D&D 5E Zooming In On Monsters of the Multiverse [UPDATED!]

Earlier, WotC announced Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse, a new D&D compilation of monster material from previous products updated to a new format. These screen grabs are as good as I could get them. They're not terribly clear, but you can make more out than in the original images.

The screenshots show the original entry in Volo's Guide to Monsters next to the new entry in Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse.

"The Future of D&D" (New Core Books in 2024!)

The online D&D Celebration event, which has been running all weekend, comes to a close with The Future of D&D, a panel featuring WotC's Ray Winninger, Liz Schuh, Chris Perkins, and Jeremy Crawford, hosted by Elle Osili-Wood. D&D is exploring the multiverse Revisiting classic settings. 1st of...

www.enworld.org

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UPDATE -- a cleaned up version of the War Priest has appeared on imgur.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Looks great!

Though I remember an editor yelling at me a few years ago for writing out spell effects as monster abilities instead of just saying that the monster could cast a given spell: "it's simpler! and DMs don't mind looking stuff up!"

How the times change.

 

[Rabulias]

I imagine these pages might be behind some of the puzzles from the D&D Celebration map page, but I don't have time to suss those out.

It looks to me like the War Priest's Actions are:

Multiattack. The war priest makes two Maul attacks and it uses Holy Fire.

Maul. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage plus 10 (3d6) radiant damage.

Holy Fire. The war priest targets one creature it can see within 60 feet of it. The target must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 12 (2d8 + 3) radiant damage, and it it is blinded until the start the war priest's next turn. On a successful save, the target takes half as much damage and isn't blinded.

Spellcasting. The war priest casts one of the following spells using Wisdom as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 15):

At will: light, spare the dying, thaumaturgy
1/day each: banishment, command, detect magic, flame strike, guardian of faith, hold person, lesser restoration, revivify

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

This is great. I've been doing this on my own ever since Matt Colville talked about the approach in his action oriented monsters video.

Was it that video? I thought that he talked about it in the Monkeying with Monsters video.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I can't read any of that, but on a totally tangential note, I hope the book both reprints Grung, and presents at least one non-poisonous frog-folk option.

Something similar to the harengon with the ability to cling to walls and try to grapple with your tongue, maybe.

Or maybe slow movement speed but your speed is greater while jumping, or some other such weirdness. DnD 5e has so much frog-people art!

 

[TerraDave]

MPMotM was also supposed to be a 2021 release.

How many books did they do this year?

 

[Charlaquin]

Looks great!

Though I remember an editor yelling at me a few years ago for writing out spell effects as monster abilities instead of just saying that the monster could cast a given spell: "it's simpler! and DMs don't mind looking stuff up!"

How the times change.

GMs tolerate looking stuff up, if they have to. But generally the more you can package relevant information together, the better.

 

[Azzy]

I can't read any of that, but on a totally tangential note, I hope the book both reprints Grung, and presents at least one non-poisonous frog-folk option.

Something similar to the harengon with the ability to cling to walls and try to grapple with your tongue, maybe.

Or maybe slow movement speed but your speed is greater while jumping, or some other such weirdness. DnD 5e has so much frog-people art!

There's always Grippli.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

Was it that video? I thought that he talked about it in the Monkeying with Monsters video.

He might have. I haven't seen that video. He talks about it in the action oriented video when mentioning how monsters in the MM with access to spell lists can be too much to keep track of (he specifically called out one of the nagas in it).

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I like the new format, from what I can see from squinting. Reducing the number of spell options by removing trap options is a good idea. Looking at the bard, I like how they replaced Shatter with a somewhat similar non-spell combat ability (Cacophany) that you don't have to look up in the PHB.

Edit: Similarly, war priest's number of spells is way down, and it has a completely decent multiattack that allows you to run a simple combat without looking up spells.

Yeah, Jeremy went into a little more depth about the changes when referencing the war priest. He talks about how they wanted to make it clearer what combat-oriented abilities these NPCs have that contribute to their CR instead of leaving them buried in the Spellcasting trait.

So the war priest now has a Holy Fire action, and its weapon deals extra radiant damage, and it's got a healing bonus action.

Isn't this the way 4E set up its monsters?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

MPMotM

That's certainly a mouthful!