D&D (2024) More D&D 2024 Tidbits: Aasimar, Goliaths, Town-Eating Gelatinous Cubes

Here are a few more tidbits from Game Informer's magazine coverage of the new edition's rulebooks.

• Iconic characters like Bobby the Barbarian, or Raistlin and Caramon Majere feature in the art.
• Each class and each subclass has its own piece of art.
• Species now include Aasimar, Goliath, and Orc.
• Bastions are in--player built bases.
• Greyhawk is the sample setting in the Dungeon Master's Guide.
• Each book is 384 pages.

Monster Manual

• 75 new monsters in the Monster Manual; over 500 in total.
• Challenge rating remains the same.
• There are some new lower challenge vampires, and a higher challenge one called the Nightbringer.
• Blob of Annihilation is a gelatinous cube that can eat towns.
• Elemental Juggernaut, Archhag.

 

[Kurotowa]

Surprised I don’t see a new thread (that I can find) dealing with Matt Covilles flee mortals monster book on available on dnd beyond….if there’s point me to it please.

You mean this thread? On the front page? Dude, just Ctrl+F if you don't spot it.

D&D 5E - MCDMs Flee Mortals now on DnDBeyond

Where Evil Lives: The MCDM Book of Boss Battles on Now D&D Beyond #dnd #dndbeyond #ttrpg #mcdm #wotc

www.enworld.org

 

[EthanSental]

Thanks @mamba and @Kurotowa - I looked in the dnd forums but not the general discussion.

And of course it was @darjr breaking the news…thanks!

 

[Kobold Avenger]

How much is Wizkids going to charge for the Cube?

Who knows, but I think you can also buy multiple packets of jello and make a massive gelatinous cube on your own...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The Game Informer article clearly states that Bastions are in the DMG, and states it is an optional tool to use or not.

Let us pray, pray, pray that they in now way whatsoever resemble the godawful UA we saw. Those were bad on just about every level, but to be fair to WotC, that's probably exactly the feedback they got, given they didn't seem very well-received. How much they've changed and how will be a very interesting demonstration of how much WotC actually listens to the feedback they solicit.

 

[dave2008]

Bastion in the PHB?

Probably not - the comments were not just about the PHB.

 

[dave2008]

I'm sure Crawford said they were gonna fix this?

What they said is the CR of a monster will be the same; however, the monsters will be revised to more accurately reflect that CR. Which honestly they have been doing ever since the MM.

 

[dave2008]

All I remember is that he said the CR system “doesn’t work” and is not what they “use internally”.

No, what they said was the monster builder in the DMG was an imperfect adaptation of the one they use. They will have an approved monster builder in the DMG (they said). That is different than saying CR doesn't work.

Now, it really depends on what you consider is broken to CR, but I would not expect much of change. It works pretty well, IMO, from the correct perspective.

 

[dave2008]

Let us pray, pray, pray that they in now way whatsoever resemble the godawful UA we saw. Those were bad on just about every level, but to be fair to WotC, that's probably exactly the feedback they got, given they didn't seem very well-received. How much they've changed and how will be a very interesting demonstration of how much WotC actually listens to the feedback they solicit.

There were good ideas, but they needed a lot of work IMO. Wish we had another chance to review them.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

In general this all seems fine/good - the new monsters seem sensible. I didn't expect CR to go - I do hope they've improved encounter-design recommendations a great deal in the DMG, particularly focusing on moving away from the 6-8 encounters/adventuring day thing (and I do mean moving away, not just trying to end-run around the whole thing by redefining day, that won't work). Bastions are the only thing that's a bit worrying, because the UA was so bad and so board-game-y that it felt like even 4E would have rejected it as "too much".

The art for every class/subclass we already knew but remains a very good idea.

There were good ideas, but they needed a lot of work IMO. Wish we had another chance to review them.

Yeah there were a few decent ideas, but among a lot of profoundly bad ones. So I worry.

 

[Demetrios1453]

No, what they said was the monster builder in the DMG was an imperfect adaptation of the one they use. They will have an approved monster builder in the DMG (they said). That is different than saying CR doesn't work.

Now, it really depends on what you consider is broken to CR, but I would not expect much of change. It works pretty well, IMO, from the correct perspective.

I hope that they give some clarification on what CR actually is, mechanics-wise. It needs a better and more precise definition than "should drain the party of resources"