Warbringer
Explorer
Mainly about backstory for monsters and how that will shape the MM
https://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20131021
https://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20131021
No. Give us the monster and what it is now. Let us decide how it came to be, and how it makes more of its own kind.
My medusa are not former humans. They are their own race that predates humanity. They resent that humans have encroached on areas they once called their own, and they generally direct that resentment as malice towards humanity. There are a few medusas instead, however, that do not see humanity as a threat - and may be approached as seers or scribes by those who act respectfully towards the medusa - and are careful to never gaze upon her face.
Or perhaps my medusas are the half-breed offspring of yuan-ti cults and humans, creating an insidious weapon of war. Medusas are raised to hide among humanity and prey upon them, answering to yuan-ti overlords.
Actually, they originated from a cult of prideful clerics of a god of love. When the head priestess spurned the disguised avatar of their goddess, she cursed them with a vile shape, down to their tenth generation.
Then again, my medusas may be a species of hag. They mate with human males, but when the (always female) offspring hits adolescence, she transforms into a medusa.
Why do you think any of YOUR backstories are any more valid than mine WotC?
I disagree. I am paying for these guys to do this work for me. I'm 44, married, with a kid, and a demanding job and house that needs constant repairs. I don't have time to make up all those elaborate back stories. Their backstories are more valid than mine, because mine don't exist and I don't want to have to do all that. It's the point of the book for me.
Stats are the easy part. I don't need a book of stats.
I rather like the backstory presented for the Medusa. If this had been a Wandering Monsters article, my survey responses would have been largely positive.
There are some questions left open - for instance, does a Medusa's offspring share any of its monstrous traits, and who exactly is doing this cursing? However, these are minor details easily filled in as needed.
More generally, I think it is worth having a "default" story for most monsters, though the MM should make it clear that such things are campaign-dependent.