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.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There are already duplicate versions of some monsters on D&D Beyond, such as the Brain in a Jar.

 

[lkj]

I don't know how FG works, so I can't really comment on that. It does suggest the "duplicate monsters" approach will be the one, but I dunno how FG handled the Artificer or Bladedancer changes for example. Does it have two different Bladedancers if you own SCAG and Tashas for example? If so their approach is fundamentally different.

They're still specifically claiming that some sort of legal or contractual impediment is preventing them from saying which approach they'll take (which is contradictory to an earlier statement where they said they literally didn't know). I mean, given FG has said, I suspect them of being liars re: legal/contractual/WotC being the issue. And yeah, that would mean they themselves are trying to work it out, whilst blaming others (which is not exactly "honest" behaviour).

As previously noted, at least since their most recent ownership change, Beyond have been a "minimal effort" company. If you have two versions, the minimum effort approach is just to create a whole bunch of new races and monsters, write (MotM) after their name, and add them to the databases for people who own MotM. Presumably on the races screen for example there'd be an MotM heading with 30 races under it, all with the same name as another race, but for (MotM).

A more elegant way would be to have a "Use MotM replacements" toggle, but given how the Beyond people have explicitly refused to, for example, allow you to default or one-click-exclude books you don't own from the Monster search (you have to carefully, with a bad interface, instead click the books you do own (or have access to, either would help), from the dozens that exist - because every adventure is on the list - every single time you start using it, and if you press Back at the wrong time, it loses all your settings), I would be shocked if they were willing to build an actually-useful feature like that.

So, I don't agree with the 'minimum effort' contention. But it's not worth arguing.

But you think they are lying? I'm cynical but not that cynical. It's been obvious for a long time that the DDB license has a lot of restrictions on how they present content (i.e., they need to get approval from WotC). Sure, maybe they're lying. No real way to know. But it seems way more likely-- to me-- that they are hashing out an agreement for how to go about it on the site. I suspect the FG model for how the data gets used is simpler.

Sure, I can't prove that. Fair enough.

AD

 

[bedir than]

It seems many here have forgotten that the vast, vast, vast majority of the D&D audience has never seen a page of either book that the new one rehashes.

That's WotC's audience for the product.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm kinda scared to see what the stats of a Dolphin Pleasurer are...

I'm more afraid to read the fluff.

 

[ART!]

I'm more afraid to read the fluff.

[Butthead voice] You said "fluff"...

 

[Rogerd1]

Aren't there enough monster books to be honest?
Why do we need more? What will this bring to the table?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Aren't there enough monster books to be honest?
Why do we need more? What will this bring to the table?

This is the first two monster books redone. Also more monsters is always good.

 

[MNblockhead]

[Butthead voice] You said "fluff"...

I thought about changing it to "flavor", but that somehow seemed worse.

 

[MNblockhead]

Aren't there enough monster books to be honest?
Why do we need more? What will this bring to the table?

What are you, my dad?! .~

Monster books, like dice, and like games themselves are just one of those things many of us can't get enough of.

I probably get more enjoyment from the monster books than any other type of TTRPG book. I have setting books and adventures that I have only paged through once. I bought them because they looked cool and hope to play "some day."

But I regularly page through good monster books. Not sure I will get this one...oh who am I kidding.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

This is the first two monster books redone. Also more monsters is always good

I thought the first monster book (The Monster Manual) is not being reprinted (mostly). I was under the impression that Monsters of the Multiverse reprints monsters from the various adventures and Mordenkainen's; as well as the races from Volo's.