D&D 5E D&D Beyond: Monsters of the Multiverse Will Not Replace Existing Monsters

D&D Beyond has said that Monsters of the Multiverse will not replace existing monsters already purchased by users.

While they have indicated that existing content will not be overwritten, they were unable to share any details on how the new monster stat blocks will be implemented - suggestions might include duplicate entries, or some kind of toggle. This also includes racial traits, which won't replace old material -- the contents of the book will be treated as new content.

While DDB is taking it's lead from WotC on what to do, apparently WotC asked them to take charge of communicating this all to users.

 

[SkidAce]

If people were asking "how do we handle this sort of thing being more common" then we'd be having an very different conversation.

I appreciate your thoughts, and I agree that there are many examples of previous similar incidents and that this is not the first time.

However two things bother me, and they are mostly "feelings";

A, they have said they are changing them for meta reason (re-balance etc).

B. I never minded the special creatures or npcs having abilities, but I think deliberately changing an "actual" spell from a spellcaster like to a special ability is starting to be the norm, when it should be the rarity.

IMHO.





(edited...I hit enter by accident)

 

[teitan]

That's probably a shame, as IMO the new stat block is hands down better designed than the old one. There's not much difference other than the new ones being better.

The races are more subjective.

I’d be mad myself because it forces me to buy new content.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Throwing an @SkidAce as well

Again, this has happened before with nary an eyeblink. Abilities that PCs can't use?

Hobgoblin Devastators from Volo's are Evocation wizards. Show me an evocation wizard that can use "Arcane Advantage" to deal and extra 2d6 sneak attack damage with a spell.

Claw of Luthic is a cleric... who gets to make four attacks when at half health, no cleric I know can do more than two attacks, with a special ability. Hand of Yurtrus has the "Touch of the White Hand" a melee WEAPON attack that does 2d8 NECROTIC damage. It isn't even a spell according to the statblock.



Casting unconterable "spells" as a PC casting class?

Yuan-ti Nightmare Speaker is a warlock who gets Invoke Nightmare, which isn't a spell but acts a lot like Phantasmal Killer. They also get Death Fangs, allowing them to smite at 3d10 twice per day.

Mind whisperer is also a Warlock with Smite, and by the way, these aren't the Eldritch Smites that warlocks got in Xanathar's, because they don't take spell slots, they are just twice per day, in addition to their spells.

Pit Master gets the smite and a Sleep spell based on a Con save, no HP limit. And the Smite for 3d10

So, again, how are these new abilities somehow different? We've had enemy NPC wizards, clerics, and Warlocks using abilities that PCs cannot access for years. Using magic that isn't spells, and would therefore be immune to counterspell. This is nothing NEW they are just expanding it.

I wasn‘t a fan of a lot of those things either (and make changes in my own usage). But, as I mentioned in my previous thread, while there had been isolated examples of this sort of thing that had gradually krept in, now they are doing a complete conversion. I could look at the hobgoblin devastator and decide either to eliminate that ability, or treat it as essentially a racial feat (that a hobgoblin PC could theoretically also pick). But now the statblocks are entirely built that way, and I essentially have to recreate them, just using the official ones as inspiration.

It’s feel, but it‘s also function. I could work with a few isolated issues. But I already spend a lot of time working on my worlds and campaigns, and I don‘t have the time or energy to redesign 80% of the new statblocks that come out. By this change they have made a large percentage of their future products unusable to me. I bought Wild Beyond the Witchlight before I realized what they were doing (Candlekeep Mysteries and Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft had already started on it, but I hadn‘t fully digested either (bought them in a DnD Beyond mega bundle)), and I like the adventure so much that I will spend the effort to redesign the few NPCs and revise the few new monsters in it. But that‘s a one-off for an adventure with very few NPCs and monsters to work with. Future sourcebooks and adventures are going to be full of those unusable designs, and the core books are going to switch to that design in 2024.

So it is a matter of degree, but it is that point were degree increases so much that it makes a jump to a matter of type also. Experimentation turns into an entirely new design paradigm.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

since they've reprinted just about everything in it.

Battlerager is mad.

(Banneret and Oath of the Crown have also never been reprinted or reworked)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I appreciate your thoughts, and I agree that there are many examples of previous similar incidents and that this is not the first time.

It really a very old issue - the vast majority of NPC/monster warlocks, of which there are quite a lot, have their eldritch blast built into their attack action, rather than the spellcasting trait. It's always been DM's call whether players can counterspell it or not.

A general fix would be to add "counterspellable - level" to the attack block.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It really a very old issue - the vast majority of NPC/monster warlocks, of which there are quite a lot, have their eldritch blast built into their attack action, rather than the spellcasting trait. It's always been DM's call whether players can counterspell it or not.

A general fix would be to add "counterspellable - level" to the attack block.

Or better (spell, lvl x)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Or better (spell, lvl x)

That's less clumsy, but non-counterspellable spells (subtle, psionic) are also a thing in 5e...

 

[Aldarc]

Battlerager is mad.

(Banneret and Oath of the Crown have also never been reprinted or reworked)

Nor the Arcana Domain.

 

[Geoff Thirlwell]

While the new book’s changes are currently being labelled as options, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they will very soon be the default. When the revised Monster Manual is released, it will follow suit with this style of change, I’m hoping that Monsters of the Multiverse is future proof and will be 100% compatible with the 2024 edition. In this way, it can be seen as a preview of the changes we will see. I really can’t see them continuing to reprint the original Mordenkainans or Volos with contradictory information. They’ll probably also stop reprinting some adventures that they can’t easily “fix” with whatever motivations that have driven them to make the sort of changes we have seem recently. To future proof the adventure, they too will shift to the Multiverse stat blocks. I really can’t see any other way forward.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Nor the Arcana Domain.

Yeah, all those would benefit from a do-over.