I Have A Copy of Monster Manual 5.

[helium3]

Do the new illithids have a set description or do they have a variety of forms (due to the chaos they have been exposed to)? Are they psionic, magical or something else?

Thoon Disciple - Mind Flayer cleric-4
Shadow Flayer - Mind Flayer with the ability to use poison and become invisibile.
Thoon Infiltrator - A parasite that can turn people into Thoon Thralls.
Thoon Thrall - A creature turned into a thrall by a Thoon Infiltrator.
Thoon Soldier - A construct that has a number of special abilities.
Madcrafter of Thoon - A living factory for Stormclouds and Scythers of Thoon
Scyther of Thoon - A construct with funky powers, including the ability to heal naturally.
Stormcloud of Thoon - A weird floating construct shaped like a grell that shoots lightening bolts.
Thoon Hulk - A large construct useful for bashing stuff.
Thoon Elder Brain - A CR 15 elder brain as opposed to the normal Epic CR 25 elder brain.

 

[helium3]

I'm curious about the sanguinous drinker. Is it related to the (much beloved by me) vitreous drinker from MMIV?

Demiurge out.

Uhh, it drinks blood through its hollow claws.

 

[helium3]

Who are the artists?

Anything from Wayne Reynolds? Or did Paizo lock him in their dungeon for Pathfinder?

There are 20 interior artists listed. Wayne Reynolds is one of them. Not sure what he drew.

 

[helium3]

A minor question - do they list the hit Die type in the "HD" of the monster stat block? In MM 4 they gave the number of hit dice and an average hit point total but no breakdown of the numbers (ie 4d8+12 for CON bonus).

It's the same as in MM 4. I agree that it sucks. I'm still a bigger fan of the stat-block from MM 3.

 

[helium3]

Chorranathau and Morlincantha are templated dragons of the great game. They give up their spell casting abilities for other things.

The spawn of Juiblex are considered elementals because of the flavor text, basically. An unholy combination of Juiblex's essence and elemental water.

Elemental mages are giants descended from ogres, so sort of distantly related to ogre-mages. Each kind of giant has an elemental theme (earth, fire and water) and special abilities to match.

Rylkars are a type of nasty, intelligent ratlike creatures from the underdark.

Tirbanas are insects that require humanoid hosts to complete their life-cycle. They form a sort of hive in cities and towns and begin using captured people to make more spawn.

Ushemoi are creatures that gain special powers when exposed to different kinds of stimuli, like pain.

Dalmosh is a unique (I think) gargantuan outsider from the abyss that eats everything in sight.

A Verdent Reaver is what happens to a person when they are charmed by Dryads and spend all their time with them. They look sort of like wooden gorillas.

A vinespawn is a plant creature made up of vines that can spawn more of its kind by using the bodies of victims as incubators.

When I typed "Skill Lord" it was a typo. It should read Skull Lord.

 

[Garnfellow]

Red Widow Vampire? What the heck is that -- sounds very cool.

This is the first WotC monster book to tempt me since Fiend Folio.

 

[Koewn]

What's the Kuo-Toa Monasticism feat?

I've been statting up some KT monks and they're already tough little fishies...

 

[Doug McCrae]

The Black Duke - Vampire Knight-7 / Ronin-10
The Red Widow - Vampire Ninja-5 / Fighter-2 / Ghost-faced killer-8

Awesome! Like the superhero-y names.

 

[Shazman]

Awesome! Like the superhero-y names.

I know that a lot of people don't like classed monsters in a monster manual, but a lot of these sound really good, especially the vampires. I am a bit confused with the extra hit dice on the classed hobgoblins. I've never seen humanoids with extra non-classed hit dice. If you are going to do that, they might as well be bugbears.

 

[helium3]

I know that a lot of people don't like classed monsters in a monster manual, but a lot of these sound really good, especially the vampires. I am a bit confused with the extra hit dice on the classed hobgoblins. I've never seen humanoids with extra non-classed hit dice. If you are going to do that, they might as well be bugbears.

Yeah. It is a little weird, I suppose. I wondered for a bit if maybe they just forgot to include info on the classes it had, but I don't think that's the case. There are fairly explicit rules in the back of MM1 on how to add hit dice to monsters, and there's nothing really wrong per se with giving a hobgoblin a couple of extra hit dice instead of class levels. It might not be "RAW" in the truest sense but it doesn't result in a creature that's somehow unbalanced or broken.