRD that are IN Volo/Tome? I know there were a few free races from the Elemental Evil Players Guide (aarakroca, genasi, deep gnome and goliath) but those were all updated in subsequent print books and I don't think the EEPG has seen an update since the spells got redone for Xanathar.

No

 

[darjr]

Oooof let's hope they don't GSL themselves in their privates again like they did with 4E. That was a serious error of judgement.

I was thinking about this a bit in the shower, and I think obviously I don't pre-order things I don't know the content of, so I'm not too vulnerable here, and it's not really "the principle of the thing" that is issue for me either.

It's more that this approach - pushing it out for preorder without being able to answer questions, indeed implying they literally don't know what they'll be, that signals Beyond/DDB/DNDBeyond is its "final phase", where monetization like the ridiculous dice and so on has failed to produce as much cash as the owners want, so now they're just in that "screw it!" phase of grab everything you can. Which bodes extremely ill for the future of DDB.

And to be fair, maybe that was a big problem since WotC basically said they were doing their own DDB with hookers and blackjack, or I guess in Realmsfarian terms, turncoins and talis, thus potentially limiting DDB's future. Sad to see more evidence of the lack of care though.

@darjr Really interested in hearing what the discount amount you were shown was. I checked again just now, still not showing any discount, one click away from finalizing the sale. Are you sure you didn't just confuse the "all in" discount for this? You were saying "double" so that suggests not, but what was the percentage discount?

I’ll look again.

And as far as the GSL… yer kidding right?

 

[J.Quondam]

Are there any races/monsters in the SRD that are IN Volo/Tome? I know there were a few free races from the Elemental Evil Players Guide (aarakroca, genasi, deep gnome and goliath) but those were all updated in subsequent print books and I don't think the EEPG has seen an update since the spells got redone for Xanathar.

Maybe one thing that could arguably be applicable to the SRD would be changes to monster statblocks in a general sense, things like turning spells into magical actions or putting bonus actions in their own spot?

 

[Remathilis]

Maybe one thing that could arguably be applicable to the SRD would be changes to monster statblocks in a general sense, things like turning spells into magical actions or putting bonus actions in their own spot?

I figure that will be updated in the 2024 refresh rather than now.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

It looks like some of you did not read this thread:

D&D 5E - How Will D&D Beyond Implement Monsters of the Multiverse?

We know that D&D Beyond will be selling the standalone digital version of Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse on May 17th. What we don't know is how this release will affect its current digital offerings, and so far they've been silent on the matter, despite questions on their...

www.enworld.org

where the first comment is by someone from Smiteworks clarifying how it will work on FG. Here is the comment:

Customers who want the newer versions of the monsters, newer images, newer tokens, races, etc., will need to purchase the new module for Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. If a customer owns both the new module and the old modules, then they will see multiple listings for search results and will need to choose which version they want to use.

The Dungeon Master will be able to use the Allow Content or Block Content flags in the library to turn off or on those options within the Library for any players in their campaigns.

I don't know why DDB won't be about the same because of the licensing from WotC.

 

[EthanSental]

Doug mentions he worked the ability to do what he mentions into the licensing agreement with WOTC, maybe Dndbeyond didn’t have the forethought to do that or didn’t know it would, be any issue when they reached their agreement,