D&D (2024) Monster Manual 2025 Monstrosities Video

[dave2008]

Funny thing: they are joking about someone should do a study that things which are closer to human are more scary/discomforting...
... which already studies exist about (although often related to robots).

The effect is called: uncanny valley.

Was a factor in why the movie Polar Express failed to meet expectations.

Nowadays figures in animated movies are often intentionally less human looking.

Centaurs and driders are not really tapping into the uncanny valley effect IMO. Something different is going on there.

 

[Stalker0]

I am a big fan of things like the Bullette pup, for several reasons:

1) Sometimes you want to have a bullete like encounter at lower CRs, and so having the option is nice.

2) Its a great way to augment a traditional bullete encounter in a way that makes thematic sense. While you can always add monsters to a fight....sometimes it can feel a little "contrived" how those monsters got together and why they are beating up the PCs and not each other.

But a mother bullete protecting her kid....makes perfect sense, creates a harder fight....and might even create an ethical dilemma for certain groups (oh damn....do we really want to take out Momma B?)

 

[BB Shockwave]

I posted all of the art here: 2024 Monster Manual: Monstrosities Art

I wish this place had some moderators who'd merge all the associated topics into one...

We need Spiderhorse back!

It's a damn shame we did not get them in last year's Vecna book. The original was in the same adventure as the Spiderdragon that was revived for 5E there! In fact, Spiderhorses is what Spiderdragon's eat, mostly.

Male Harpies. I'll team them up with the male Hags.

Pathfinder had them for a while... I think there is even a miniature.
I would guess that they added males because the way Harpies used to reproduce would not be very PG today...

 

[dave2008]

I wish this place had some moderators who'd merge all the associated topics into one...

They do that at times. However, they are mostly hands off, which I personally appreciate.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The PHB definitely says thst other options behind the PHB can have Vreature Types other than Humanoid.

No I mean we don’t know for sure non Humanoid enemies have all been turned to NPC.

 

[Sacrosanct]

With all these new variants, like the bullette pup, I think it would hilarious if Tim Kask decided to exercise his rights. He's the actual IP holder of the Bullette, going back to when he created it. Back then, TSR allowed some artists and writers to keep rights on their stuff, but their record-keeping was atrocious. It's why WoTC will never release another Dragon magazine compendium. But apparently Tim still has the documentation stating he owns the rights to the Bullette.

 

[Parmandur]

No I mean we don’t know for sure non Humanoid enemies have all been turned to NPC.

Oh, that we do know, they said that last Tuesday.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think Charm Person and Hold Person got big stealth nerfs. The pool of targets for these spells shrank by a meaningful amount.

Which I am fine with. But it's the kind of thing a player might not realize when choosing those fairly classic spells. I expect there will be a lot of wasted turns on "I cast Charm Person on the Kenku. Huh. Didn't work. I guess they made their save?"

Huh. I’d consider that bad DM etiquette to not just say “they’re monstrosities now. Would you like to do something else instead?”

 

[Charlaquin]

Picking Humanoid usually still is the best option, as you're almost always guaranteed to fight Humanoids.

And it goes back to 3e where if your Ranger could pick Humanoid (Human) as a favored enemy, than they should as you'll probably fight a lot of Humans in just about every campaign.

I remember one of my first D&D characters was a dwarf ranger with humanoid (human) as a favored enemy. I also took some sort of feat or something that gave me temporary bonuses for eating my favored enemy’s body parts… didn’t think about how disturbing that combination would be until it actually came up in play…

 

[Mistwell]

Huh. I’d consider that bad DM etiquette to not just say “they’re monstrosities now. Would you like to do something else instead?”

I think I'd call for an appropriate skill check to get that knowledge. DC 10 Arcana check, or Nature check.