D&D 5E (2014) Volo's Guide to Monsters: General Discussion.

[Mirtek]

I get that; just not sure why there are so many variations on "cow" in particular?

It's a hint to one of the next adventures. D&D will get a cow level

 

[GarrettKP]

 

[gyor]

It's a hint to one of the next adventures. D&D will get a cow level

I have a feeling you mostly just use the same stat block for all of them, maybe with a small modifications.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Gender is the only difference between a cow and an ox.

Last I heard gender was the difference between a Cow and a Bull. Cattle are bovines that are used for meat. Oxen are bovines that are used as beasts of burden. Pulling carts and wagons and such. While oxen are usually males and often castrated, that is typically because male mammals are larger than female mammals, and size affects pulling strength.

It would be likely that a poor family would have a family cow (if they had a cow at all) that would be used for milk and to pull a plow or wagon.

I'm frankly surprised that any text in Volo's guide is dedicated to cattle, oxen, or any other bovine.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Though perhaps castrated oxen seeking revenge make great monsters in the Realms. /shrug

 

[flametitan]

I'm frankly surprised that any text in Volo's guide is dedicated to cattle, oxen, or any other bovine.

TBF, when you stat up other beasts of burden like mules and riding horses, the Ox's exclusion is pretty glaring, especially when LMoP starts you off with Ox and no stats in case your players decide to use them in combat for whatever reason. You can use other stats for the purposes of oxen, but this is one of those things LMoP forgets to point out is an option.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Goblins get nimble step, darkvision, and an ability to deal level damage to beings taller them them. Its like multiclassing as a rogue.

Wow! That might be better than variant human or half-elf! Especially for, say, a bardlock.

Goblins forever!

 

[gyor]

Wow! That might be better than variant human or half-elf! Especially for, say, a bardlock.

Goblins forever!

They only do the bonus damage once per short rest, and nimble escape is disengage/hide as a bonus action. Not bad.

 

[Jester David]

From the other thread:

Aasimar Sounds like they want to redo them from the DMG. Makes sense: the DMG was a poor book to serve as a player reference product. Happier to have them given the full meal deal. I just hope they worked in a deva variant.
Already allowed at my table.

Bugbear A surprise. They're sneaky CE brutes. Murderers and serial killers. Hard to picture them as Player Character material. But I imagine the stealthy medium sized creature role is well served by them.
They're sociopaths!! Yeah... not at my table.

Firbolg This race does have some unfortunately changes to lore. It'd be nice if they kept the Celtic look with the big red beards to at least tie the visual similarities of the two races together. Hopefully there's more art in the book that offers and alternate take. Personally, I don't mind the slight lore tweak, as they could use a realignment to be closer to the mythological version. And more fey creatures are nice.
I'll probably allow, if a player asks. The Feywild is open enough for there to be lots of places a firbolg could hail from.

Goblin Expected. People love their gobos.
I'd probably allow.

Goliath Sad. I liked having Elemental Evil races remain there, to keep that product useful...
They don't really have a solid place in my world. So I wouldn't allow for that reason. Or I'd discourage/ ask for a great story hook.

Hobgoblin A bit of a surprise. But they fill a military/martial role that isn't served by most other PC races. They work for any mercenary race quite nicely.
Would allow if the player had a good story.

Kenku Unexpected but hoped for. I love kenku as a ravenfolk.
They don't have a strong presence in my current campaign setting sadly. So I won't push them towards my players like kobolds. But allowed.

Kobold Expected. People love their kobos.
Kobolds have a big presence in my world. Definitely allowed.

Lizardfolk Not a huge surprise.
Have a place in my world, and as a neutral race they're easier to work in than hobgoblins, orcs, etc.

Orc Expected. Warcraft and all.
Would allow.

Tabaxi Huh... I knew they were bringing in "catfolk" so I was expecting that. As a Monstrous Manual race - a book I have supreme nostolgia for - this is a bit of a surprise. And has some stronger ties to D&D history than generic "catfolk", while still allowing people to play catfolk. Okay, nice. I like when they go for a callback while also doing fan service rather than just inventing something.
They don't really have a place in my world. I could work them in if a player had their heart on the race, but I'd prefer not to.

Triton An aquatic race does fill a pretty big niche in the player toolbox. Great for a lot of campaigns.
But not mine. Not allowed: they're all dead.

Yuan-ti Pureblood Somewhat of a surprise. Like the bugbear they're a good human-ish stealthy race. For people who want to be a good rogue but not be a halfling.
If the player had a solid hook, I'd allow it.

The nine subjects of lore: most are good. No surprises there beyond hags: that's one's a bit of a twist. But all the rest are definitely worthy and obvious subjects of another 10 or so pages of lore and legends.

The bestiary features a lot of NPCs. That's a surprise. Some good choices.
Four varieties of cow. That's odd.
Some new dinosaurs. *Shrug* But the deinonychus is a good choice.
alhoon, annis, babau, banderhobb, barghest, bodak, boggle, catoblepas, cave fisher, devourer, elder brain, flail snail, flind, froghemoth (!), gauth, girallon, ki-rin, leucrotta, neogi (!!), quickling, redcap, shadow mastif, spawn of Kyuss, rot grubs, trapper, vargouille, vegepygmy, and yeth hound are all appreciated.

Wonder if the darkling and sea spawn are the same from Ravenloft.

Really, looking through the list there's only a dozen I feel "meh" about. And a couple of those it's because I'm not sure what they are and my opinion could change upon sight.
I mean, I'm not feeling the wood woad or draegloth. But that's like 10% of the monsters of the book, probably a far, far better ratio than any other second monster book I've purchased.

Pretty excited for this book.

 

[flametitan]

Really, looking through the list there's only a dozen I feel "meh" about. And a couple of those it's because I'm not sure what they are and my opinion could change upon sight.
I mean, I'm not feeling the wood woad or draegloth. But that's like 10% of the monsters of the book, probably a far, far better ratio than any other second monster book I've purchased.

Just for a little clarification: are you not feeling the draegloth because it's one of the ones you don't know, or because you just dislike draegloths?