D&D General The Revised Monster Manual was released 1 year ago today! How have you liked facing down and using the new monsters?

[Sulicius]

I picked up a copy on EBay for the sake of completeness. I'm a geek for Monster books, so had to have this one- even though I have no intention of switching to the latest "version" of the game.

I found it a mixed bag.

likes:
the layout seems very DM friendly. EZ to find hat you're looking for, and some extras to make building encounters easier.

higher level monsters got some needed buffing.

dislikes:

auto special damage attacks. No save, no way to mitigate the effect, just EFF YOU. No. Not in my game. And I'd walk from any game I played in that did it this way.

Same issue with stat blocks the last MM has: instead of giving us a straitforward way to adjust NPC's to match our parties- like 3e did- we get 3 separate stat blocks. low, med, high. I find that they rarely match up that well.

in the same vein, NPC spellcasters are really weird! I'd prefer a strait up "x level Wizard" for example, because it would be easier to customize their spells, etal. ( it annoys me that EVERY wizard we meet has the exact same spells...) Spell lists seem unusually short, too.

I have been mainly converting older adventures for play with 2014 rules. ( the hardbound 5e premade campaigns just don't fit my style... And I find them a PITA to actually work out of) Simple swaps for the current monsters, spells and items. Should be easy, right? Nope. The above nit picks make them more complicated than necessary.

The lack of core D&D monsters, like Drow, Orcs, and Duergar are a huge turnoff for me. As are a lot of the unnecessary type changes ( was a humanoid, now a fey, for example), and the changing of longstanding lore. (Dryad, I'm looking at YOU!) WHY???


All in all, I will likely not use it much. 2014+ Volo's still works great- as do the 3rd party 5e books, like Creature Codex from Kobold Press. (You want Fey creatures? Good Lord, but did they go all-in on those in the 2 BIG volumes I own, lol)

Have you tried playing with them het? It just sounds like you don’t like changes.

 

[Teemu]

The new MM is definitely a big improvement and I used the stat blocks fairly extensively over the course of about 6 months or so, primarily focused on the mid to high CR entries. Together with the updated encounter building rules, the new stat blocks are better than what we had in MM2014. Even at higher levels the encounters were actually more or less the desired difficulty, which was not the case with the 2014 rules.

 

[Tessarael]

• Spellcasters have very powerful multiattacks that are not spells, but replace most damage spells on their spell list

So is Counterspell less useful in D&D 2024 with that change? Or do DMs permit these to be counterspelled?

 

[Sulicius]

So is Counterspell less useful in D&D 2024 with that change? Or do DMs permit these to be counterspelled?

RAW they can’t be countered, and along with the other Counterspell nerf, it is less useful for sure.

I personally don’t allow it, but I have heard of DM’s who do.

 

[Scott Christian]

The text descriptions have good flavour without too much lore, letting DMs choose how the creature fits in their setting. For me, this is a very positive change.

I think we had this discussion before, but that was the one thing that bothered me with the 2024 edition. I thought the 2014 edition did such a great job interconnecting the monsters to other monsters and the ecosystem in which they lived. This followed the path of the PHB species, where it was just, "Meh, you do the work." I don't know, I just really liked the putting the puzzle pieces together and the interconnectedness of the 2014 MM. I think it was the best one they have ever published.

But, I get your side too. I was just sorry to see it shift.

 

[Laurefindel]

TL;DR: stats blocks good, scattering of demons/dragons/humanoids throughout the book bad.

I like the art. Better than that of the PHB. Although the more I use it, the more I find it takes too much place and detracts from information.

At first, I didn’t mind the male/female representation but it wasn’t something I asked for or always found relevant. Now I appreciate it better and am glad they did it, even if I veto male medusae in setting X, or whatever.

The stat blocks are clearer, quicker, and altogether much better. Since that’s what I’m here for, this make the new MM superior.

I still miss orcs as baddies, and I’m still looking for dragon, red before I realize after 15 seconds that I have to look for red dragon. Like, every time. While annoying, I’m rarely using a red dragon alongside a green one, but I am often using 5 types of demons in the same encounter and I miss having them together.

Same with humanoids. I’m rarely using a band of 6 scouts, but often using 1 scout, 2 guards, 1 knight, 3 cultists etc. It would have been more convenient if they were all in the same section, ideally as an appendix.

 

[Sulicius]

TL;DR: stats blocks good, scattering of demons/dragons/humanoids throughout the book bad.

I like the art. Better than that of the PHB. Although the more I use it, the more I find it takes too much place and detracts from information.

At first, I didn’t mind the male/female representation but it wasn’t something I asked for or always found relevant. Now I appreciate it better and am glad they did it, even if I veto male medusae in setting X, or whatever.

The stat blocks are clearer, quicker, and altogether much better. Since that’s what I’m here for, this make the new MM superior.

I still miss orcs as baddies, and I’m still looking for dragon, red before I realize after 15 seconds that I have to look for red dragon. Like, every time. While annoying, I’m rarely using a red dragon alongside a green one, but I am often using 5 types of demons in the same encounter and I miss having them together.

Same with humanoids. I’m rarely using a band of 6 scouts, but often using 1 scout, 2 guards, 1 knight, 3 cultists etc. It would have been more convenient if they were all in the same section, ideally as an appendix.

But what has been your experience using the book? All of that is the same people have been saying since day 1.

 

[Chaltab]

I feel like the layout of the new books is one of those things where it sounds good in your head but you don't notice the problems it causes in practice, especially if you're like the designers, plugged into the online tools and everything.

 

[Sulicius]

I feel like the layout of the new books is one of those things where it sounds good in your head but you don't notice the problems it causes in practice, especially if you're like the designers, plugged into the online tools and everything.

It’s actually the opposite. If you are used to the old way and never try to learn the new way, it seems stupid.

If you use the book a session or two, you’ll already be used to it.

 

[Laurefindel]

But what has been your experience using the book? All of that is the same people have been saying since day 1.

That is my experience.

Even after a year I find page-turning annoying. I never got used to red dragon instead of dragon, red. At first I welcomed and dig the art; now I wish there was less. The humanoid blocks are pretty good all things considered; enough that I find I use them a lot more than in 2014, but I’m annoyed by the fact they are scattered. Not sure what I was supposed to say….