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.

 

[Maxperson]

Well, I learned the game in a everything goes 3E/3.5 Mashup environment. They were more compatible than people often allow.

But this time, they are showing their work. We have the new Race rules, and the new Monster rules. They are compatible.

You assume that they are showing their work and that the new book will be what is going to happen in 2 years. You're further assuming that all changes will be similarly compatible. There were portions of 3e that were compatible, and much that wasn't. Spell durations were either one or the other and 1 hour per level isn't balanced the same as 1 minute per level. DR was seriously nerfed in 3.5. Stick in the higher DRs and monsters were no longer balanced the same. Needing specific +s to overcome DR made encounters much harder than just needing a magic weapon.

Could you play a mashup? Sure. They were not really compatible, though. I mean, I could pull some completely new system out of some other RPG and shove into 5e and the game will still function. That new system is not compatible with 5e, though, since it won't be balanced like 5e systems are.

 

[Parmandur]

You assume that they are showing their work and that the new book will be what is going to happen in 2 years.

Well, they braid that the Starter Set releasing in August is for the new rule revision. I see no serious reason to doubt this.

 

[MNblockhead]

I don't buy the reasoning that the removal is because of problematic orc stuff.

I mean, Wizards will gladly sell you the entirety of their back catalog on DM's Guild for forever with way worse stuff in it with just a disclaimer on the page.

Good point. Here's to hoping that Volo's will be on DMs Guild someday...

Glad to have the physical copy of Volo's. I really enjoyed the lore and lairs content in it. For DDB, I don't care so much as I mainly use it as a tool and, I guess, I'll still have access to the digital book as I already own it.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

And none of them affect compatibility. New options do not automatically make the old stuff incompatible with them. You can still use a Rogue without Steady Aim.

if no change effects you that's cool, but you are in the minority.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Really?

No reason at all?

none at all

Not like, their hard work over the last decade to make and maintain a game that doesn’t need a new edition, or the fact that the 5e PHB still sells well and D&D is still actively growing?

I know the spin and the intent... I see no evidence that it is working

Or the fact that we’ve seen what they’re working on right now, and it’s unambiguously compatible with the 2014 core?

new monster format, new race rules, new class add ons and surveys that show they are looking into deeper changes... so still no

A great example is race feats.

A MotM Deep Gnome can take the Deep Gnome Magic feat, or the Squat Nimbleness feat. No conversion required. How powerful those feats are has changed a little, but they are completely compatible with earlier deep gnomes.

actually they are great examples FOR ME... things that a race got in the old books that now needs a feat. so if I bring an old Deep Gnome and you bring a new one I get +1 feat over you (and according to the fighter threads 1 feat is equal in power to 5th level spell slots)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Your opnion has nothing to do with the facts and definition of Compatible.

neither does yours... and again, if you can't find tables running them togather, it doesn't matter what the company says... and if the company makes a huge diffrence noone (or at least only a minor amount) will be

 

[GMforPowergamers]

That’s the sort of thing I think we will see in 2024.

good luck

 

[GMforPowergamers]

None of these examples are remotely incompatible. There would be no reason to ask you to “update”.

you don't think that +1 to a stat and not having a class feature from the (most uptodate) PHB means you need updating? what if the criminal background gives you a feat in 2024 but not in 2014? What if they change stealth back to hide and move silent? would those two changes (added to what we know) do it? what if they took the prof mtn dwarf give and replace it with a spell like ability?

How many changes before you think it's an issue?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Wholly irrelevant. You get a free casting if the spells, so the feat is not actually losing any power, and even if it did, making a feat a little less optimized doesn’t represent an incompatibility.

Thanks!

Correct, it's also a good example that being optimal, and being compatible have nothing to do with each other.

the rules changed and you think that the majority, or even just a more then negligible amount, of tables will just let you play outdated rules?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

So the company that told us that 3.5 would be backwards compatible with 3e has told us that 5.5 will be backwards compatible with 5e? Yeah. Fool me once...

and DC comics sold me Death of Superman and Funeral For Friend and World Without Superman as he was dead for good and not coming back.

Marvel went out of there way to tell us that Captain America not only really was a Hydra agent but there was no going back no reality alteration and only a few months later it turned out to be (as the interviewer in question asked)that it was a cosmic cube.

and as Max said, 3e and 3.5 were fully compatible. So people don't trust what they say when it is in there best intrest.