Five Takeaways From the 2025 Monster Manual

The 2025 Monster Manual is the missing puzzle piece for Dungeons & Dragons' recent Fifth Edition revisions, with reworked monsters that hit harder and make combat more exciting at every level. Released in February, the new Monster Manual drives home many of the design choices made in other parts of D&D's core rulebooks. Building off of a decade's worth of lessons about how DMs use statblocks and how players tend to handle combat, the Monster Manual features creatures with streamlined abilities meant to speed up combat without sacrificing the "fun" of fighting in the game. Plus, the book includes a ton of gorgeous new artwork that depicts D&D's iconic monsters at their most threatening. Here are five of my biggest takeaways from the new Monster Manual.

1) Revamped Legendary Actions, With More Power Than Before.

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One of the big goals of the new Monster Manual was to redesign monsters to have them punch harder but simultaneously make them easier to run. This design ethos can be seen in many revamped monster statblocks, especially at higher Challenge Ratings. Lair actions are now incorporated into the statblock, with monsters typically gaining access to an additional Legendary Resistance and Legendary Action while in their lair. Additionally, many of the Legendary Actions are much more powerful than their 5E equivalents, with creatures usually gaining more dangerous options.

For instance, all of the dragons have lost their functionally worthless "Detect" action and instead have access to new spellcasting options or more powerful attacks. The Adult Blue Dragon, as an example, can cast Shatter as a Legendary Action or it can cast Invisibility on itself and then move up to half its speed. While not as strong as the dragon's standard actions, the Adult Blue Dragon can now do a lot more over the course of a round then simply deal moderate amounts of damage and soak up hits from opponents.

2) Either Attack Rolls or Saving Throws, Not Both

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Another major streamlining within rulesets is that monster attacks with effects are either triggered with a failed saving throw OR a successful attack roll. This should significantly speed up combat by reducing the number of rolls made during a game. As an example, the Bearded Devil's 2014 statblock included a Beard attack that damaged on a successful hit and forced its target to make a Constitution saving throw or be Poisoned. In the 2025 Monster Manual, the Bearded Devil's Beard attack deals damage and automatically inflicts the Poisoned condition on a successful attack.

There's two major consequences to this. The first is that only one dice roll is needed to determine the success or failure of a certain attack or ability. The second is that a creature is more often able to threaten player characters at their intended level. By having a creature's full attack trigger based on a single success instead two successes (or I suppose a success combined with a separate creature's failure), it radically changes the dynamics of many D&D combats.

3) Yes, The Art Is Fantastic

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Keeping with another theme of the 2024/2025 Core Rulebooks, the artwork in the new Monster Manual is frankly fantastic. There are a lot of D&D players, myself included, who love to look through the Monster Manual and other bestiaries primarily for the art and lore. Those players should be more than happy with this new book, which contains artwork for every single monster in the book. What's more, much of the artwork shows the monsters in action. The Chasme, for example, looks much more threatening in the 2025 Monster Manual, with art showing the demon hunched over an adventurer with its probiscus covered in blood. Compare that imagery to the 2014 Monster Manual, which just has the chasme standing in profile.

One comment made to me by Jeremy Crawford was that Wizards had found that monsters without art tended to be used less often, so I'm expecting the trend of more art to continue in future books.

4) A Handful of Interesting New Mechanics

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While not found widely in the new Monster Manual, there are a handful of new (or at least very uncommon) mechanics. The Empyrean, for instance, has a Sacred Weapon attack that deals damage and Stuns its target. However, the target can choose to bypass the Stunned condition by taking additional damage. Meanwhile, the Arch Hag has multiple abilities that curse their opponent, taking away their ability to use Reactions or spells with verbal components. Additionally, the hag has a bonus action that deals automatic damage to anyone cursed by the witch.

Finding new mechanics in the Monster Manual is rare, but they represent some interesting innovation that hopefully will be incorporated with future statblocks. Not every creature needs stacking abilities, or "pick your poison" choices, but I love these and want to see them more often in the future.

5) Species-Free NPCs

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Over the past few weeks, Wizards has revealed several monsters with new creature classification types. Goblins, aarakocra, lizardfolk, kobolds, and kenku are all now classified as non-humanoids. It's interesting that non-humanoid species often have multiple statblocks with unique abilities, but that the humanoid statblocks are meant to include elves, dwarves, orcs, humans, and more. I'm assuming (given that Eberron: Forge of the Artificer is bringing back the Warforged) that D&D won't remove non-humanoid species as playable species, but it feels like there's a deliberate push to make all humanoids interchangeable, at least when it comes to these NPC stats.

It's a shame that Wizards seems to have done away with templates in the new Monster Manual because they'd be useful for transforming a generic guard or scout into a Drow guard or a Dragonborn scout. I don't think these would be hard to homebrew if necessary, but I do feel like this is one of the bigger misses in the Monster Manual. Hopefully, we'll see more specialization in the future, and the Monster Manual opted to focus on monsters instead of highly specific statblocks.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

Fey Goblins = "embodiments of recklessness and ruin".

Shadow Goblins = "embodiments of the recklessly ruined".

Humanoid Goblins = "recklessness and ruinous people"

Humanoid is the thought
Fey is the action
Shadow is the result
That is interesting. Looking at it, I might characterize it as follows.

Where "doom" is moreorless the same thing as a "painful fate", I might characterize it as:

• Fey Goblin: future possibilities of doing crazy doom
• Humanoid Goblin: paying attention to crazy doom in the here and now
• Shadow Goblin: past memories of crazy doom having been done

One cant really have one aspect without the other, but there might be a sense of emphasis.


With regard to the Humanoid, I say "Humanoid" means, the creature gains a "human soul". For example, where the Fey Elf is an animistic concept, such as the presence of successfulness of sunlight (Norse) or the successfulness of fertile soil (British), the Elf has a soul but not a human one. The Fey soul wants to shine or grow. But when a Fey creature becomes Humanoid, it takes on human modes of speech, social interactivity, human kinds of desire. Maybe it is comparable to a computer program that simulates human behavior but one day figures out what is necessary to "awaken" as a human, and does so.

The Goblin is the nature spirit of a particular place, especially a hazardous and spooky terrain. It was equated with English "puck" and Norse "púki", not necessarily Evil but not exactly Good either. Nature can be dangerous.
 

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There is no "innately" anything in 5e. That's a (IIRC) 3e-ism that hasn't been carried forward. After all:
  • "The alignment specified in a monster’s stat block is a default suggestion of how to roleplay the monster, inspired by its traditional role in the game or real-world folklore. Change a monster’s alignment to suit your storytelling needs." (Monster Manual) (emphasis mine)
Even in the early editions, there were examples of fallen angels and redeemed devils. Alignment has never been 100% tied to origin in D&D.
I am taking your comments along these lines to heart, especially where non-Humanoid shouldnt be understood as "kill on sight". It seems a reasonable description of the 2024 rules that we have now. (Despite discussions in recent years involving other concerns.)

My takeaway is, there is no longer any kind of "kill on sight" "permission" for any creature. The use violence depends on the violence exhibited by an individual or faction. In other words, self defense.

In my view a Fiend cannot "repent". It precisely mirrors the Evil actions of Humanoids. However, if enough Evil-doing individuals become doers of Good, Fiends can "transform" into mirrors of Good. Conversely, Celestials can "fall", if a critical mass of Humanoids decide to do Evil. In some ways there needs to be some Fiends as karma like mirrors of negative actions, but these dont need to be harmful, they only become harmful when Humanoids start doing harmful things. A Celestial or Fiend that becomes Humanoid becomes instead an agent that chooses to initiate either Good or Evil actions.

A Humanoid is sapient in a human way, including speech, learning, culture, psychology, etcetera, rather than "instinct" only. The creature type signals that game relates to these creatures to reallife humans.
 

True. But as others have pointed out already, they're two separate things.
Reallife culture and D&D background are obviously the same thing. Some aspects of the background are mechanics (skill checks, feat benefits, language choices, I would clarify autowin or advantage for history/religion checks relating to own cultures). Other aspects of the background are "story" (ideals, quirks, factions, contacts).

Level Up has it where some species and some monsters have more than one type. For instance, a faerie dragon is both a dragon and a fey creature. Its type is dragon (fey). Any game rules which apply to dragons, or which apply to fey creatures, apply to it. A member of the Garoul Heritage (a PC heritage) has both the Beast and Humanoid types. So, we could have it where a goblin is a Humanoid (Fey) in order to make everyone happy. :p
Yeah, I prefer this, making more than one creature type possible. 4e did this. I am unsure why 5e wont do this. 4e was particularly elegant in distinguishing between creature type and planar origin. Planar origin included Material ("Mortal", "Natural"), Fey, Shadow, Elemental, Celestial, Fiend, and Aberrant. For 5e, I would add Ethereal and Astral.


It would depend on which Dwarven culture or which Elven culture the Dwarf could have been raised in. Level Up has 3 Dwarven cultures (Mountain, Hill and Deep) and 4 Elven cultures (Eladrin, High, Shadow and Wood).








Each culture provides some mechanical benefits that can be paired with the traits and gifts of someone of Dwarven heritage. Farmer is a Background, and it just provides additional proficiencies, gear plus an NPC connection and a memento keepsake. It's the same regardless of heritage and culture.
Generally, I view these "culture" mechanics as "ribbons". Some players love ribbons and consider them flavor. Other players hate them and consider them clutter. I tend to lean toward the latter.

In a later post I will look at each LevelUp entry and consider how a 2024 background might do the same thing. In some cases, a background feat might also grant a ribbon alongside a main benefit.
 
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Looking at the LevelUp "culture" options.

Most of the culture options are obviously 2024 backgrounds: Circusfolk, Caravanner, Collegiate (≈ Sage), Cosmopolitan, Forsaken (≈ Urchin), Godbound (≈ Acolyte), Imperial (≈ Soldier), Itinerant, Lone Wanderer (≈ Wayfarer), Nomad, Settler, Stoneworthy, and Villager.

Note some culture options are way more powerful than others, but like 2014 feats were all over the place, it takes time to get sense of how to balance these kinds of lists of options.

Some of the culture options are also obviously 2024 backgrounds, but more specifically were silos to relocate the nonbiological background aspects of 2014 "races".


For the LevelUp "race" "cultures" I will look at the Elf options, since I have a design interest in these. The elven cultures are Eladrin, High, Wood, and Shadow.


Eladrin (LevelUp)
Creature Type: (magically) gain the Fey creature type.
Eladrin Weapon Training: longswords and rapiers.
Invocation of the Eladrin Lords: choose cantrip.
Knowledge of Faerie Courts: choose skill.
Twilight Step: (≈ Feystep spell !!!)
Languages: Common, Elvish, Sylavn

Comment.

Seriously? Twilight Step? How is this supposed to be balanced with what Cosmopolitan offers? It is almost too powerful for level 4 half feat. In any case, a balanced version is possible as 2024 background feat.

Martial weapon proficiency or cantrip. Generally speaking, I feel certain backgrounds should be able to grant a single martial weapon or even a cantrip, instead of a skill or a tool. It makes sense to me, that a Deer Hunter should be proficient with a Longbow, even if otherwise untrained in other martial weapons. A Town Militia background (with a medievalesque tradition of growing up training for the defense of the town) can offer a choice of one martial weapon that the town is known for, or instead proficiency with either a shield or with padded armor. In a magical culture, it might be a utility cantrip, or a combat cantrip, or something cantrip-like like magically gaining the ability to breathe water. Yeah, 2024 can do this by offering a background feat, but I feel the basic design space should normally be flexible enough to accommodate a magical culture or a culture where weapon training is ubiquitous. I prefer each background grant a specific weapon or cantrip, albeit of course a player can ask a DM to modify this for the character concept. The DM just needs to figure out how this training happened. For the prominant elven cultures, I view training in either Longsword as true for the High culture, but not for the Eladrin culture.

Creature Type. I still dont understand why 5e doesnt do this. The type has no mechanics in itself but other mechanics might refer to it. I love how 4e distinguishes between creature type (what kind of form the creature is) versus planar origin (what level of being the creature comes from). Deciding on both Type and Origin is an important flavor decision.

Here is something like what a 2024 background might look like.

Eladrin Traditionalist (proposal for 2024 background)
Languages: most members of Eladrin culture speak Sylvan, and many speak Common and Elvish. Consider these when choosing your three languages.
Eladrin Skill: choose one skill, either Arcana, Investigation, Nature, Performance, or Persuasion. If you choose Performance here, you can use a verbal component to replace noncostly spell components when spellcasting. If you choose Persuasion here, you gain Insight as well.
Eladrin Tool: choose an Artisan toolset.
Eladrin Magery: choose a casting ability (Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma). As a magical feature, you can use it instead to make checks for your Eladrin Skill and Eladrin Tool.
Eladrin Background Feat: Feystep. You can cast Misty Step innately (without spell components and choosing the casting ability). You can do this once per Long Rest without a spell slot, and additionally can prepare it for your spell slots if any. Choose one innate (without spell components and choosing the casting ability) cantrip, either Elementalism, Friends, Guidance, or Prestidigitation.


High Elf (LevelUp)
Cunning Diplomat: you can use Intelligence for checks for Deception, Insight, Intimidation, or Persuasion.
High Elf Education: gain the Culture skill and an other skill of your choice.
High Elf Training: Longsword or Rapier.
Magical Versatility: cantrip of choice.

High Traditionalist (proposal for 2024 background)
Languages: most members of High culture speak Elvish, and many speak Common and Sylvan. Consider these when choosing your three languages.
High Skill: choose one skill, either Arcana, Athletics, History, Insight, or Perception. If you choose Athletics here, you gain Acrobatics as well. If you choose Insight here, you gain Intimidation as well.
High Tool: choose one Artisan toolset.
High Magery: Choose a casting ability (Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma). As a magical feature, you can use it instead to make checks for your High Skill and High Tool.
High Background Feat: Elven Chain Fighting Style. You can cast Arcane Armor innately (without spell components) at-will. Traditionally it appears as a silky, extraordinarily fine chain armor mesh, with an elegant fabric tabard over it. It can appear as any armor of your choice. You gain proficiency with the Longsword, and as a magical feature can instead use a spellcasting ability (choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma) for its attacks.


Wood Elf (LevelUp)
Languages: Sign, Common, and Elvish.
Fleet of Foot: Your speed increases by 5 feet.
Natures Ally: You can cast Animal Friendship per (long or short) rest.
Natures Touch: the Animal Handing skill and Land Vehicle, and Nature and Herbalism toolset.
Treeborne Scout: Climb speed.
Wood Elf Training: Longswords and Shortsword.

Wood Traditionalist (proposal for 2024 background)
Languages: most members of Wood culture speak Druidic, and many speak Elvish and Common. You know how to sign in this languages. Consider these when choosing your three languages.
Wood Skills: choose two skills from the following, Athletics, Nature, Stealth, Survival or Perception. If you choose Athletics here, you also gain Acrobatics. If you choose Nature here you also gain Medicine. If you choose Survival here, you also gain Animal Handling.
Wood Toolset: choose either the Herbalism toolset, Land Vehicles, or the Longbow weapon.
Wood Background Feat: Forest Walker. You can cast Longstrider and Speak with Animals innately (without spell components and choosing the casting ability) at-will. Your Climb Speed equals your Speed.


And so on.

All of these kinds of things that a culture might be known for are backgrounds. And a member of a culture might not exhibit any of its backgrounds.
 
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Seriously? Twilight Step? How is this supposed to be balanced with what Cosmopolitan offers? It is almost too powerful for level 4 feat. In any case, a balanced version of this is something that a 2024 background can grant as a background half feat.
Twilight Step is simply the Level Up equivalent of the Misty Step spell. Only instead of being a spell being learned by sorcerers, warlocks and wizards, it's a cultural feature that any member of the Eladrin culture can now do, be they an Elf or a member of another heritage in Level Up. And it's something that you can get at 1st level during the character origin process. 😀

As for the Cosmopolitan culture, it has its' own set of mechanical traits that are independent of the traits you can gain from the Eladrin culture. Are they balanced? IDK. I do know that giving a player character a culture goes a long way in Level Up. :p Much more than Background, which is really the profession your character started out with before they began their adventuring days.
 
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Twilight Step is simply the Level Up equivalent of the Misty Step spell. Only instead of being a spell being learned by sorcerers, warlocks and wizards, it's a cultural feature that any member of the Eladrin culture can now do, be they an Elf or a member of another heritage in Level Up. And it's something that you can get at 1st level during the character origin process. 😀

As for the Cosmopolitan culture, it has its' own set of mechanical traits that are independent of the traits you can gain from the Eladrin culture. Are they balanced? IDK. I do know that giving a player character a culture goes a long way in Level Up. :p Much more than Background, which is really the profession your character started out with before they began their adventuring days.
I expect a magical culture to include backgrounds that train magical benefits. I am ok with a background granting spellcasting, or being magically altered to breathe water, or see darkvision. The only concern is for these benefits to game balance with what the backgrounds of nonmagical cultures grant.
 

I expect a magical culture to include backgrounds that train magical benefits. I am ok with a background granting spellcasting, or being magically altered to breathe water, or see darkvision. The only concern is for these benefits to game balance with what the backgrounds of nonmagical cultures grant.
Do you think of your job in RL as a background or as a culture?
 




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