Amphytrion
Explorer
Many thanks for all the information! It looks full of good material and I'm very excited for the book.
Interesting line-up of factions. Promoting the Cult of the Dragon to full PC faction is a fascinating choice -- they're not only villainous, like the Zhentarim, but they're insane. One branch wants to have dracoliches rule the world. The other branch wants Tiamat to rule the world. Last time they quasi-succeeded, Tiamat ate them.
Anyhow, I love the Renown system and I am happy it is being used.
42? Interesting number. The SCAG had around 45, I think, and it included a handful that I don't think many people will miss (Apologies to any fans of Gwaeron Windstrom).
Do we think we'll also get a write-up on non-human deities?
Don't care at all about Spirit Dragons. Nice for their fans, wherever they are.
There are the drow we all desperately wanted. Still would have preferred to see them in the MM rather than taking up real estate here, but I feel that way about whatever generic enemies they include in the Bestiary.
Good to see Manshoon again. I hope for some good art. All the adventure text describes him as this handsome angelic faced man, and the art we get for him always looks either generic or silly.
And Sammaster! My personal favorite deranged icon, glad to see he's back. Hope to see his melted face in full glory. I really liked this piece of art a game tie-in a few years ago, he was riding a dracolich over Elminster (I'll paste it in a spoiler tag below).
The credit is to Wang Jiangxi, whose art can be found here. He also did some pieces on the Lady of Pain.
Interesting that the Dracolich seems to have reflected the 2025 redesign of the Black Dragon before the MM came out, which may indicate Sammaster's redesign here was also done in conjunction with WotC.
Interesting that the Dracolich seems to have reflected the 2025 redesign of the Black Dragon before the MM came out, which may indicate Sammaster's redesign here was also done in conjunction with WotC.
