D&D 5E What do you like, and what do you not like about Volo's Guide to Monsters? (spoilers)

[zaratan]

Elder Brain with only 20 of Int, seriously??? Is a ing giant brain with the size of a car and any human can reach the same intelligence level?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Elder Brain with only 20 of Int, seriously??? Is a ing giant brain with the size of a car and any human can reach the same intelligence level?

21 so no it's actually impossible for a Human to reach the same level of intelligence. At least not without the help of powerful magic.

 

[flametitan]

Elder Brain with only 20 of Int, seriously??? Is a ing giant brain with the size of a car and any human can reach the same intelligence level?

Explained in VGM by the fact that the Mind Flayer uses a distributed network of memory storage. You'll have a mind flayer that knows everything there is to know about human metallurgy, while another is unmatchable in their knowledge of obscure board-game rules.

 

[Jester David]

I go into my thoughts in my large detail-heavy review here: http://www.5mwd.com/archives/3844

But rapid fire, I like the focus on lore rather than waves of filler monster - with the hags, yuan-ti, and gnolls in particular - the deep cut of the tabaxi rather than making something entirely new, the kenku, the random tables, and the vast majority of the monsters. I dislike the the grung (over the grippli), reprinting the goliath, the absence of a few classic 1e monsters, the general low CR of the monsters, and the lore of the goblins, orcs, and kobolds.

 

[Yunru]

Orcs get -2 Int, but nothing to compensate for it. That's no fun.

 

[zaratan]

21 so no it's actually impossible for a Human to reach the same level of intelligence. At least not without the help of powerful magic.

You are 100% correct my friend, sorry.

Explained in VGM by the fact that the Mind Flayer uses a distributed network of memory storage. You'll have a mind flayer that knows everything there is to know about human metallurgy, while another is unmatchable in their knowledge of obscure board-game rules.

So, any mind flayer has 19, Ulitharid can reach 21, same as elder brain, but he still a servant. And the brain that has the knowledge of the entire colony has 21?
I think he should get at least 22 or 23, my opinion.

At least he's a very charismatic brain

 

[Corpsetaker]

I don't have the book yet so I'm just going off what I read here. I am so glad they brought back stat penalties. For me, this makes the monsters feel more realistic. I never imagined a Kobold having massive strength, or an Orc being insanely smart.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

One thing I really dislike about Volo's is that it's impossible for me to buy it yet!

 

[CapnZapp]

So it's perfectly fine for a company that has touted its credentials as providing a balanced game and leveraged that to sell product to then suddenly about-face and say that they didn't bother to balance things?

And on top of that you then accuse DM's who don't want imbalanced mechanics in their games as needing an excuse?

As far as I'm concerned, this was just plain lazy design.

No, it's perfectly acceptable to intentionally make a monster over/underpowered, and then say that out loud.

Why do you assume imbalanced means lazy? (It's not hard to imagine that if every monster is balanced with humans and elves, no matter how big or magical it is, someone would call that lazy design...)

I can give you that they could have said explicitly "these choices are stronger than the PHB alternatives, but not so much stronger that they merit a balancing mechanism such as "effective character levels".

 

[Tony Vargas]

No, it's perfectly acceptable to intentionally make a monster over/underpowered, and then say that out loud.

You'd think you'd just bump or lower it's CR?

Why do you assume imbalanced means lazy?

Because designing balanced material is hard.

(It's not hard to imagine that if every monster is balanced with humans and elves, no matter how big or magical it is, someone would call that lazy design...)

Someone will call any given thing the opposite of what reasonable people would call it, sure. Every time. Especially on-line & anonymous somebodies.

I can give you that they could have said explicitly "these choices are stronger than the PHB alternatives, but not so much stronger that they merit a balancing mechanism such as "effective character levels".

Or, ECL might've been 'merited' (mathematically or mechanically) - but having one at all would have clashed with 5e's DM-centric design. That kind of formulaic/objective component is ideal to empower players crafting complex character builds, for instance.
A DM can decide to include or ban or mod a given race in accord with his campaign. The heads up that it's over or under powered compared to standard races under 'standard' assumptions (as if standard races were perfectly balanced) is nice, and more than adequate for an Empowered DM.