D&D 5E How Will D&D Beyond Implement Monsters of the Multiverse?

We know that D&D Beyond will be selling the standalone digital version of Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse on May 17th.

What we don't know is how this release will affect its current digital offerings, and so far they've been silent on the matter, despite questions on their forums and on social media.

Will they update all the existing races and monsters on the platform to the new versions? Will the new versions exist as alternate versions? Typically DDB does the former -- content tends to be updated to the latest version. If that's the case, however, there's no advantage to buying the new book. Plus many folks won’t want their content updated to the new versions.

But so far it's a mystery -- how is this new content to be implemented? With the digital book on preorder now, it's a question that more and more people are asking.

DDB commented on their Discord server:

"We will be following instruction from Wizards of the Coast on how to handle content. I am assured that they will make an announcement on that, then we'll take their lead on how to handle it."

 

[GreyLord]

Ironically, a lot of this talk is about race changes and such, but I am actually more interested in the changes with the actual Monsters.

Is the AC slightly or less slightly changed, is the HP changed a lot, is damage changed...etc.

For me, that may affect my game in the long run a LOT MORE than something that is selected once at character creation.

 

[Osgood]

The tricky part for me personally is that I want the changes for all the monsters, but not the races. I feel like letting everyone pick their ability score bonuses dilutes the race choice and cuts in to a big selling point for human--versatility. I'm leaning towards house ruling fixed ability bonuses (unless there is a compelling reason tied to the specific character concept)... but if DDB doesn't support that it will be a major pain to police.
The other changes to races don't bother me particularly, but the ability scores do.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Ironically, a lot of this talk is about race changes and such, but I am actually more interested in the changes with the actual Monsters.

Is the AC slightly or less slightly changed, is the HP changed a lot, is damage changed...etc.

For me, that may affect my game in the long run a LOT MORE than something that is selected once at character creation.

Yes, abso-freaking-lutely.

I don‘t like all the racial changes (knowing “default“ lore helps me know how they fit in the multiverse, for example), but what really bothers me is having the monsters I bought potentially taken from me (digitally), since I already know I hate at least one of the changes they are making (eliminating NPC spell slots). I can’t even use the monsters with that change, because that’s not how my world functions.

Now, on the other hand, if they actually sell a second version and leave what I bought alone, I might be interested in buying it to see if there are other monster/race changes I do want to use.

Without letting me keep what I bought though, WotC has definitely lost a customer (and I thought I’d never be one of those people who “over-reacted” like that to things).

 

[Micah Sweet]

Customers who want the newer versions of the monsters, newer images, newer tokens, races, etc., will need to purchase the new module for Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse. If a customer owns both the new module and the old modules, then they will see multiple listings for search results and will need to choose which version they want to use.

The Dungeon Master will be able to use the Allow Content or Block Content flags in the library to turn off or on those options within the Library for any players in their campaigns.

Is this your guess?

 

[LordEntrails]

I’m guessing that May timeframe also a rough estimate of when it will be on sale at FG? If so, I can wait.

Yes, see the FG announcement here; Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse (announced) plus discontinued books

Hey @Morrus, how come the thread/title for DDB and not FG or Roll20 (or if d20Pro still has a license).

 

[LordEntrails]

Is this your guess?

It's 100% for FG (given that he is the president of SmiteWorks) But I'm not sure DDB is obligated to take the same approach. But I suspect they are (though Doug didn't specifically state that).

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's 100% for FG (given that he is the president of SmiteWorks) But I'm not sure DDB is obligated to take the same approach. But I suspect they are (though Doug didn't specifically state that).

Ok, I didn't know who that was. My mistake.

 

[LordEntrails]

Ok, I didn't know who that was. My mistake.

What? You don't know each and every person who has ever posted on ENWorld? I'll give you a week, and then we are going to have a little test, if you don't know each and every person I'm going to insist to have your posting privileges' suspended for 30 days!

Obviously, I hope, just kidding. Hope I didn't come across when replying who that was as anything but informative, I really didn't expect people to know who that was

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

Until Wizards releases official errata for the original sourcebooks with all of these changes, I suspect D&D Beyond will offer two separate versions of everything, regardless of how inconvenient (or convenient depending on your perspective) that might be. We haven't really had to deal with this much in the past. I've seen people online point to the Bladesinger as a model for how this will happen, but Bladesinger was actually errata so all new published versions of SCAG had the new version. It doesn't look yet like Wizards is going to change anything in at least the core three books until 2024 so we may have to wait for a while for some of these changes to be "universal".

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

The problem is D&D Beyond has always said they will digitally update anything to the latest version for free. I get not giving away the book and potentially new info on how to calculate CR but the stats blocks should be updated gratis.

IIRC they said they would update errata for free. These changes are not yet officially errata so they're technically different entities altogether. Once Wizards releases errata for any specific monster or race that commits the changes for future printings of the original sourcebooks, D&D Beyond will provide that free update.