D&D 5E Monsters of the Multiverse Releases a Day Early

Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse is now available to buy, a day earlier than scheduled. While it releases most places tomorrow, you can grab it from D&D Beyond today.

Monsters of the Multiverse | Dungeons & Dragons

Discover a multiverse of lore with over 250 monsters, combined and updated from Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's sad how this book is getting review bombed on Amazon because it's a collection of Volo's and Mordenkainen's instead of all new content. People on the internet these days try really hard and dig deep to get offended over nothing.

There are reasons to be offended by this book, but it never hid the fact that it's a reprint. Seems a poor reason to complain.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It's literally the exact essence of DnD. Catfolk, lizardfolk, mantisfolk, minotaurs, frog people, etc, etc. Fairies and animal people have been a basic part of the game for over 40 years.

The only hesitancy I have about all the animal races (and their increased prominence as PCs in recent years) is that i prefer human-centric worlds usually. And I can always curate that at my own table, so no big deal.

I will say I don't personally care for the new minotaur art either.

 

[Micah Sweet]

With all of the new races (species, really), I'm surprised that they didn't include mixed races.

We've had half elves and half orcs for a long time. Why not other combos such as a half tortle/half aarakocra?

That would be one bad ass PC...

I mean, why should humans, orcs and elves be the only ones who've overcome racial barriers?

​

I believe the jury's still out regarding whether or not mixed races are still allowed in fantasy now. Half-elves will probably be grandfathered in, but that might be it.

 

[R_J_K75]

It’s Volume 1 they intend to do many.

They intend to do many as in this is the format for campaign settings going forward for the near future to include its own MC, or theyre also planning on releasing more standalone MCs? IDR reading or watching it and if I did I dont recall. Sorry my memory isnt so good anymore.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

@beancounter
With all of the new races (species, really), I'm surprised that they didn't include mixed races.

We've had half elves and half orcs for a long time. Why not other combos such as a half tortle/half aarakocra?

That would be one bad ass PC...

I mean, why should humans, orcs and elves be the only ones who've overcome racial barriers?

I believe the jury's still out regarding whether or not mixed races are still allowed in fantasy now. Half-elves will probably be grandfathered in, but that might be it.

Biracial and mixed race people exist in the real world, albeit not in the "part elf" sense, so while there certainly could be improvements to how they are portrayed and talked about, particularly on the half-orc side, I don't really see any reason why half-elves or half-orcs should necessarily be removed.

"Race" in D&D is more analogous to "species", but for better or worse, half-elves and half-orcs have a lengthy history in the game, as do other race options that were generally treated in past editions as being the result of mixed bloodlines, namely the "planetouched" races (tieflings, aasimar, genasi, etc.), where the assumed origin in 2-3.5e was that one of their mortal ancestors had relations with an outsider of some sort.

Beyond that, some settings (notably Eberron) have allowed half-elves and half-orcs to carve out unique, in-setting cultural identities for themselves distinct from those of their ancestors on both sides, so I don't really see them going anywhere.

Ultimately, I think it just comes down to the fact that they would never be able to manage the sheer number of possible permutations, so they have to draw a line somewhere. If you want a half-tabaxi/half-aarakocra and don't want to homebrew, that's probably what Custom Lineage is for...

EDIT: Meant to quote the @beancounter post you were quoting as well...

 

[MonsterEnvy]

They intend to do many as in this is the format for campaign settings going forward for the near future to include its own MC, or theyre also planning on releasing more standalone MCs? IDR reading or watching it and if I did I dont recall. Sorry my memory isnt so good anymore.

I don't think we have an answer just that more are coming.

 

[Parmandur]

I still don't see why they took the orc statblocks out, or why they didn't replace them with anything. And there are plenty of other humanoid statblocks they should have removed too, if their reasoning was consistent. Seems like they didn't commit either way.

The idea was to create a more radically Setting-neutral supplement. Volo's and Mordenkainen's were fairly generic, in a sort of triangulation Greyhawk/Forgotten Realms space. But the Orc star blocks were very closely tied to the Orc gods.

 

[Parmandur]

They intend to do many as in this is the format for campaign settings going forward for the near future to include its own MC, or theyre also planning on releasing more standalone MCs? IDR reading or watching it and if I did I dont recall. Sorry my memory isnt so good anymore.

Both, actually. But they specifically teased, without much detail, that Monstrous Compendium would be an ongoing series of free monster supplements distributed online.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The idea was to create a more radically Setting-neutral supplement. Volo's and Mordenkainen's were fairly generic, in a sort of triangulation Greyhawk/Forgotten Realms space. But the Orc star blocks were very closely tied to the Orc gods.

They could always have changed the names of the monsters. They did it with other monsters to force alphabetical order.

 

[Parmandur]

Biracial and mixed race people exist in the real world, albeit not in the "part elf" sense, so while there certainly could be improvements to how they are portrayed and talked about, particularly on the half-orc side, I don't really see any reason why half-elves or half-orcs should necessarily be removed.

"Race" in D&D is more analogous to "species", but for better or worse, half-elves and half-orcs have a lengthy history in the game, as do other race options that were generally treated in past editions as being the result of mixed bloodlines, namely the "planetouched" races (tieflings, aasimar, genasi, etc.), where the assumed origin in 2-3.5e was that one of their mortal ancestors had relations with an outsider of some sort.

Beyond that, some settings (notably Eberron) have allowed half-elves and half-orcs to carve out unique, in-setting cultural identities for themselves distinct from those of their ancestors on both sides, so I don't really see them going anywhere.

Ultimately, I think it just comes down to the fact that they would never be able to manage the sheer number of possible permutations, so they have to draw a line somewhere. If you want a half-tabaxi/half-aarakocra and don't want to homebrew, that's probably what Custom Lineage is for...

EDIT: Meant to quote the @beancounter post you were quoting as well...

I can see them coming up with a way to have hybrids in general. Make Orcs a core Race, and mention that a given Orc might have Human or Dwarven parentage as well, grandfather in Half-Orcs as just Orcs. Make Half-Elf part of a custom Lineage, or something, maybe.