D&D 5E Drawbacks to Increasing Monster AC Across the Board?

[dave2008]

@dave2008 just so you know I really don't care about anything in 2024 D&D. I don't say that to be rude, but just so you don't continue to waste your time. If you feel it is relevant for others, then no worries, but as you were responding to me, I just wanted that clarified.

Sure. I am also exclusively playing/DMing 2014 5e (well at least our homebrew version of it). So my comments are not about caring about 2024 D&D. They are about making your 2014 game better, if that is a thing that interest you.

The 2024 combat encounter guidelines (and monsters for that matter) are better than the 2014 versions and they are drag and drop replacements for the same parts of a 2014 game. You keep playing 2014 D&D, just better.

Now, how useful that upgrade will be is dependent on how you play 2014 D&D. For example, I stopped using the 2014 encounter guidelines about 6-12 months into 5e (back in 2015) and I am not going back. So the 2024 rules, though better than 2014, don't mean much to me as - I don't need them! Similarly, if I want interesting monsters then I homebrew them myself. If that isn't important then it doesn't really matter which book I get them from!

Personally, I don't consider either of these parts (monsters and encounter rules) as 2014 or 2024. They are just 5e. I mean the 2024 monsters are not any more different than the 2014 MM than the 2014 MM is to Volos, or VRGtR, or Fizban's etc.