Flee, Mortals! Review - Better than the 5e Monster Manual, and It's Not Close

[@MisterFizzer]

Lovely review! I'm glad you liked the minion chart, because I designed it! Super curious about how Regent of Bedegar has been going, I'll check that out next

[@Eyro_Elloyn]

I haven't read the book, I just bought it for my DM, but thanks for helping make a book to make his life easier and have cooler monsters!

[@jamesbaker2781]

That chart is an enormous win for accessibility and having more fun gaming. Thank you so much!

[@AgesofAinor]

Thanks! We're coming down to the last couple episode of Regent of Bedegar - the battle for Gravesford and the final battle with Saxton are left! Glad you liked the review. We're loving the book - I'm already using some of the monsters in my games.

[@justinmichael9043]

I ran the Wilderkith villain party against my party in my Curse of Strahd campaign last week. It was amazing! My player who likes to optimize his character looked at me and said, “why are the bad guys ACTUALLY good now?” 😅😅😅 I Love this book. This fight was one of the few times I was able to threaten the level 9 Zealot barbarian in my group. The Devotion Paladin was rattled. The twilight cleric didn’t feel like he had curb stomped anyone. This is now my go-to book.

[@AgesofAinor]

That's awesome! I used the Ruinant in my Curse of Strahd game - the PCs got lucky, but it was still a lot of fun to run.

[@ElTeacherJ]

People are really into this upgrade to 5E monters that just reintroduces to 4E combat/monsters mechanics. Minions and enemy roles? Yup, that's all 4E. Heavy emphasis on auras and actions that occur at certain HP? 4E too. Don't get me wrong, I love that MCDM built up on it and made it better (their minion rules are just exsquisite), but it's just wild to see how the broader community of D&D that loves to shit on 4E is ecstatic about a return to some of its concepts. I'm glad Matt got some cred as a 4E apologist and now is making the entire world see the truth: 4E had much superior combat than 5E and 3.5E.

[@AgesofAinor]

Yea, 4e gets a bad rap. I never really played it myself - played some 3.5 when I was a teenager but never really got into it. Wasn't until 5e that I tried getting back into it again, I definitely think a lot of what got thrown out going to 5e in response to all the backlash was objectively better stuff, and I do think this book does a lot of great work reintroducing those elements in a 5e compatible way.

[@aaronhumphrey3514]

Those things weren't really the reason people hated 4e.

[@hypercube8735]

Matt Colville hasn't been at all shy about how much he loves 4e in his videos (he's still running ongoing 4e actual plays, iirc), especially in terms of how it handled monsters and combats. I'm not at all surprised that a ton of the stuff in his books is 4e inspired. I played 4e and didn't enjoy it myself, but it had nothing to do with the combat design. Most of it was the sparsity of rules for things like the "Exploration Pillar" of D&D, as 5e likes to call it. 4e had a great combat system and not much else. It honestly reminded me more of something like Final Fantasy Tactics than anything else (all the talky bits and everything outside of combat is 90% pure no-rules no-dice roleplay, and then as soon as you get to the combat it's super crunchy and tactical). I'm pretty sure if 4e had been marketed as "D&D Tactics" or something instead of as a successor edition to full-blown D&D it would have been much more fondly regarded. That being said 5e definitely threw out practically all the good parts of 4e as well, which was definitely a mistake.

[@ElTeacherJ]

@@aaronhumphrey3514 The simplified alignment caused the whole hobby back then to have a conniption but that just made me ditch it altogether.

[@ElTeacherJ]

@@hypercube8735 but what we got was even worse in many ways. Tying skill checks to a single skill still pisses me off. Reduces the amount of possible checks and allows absurd shit like fighters being innately worse at intimidation than bards. I think they allowed the composite stat + skill as an alt rule but I would pose that, having then bound from start makes for a worse, less creative out of combat experience.

[@Gothbrooks420]

you guys did a great job.. randomly stumbled on this channel looking for MCDM RPG material.. I really liked your perspectives.. Subbed. thanks.

[@jamesdoyle6914]

God, imagine a guy with a bag of yumgrubs as his only weapon. He can chomp on one for a stat and speed boost, use his doubled speed and strength boost to run down and grapple the weakest party member, then spend his actions just smashing the bag to nuke everyone nearby. Yumgrub addicted dealer.

[@TronHammer]

I’d honestly imagine, that MCDM orcs would try to get their hands on those, given that they are immune to exhaustion.

[@npcsforhire]

I bought this book back when it was released. I could not wait to get a hold of it. But I like to watch other people's reviews of new releases so I watched yours and thoroughly enjoyed it. You did ask a question that I agreed with, "What does a Marsh Hydra look like?" (I'm paraphrasing). That said, I was working on a project of my own so I drew one for it. I don't think I would have if it wasn't for your video inspiring me. Thanks, guys and keep up the great work.

[@paulsavas2394]

Flee Mortals is GREAT! Looking forward to the Lairs book!

[@OleIngvarStene]

Such a good monster book. I have already used the PDF a lot, physical book should be arriving very soon and I cannot wait!

[@surlygit]

Rot Angel can't hypnotise anyone they've blinded. Makes players feel conflicted between their saves.

[@DrAndrewJBlack]

Great review guys

[@ShellySummers]

Ive already used the demon Tormenauk and terrified my players. Needless to say, they realized "ow smack she does like to hit hard :)"

[@jamesbaker2781]

Wow that Beast guy is so hawt

[@bluebird3281]

Is he the one in a black tee-shirt and a beard?

[@jamesbaker2781]

@@bluebird3281 odds are 100% he is

[@richardmarriott-smith9517]

Come on guys! I was looking forward to this review but was really disappointed. At least do your prep and have multiple windows open with the pages of the book you want to discuss ready. This review seemed so haphazard and disorganized. I was left wondering if you guys had done any prep at all for this review which does the book a disservice.

[@Shattered_Entertainment]

im guessing you dont realize this was a live stream he even mentioned ask questions in chat

[@projectfantasy1385]

Content warning 😂😂😂 can't believe....😅 I wish I have a horror novel but with content warning... it would be like: the killer spread the wound wider to grab and tear out the liver aand - content warning! If you don't like this, then you can read this instead: the killer hurts the victim very very much, while it says "ouch" 😂