D&D 5E Volo's Guide to Monsters - Which monsters do you want to see?

[Parmandur]

Podcast today, has Jeremy Crawford and Emi Tanji discuss design of the book.

Lore you can know covers Orcs, their history in D&D, and how for 5E, the D&D Orcs are religous fanatics, with tribes divided by cults to the various gods covering different social functions. Example stronghold im the book has these different religous elements in tension.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Podcast today, has Jeremy Crawford and Emi Tanji discuss design of the book.

Lore you can know covers Orcs, their history in D&D, and how for 5E, the D&D Orcs are religous fanatics, with tribes divided by cults to the various gods covering different social functions. Example stronghold im the book has these different religous elements in tension.

That is an interesting take on them. Nice to see them escape mindless barbarianhood.

In my setting, they are basically the Aztecs, sacrificing people to keep monster gods asleep. [They prefer to sacrifice weak beings (humans, halflings, elves, etc.) on the thought that weak beings are like fast food, and "eating" a diet of them will make the monster gods weak.] Sadly for PC's, the orcs are correct that not sacrificing on a regular basis will let Tarrasque like things awaken, and even more sadly, the orcs' theory about weak beings making the monster gods weak is not correct. You know it is a good day when you trick your party into starting the apocalypse....after all, orcs can't be right, can they?

 

[Demetrios1453]

Sorry for the spelling; my phone cut off the page, so I couldn't actually see what I was writing, nor edit it (Tapatalk!).

Other line of thinking:

I could easily see a whole other book that follows the same format ad this, with other major baddies detailed, more playable races, and more new monster stats. A recent review said the book mentions on page 5 wanting to cover other monsters in future releases. What monster groups would be a good fit for a deeper look?

- Sahuagin seem an obvious choice: potential to be the baddies for a major campaign, and they have only covered the tip of the iceburg.

-Kuo-Tua seem like they would also be decent candidates: reserved IP, lots of character and potential for RP as well as combat experiences

- Drow, though they already largely feature in an AP release, would also be interesting and popular

- Genies, ogo into their culture and mindset would be fun.

- Ogres? Dunno if there is much of a story there...bit maybe?

- Lich, tables to create a really unique ancient undead wizard personality, and lair info, would be cool.

- Aboleth...because getting in their heads sounds like a solid plan.

- Vampires: again, help creating memorable individuals and building lairs would be cool.

- Cambions - fantastic Big Bads, what's their story?

- Bullywug?

- Lycanthropes could use more detail, specific guidance for PC usage.

I was thinking that something like a Volo's Guide to Under the Surface would be nice, detailing both adventuring and the creatures of the Underdark and underwater. That would cover most of the creatures you mentioned...

 

[Charles Rampant]

We had Out of the Abyss, but that was surprisingly light on Beholder, Aboleth, Mind Flayer and (to a lesser extent) Drow action, despite those being the big name monsters down there; I did wonder when reading it whether they were held back for another underground storyline at a future date.

 

[gyor]

I think the next supplement book will be the Manuel of the Planes. Its easy do it simularly to Volo's guide.

Picture Chapter 1 Monster/Planar lore for Fiends, Celestials, Elementals, Mordons, Slaadi, Chapter 2 player section with a few races like Elderin, Githyanki, Githzerai, Shadar Kai, and the Far Realms touched Mystic Class, Chapter 3 Beastairy, Guardianals, Elderin, Brachina, Lilitu, a few planar odds and ends, planes walker NPC template, a celestial template, fiend template.

 

[Parmandur]

I think the next supplement book will be the Manuel of the Planes. Its easy do it simularly to Volo's guide.

Picture Chapter 1 Monster/Planar lore for Fiends, Celestials, Elementals, Mordons, Slaadi, Chapter 2 player section with a few races like Elderin, Githyanki, Githzerai, Shadar Kai, and the Far Realms touched Mystic Class, Chapter 3 Beastairy, Guardianals, Elderin, Brachina, Lilitu, a few planar odds and ends, planes walker NPC template, a celestial template, fiend template.

"Eliminsters Guide to the Cosmos," perhaps?

 

[Parmandur]

I was thinking that something like a Volo's Guide to Under the Surface would be nice, detailing both adventuring and the creatures of the Underdark and underwater. That would cover most of the creatures you mentioned...

Yes, quite possible; in all likelihood, based on their current approach, they will want to hit as many areas as possible, to maximize interest. Crawford, incidentally, does verify your hypothesis on the DM/Player/mini-MM division being intentional in the latest podcast. He also goes a bit into the crafting process, how Perkins, [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION], Crawford and Chris Lindsey jockeyed to get their personal favorite monsters in based on a sports-style draft!

 

[gyor]

Yes, quite possible; in all likelihood, based on their current approach, they will want to hit as many areas as possible, to maximize interest. Crawford, incidentally, does verify your hypothesis on the DM/Player/mini-MM division being intentional in the latest podcast. He also goes a bit into the crafting process, how Perkins, [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION], Crawford and Chris Lindsey jockeyed to get their personal favorite monsters in based on a sports-style draft!

That is kind of a weird way to design the book.

 

[Parmandur]

That is kind of a weird way to design the book.

Specifically, this is in reference to Chapter Three: they had X space for new monsters, and way more than would fit. So the decisions on what made it on were done through this team wrangling on what each individual wanted to see (including Sean Reynolds, apparently). Explains why the selection is pretty wild.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Specifically, this is in reference to Chapter Three: they had X space for new monsters, and way more than would fit. So the decisions on what made it on were done through this team wrangling on what each individual wanted to see (including Sean Reynolds, apparently). Explains why the selection is pretty wild.

The line up isn't that wild, although I do agree that there area some... interesting choices in there. The good news is that they would seem to have a solid foundation of monsters to include in whatever the next "Volo's Guide to X" is...