D&D (2024) Man I hate the organization of the 2024 Monster Manual

[Clint_L]

I use DDB for all of my prep, and that has a zillion options for sorting monsters, so I hadn’t really appreciated this issue at first. But I also bought a physical copy for patio reading and…yeah. OP’s not wrong.

Also, no orcs or elves.

Looks gorgeous, though, and the monsters are much improved. Just weirdly organized.

 

[pukunui]

Also, no orcs or elves.

At the risk of inviting people to beat this dead horse some more, the idea is that orcs, elves, and other such playable humanoid species are represented by the generic "profession" stat blocks (the mages, commoners, warriors, druids, priests, cultists, performers, etc).

 

[cbwjm]

At the risk of inviting people to beat this dead horse some more, the idea is that orcs, elves, and other such playable humanoid species are represented by the generic "profession" stat blocks (the mages, commoners, warriors, druids, priests, cultists, performers, etc).

Which is a shame, they had some cool orcs in one of the books that were based around their gods. One of them I think exploded in toxic goo which I remember using. Wouldn't have been as fun if it was just "Here's the profession, just add orc stats (I assume you still add orc stats)"

 

[cbwjm]

One of the things I came to dislike about the dndbeyond monsters was filtering them to what I owned became more and more onerous. Not sure if they have something now (or maybe I missed it back when I was running 5e) but they really needed a toggle for owned content rather than requiring us to click all the books I owned every time I opened the monster section.

 

[pukunui]

One of the things I came to dislike about the dndbeyond monsters was filtering them to what I owned became more and more onerous. Not sure if they have something now (or maybe I missed it back when I was running 5e) but they really needed a toggle for owned content rather than requiring us to click all the books I owned every time I opened the monster section.

They want you to see there’s content you don’t own so you’ll be more tempted to buy it!

Which is a shame, they had some cool orcs in one of the books that were based around their gods. One of them I think exploded in toxic goo which I remember using. Wouldn't have been as fun if it was just "Here's the profession, just add orc stats (I assume you still add orc stats)"

Yes, those were in Volo’s. I liked the chapters on individual monster groups in the book too. I understand why they felt they had to get rid of it, though.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So I've been using my copy of the 2024 MM for a while now, and I can confidently say, I DO NOT like the organization.

I want a devil, don't know what kind of devil I want I just want a devil.

Old Book
1) Go to D for Devils
2) Peruse the devils, find the one I like. Or heck, maybe two different ones.
3) Profit

New Book
1) Go to the back index and find the Devil group
2) Find the name of the first devil
3) Go to the front index and find the page (or try to find it alphabetically)
4) Rinse and repeat for every devil there until I find the one I want.
5) Realize I want a second devil and then start the process over again.

There has not been a single time where I found working in the new book easier than the old.

It really came to a head today where I wanted to put in a golem. Again, not sure what golem I wanted, just wanted a golem. So...I go to the group section in the back of the book to start the process. But....oh golems don't get an entry. So unless all of these other creatures with several monsters in their group, golems don't get one. So...back to the table of contents.

Sigh.

Yeah, this was an area where the, "D&D is now mostly just for new players who aren't used to any other way to organize this stuff" design philosophy hits pretty hard. That was enough by itself to stick with the literally all my other monster books that don't use pure alphabetical.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Something that was suggested to me that I thought was crazy, was to organize it by creature type. While it seems nuts, I feel like it would actually work really well. You could break it up by chapter, with an introduction going into the description of each type. It would help the OP's situation a bit, since you'd have all fiends together, but they'd have to dig through both demons and devils to find what they want.

But it's already printed the new way. If you're going to go the trouble of re-formatting the whole book, why wouldn't you just do it the way with which your comfortable?

 

[Micah Sweet]

The 2024 books seems to be made, designed, and laid out for newish D&D fans who normally don't read rulebooks and don't have a history of being D&D fans.

Exactly. That by itself is enough for me to not move to 5.5.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Which is a shame, they had some cool orcs in one of the books that were based around their gods. One of them I think exploded in toxic goo which I remember using. Wouldn't have been as fun if it was just "Here's the profession, just add orc stats (I assume you still add orc stats)"

Volo's. A lot of lost statblocks in that one.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They want you to see there’s content you don’t own so you’ll be more tempted to buy it!


Yes, those were in Volo’s. I liked the chapters on individual monster groups in the book too. I understand why they felt they had to get rid of it, though.

If there's one thing you want in a digital reference work, it's constantly being reminded how much more money they want from you.