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

[Remathilis]

It doesn't matter. you don't lose anything by having them there for the people that appreciate them. You do lose something by having them, then removing them.

But you do lose something. Page space is finite. You lose something else. And now we're playing a game of preferences that is entirely subjective.

 

[Reynard]

But you do lose something. Page space is finite. You lose something else. And now we're playing a game of preferences that is entirely subjective.

More tools is alwaysbetter. If you are having trouble with your page count, maybe cut down on the giant walls of text. Concise is king. Didn't these people ever take a writing class?

 

[Minigiant]

Let's look at CR 6 Because it displays my point.

CHIMERA
A moderately complex skirmisher who can be run as a solo throwaway encounter or as elites in a bigger battle

CYCLOPS
A simple brute. A decent lower level wandering monster or mid level mook.

DRIDER
A classic shoulder monster that can be a high level artillery piece.

MAGE
A flat out spellcaster

MAMMOTH
Big dumb brute not intended to be fought but as a Wildshape or Summon option

MEDUSA
A monster with an iconic control feature and ranged roots

WYVERN
A simple flying skrimisher

YOUNG WHITE/BRASS DRAGON
A moderately complex bruiser designed to be a boss monster

Some of these could be designed with the same rules. But instructions to create all of them would require a lot of script.

 

[Remathilis]

More tools is alwaysbetter. If you are having trouble with your page count, maybe cut down on the giant walls of text. Concise is king. Didn't these people ever take a writing class?

I keep forgetting you are the one who likes lore so thin you can see right through it.

Maybe those rules will breathe better in the next "of Everything" book? They certainly didn't have an issue with putting the expanded tools, downtime and encounter creation rules in a supplement.

 

[Reynard]

I keep forgetting you are the one who likes lore so thin you can see right through it.

You. I think that "lore" in the core rules should only exist enough to inspire. Of course settings and other supplements should go as deep as they like.

Maybe those rules will breathe better in the next "of Everything" book? They certainly didn't have an issue with putting the expanded tools, downtime and encounter creation rules in a supplement.

I am hoping that since they aimed the DMG at new GMS (not a bad thing) they plan on an "advanced DMG" with the "missing" stuff. We'll see. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until we see the next couple years' schedules.

 

[Minigiant]

More tools is alwaysbetter. If you are having trouble with your page count, maybe cut down on the giant walls of text. Concise is king. Didn't these people ever take a writing class?

The DMG is pared down as is

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

My guess is that wotc doesnt want to do work they know youtubers, bloggers, and 3pps will do for them.

 

[Umbran]

More tools is alwaysbetter.

Not if they are crappy tools that don't work well, or otherwise frustrate the intended users. Or are even fine tools, that you just don't use often. Those tools fall to the bottom of the toolbox, and never get used, and are just dead weight you are hauling around.

Until you tidy up that toolbox, and you put that special wrench you only use to reach up behind a sink from below to remove a faucet* - a task you've only done once in 20 years - in a drawer in the basement. You can go and fetch it out later if another sink misbehaves in 5 years.

With so many people producing so many books full of monsters, maybe tools to make your own aren't really that popular or frequently used. Yes, you might use them, but have you considered the possibility that you are special?




*Oddly specific? Yes. I have one of those - absolutely necessary when I needed it that one time, but it doesn't live in my toolbox.

 

[Minigiant]

are they? I have not seen them mentioned much, I see more complaints about the monster rules missing

Granted, people complain more than they praise, but I have no idea what you base that notion on, esp Bastions, I know some people are happy GH is now open for DMsGuild

Greyhawk and Bastions was 50% of the 2025 DMG's marketing

 

[Oofta]

I'm sympathetic to two main concerns I've seen.

1. The creation rules are not newbie friendly, and they wanted to target newbies more. This makes some sense to me, and is something I can get behind in principle. This still ruins how I use D&D, but I'm definitely a pretty elite user. I do wish WotC wasn't afraid of teaching DMs in their books, but I kind of get it. Here's me hoping for a revised system in a future book (which may also include species / class / subclass /etc. design guideance!).
2. The creation rules caused a lot of unfounded griping. No monster creation system can be perfect, and there will always be exceptions to the guidelines, but the main chatter around the creation system was that "it's bad," either because it wasn't perfect, or because people didn't really understand how to use it. Wizards decided that no system was better than a system that was attracting so much negative attention, or couldn't figure out how to present the system in a way that wouldn't give this sort of false impression, and so they just dropped it. This situation is a bit more dire, because it implies that we may never see an updated monster creation system.

But, the monster building system was critical to how I was running D&D games and it worked very well for me (in combo with Xanathar's encounter building rules). So it's one of the big things that makes me unhappy to run 5.24. Until it's fixed, it's gonna be a problem for me, since I can't run games in D&D the way I want without it. Whatever the reason for keeping it out, I want to see it put back in, as soon as possible.

The old rules haven't disappeared. There are plenty of alternative monster building rules out there, I use the ones from the blog of holding and I'm sure there will be new ones soon enough based on the new MM.

I get that you want something official and I can relate because I'm dissapointed we don't have them in the MM, I just don't think it's that big of a deal.