Monster Manual 2025 Review

#dnd5e #wotc
Thank you ‪@DNDWizards‬ for sending these copies of the new Monster Manual. As is always the case with review copies the opinions I express are fully my own.
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[@crankysmurf]

The HD by creature size has always been like that since 2014.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

You are correct. I never really noticed since I only ever used one gargantuan creature in all my years of running 5th and it had low HP. Thank you for pointing that out!

[@spartaninvirginia]

There must be a dracolich lair within a mile of where I live, I'm constantly exhausted 😅

[@DravenSwiftbow]

You and me both...come to think of it, we do get a lot of fog here too...uh oh

[@And-c7n]

Favourite monster us Rakshasa. A tiger creature with backwards hands awesome!

[@skippy9273]

Definitely one of the most unique fiends

[@garethhamilton1252]

I love the change to the beholders anti magic cone. Like you I always found it worked against the beholder than helped. As for random eye rays I always rolled up what rays it shot and then chose the target for those rays giving the beholder some tactical intelligence.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

That's actually a pretty good approach to the eye rays. I may have to try that myself.

[@TheCastleKeeper]

The reason for the random eye ray is that the creature is Chaotic.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

Fair enough, but chaotic doesn't need to also be feral. In 4E there was an actual Beholder Eye of Chaos and I do believe they were very random in their actions.

[@skippy9273]

I tend to agree but that's part of why the Beholder being listed as Lawful always annoyed me

[@josephpurdy8390]

It wasn't described as random in the AD&D MM. It was the position of where the target was in relation to the beholder. Between 1 and 4 of the 10 eye stalks could function in each quadrant surrounding the beholder. I wouldn't recommend a player find out which eye stalk did what. Therefore, it may be more simplified to randomize the results instead of drawing a beholder diagram.

[@solowolf7418]

I love the Death Knight. Great ability to lead lesser undead. I can’t wait for Lord Soth to return!

[@angelocano6041]

bought the special cover, and this is the only 2024 edition book i intend on getting. i like the way 2014 5e works, and already house ruled a lot of the changes they made (since BG3 did a lot of the changes first). the 2014 is much more modular in design, which i prefer. i tend to cater the rules i use to the specific table I'm running.

[@larrystoll5368]

I love your videos and I love your style of videos. I wish More d&d KZbinrs had your sensibility.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

[@sketchasaurrex4087]

I don't like the separation of types. There's an index and appendix to go specifically look up a monster. If I want to just flip a couple pages and see if there's another monster of the same type to add to the fight, I can no longer simply do that and have to take a lot more time on the spot to add another demon or devil.

[@paulonius42]

There's an index by type, so I don't know why it would take a lot more time. This book is extremely easy to navigate in multiple ways.

[@sketchasaurrex4087]

@paulonius42 don't have the book, didn't know that. I still prefer the groupings like in previous books.

[@paulonius42]

​@@sketchasaurrex4087 I completely understand. I'm not too picky about how the overall book is organized as long as there's a detailed index. I didn't like the 2014 mm because you had to know the type to find some things, such as the gelatinous cube, which wasn't listed alphabetically in the index. I hope you'll comment here again once you have this version to see how you feel about its organization. So far, I'm very happy with it.

[@sketchasaurrex4087]

@paulonius42 sure

[@laughingpanda4395]

Certain creatures are still grouped like, gnoll variants or vampire variants. At least that's what I saw in other vids.

[@ObatongoSensei]

I have not red the new books for now, so I can't say which monster I like the most. But I can say something about what you pointed out in this video. I can actually appreciate that the "groups" of monsters are not the default anymore, because many of those groups were mostly tied to very old and very abandoned cosmologies of past editions. The current multiverse is so different from the original Great Wheel, for example, that having devils and demons as defined and specific families of creatures makes no sense anymore. Of course, if you still need to group them as before, at least an index is welcome, but I can live without groupings. The dracolich has never been among my favorites, but still the 5e one feels a lot underwhelming when compared to the overkill that was the 3.5 or Pathfinder 1e one. Much of this is probably due to the dragons themselves being very disappointing when compared to their past glory. The hit die by size idea is kinda similar to what I am doing in my remake of Pathfinder 1e. It simplifes size and it gives the big guys the mitigation they need without changing other parameters such as attack/proficiency, defenses, etc. I apply situational modifiers instead, such as multiplied or fractional damage, check modifiers, defense modifiers and the like, so that I have not to change the base stat block due to size, only the rolls the moment I need them. Not sure I approve the beholder. It seems to me more like coming back to 3.5, with the same issues it had back then. One thing I still don't like, as I think I already posted somewhere else, is the list of eye powers. It is filled with redundancies. For example, what's the point of having three save or die? One outright kills you, one petrifies you, and the last disintegrates you. Does the creature really need those three? Same with slow and paralysis. Maybe sleep too. I would leave only disintegrate and paralysis, and I would also change sleep with a stun ray, which either stuns or make unconscious, something not that easy to counter as simple sleep is. That would free three effects for something that could be more useful to the creature itself, such as an incendiary ray or a shaping/warping ray. I also have a better idea for the main antimagic eye, which I use in my conversion to Pathfinder 1e. It can be used as a reaction/immediate action to look at a spellcaster and disrupt the spell he is casting with no save. And it can also be used more proactively as an action/standard action to disrupt all magical effects present in a 90° arc. Using a full round action instead it can also deactivate magic items as a Mordenkainen Disjunction (don't know if it still is present in 5e, but in 3.5 and PF1 it was really nasty). In this way it never interferes with the small eyes and it doesn't matter if the players cluster or scatter around. They will always get both the antimagic and the rays at the same time.

[@DarkinQusitor]

The best monster manual ever made, is still the HACKMASTER 5TH EDITION, FROM KENZER AND COMPANY. The artwork is amazing, done bye the same artist, through the hole book.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

The only Hackmaster product I have is Little Keep On The Borderlands, so I've never seen their rule books.

[@spartaninvirginia]

Please tell me that the Flumph is still in there. I was pleasantly surprised when it made it's triumphant return in the 2014 MM.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

It is, and has a table that tells you what mood it's in

[@dallaspark9100]

I do think that dracolich is a lot cooler now, granted it is not hard to beat the template that 2014 had in my opinion. Great video!

[@DravenSwiftbow]

It was a pretty low bar to step over for sure.

[@laughingpanda4395]

No girallon, su-monster, dire troll, yuan-ti anathema, bodak, barghest? Wtf? 500 monsters and they couldn't include these? Dissatisfied with the collection. I was really hoping I'd only need ONE monster book for once. Guess it was too much trouble to add another 6 monsters. I get that su monsters and girallons are chult monsters but at least include the dire troll, anathema and bodak. Strong argument could be made for the Barghest as well.

[@ArtsAndTactics]

Do you think you will still use the 5e ecology books like Fizban, Biby, Modenkainen, Volo?

[@DravenSwiftbow]

I will use Fizban's for sure. I never really used Volo's or Mordenkainen's much even before the change.

[@quillogist2875]

My solution for the generic npc's is just to add the species' abilities for PCs.

[@samthomas31]

@@quillogist2875 Yeah that’s what I would do also. It also makes it optional.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

That is 100% what I plan to do.

[@laughingpanda4395]

Wish they had bumped the beholders HP a little more. Its 190 now instead of the 180 in the 2014MM. Lots of other creatures got significant improvements to hp like the lich which went from 135hp to 315! Im glad you gave us a little review but next time would you mind actually showing the statblocks up close instead of pointing to tiny text that no one can read?

[@DravenSwiftbow]

I actually meant to, but I guess I got caught up in the moment.

[@theniteowl7777]

when i think of ADnD 1st ed, and even the BECMI boxed sets, i think of the golden age of the game. also, that edition was very much a product of its time, like each of the editions have been. personally i always go back to 1st ed and the boxed sets, because of the aesthetics. that was way before the internet, social media, AAA video games, and celebrity players. it felt like you were a part of a special and secret club if you played back then, and i wish it were like that now. but it cant be. i dont avoid 5e because "it sucks", but because what it represents. its too commercialized and it feels like Hasbro has betrayed everything that TSR set out to do.

[@lancourt]

The art in this book is S tier

[@DorsonKieffer]

Gargantuan creatures were always using d20. That didn't change.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

That is correct. I pinned a similar comment and will correct that error in a future video. I realize now that I really mixed the 5th and 3.5 Monster Manuals together in my mind.

[@philknecht3598]

It’s adorable dnd has tried to distance themselves from its “problematic” history and when everyone walked away for better games, they decide to play the nostalgia card. Pathetic. Dnd 5 was terrible. Just lame in every way. 6 is just desperation.

[@garethhamilton1252]

I’m not a fan of every NPC being the same irrespective of its species.

[@PokeNaru29]

I can be fine with that, but I don’t know why npc’s aren’t separated like they were before.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

I plan on adding key traits to them. Dwarven NPC's can use Tremor Sense, Orc's can stay around 1 HP the first time they would be reduced to 0, Dragonborn will have a breath weapon etc.

[@hamescarlos]

There are no drow, and orcs stats, and the dragon art for some of the dragons changed. Glad the ancient dragon looks as amazing as the original art.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

Drow and Orcs are among the PHB races I mentioned as being NPC's now rather than their own separate stats.

[@MightyPinball]

On the player character's "species" not being in the MM anymore, I guess that makes sense with the addition of the NPCs, especially if we consider that species don't have specific ability modifiers anymore.

[@DravenSwiftbow]

I like that it adds versatility, but it will still take me a little bit to adjust to it.

[@Bren71319]

I’m definitely NOT a fan of those cover arts!!!

[@thatswinelord9155]

Worst monster manual out

[@brilobox2]

Objectively incorrect.

[@thatswinelord9155]

@brilobox2 how the soul of the monster manual has been crushed bc of modern delusions