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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8664473" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/dXAMqxi.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/363235/The-Monster-Menu" target="_blank">DM’s Guild Page.</a>In the real world, people have found excuses to try and eat virtually every living species on this planet. So what would happen in a fantasy world with a much more diverse array of creatures? Furthermore, what if consuming certain monsters could instill the gourmand with special Benefits and Downsides?The Monster Menu is a product which sets out to answer that question, providing new rules for the cooking and eating of monster parts as a special type of consumable item. The book is short yet thorough, being 23 pages of content with over 100 unique entrees. The basic rules are simple: preparing the edibles of a harvested monster is done during a short rest, and the cook must be proficient with cook’s utensils and rolls against a DC determined by the entree in question. Others can aid the cook and grant advantage if they too have the same tool proficiency or are proficient in an appropriate knowledge-related skill pertaining to the monster. Every entree has a Benefit and Downside as a consequence of eating, where failing the check grants the Downside, success by 5 or more only the Benefit, and succeeding by less than 5 both. Monster food spoils after 24 hours and grants the poisoned condition to those who eat it (with neither Benefit nor Downside unless other noted) unless they’re preserved with Survival. Rangers have advantage on all such knowledge checks for the purposes of cooking monsters. Every entree also provides Servings, indicating how many people can gain the benefits of partaking in the meal.The entrees are diverse, and generally speaking the higher CR monsters have more longer-lasting and/or significant effects as well as italicized flavor text explaining how the meal is prepared and what it tastes like. Some of the more interesting entrees include Beholder Nerve Pasta (immune to all magic for 24 hours as Benefit or inflicting a random eye on yourself or someone you see as a Downside), Chimera Tongue Buffet where each tongue is its own serving (fire resistance/advantage vs frighten condition/advantage on Constitution saves as Benefits, or disadvantage on Persuasion checks for 24 hours as a Downside), Steamed Ettercap (can know exact location of any other creature in contact with a touched web/rope for 7 days as a Benefit, but leaving obvious wiry webbing trailing behind you for 7 days as a Downside), Stuffed Harpy Lung (advantage on verbal Performance checks for a month and advantage on Charisma saves for 3 days as a Benefit but compelled to hum at normal volume once during the next 30 days at the DM’s choosing as a Downside), and Hydra Tongues (Regain 10 HP for 8 hours as long as you have at least 1 HP as a Benefit, but suffer 3 levels of exhaustion that can only be removed by eating 3 full meals as a Downside). Even the Tarrasque has edible bits, with the Tarrasque Syrup being taken from the crystalline secretion beneath its carapace, granting the monster’s magical reflection qualities for 7 days as a Benefit, but causing one to be targeted by an Earthquake spell once during the DM’s choosing within the next 30 days as a Downside.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/QVKrdPe.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Some monster Benefits and Downsides are less immediately useful in play, or only useful in certain scenarios. For example, the Fruit from a dying Treant adds one year to a consumer’s natural lifespan as a Benefit, but for a year any Druid or Ranger of 5th level or higher can smell the fruit on the consumer’s breath and know what it’s from as a Downside. Medusa Hair Teeth grants advantage on saves vs gaze and visual-based spells and trap triggers as a permanent Benefit, but a permanent Downside is that you take 1d6 poison damage every time you finish a long rest. Troll Appendix Jelly is perhaps the most broadly-useful and powerful meal for a monster of its CR: the Benefit is an 8 hour long regeneration of 10 hit points at the start of each of the consumer’s turns, with a Downside of becoming Vulnerable to fire and acid damage for the same duration and losing that same regeneration when taking that damage until the end of their next turn. This can effectively restore most characters to full hit points between fights and obviate the need for spending Hit Dice on short rests. Water Weird Nuclei Pie grants advantage on saves against a variety of conditions for 8 hours as its Benefit, but its Downside can quickly make a character die of thirst unless they drink a glass worth of water every 10 minutes for the next 8 hours or gain a level of exhaustion. Hope your party’s near a bountiful source of freshwater when eating this meal!A few broader monster types have some “universal” rules added on top of the individual entrees. Demons can randomly grant only Benefits or Downsides on a high or low enough roll of an unmodified d20, Devils grant 120 foot darkvision that can see thru magical darkness but also binds the consumers to the devil in charge of the eaten devil in the infernal hierarchy for the duration of the Downsides, while Hags turn into candy-like treats that never spoil but all share the same Downside of if you die within 7 days of eating the treat then you can never be resurrected. Slaadi, being a race that reproduces via parasitism, are unique in that they grant no benefits while eating, only Downsides.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/J5RWGuc.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />“Dessert” covers the miscellaneous details that don’t fit in the main section of this rulebook. We have four new culinary-themed magic items which even have sample prices in gold pieces for those campaigns where buying magic items isn’t an impossibility. They include Residuum Salt which can preserve monster flesh for far longer before it spoils, a Darkwood Smokebox which can double the duration of Benefits and charges from said Benefits, a Good Platter which makes one immune to the Downsides of consumed monsters but can only be recharged when hand-washed by a parent during a short or long rest (“just like Mama used to make”), and the Tasteful Weapon property for melee weapons can grant the Benefits of eating a monster when striking it in melee and if it fails a Constitution save albeit with a shorter duration.We also have five Variant Rules, which are mostly small variations on gameplay changes. Such as applying both Benefits and Downsides simultaneously if rolling dice every rest feels too cumbersome, or using monster meals as poison via a Poisoner's Kit or Medicine check by disguising them as a normal meal. The Design Postmortem is a half-page detail on the inspirations and design process that went into making the Monster Menu. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetHack" target="_blank">Nethack</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delicious_in_Dungeon" target="_blank">Delicious in Dungeon</a> were the primary inspirations, and for making the various Benefits and Downsides the author consulted the stat blocks of monsters to come up with something close to their inherent abilities. In cases where a mechanic couldn’t be as easily ascertained, ones were created based on the monster’s personality or habitat.Thoughts: The Monster Menu is a pretty cool concept, and I’m strongly reminded of Final Fantasy XV’s food-based system of long-duration party buffs. Virtually every entree has some ability or implied effect that strongly meshes with the monster of its creation, even if the effect isn’t hewn straight from its stat block.I also like this book because it gives benefits to two under-served concepts in 5th Edition: tool proficiencies and the Ranger class. Much like the DM’s Guide to Fishing, I’m fond of subsystems which grant direct in-game benefits for what is in the core rules a mostly-flavor option.</blockquote>

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