D&D (2024) Skeleton Entry and Stat Blocks from New Monster Manual

Posted by Christian Hoffer on Twitter, here's a third stat block from 2025's Monster Manual!

Also don't forget check out the ancient green dragon and the kuo-toa.

 

[Zaukrie]

Fair, but I thought there were good necromancers.... Or is animate dead an evil spell?

I won’t try to bait anyone into an alignment discussion.

But my take is they are evil aince the black magic that animates them leads them to hate life and if unbound will attack anything that lives.

So I think the alignment is descriptive of their behavioral tendencies when not commanded.

Just my coppers. I know opinions differ about alignment and will leave that alon

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Fair, but I thought there were good necromancers.... Or is animate dead an evil spell?

Good question. But I think the magic that
Animates dead used to be from the negative energy plan. Hell I may be mixing edition lore.

I think a good cleric could animate dead in some wild situation…to man the walls of a besieged town full of
Innocents…but think that is a dm question ultimately…

 

[Jensaarai]

Fair, but I thought there were good necromancers.... Or is animate dead an evil spell?

maybe not necessarily evil in the alignment sense, but the negative energy it's pulling from to create undead is inherently antithetical to life, so it's very easy to commit evil with the spell. Not sure if there's any technically "evil spells" in 5e? though, as one DM I know often says, if there is such a category, Enchantment fits much more than Necromancy

but that negative energy is still vital to keep in check the positive energy that feeds life, so it's all just a great big cycle

at least, as I've interpreted some things

addendum; good necromancers just have to make sure their watches are wound so they know when to re-up the spell to maintain control

 

[John R Davis]

It says Treasure: None
Have other stat block releases had Treasure: Yes?

I guess the DMG will show how treasure works

 

[pukunui]

It says Treasure: None
Have other stat block releases had Treasure: Yes?

I guess the DMG will show how treasure works

Yes, the kuo-toa entry has “treasure: relics”.

 

[MarkB]

I won’t try to bait anyone into an alignment discussion.

But my take is they are evil aince the black magic that animates them leads them to hate life and if unbound will attack anything that lives.

So I think the alignment is descriptive of their behavioral tendencies when not commanded.

It's worth noting that there's nothing of this in the descriptive text. Like, I was fully expecting one of the entries on the random behaviour table to be "attacks anything that moves", but none of them are even particularly aggressive.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

"Emanation" is a term I haven't seen in D&D before (flaming skeleton).

 

[sevenbastard]

such as how the Warhorse's ability starts with "If the target is Large or smaller" and the Minotaur's ends with "if the target is Large or smaller". Or the Languages of the Skeleton and Flaming Skeleton - the former says "Understands the languages it knew in life" and the latter says "Understands all languages it knew in life" - it's not a huge deal, but to my editorial eye it just looks sloppy.

Agreed in something like rules uniformity is a plus.

Also you think copy paste would be a thing?

 

[dave2008]

"Emanation" is a term I haven't seen in D&D before (flaming skeleton).

It was explained in one of the videos. It as new term for an old effect that never had a single keyword.

 

[Reynard]

Why are the "charge" type abilities for the warhorse and minotaur given different text when they work essentially the same way? Why isn't there actually just a "charge" standard ability?