D&D 5E D&D Beyond Will Delist Two Books On May 17th

D&D Beyond will be permanently removing Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on May 17th in favor of the upcoming Monsters of the Multiverse book, which largely compiles and updates that material.

As per the D&D Beyond FAQ for Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse:

Can I still buy Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on D&D Beyond?
Starting on May 16, you can acquire the streamlined and up-to-date creatures and character race options, as well as a plethora of exciting new content, by purchasing Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. On May 17, Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes will be discontinued from our digital marketplace.

If you already own these two books you will still have access to your purchases and any characters or encounters you built with them. They won’t be removed from your purchased sourcebooks. Therefore, if you want the "fluff" and tables in those two tomes in D&D Beyond, you need to purchase them soon.

This is the first time books have been wholesale delisted from the D&D Beyond Platform rather than updated (much like physical book reprints are with errata and changes).

There’s no word from WotC on whether physical books will be discontinued and be allowed to sell out.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

To some given 2E game, maybe or maybe not

the fact that you can't find more examples then the one college game you played...

(though as @Remathilis has pointed out, that's an illegal Rave/Class combo),

it was an example of a race and class that wasn't updated

but thst doesn't mean they were not completely compatible. The base math was compatible, and it would work.

I don't care about some thersitical math if I can't play the game.
the very fact that marvel comics and dc comics and image comics all follow the same basic concept doesn't mean anyone is going to be able to sit down and read about spawn and rogue joining the JLA... the fact that in theory the characters are able to be in the same universe doesn't change that the book will never be written.

Not denying thst this is a new Edition, just that is, in fact, completely compatible.

only in that it will be a ttrpg that is based on a d20

 

[Micah Sweet]

I mean, it's right there in the book. Unless you think that Monsters of the Multiverse options can't be paired with the Monster Manual in an Encounter? Do you have textual evidence establishing that they can't mix?

No, I get what you mean entirely, but there is a distinction between the core rules and the rules that are exceptions. This is central to the design of modern D&D, as Crawford has gone at length to explain several times in the past.

WotC has been working on changing the exception, not the core. They haven't been putting out any surveys about the core rules.

You are missing the forest for the trees here. Tasha's didn't actually introduce a new system for designing Races, it just gave players the tools WotC was using to design Races already. People had reverse engineered it years ago based on what WotC was putting out, and got it pretty close to Tasha's to begin with.

The fundamentals of Monster design in D&D are mathematical constructs. The math has not changed. Ergo, this does not represent a fundamental change.

They have made some Monaters with tweaked powers, but they haven't changed the actual engine in place, the math.

To some given 2E game, maybe or maybe not (though as @Remathilis has pointed out, that's an illegal Rave/Class combo), but thst doesn't mean they were not completely compatible. The base math was compatible, and it would work.

Not denying thst this is a new Edition, just that is, in fact, completely compatible.

When you say rave, do you mean race? At first I thought it was a typo.

 

[eyeheartawk]

When you say rave, do you mean race?

No.

 

[Parmandur]

the fact that you can't find more examples then the one college game you played...

I mean, a good number of posters in this very thread have shard that they did mix these, and I have seen innumerable claims that was the case elsewhere. It seems to have been the norm, rather than the exception. Certainly easy to do, because the rules were...compatible.

it was an example of a race and class that wasn't updated

But even if they were, they were not a valid combo. Half-Orc Assassin would have made your point better, though your point is still flawed as they were compatible with no conversion according to testimony of players from the time. A given table not allowing it is irrelevant to the system math being compatible.

I don't care about some thersitical math if I can't play the game.
the very fact that marvel comics and dc comics and image comics all follow the same basic concept doesn't mean anyone is going to be able to sit down and read about spawn and rogue joining the JLA... the fact that in theory the characters are able to be in the same universe doesn't change that the book will never be written

The math isn't theoreti al, it is the game. D&D is a narrative laid over a mathematical construct. Nothing in what WotC has laid out involves a fundamental change to the mathematical structure of modern D&D, just changes in the surface level options.

only in that it will be a ttrpg that is based on a d20

In that they are releasing products for use with both, and are stating thst it will be compatible? We already have a significant chunk of the new rules, and lo and behold, they happen to be compatible.

 

[Parmandur]

When you say rave, do you mean race? At first I thought it was a typo.

Typing this all on a phone, so yeah, Race.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Compatibility? What even is that? Right now, a 2014 1st printing of the PHB is not fully compatible with a current, 7th or 8th?, printing of the PHB because of the errata we have gotten over all those printings. You can go and look here at every thread over the years for each new printing and official errata changes and find people saying it is a good thing they own the older printing because they are not going to use some new change/errata that was added with the new printing. Some even going to the extreme of saying if someone with the new printing joins a game being told they have to use the older printing, pre-errata version, making part of that person's new book invalid and incompatible. Or the opposite too. If I am running a game and I own the newest printing, as DM I can say that only the newest version of anything in the book that received errata is valid and you are not allowed to use a pre-errata version.

 

[Parmandur]

Compatibility? What even is that? Right now, a 2014 1st printing of the PHB is not fully compatible with a current, 7th or 8th?, printing of the PHB because of the errata we have gotten over all those printings. You can go and look here at every thread over the years for each new printing and official errata changes and find people saying it is a good thing they own the older printing because they are not going to use some new change/errata that was added with the new printing. Some even going to the extreme of saying if someone with the new printing joins a game being told they have to use the older printing, pre-errata version, making part of that person's new book invalid and incompatible. Or the opposite too. If I am running a game and I own the newest printing, as DM I can say that only the newest version of anything in the book that received errata is valid and you are not allowed to use a pre-errata version.

Someone being a crank and claiming they won't allow compatible options at their table doesn't render yhe options incompatible.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Compatibility? What even is that? Right now, a 2014 1st printing of the PHB is not fully compatible with a current, 7th or 8th?, printing of the PHB because of the errata we have gotten over all those printings. You can go and look here at every thread over the years for each new printing and official errata changes and find people saying it is a good thing they own the older printing because they are not going to use some new change/errata that was added with the new printing. Some even going to the extreme of saying if someone with the new printing joins a game being told they have to use the older printing, pre-errata version, making part of that person's new book invalid and incompatible. Or the opposite too. If I am running a game and I own the newest printing, as DM I can say that only the newest version of anything in the book that received errata is valid and you are not allowed to use a pre-errata version.

I tried to be up to date when I ran 4th ed, but the extra book worth of errata made that infeasible.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I mean, a good number of posters in this very thread have shard that they did mix these,

and along with that they almost all say it was more a house rule and that they were infact not...

But even if they were, they were not a valid combo.

sure fine...

Half-Orc Assassin would have made your point better,

and actually it is better still it uses a rule called the assassination table, and it doesn't work in 2e.

though your point is still flawed as they were compatible with no conversion according to testimony of players from the time.

please share these... I have been playing since the mid 90's and never before this year seen anyone claim complete backwards compatibility. even then when they do it is to prove some point about the 2024 book

A given table not allowing it is irrelevant to the system math being compatible.

Thac0 was not in 1e there were charts instead and where people did make a Thac0 like thing from the chart it was not the same

The math isn't theoreti al, it is the game.

the game is just math means every edition is compatible and there is no need to discuss edition

D&D is a narrative laid over a mathematical construct. Nothing in what WotC has laid out involves a fundamental change to the mathematical structure of modern D&D, just changes in the surface level options.

so far we have race and monster... we know they are looking at background, class and spell.

the main way you make a character in the 2014 book is pick a race, pick a class pick a background.

if the race class and background in the 2014 book is now different in the 2024 book that is not compatible.

 

[Parmandur]

and along with that they almost all say it was more a house rule and that they were infact not...

A house rule that requires no changes = complete compatibility.

and actually it is better still it uses a rule called the assassination table, and it doesn't work in 2e.

You could just use them as is, I hear thst people did.

please share these... I have been playing since the mid 90's and never before this year seen anyone claim complete backwards compatibility. even then when they do it is to prove some point about the 2024 book

I've seen people saying that they were compatible as a criticism of 3E, 3.5, 4E, Essentials, and even 5E. It's out there, man.

Thac0 was not in 1e there were charts instead and where people did make a Thac0 like thing from the chart it was not the same

Thac0 and the matrices are compatible: that's the point. The d20 approach of 3E broke compatibility, but Thac0 did not.

the game is just math means every edition is compatible and there is no need to discuss edition

Then why complain...?

The point us, if two mathematical constructs work together in same structural framework...which the new options do with the 2024 rules...then they are mathematically compatible, or completely compatible, fully compatible, fundamentally compatible. However you want to ohrase it, the compatibility is baked in with no work required.

so far we have race and monster... we know they are looking at background, class and spell.

the main way you make a character in the 2014 book is pick a race, pick a class pick a background.

if the race class and background in the 2014 book is now different in the 2024 book that is not compatible.

Is character creation in Part 2 of the PHB...? The chapter with the actual rules of the game? Characters are a bundle of mathimatical rules exceptions, not part of the fundamental structure of the game. They could utterly replace all of those options, but if 2024 options can plug and play, or 2024 options plug and play in a mostly 2014 campaign...then they are compatible. We know that the rules we have work this way, and that they are releasing the intro product for the new rules this year..for use with both older and newer material in the future.