D&D (2024) Monster manual Fey video up

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

There is no way to know how true it is, but I cannot believe the level.of truth in my speculation is zero. I wish I could. But in this situation I just can't see how I'm completely wrong.

This is flat earther logic. "I have decided something must be true, and I cherrypick random details and decide that's evidence that it is true."

What benefit does it have? Are there too few fey creatures?

Uh, yeah. There were like 7 Fey monsters in the original 5e Monster Manual (dryad, pixie, sprite, blink dog, sea and green hag, probably one or two I'm forgetting). There was absolutely a dearth of fey creatures in 5e for a long time, especially for higher level fey, and still you have to pick and choose monsters scattered across the official books.

 

[MichaelSomething]

They could admit that their design choices are affected by forces outside design and the game itself.

I thought we all knew the effect of the surveys??

 

[Micah Sweet]

This is flat earther logic. "I have decided something must be true, and I cherrypick random details and decide that's evidence that it is true."

Uh, yeah. There were like 7 Fey monsters in the original 5e Monster Manual (dryad, pixie, sprite, blink dog, sea and green hag, probably one or two I'm forgetting). There was absolutely a dearth of fey creatures in 5e for a long time, especially for higher level fey, and still you have to pick and choose monsters scattered across the official books.

So you're saying suspicion shouldn't be a thing? We should always accept marketing copy at face value, no matter what reason we might have to think otherwise?

And there's plenty of room for new fey monsters in this new MM. Plenty of precedent from previous editions for them too. Aren't there like 85 new statblocks in there? Was it instead necessary to switch several existing monsters out of humanoid for this purpose, while not doing so for their PC equivalents?

 

[Epic Meepo]

Weak. Thats all there is to say about that.

I'd say the messaging is weaker than the mechanic.

The designers chose to use, "Your PC has lost their feyness," as their messaging for the creature type change. As far as I'm concerned, that's a weak way to frame what they're doing.

The designers could have instead said, "There are plenty of humanoid creatures, all of whom appear in the NPC appendix. The rest of the book focuses on the most monstrous possible version of every listed creature." The average goblin in the woods is a Tribal Warrior. The archetypal monster goblin is a Fey with its own unique stat block, which it shares with no mere Humanoid.

To me, the latter framing of the rules change makes it sound way more awesome than WotC's wimpy "lost their feyness" framing.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'd say the messaging is weaker than the mechanic.

The designers chose to use, "Your PC has lost their feyness," as their messaging for the creature type change. As far as I'm concerned, that's a weak way to frame what they're doing.

The designers could have instead said, "There are plenty of humanoid creatures, all of whom appear in the NPC appendix. The rest of the book focuses on the most monstrous possible version of every listed creature." The average goblin in the woods is a Tribal Warrior. The archetypal monster goblin is a Fey with its own unique stat block, which it shares with no mere Humanoid.

To me, the latter framing of the rules change makes it sound way more awesome than WotC's wimpy "lost their feyness" framing.

Most of my issues would go away if the above was WotC's explanation.

 

[Epic Meepo]

What benefit does it have? Are there too few fey creatures?

One benefit to providing Fey counterparts of certain Humanoid creatures is the addition of more verisimilitude to the default "D&D Multiverse" campaign setting mentioned in the core rules. When the setting narrative claims certain creatures have an association with the Feywild, the game mechanics provided for those creatures now explicitly support that narrative.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

And there's plenty of room for new fey monsters in this new MM. Plenty of precedent from previous editions for them too. Aren't there like 85 new statblocks in there? Was it instead necessary to switch several existing monsters out of humanoid for this purpose, while not doing so for their PC equivalents?

They are making new Fey monsters. The Archhag, a new Pixie and Satyr, a few more. You would know that if you actually watched the damn video instead of whining about it. The original Monster Manual was very lopsided in the amount of monsters in each creature type it had. Celestials, Fey, and Plants all had less than 10 monsters each. Dragons, Fiends, Monstrosities, and Humanoids all had dozens. They’re balancing out the lack of fey by making new fey options along with changing some of the older monsters in different creature types into fey (Centaurs, Goblinoids).

Didn’t you complain about how much WotC likes fey after Witchlight, Dragonlance, and Monsters of the Multiverse came out? I’m pretty sure if they had just added a ton of new fey to the Monster Manual instead of changing some you would be complaining about that.

 

[DarkCrisis]

... has been that way for 10 years...

So they are really late in changing the name

 

[Scribe]

So they are really late in changing the name

I looked, and since Good/Evil are not a thing in Shadowdark...the name is there, but Evil checks against Chaotic, there is not Protection from Good.

 

[Azzy]

... has been that way for 10 years...

And let's not get into how, in BECMI the spell never interacted with alignment either.

Selective outrage.