D&D 5E With Fizban's and now Bigby's, what other groups do you think we'll see with their own books?

[Demetrios1453]

With the announcement of Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants for 2023 after getting Fizban's Treasury of Dragons last year, this seems to indicate that WotC is now taking a new approach to monster books. Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes were relatively well received, but they were very scattershot and unfocused, and presented only relatively light overviews of the creatures they covered, simply because they were covering large and varied groups of creatures in each book. Now it seems that WotC is taking a more focused approach - taking a single, but large, group of creatures and covering them in detail (which, in my opinion, is probably the better route). So, assuming this format continues on, which groups do you think are likely to be featured in upcoming products? And which groups, whether you think WotC will do it or not, do you want to see in upcoming products? And, as a bonus question, which D&D legacy characters will be the "authors" of the books?

Obviously, undead would seem to be a reasonable guess for the next one. Would they re-use Van Richten as our guide, or maybe go the more villainous route and use Szass Tam or even Vecna?

I'm hoping to see a full-fledged fiends/outer planar creature book after Planescape, and books on aberrations and fey (who are always criminally underused) would be nice to see as well.

Do they open Pandora's Box and do a humanoid-focused book on orcs, goblinoids, and the like? Or even on the traditional player races? There was a lot of interesting info on those in Volo's and Mordenkainen's that could be revisited, but doing so could court controversy...

 

[Scribe]

Undead for sure.

I'd love a Blood War book.

Far Realm.

I was flipping through my Fizbans again, I like the format a lot, and would pick up all of those.

 

[Parmandur]

Great topic!

So, what do Fizban's and. Igny share in common? We don't quote know, but we know what Dragons and Giants share in common. Both are fairly high level beings, that can serve as either major threats and BBEG, ornpowdrful party patrons. Hence why one would want a book diving deep into their culture, their myth, and their personalities, as well as game stuff like maps and stat blocks. Also, Dragons and Giants both share a lot of thematic and mythical resonance within their monster type, both in the game and pop culture broadly considered.

What other Monsters share this space?

I think that Undead, as you say, is the big one. A Lich, Vampire, or Mummy Lord can be a campaign's main villain, easy, or serve as the patron providing impetus for a character. There is lots of possibilities for Undead major NPCs, and a lotnofnpotential gaming material for Undead at all Levels.

Fey is, I think, one of the areas D&D needs the most development. A Fizbanstyle Feywild book would be awesome.

 

[overgeeked]

Definitely undead. Besides Van Richten and Vecna, they might go with a famous necromancer. Are there any famous necromancers in some odd corner of D&D lore? Great book to rework the necromancer wizard and add similar themed character options for other classes. A Frankenstein-inspired artificer would be sweet.

I’d love an elementals book. Hit the big four, the para-elements, and all the various elementals D&D has used over time. Elemental templates to add to other monsters. That would be a good book for element-focused subclasses, like air-, earth-, fire-, and water-themed clerics.

A book of goblinoids would be cool. Give us all the various goblins, hobs, bugs, and orcs we can handle. Clans, warbands, higher CR bosses, nothing CR minions, mobs, on and on. It’s a thematic book, but less focused.

 

[Parmandur]

Definitely undead. Besides Van Richten and Vecna, they might go with a famous necromancer. Are there any famous necromancers in some odd corner of D&D lore? Great book to rework the necromancer wizard and add similar themed character options for other classes. A Frankenstein-inspired artificer would be sweet.

I’d love an elementals book. Hit the big four, the para-elements, and all the various elementals D&D has used over time. Elemental templates to add to other monsters. That would be a good book for element-focused subclasses, like air-, earth-, fire-, and water-themed clerics.

A book of goblinoids would be cool. Give us all the various goblins, hobs, bugs, and orcs we can handle. Clans, warbands, higher CR bosses, nothing CR minions, mobs, on and on. It’s a thematic book, but less focused.

I can't think of any famous Necromancers in D&D Lore who didn’t go full Lich.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Definitely undead. Besides Van Richten and Vecna, they might go with a famous necromancer. Are there any famous necromancers in some odd corner of D&D lore? Great book to rework the necromancer wizard and add similar themed character options for other classes. A Frankenstein-inspired artificer would be sweet.

I’d love an elementals book. Hit the big four, the para-elements, and all the various elementals D&D has used over time. Elemental templates to add to other monsters. That would be a good book for element-focused subclasses, like air-, earth-, fire-, and water-themed clerics.

A book of goblinoids would be cool. Give us all the various goblins, hobs, bugs, and orcs we can handle. Clans, warbands, higher CR bosses, nothing CR minions, mobs, on and on. It’s a thematic book, but less focused.

Excellent point on elementals. There's plenty of room for bestiary additions (genie and elemental variants, para-elementals as you said, maybe even the quasi-elementals and energons), and lots of possible player options/info (genasi info, elemental subclasses as you said, and potential warlock patrons). Lots of possibilities for magic items and spells as well. And it could even double as a sourcebook for the Inner Planes, assuming that Planescape more or less ignores them as it has in the past.

 

[R_J_K75]

I can't think of any famous Necromancers in D&D Lore who didn’t go full Lich.

As far as I remember the 2E Complete Necromancers Handbook is probably the only book where necromancers were detailed in any depth. Maybe a bit in Libris Mortis from 3.x may have had a subclass but I dont recall.

 

[Leatherhead]

fey (who are always criminally underused)

I am positive that they are trying to do a Feywild book given all the fey stuff they were talking about in MotM.

And if that goes well, they might do a Shadowfell book too.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Azmodeus' Art of the Deal.

(The name's a joke, but Guide to Devils and the Nine Hells - I just don't think you could call it that).

Somebody (I can't think of, sorry) Guide to the Abyss

(Combine the above into Book of the Blood War)

 

[Parmandur]

I am positive that they are trying to do a Feywild book given all the fey stuff they were talking about in MotM.

And if that goes well, they might do a Shadowfell book too.

Ooooh, the Shadowfell. Different from Ravenloft proper. I think covering how the Shadowfell works, comically, would fit well with a book covering Undead as Monsters/NPVs, same as a Fey book would want to cover Fairy Courts and such.