D&D (2024) What old monsters should return to 5e?

Back before VGtM came out, I made a list of 100 monsters that I would like to see updated to 5e, and the vast majority of them have indeed been updated.

D&D 5E - What would you put in monster manual 2?

Obviously, I'd like to see the remaining ones updated as well!

I've recently downloaded some of the 2e Monstrous Compendiums (the three-ring binder ones, not the 2e Monstrous Manual) due to some discussions over the updated 5e MM, and one thing that struck me (again, as it first struck me way back when I first saw it back when the MC3 came out) is that someone at the time really loved dinosaurs, as there are 48 dinosaurs (or, well, dinosaurs and other various Mesozoic reptiles associated with them and often erroneously called "dinosaurs"). That sort of led me down a rabbit hole of what further dinosaurs could be reasonably updated to 5e ("reasonably" being the important word here - we certainly don't need 48!). There's a gap in carnivorous dinosaurs between the CR 2 allosaurus and the CR 8 tyrannosaurus rex that would be an obvious place to have some sort of predator, but after looking into dinosaur sizes, my conclusion is that allosaurus (and quetzalcoatlus to an extent) have been given really inaccurately low CRs compared to what they should have, compared to their real-life versions (and as they did have in previous editions - for comparison, T-rex was CR 8 in 3e as well, but allosaurus was CR 7 and quetzalcoatlus was CR 8 compared to CR 2 now, although CR 8 is as bad of an overestimate as CR 2 is an underestimate). A (5e) CR 1 deinonychus was 3.5 m long and 75 kg, while a (5e) CR 2 allosaurus was 10 m long and 2500 kg! Honestly, allosaurus should be CR 5 or so, with either megaraptor (which was in 3e) or ceratosaurus (which was in both 2e and 3e) slotting in at the CR 2 level.

Beyond that, 5e could definitely use a larger hadrosaur (edmontosaurus could actually be bigger than its contemporary T-rex!); hadrosaurus should also be replaced with one of the more familiar weird-head crest hadrosaurs - it wasn't particularly common and only gets credit for being discovered early and getting to name the group. And 5e could also have a larger sauropod; brontosaurus was large, but some sauropods, especially the titanosaurs, dwarfed it! And outside of dinosaurs proper and going underwater, 5e has plesiosaurus and, with the 2025 update, archelon, but is missing an ichthyosaur (although you could massage the dolphin stat block a bit to get one) and, most glaringly, a mosasaur.

Various versions of the dinosaurs (and associated reptiles) I've suggested did appear in previous editions.
 
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There's quite a few Spelljammer monsters that I wish got an official update. Yitsans Contemplators,, bio-noids, monitors, witchlight marauders and lakshu would be my top picks.

Some extraplanars, like bladelings, nullfiers, hekotoncheires, and Morwel and her court.

High level threats like primordials and Allabar the evil planet

Also the Oard because D&D did the Borg before Star Trek did and people need to know.
 




The Quom, from The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea. I was always disappointed we didn't get more of them. And if we had gotten a Player's Option: Heroes of the Astral Sea, I really thought we would have gotten them as a PC species. But 4e was cancelled a year too early for that book.

Spelljammer: Adventures in Space! at least gave me most of what I wanted from such a companion book (and was sort of a re-do on The Plane Above as well, just fitting it into the 5e Planescape + World Axis mashup cosmos). But I also understand why it chose to focus on species from Spelljammer and Star Frontiers specifically, because it's trying to be as authentic to those campaign settings as it can while still fitting into the Planescape cosmological model.
 

The Quom, from The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea. I was always disappointed we didn't get more of them. And if we had gotten a Player's Option: Heroes of the Astral Sea, I really thought we would have gotten them as a PC species. But 4e was cancelled a year too early for that book.

Spelljammer: Adventures in Space! at least gave me most of what I wanted from such a companion book (and was sort of a re-do on The Plane Above as well, just fitting it into the 5e Planescape + World Axis mashup cosmos). But I also understand why it chose to focus on species from Spelljammer and Star Frontiers specifically, because it's trying to be as authentic to those campaign settings as it can while still fitting into the Planescape cosmological model.
I'm running a spelljammer game and put the Qom in it.


Unfortunately my players can't stop making cum and masturbation jokes whenever they're in play
 

As a huge monster fan... all of them.

Yes, horrifying creatures like the dharculus; the scalamagdrion; the penanggalan; the gibberling (and its offshoot, the brood gibberling); but also things like the bunyip; the odopi; the corpse collector; and even sillier monsters, like the the adherer. The spanner. Even the tirapheg.

All monsters can be rehabilitated; the tirapheg in my game is a horrible fusion of torture victims created by agents of Torog, the god of torture. It just takes a little thought to come up with how a given monster can work. And there is so much potential for all the monsters we haven't seen in years or decades. There are very few monsters that I think don't deserve a second (or third, or fifth) chance.
 

As a huge monster fan... all of them.

Yes, horrifying creatures like the dharculus; the scalamagdrion; the penanggalan; the gibberling (and its offshoot, the brood gibberling); but also things like the bunyip; the odopi; the corpse collector; and even sillier monsters, like the the adherer. The spanner. Even the tirapheg.

All monsters can be rehabilitated; the tirapheg in my game is a horrible fusion of torture victims created by agents of Torog, the god of torture. It just takes a little thought to come up with how a given monster can work. And there is so much potential for all the monsters we haven't seen in years or decades. There are very few monsters that I think don't deserve a second (or third, or fifth) chance.
AGREED, 100%! The adherer is a classic that I love, despite how silly it is. There's room for silly!!
 


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