D&D 5E Let’s Read Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.

Leatherhead

Possibly a Idiot.

Eidolon (MToF)​


Finally, we worm our way out of the “D” section of the book, which was 38 monsters for those of you keeping count. Keep in mind that various demons and devils are still scattered in this book for later entries if you want a true comparison of the organizational systems.

The Eidolon is a gimmick monster. Their gimmick is that when they are trapped outside of their statue, they are practically helpless. To mechanically represent this, the Eidolon comes packaged with an alternate Sacred Statue statblock. This mechanic should be used more often, the Archdruid would have made good use of it. Unfortunately, outside of the possession gimmick, the Sacred Statue is mechanically boring. They are a relatively slow sack of hps and resistances. But at least they have a Rock attack for long ranged coverage, so they aren’t one of those helpless brute types. When the Eidolon is stuck outside of a statue, it can fall back upon its Divine Dread power, an AoE fear, in order to buy the time needed to possess another statue. If you want a real slog of an encounter (for some reason) you can have 3 or 4 statues for the Eidolon to possess.


Consider using the Eidolon as a puzzle monster. The undead spirit could be trapped in a jar or something, forcing the PCs to free it, in order to employ its CR 12 might against a band of interlopers. Alternatively, the PCs could be the ones looking to shove it into a jar, if only to depower the Sacred Statue guarding a treasure.

In the changeover, the Eidolon and its statue gained the Unusual Nature power, and the Sacred Statue lost its Challenge Rating. Mostly because it isn’t actually usable without the Eidolon.
 
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Leatherhead

Possibly a Idiot.

Eladrin (MToF)​



Eladrin are perhaps the most confusing creatures to look up in 5e right now, as befitting their capricious nature.

They are simultaneously an Elf Subrace, a Variant Elf Subrace, a Race of their own, and a Fey Creature. (Most) Eladrin come in a variant for each season of the year, but can change their season with a long rest. Which means that even though these are technically 4 different stat blocks, a long-term NPC ally or enemy could use any of them at any given time. The Book recommends changing the stat block whenever the Eladrin in question is overcome by a particular type of emotion: Goodwill for Autumn. Joy for Spring. Anger for Summer. And Sorrow for Winter. Or you could have them change with the Seasons themselves, or perhaps after being exposed to a particular elemental energy for a bit. There are more than a few options here if you are looking to use them as a Puzzle monster.

All of these Eladrin received a generous boost to their HP, at the cost of their resistance to non-magical weapons. To be fair, any party fighting CR 10 monsters should already have magic weapons, making that resistance mostly fluff.


Autumn Eladrin

The fall comes with a bountiful harvest, and the Autumn Eladrin are all about peace and food. As such, they don't particularly enjoy combat, and though there is a significantly more devastating routine they can use, consider using the following for flavor instead.

In combat, Autumn will try to stop the fight by using its Enchanting Presence and Foster Peace power. For their multiattack option, they cast Hold Person first, hoping to pacify an enemy, and then lay into any enemies that aren’t controlled with their Longsword, hoping to knock the target out with a melee strike. Fey Step is a multipurpose movement tool should there be a need for extra distance in any situation.

The Autumn also has access to a full spread of healing spells, allowing them to counter nearly every kind of status condition that might be thrown at their friends and themselves, including the ability to cast Revivify once per day.

In the Changeover, the Autumn lost a lot of useful spells. Calm Emotions, Heal, and Raise Dead being the biggest losses to their toolkit. In return they received Revivify and a massive DPR boost (that’s kind of weird for a pacifist creature) via Multiattack and increased damage on their basic attacks. They also received resistance to Psychic Damage.

Spring Eladrin

Spring Eladrin are obsessed with joy, and love to beguile creatures to make them joyous as well. That said, they aren’t pacifists like their Autumn kin, so they can actually lay down the beatdown, so long as they humiliate you while doing it.

In combat, the Spring will use its multiattack to cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. Which sets a target up to be prone and incapacitated, allowing for advantage on melee attacks against them. They also have access to Major Image to trick enemies should the situation arise.

In the changeover, the Spring gained Psychic resistance, and extra damage for their attacks. In return they lost nearly all of their spells, being left with only Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Suggestion, and the new addition of Major Image.

Summer Eladrin

Summer Eladin represent Anger and Wrath. Which is ironic considering they are technically weaker than the previous two entries. Maybe.

The standard reading of the monster makes you think they are supposed to be a melee creature. They have a fear aura, a parry reaction, and their most powerful attack is their two-handed longsword strike.

Don’t fall for it.

Instead use their superior mobility and extreme range longbow attacks to assault enemies. They don’t have spells to augment their Multiattack, and there is no reason for them to ever get in close ranged combat considering their attacks are actually weaker than an Autumn Eladrin. Yeah, they have a high STR score, but like, they also have 50’ of movement speed and the ability to teleport away when they get cornered, so why wouldn't they use the superior combat option?

In the Changeover, the Summer received a small amount of extra fire damage on their attacks, and fire resistance.

Winter Eladrin

Winter Eladrin are sorrowful, and make everyone around them feel sad. Fighting a Winter Eladrin is an exercise in overcoming futility.

In combat the Winter will rely heavily on its Sorrowful Presence. Which not only charms enemies, it causes them to have disadvantage on all saving throws and checks. You will note that none of the Winter’s spells cause damage, meaning they are free to let them rip with impunity. A particularly nasty trick would be to push someone off a cliff with Gust of Wind. Though Sleet Storm is probably the best option, not only does it block line of sight to prevent ranged attacks, it causes the area (including the air to thwart flying creatures) to become difficult terrain, and forces a dex save to avoid becoming prone. When someone finally breaks through these layers of defenses, they will find themselves hit by a Frigid Rebuke for their troubles. The Winter does have a multiattack that allows them to cast spells, but the spells should be a top priority. They want to create a situation where they fight one opponent at a time to maximize their chances and action economy, and if that means they block their own line of sight to the rest of the group, then so be it.

In the changeover, the Winter lost all of their damaging spells, but gained Sleet Storm. They also received a moderate damage buff on their weapon attacks.
 
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Leatherhead

Possibly a Idiot.

Elder Brain(VGtM)​


The Elder Brain is the sedentary mass of gray matter that leads a Mind Flayer Colony. A physical representation of a hive mind, they float around in a brine pool and use their massive telepathy range to influence an area of 5 miles around them. Which means an “encounter” with them can start well before you get to their lair. Should the PCs take a nap, or get stunned by a stray pack of Mind flayers, the Elder Brain can take that opportunity to worm its way into the PCs heads. As such, the only way to ambush an Elder brain is to walk up with a Mind Blank, Nondetection, or similar magical effect.

In actual combat, the Elder brain is largely a sitting duck. They can’t really move away from their brine pool. They desperately need minions to make up for the difference. Fortunately for them, a colony has no shortage of minions. Ulitharids* make for good proxies to add some much needed mobility to the fight. Their ranks can be further bolstered by regular Mind Flayers (and maybe Mind Flayer Psions if you have access to VGtM). Mindwitnesses* can serve as an artillery. Cranium Rat Swarms* as a meatshield, and Oblexes* can sow confusion even among mind-shielded enemies with their impersonation abilities. This is of course, in addition to the legion of thralls they have under their command.

*: Monster that appears elsewhere in this book.

As for its own combat routine: The Elder Brain depends upon its Psychic Link power. A bonus action that allows it to intrude into the mind of any creature that has been incapacitated within a 5 mile radius. Fortunately for the Elder Brain, they have access to Mind Blast, and a bunch of minions who can also Mind Blast, which can stun enemies.

Once a Link has been established, the Brain can use its legendary actions to cause damage and automatically break concentration. Though a PC can break the link with an action, that takes an action in a fight that already has a bunch of stuns flying around everywhere.

As for non-Link things the Brain can do, they can cast a psionic spell, but due to concentration limitations, Plane Shift is the only one that's really useful. And even then it's just an escape tool. Dominate Monster would be a good idea, if they didn’t already have access to Wall of Force from a Lair action. Mind Blast is always a good pick whenever it's recharged. And finally, should there be no other options at all, they can use a Tentacle to attack. Mind you, this tentacle attack has a 30’ range and grapples the target, which allows the Brain to grapple things, then haul them up into the air where they will fall down should they escape. Should they not escape they will continue taking damage until they do. So it’s not a bad last resort by any means, it just seems underwhelming to be grabbed by a tentacle when you would think a massively psionic powered brain would be shooting you with mind bullets or using telekinesis of some kind to fling people around.

Back to lair actions: These are solid. Wall of Force is one of the most effective battlefield divider spells in the game, blocking everything including ethereal travel. Psionic Anchor sets a target's movement speed to 0 and prevents teleportation, which is shocking for anyone who thought they could rely on superior mobility to cheese the fight. Psychic Inspiration is what they do when they are already concentrating on something and Psionic Anchor is on cooldown, but hey free advantage is free advantage.

In the changeover, the Elder Brain lost a bit of their Sense Thoughts power that allowed them to trick targets, but gained the Modify Memory spell in return. Also their Legendary Tentacle attack requires two actions now. Honestly, if you are planning on using this monster I would highly recommend looking in VGtM, if only for the stat templates and magic items that were left out of this book.
 

Leatherhead

Possibly a Idiot.

Elder Tempest (MToF)​


The Elder Tempest is here to rock you like a hurricane. The Tempest is a somewhat novel take on a high end Legendary threat. Instead of having a stationary lair, the Tempest has an ability that mimics a layer and region, with the notable difference being it just applies these effects to whatever area it is currently in. While these effects are very useful, they don’t have the oomph factor that other monsters have (nothing on par with the last entries Wall of Force for sure).

As a large and powerful Elemental “beast” that creates a massive storm wherever they go, the only real out of combat encounters you can create here are “How do we get rid of this thing without it killing us?” Or “How do we make this thing move to where we need a storm?” The latter could make for quite an interesting campaign in its own right.

When it comes to combat I want you to consider the following: The Elder Tempest can attack for 23 average damage from a relatively safe 20’ of reach, while supported by flyby attacks. OR, they could grapple someone, fly up 120’, and drop them like a rock (possibly on someone else) for 42 average damage. Flying won’t necessarily stop the damage due to the strong winds in the area, and reaction economy. Other than that interesting quirk, you should use AoE attacks whenever possible, with a possible movement legendary action if the Drag-and-Drop proves effective against your party.

In the changeover, the Elder Tempest’s Screaming Gale went from 1 mile of range to 300’ of range. Which is a significant nerf, but honestly, who wants to keep track of a mile-long battlemap, even at scale?
 

Leatherhead

Possibly a Idiot.

Elemental Myrmidons (MToF)​


Have you ever looked at one of the basic CR 5 elementals from the MM and said to yourself: “You know, I could really go for one of these with moderately bigger stats and less complexity?”

Elemental Myrmidons are just that. Beefier Elementals, tied to a suit of plate armor, with less mobility options because of the armor. At the very least, they fill up the CR 7 slot for Conjure Elemental, should you ever find that spell being upcast. But there is also some potential here for a puzzle monster: They are bound to the plate armor, if you can break that binding (possibly by damaging or dispelling the armor) then the elemental can go free, presumably seeking revenge upon whomever bound it in the first place. Or maybe your players could find the ritual that binds these creatures, should they want some place or their bodies guarded.

The various types of Myrmidon feel very “assembly line”. They have the Same AC, similar HP, resistance to non-magic weapons, a slew of condition immunities, about the same damage range, and a burst damage option on a recharge of 6 that typically has a rider of some kind.

The major differences: Air can fly, has the least HP (not by much) and their Burst stuns in return for the least extra damage. Earth (honestly the worst of the bunch) has no special movement, and their Burst can knock a target prone. Fire has 40’ of movement speed, lights up the area, takes damage in water, and their burst has no kind of rider. Water (arguably the best) has 40’ move and swim speed, a ranged attack, and their burst can slow down a target by 10’.

In the changeover, they all lost their magic weapons ability in favor of dealing Force damage (Really? Force? The elemental damage types are right there!) And for some strange reason these elementals don’t have the now prolific Unusual Nature power, which means they are supposed to eat, sleep, and breathe.
 




Duergar Despot

The first Duergar entry isn’t doing WotC any favors with its name, though to be fair the name came from the old book where they were supposed to be tyrants. The Despot is some kind of CR 12 Psionic Artificer Controller that fights with their Cybernetic (Psybernetic?) body parts.

In combat, Despot relies on their multiattack to make two punches and then stomp twice in that order. While their Iron Fist can push targets up to 30’ away (not up, just away), the Despot’s 25’ of movement speed dictates that it’s often better to push them 0’ and just knock the target prone, If only so they can get the sweet extra damage on their Stomp attacks. That advice is out the window (just like the defenestrated PCs) if there is any kind of pit or trap nearby, and the Despot can cast Stinking Cloud should they need to manufacture a trap for those purposes. Despots also have the option to spew a 100’ long flame jet should their target not get proned, or if there just happens to be two targets standing in a line. Just one attack and be replaced, and the Flame Jet should always replace a Stomp for that reason. As a particularly metal finisher, the Despot will explode when they die, which may give them reason to go down swinging in a group of enemies should the situation arise.

I would also like to point out a typo in my book: The Despot can cast Minors Illusion. And I really, really, don’t want to know what that spell does.

In the changeover, the Despot lost Counterspell and Misty Step. Additionally, their multiattack can no longer be used to just spray fire everywhere all the time. Not going to lie, I would pick fire over punches any day. But that’s kind of the point of these changes, WotC just wanted the Despot to punch with its Iron Fist so I assume we can chalk that up to normalizing the encounter.
You skipped over a major change here. The Despot as part of their Multiattack can move up to it's speed after an attack without provoking Opportunity attacks.
 

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