D&D 5E Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes or Monsters of the Multiverse if I don't care about new PC races?
- Thread starter Greg K
- Start date
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Tome of Foes gets you some lore on pairings of different groups with their traditional enemies. I don't know that anyone has ever been terribly excited about that stuff.
So it really comes down to whether you like/agree with the monster redesign goals.
If you like the old system where you get every possible spell a monster can cast laid out and where it's possible to play a suboptimal version of a monster for its CR, get Tome of Foes.
If you want the monsters more streamlined and with "trap" options either removed or scaled up to match the proper CR threat level, get Multiverse.
(And yes, there are plenty of DMs who did not feel they ever fell for the trap options. WotC redesigned the monsters for all the other DMs.)
So it really comes down to whether you like/agree with the monster redesign goals.
If you like the old system where you get every possible spell a monster can cast laid out and where it's possible to play a suboptimal version of a monster for its CR, get Tome of Foes.
If you want the monsters more streamlined and with "trap" options either removed or scaled up to match the proper CR threat level, get Multiverse.
(And yes, there are plenty of DMs who did not feel they ever fell for the trap options. WotC redesigned the monsters for all the other DMs.)
What were the monster redesign goals?
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I went back and edited my post to explain better.
Would the Vecna stat block that WOTC put out be an example of the streamlining format found in Multiverse?
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Yeah, I believe it had it. So you don't get a giant list of hundreds of spells that Vecna ought to (and almost certainly does) have access to, but just the ones they suggest you use in combat.
Depends on whether you value lore or not. If you do, Tome of Foes is the better choice, because over 100 pages of lore are missing from Multiverse, to include lore on demons and gith, in addition to core PC options. Plus the Multiverse versions of the Foes monsters are cut back lore-wise to varying degrees.
If your sole concern is mechanics, then as @Whizbang Dustyboots said, depends on whether you prefer the old or new monster design philosophy - Foes is old, Multiverse is new. If you're also concerned with forward compatibility, you'd probably want Multiverse.
If your sole concern is mechanics, then as @Whizbang Dustyboots said, depends on whether you prefer the old or new monster design philosophy - Foes is old, Multiverse is new. If you're also concerned with forward compatibility, you'd probably want Multiverse.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Yeah, this is what I'd say: if you don't have Volo's, get Multiverse.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
The lore isn't necessarily great, though, and a lot of it is pretty self-evident. Yeah, the surface elves and (traditional) drow don't like each other, and their enmity stretches back to a mythic civil war among their people.
For a DM extremely new to the hobby, some of it might be useful, but you can get similar ideas almost anywhere, including various meaty threads on RPG.net and ENWorld, to say nothing of many, many sourcebooks from many different publishers.
No, I don't own Volo's. I was not interested in the races and only one or two monsters interested me. It was a no purchase for me. Mostly what I am interested in are stats for the Demon Princes and Rulers of the layers of Hell.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Probably Monsters of the Multiverse is better bang for your buck, then: a full Monster Manual 2, basically, with the newer style (since Ravenloft) stat blocks for OneD&D.
Thanks. I was editing my post when you replied. I am mostly interested in the Demon Princes and rulers of the levels of Hell (plus hopefully Geryon). Is MoM still the better choice?
Lore-wise, you get more information in Tome of Foes, especially on the rulers of Hell.
Statistics-wise, both have statblocks for the same creatures - both books have the Demon Princes and one ruler of Hell (Zariel). Both books also have the same set of unique devils, including Geryon.
Leatherhead
Possibly a Idiot.
Tome of Foes technically has more lore, but even then, the lore in both books is dwarfed by what you would find in a wiki.
If you are interested in the changes between those entries, I have a thread for you:
D&D 5E - Let’s Read Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.
As you all have likely heard by now, there is a new D&D book available as part of the D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set. A set of 3 books intended to be used as supplementary materials to the core trio of 5th edition rulebooks (the Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide, for...
www.enworld.org
MonsterEnvy
Legend
The Monsters of the Multiverse monsters are generally stronger.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Depends on if you want the deep dive Lore: Multiverse just has Monster Manual style entries, but it has everybody, Tome of Foes has a big Lore chapter story Devils, and one for Demons, goes into the Blood War a bit. Not super in depth.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Let's say...more predictable in performance.
MonsterEnvy
Legend
And stronger, several of them are just straight up buffed over their old versions.
Similar Threads
