D&D (2024) Why No Monster Creation Rules in D&D 2024?

[Reynard]

I am curious if the designers have said, in blog posts or videos or whatever, why precisely they decided to not include full monster design rules in the 2024 DMG or MM? (And no, the DMG "rules" presented are not what I am talking about.)

Is it because they are going to appear somewhere else later? Or is there no actual system behind it all? Or is there a system but the team doesn't think DMs can handle it?

If there is no word from the designers or WotC as a whole, what do you think the reason is?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Because monster creation is an art, not a science. The only rule is there are no rules.

 

[Charlaquin]

The 2024 books seem to employ a lot of page count saving measures, and I think this is probably one of them. They likely figured that the number of DMs who will make use of monster creation rules vs the number who would rather just use stock stat blocks, with maybe a small, non-CR-affecting tweak or two, didn’t justify the page count. Especially since their business model kinda revolves around selling books full of stock stat blocks.

 

[Reynard]

The 2024 books seem to employ a lot of page count saving measures, and I think this is probably one of them. They likely figured that the number of DMs who will make use of monster creation rules vs the number who would rather just use stock stat blocks, with maybe a small, non-CR-affecting tweak or two, didn’t justify the page count. Especially since their business model kinda revolves around selling books full of stock stat blocks.

2014 including monster creation rules certainly did not seem to hurt their ability to sell multiple monster books.

 

[Charlaquin]

2014 including monster creation rules certainly did not seem to hurt their ability to sell multiple monster books.

I agree, which is why I didn’t suggest that as the primary reason for their absence.

 

[Reynard]

I agree, which is why I didn’t suggest that as the primary reason for their absence.

yeah.

the page count argument irritates me because monster creation rules took up 10 pages in 2014. In 2024 they used 40 pages for the planes. Frankly, monster creation rules are far more useful than planes that may or may not exist in any individual campaign.

 

[ezo]

If there is no word from the designers or WotC as a whole, what do you think the reason is?

I think a better question would be why not have a monster creation system (which you can include in the monster or DM book) and actually use that system to create all the monsters in your monster book?

This way, players can reverse-engineer the monsters you present to see how the system work and then use it to alter those monsters or create their own.

In other words, make it a science and not an art.

 

[Charlaquin]

yeah.

the page count argument irritates me because monster creation rules took up 10 pages in 2014. In 2024 they used 40 pages for the planes. Frankly, monster creation rules are far more useful than planes that may or may not exist in any individual campaign.

I agree, but WotC seems to think of the planes as extremely important for some reason, and in 2024 has doubled down on the idea that they are a core part of the game’s assumptions - one of the constants across all their official settings, and they really seem to want to manifest that being true of 3rd party and homebrew settings too. On the other hand, while I think monster creation rules were one of the most useful parts of the 2014 DMG, I do suspect they’re probably not used at all by a very large number of DMs.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think a better question would be why not have a monster creation system (which you can include in the monster or DM book) and actually use that system to create all the monsters in your monster book?

This way, players can reverse-engineer the monsters you present to see how the system work and then use it to alter those monsters or create their own.

In other words, make it a science and not an art.

Well, I’d say there are some very good reasons not to do that. The main two being that monsters might end up feeling extremely formulaic and therefore boring, and more importantly, that there are really too many variables in play for such a formula to work reliably anyway. Better to use the formula as a starting point, playtest, and use actual in-play experience to inform further iteration and refinement. That goes for homebrewers as well as for professional designers.

 

[payn]

I wonder if that is going to get pushed into the digital offerings on DDB and VTT?