D&D 5E New Organization of Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse- but not really

[HammerMan]

My favourite would be to have chapters dedicated to monsters types, like "dragons and dragonkin" or "undead". I don't care for alphabetic order, if I really didn't remember what type a monster is, there would be the index at the end of the book.

i have for years wondered why we don't get chapters like that in Monster Manuals
tribal groups (Orcs, goblins, gnolls) Dragons, Undead

 

[Oofta]

Put me down with the big "nope" crowd. If I want some encounters with demons, I just want to go to the demon section and see what my options are. I don't want to cross-reference everything if I'm using a physical book.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Compromise: the Big D groups still get grouped together, but no more than one of those groups per book.

 

[GreyLord]

How about a different way of organizing...organize it all by CR!

Then in the back have an index done alphabetically and by group!

 

[Vaalingrade]

How about a different way of organizing...organize it all by CR!

And within each CR level, organize by damage type of the creature's first attack mode, then by height.

 

[Amrûnril]

Alphabetical organization is a very slight improvement if you're trying to look up something specific during gameplay. But it's thoroughly unhelpful when browsing for inspiration. I'd much rather have things organized with all the beasts in one section, all the undead in another section, and so forth.

 

[Professor Murder]

Yeah. Just feels like a way to avoid having a good index.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I prefer what the current MM has. I prefer all demons and devils grouped together so that I can flip past all those things nice and quick.

The only reason I'm okay with every undead or humanoid being its own header rather than all together in a group is that those monsters tend to be ones that I think of and identify as themselves individually, rather than part of a group. If I'm making an encounter, I'll say "This would be a good skeleton encounter" or "There's a kobold tribe here". Whereas if I'm making an encounter using Demons or Dragons or Giants or Elementals... I always think something like "I want them to face some giants here" and then look in the book to decide what giants I'm going to use. Or "They are going to meet a Genie!" and then decide what genie after I look in the book.

To me... I equate the individual demon types or individual dinosaur types or dragon types, giant types, etc. to the different types of gnoll statblock-- the base Gnoll, the Gnoll Pack Lord, and Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu. They are all just variations on the main monster, which I tend to consider to be demon, devil, genie, elemental, dinosaur, dragon, gith, mephit etc. and thus I want those variations all in the same place.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I prefer what the current MM has. I prefer all demons and devils grouped together so that I can flip past all those things nice and quick.

You make a fine point.

My counterpoint is that I would be more likely to use a given devil or demon is I wasn't being hit in the face with all the extra baggage the game expects you to add in when using them. Maraliths, and those giant minotaur rip-offs that are living siege engines could be fun if they didn't come with other demons prepackaged with them. It's like those Power Ranger playsets from back in the day where you got a ranger but also a bunch of putties.

 

[Lyxen]

Honestly, I don't much care. Monsters are spread over many books anyway, so these days, I use a search with DDB and don't care much about the books. The books are nice for browsing, and for that any organisation works.