New Aberrations & Oozes | 2024 Monster Manual | D&D

[@rupertthegood]

“Flumphs have a cheerful benevolence that defies reality” oh to be a flumph, today of all days.

[@christinefarrell6438]

I love flumphs with my entire heart

[@Daihatski]

"The Gelatinus Cube is the only monster perfectly adapted to survive on Grid Paper." Don't know where I heard it, but I love that quote.

[@theformation3781]

29:00 the new aboleth art is phenomenal. Art in this book is already shaping up to be incredible, but the standouts are beyond even that and this specific piece is stunning

[@blakereid5785]

All the non humanoid art i’ve seen has been great.

[@scatteredplanes6667]

SO, this is never gonna matter to anyone, but I feel like saying it. D&D should have primary and secondary types. Not all of them, but a few. They already do it for player characters. The death tyrant should absolutly be an aberration, but it should be getting that undead sub-type. I get why they haven't done this, but still. Just saying the gith can absolutely be aberrations but give them the humanoid sub-type or vice versa because they were humanoid first. idk. like i said just screaming into the void.

[@gyorgyor7765]

Makes sense to me. They did dabble with this kind of idea with some playtests and the new Empyrean & Empyrean Iota can choose between Fiend & Celestial although it's one or the other not both.

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

I've been saying this the whole time. It's stupid to go the 1 type route when they know all it takes is a little bar in the statblock that says "this creature is also treated as undead" or whatever. If that's too much ink, just go back to giving multiple creature type tags like older editions. There was no reason to drop that way of doing it.

[@danieldca]

Strong agree. I don't think it would apply to that many creatures or would be over complicated rules wise. Just those creatures that are really strongly two things. Werewolves, undead dragons, etc. It would need some rules to it like how spells affect dual type creatures but again not too complicated. I think it's pretty common in games already? Reaching back but I Pokemon does it (Charizard being fire and flying type)

[@danudey]

I agree in a way, but I also like the idea that spells working on “humanoids” won’t work on creatures like Gith because they’re so alien to what we’re used to and what those spells do.

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

@danieldca magic the gathering, one of wotc's other major properties definitely does it lol. At the very least, like half of the humanoids will need it because they've shunted them over to other categories with this update. Oozes have always been in a weird spot because Juiblex is supposedly the progenitor of them but very few oozes have ever gotten the fiend statblock treatment and there was also a plane of ooze, on the border of the planes of water and earth, that they also could've come from. You've got the gelatinous cube that was shaped by magic so it could be considered a monstrosity... etc. As you said with the undead, lots of undead are "what if [creature type] was undead?" Monstrosities would similarly need to have their former creature type unless it's so extreme it's a case of "nothing of their old self remains." I could go on but you get the idea.

[@Seraph2384]

I onced put a Mimic in a Gelatinous Cube... The Mimic is immun against the acid and oh boy... that was a plottwist after defeating the Cube

[@AwesomeWookiee]

You're a genius. I'm stealing that.

[@Hawdkoah]

I've been DMing for well over a decade and have never once thought to do this.

[@matthewsnow-zj1cu]

It’s the Turducken of Monsters. we just need one more layer.

[@reiyoka]

@@matthewsnow-zj1cu …Put the gelatinous cube inside a house made of mimics?

[@reiyoka]

Hell, put a smaller mimic inside the mimic.

[@ConcerninglyWiseAlligator]

22:50 Ju'ul, the vaporous one, and his kuo-toa followers are coming to my table next week.

[@cookiedudegaming]

Black puddings being described potentially as magical pollution has (almost) terrified me more than the Blob of Annihilation.

[@Rythmicrythyn]

Hey! Thanks for this! My players will hate us for it!

[@SirPogsalotCreates]

0:48 beasts: real-world creatures that need no magical ability to tear their prey apart monstrosities: horrific monsters that resemble once-cherished animals, given a nightmarish, mutated twist aberrations: NASTY

[@DavidJWGibson]

Todd's dad jokes are the best part of the videos by a wide, wide margin.

[@matthewsnow-zj1cu]

Agreed. I think we all took psychic damage from these. So confirmed now that Todd is secretly some type of Drider Aberration hybrid. My favorite type of Slaad is Greek. Blob of Annihilation or Gelacticus, Devourer of Worlds?

[@davidragan9233]

Scary mental image, angel, demon, devils back to back fighting a hive-swarm of mindflayers and their client aberrations.

[@cookiedudegaming]

Sounds awesome to me

[@zackkwam134]

eldrazi

[@haydenmitchell7846]

Chain Devil: Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with a demon... Glabrezu: How about side by side with a fiend?

[@Nemial-l7i]

Random Battle Angel: I know we normally stay out of your affairs, but how the Heavens above, Hells below and Abyss between did all these darned things get here, anyway?

[@davidragan9233]

@@Nemial-l7i My guess every time they turn groups they send half to where ever they are coming from (Like a Tithe from the Scouting groups we thought were cities) and they have been doing this for several millennia.

[@Mr_Boyer]

If there was a Mt. Rushmore of iconic DnD creatures, it would easily be Red Dragon, Owlbear, Beholder, and Mind Flayer carved into a giant gelatinous cube.

[@ad9aggie]

I think mimic deserves a place. Perhaps in the cube?

[@InhabitantOfOddworld]

Displacer Beast would be a strong contender

[@agustinvenegas5238]

@@ad9aggie because of how iconic they've become they're more icons of general fantasy rpgs like dark souls and the like than dnd specifically

[@ad9aggie]

@@agustinvenegas5238 Perhaps but OP was suggesting a DnD Mt. Rushmore, not one for generic fantasy rpgs

[@MichaelShannon-gl3bw]

@@ad9aggie All 4 mentioned by Mr. Boyer might actually be mimics. Just sayin'.

[@herrrecht3607]

"there are new statblocks in here, yo!" I'm SOLD 😂

[@Aavarius]

Gelatinous cubes evolved to survive on graph paper.

[@Jaryko425]

😂😂😂

[@Dan-t6h2s]

As a very young man, I can remember reading some earlier edition monster manuals. And thinking, “Yeah…. Many of these entries were obviously crated way too late at night, after too much alcohol… “

[@Neibaff]

Really love the new Aboleth, I always thought that the 5e version looked too fishy and not alien enough

[@jgr7487]

"Where did this thing come from?" A wizard made the Gelatinous Sphere fit into the hallways of its tower. That's my homebrew answer. It's a water-resistant, sea-dwelling ooze.

[@Eckister]

the thought of an entire pod of KuoToa holding their heads above water for a smoke gave me WAAAAY too much joy guys, cheers! XDDDD

[@DimaJeydar]

Todds dad jokes are amazing, but Jeremy’s instant responses that tie it back to the monster are top notch! “You leech the life out of me”, “I just took psychic damage”, “my brain is about to be dissolved”.

[@creedence2587]

“If every Monster turns out to be a Human in a Monster Suit, you take away some of the specialness” … you don’t say, said the Orc.

[@dungeonology622]

Given the heavy emphasis on aberrations being from or shaped by the Far Realm I am curious how the slaads of the plane of Limbo fit into the category in terms of lore.

[@davidfarnham5623]

Githzerai also reside in limbo. Limbo is weird enough that I think it can be an honorary far realm lol.

[@Fralexion]

I mean I think the Doyalist reasoning is really just that with the switch from a generic "outsider" creature type, that applied to all outer planes natives, to more specific "fiend" and "celestial" creature typing based on alignment, they didn't have anything for the purely chaotic and purely lawful outsiders. So modrons end up as constructs and slaadi end up as aberrations because they're a little more like those creatures than they are like anything else.

[@sanosuke]

BG3 seems like a huge influence into what is being focused on in these releases. It’s awesome to think a game can inspire the thing it was inspired by in the first place.

[@HamanuOp]

Will the mind flayers have more diverse psionics or is it still dominate monster 1/day?

[@kadoj]

It is such a blast to see these three (and it has to be said, especially Todd) having so much fun filming these (and especially, _this_) little exposee videos. But yeah, psychic damage from the dad jokea... thats a real thing XD. Also, i had something of a lighting strike idea for a creature just now..... Something that i believe will fully explain itself (insofar as an aberration can be explained at all, anyhow) simply by stating its name to you all. And i think it has the potential to be a glorious creature indeed, with a ton of potential for both combat and story. Youre not ready for this....but here youngo anyway: The Beholder Medusa. Ehhh? Eeeeehhhh? What say you? Im a little surprised this hasnt been done in the sourcebooks before, but yeah. It seems like just a perfect meeting of creature types, a synergystic colliding of worlds that just... I dunno. I think it smacks of a good story, and probably a good fight. Always did love a good beholderkin.

[@AwesomeWookiee]

So just a Beholder, except all of its eyes are Petrifying Gaze rays instead of just the one as it is currently?

[@kadoj]

​@@AwesomeWookieeI was thinking more about the physicality of the thing, like pretty much just a mini beholder but with an actual body underneath. Instead of restricting it's powers to that of the classic Medusa, expanding Medusa's powers to that of the beholder. It just seemed like a logical pairing to me, given the already present ....wiggliness... Of Medusa's dome game, Beholder eyestalks, I dunno. I thought it had some potential to be pretty interesting.

[@SeanBoyce-gp]

@@kadojit could be one possible gestation of a Mindflayer. They sort of decide how they reproduce, so it's reasonable that they imagine a tadpole like thing that infect people and turns them into a Beholder Medusa, which grows its eye stalks before detaching from the body and floating around.

[@matthewsnow-zj1cu]

@@kadoj It’s not for nothing that I’ve seen quite a few people decide to draw an Aegis shield with a beholder’s head either embossed or strapped to the front (would probably have to be a gazer to fit properly). The Beholder seems like Medusa but with more variety in effects and absent the snake themes. It’s also one of the most expressive creatures from a biology standpoint. It’s literally all expression, so I think that’s why it’s so much fun to iterate.

[@davidlima90]

42:06 That was the most sincere "Oh my God..." I've ever heard in my life.

[@The_Worst_Alien42]

Gith are aberations now? Even Lae'zel, my angry frog-wife?

[@christopherbronson3275]

ESPECIALLY her

[@The_Worst_Alien42]

@@christopherbronson3275 😱

[@christopherbronson3275]

@@The_Worst_Alien42 don't mind me! Get that abominussy

[@chaqalaqalaqa]

“great plan” is the great value name for the Grand Design

[@Cassius335]

41:54 Yes please to the Todd Kenreck stat-block.

[@winterwolfcr7]

When are we getting more info on Beasts? This is vital to druids. I really hope the list of high level beasts has been expanded. Even if with just a bunch of Dire animals. They may come off boring to some, but they are classic and an easy way to give more options than Mammoth. I want to play a moon druid, but having a Mammoth the only high level option is very lame and worse than having like 5 different dire animals.

[@FoundationalDD-eb8qm]

They probably see that as the least important

[@winterwolfcr7]

@@FoundationalDD-eb8qm Agreed! I just hope that mindset didn't carry over to the book.

[@FoundationalDD-eb8qm]

@ based off what we’ve already seen in the players handbook that is unlikely, I just think that the beast stat blocks give the least room for hype prior to release of the book

[@zeusdemi6858]

But even the Moon Druid in 5.5 caps at at cr 1 for wildshape now.

[@ericfelipe4198]

@@zeusdemi6858 For Moon Druids The maximum Challenge Rating for the form equals your Druid level divided by 3

[@sherrodfaulks]

Can I just say I love the chemistry of this trio. Just thinking about these crazy monsters just getting f-ing ripped on a constant basis and dreaming gods into existence is so fun. I’m gonna get the print Monster Manual for sure. The love of the game is evident and I can see how that has been imputed into the work.

[@IanFerguson]

I'm beginning to think Todd is a multi class warlock/bard.

[@Wavypringles7745]

27:55 this is me literally every time I hear a pun

[@coreywright33]

42:54 I love that art so much!

[@SmileyTrilobite]

Gith have heretofore come off to me as emaciated, green, space humans with a Jedi-Sith divide. I’d be happy if they add that Lovecraftian mystery or degree of “otherness” or something to make them more conceptually engaging. They are, after all, an example of what a humanlike civ shaped by the Lovecraftian for so long may become.

[@orlogskapten4161]

The dad jokes hit close to home, my boss makes these and my reaction is always the same as theirs.

[@DarkCreed]

I always thought of the beholder as DnD's mascot

[@igotzelda]

Don't forget mimics!

[@Critbait99]

While the new mind flayer peaks my interest and the blob of annihilation as well, I’m very intrigued to see the high level humanoids they’ve come up with.

[@Nemo12417]

Actually, Keith Baker has given the origins for Mind Flayers, at least in Eberron. They are survivors from a previous version of Eberron that was erased from existence when the daelkyr (who mutated the native humanoids of that version into the first Mind Flayers) modded it so much that reality reset. He calls this version "Githberron", because the Gith were from that version of Eberron as well.

[@adrenalineunlimited]

If I'm not mistaken, origins of different races tend to re manifest in different crystal spheres in slightly different ways, Eberron often being as different as any due to the cut off from the rest of the multiverse nature of the setting. For the most part, when they've been talking about lore, they've been sticking to the forgotten realms and sometimes greyhawk. For these "main" settings, I'm pretty positive they'll always keep it vague. Eberron was also originally fan made, wasn't it?

[@hostileeldritch2686]

​@adrenalineunlimited dnd made a call for settings, to make one into an official dnd setting. the original version of eberron won the contest, and wotc paired with keith baker to develop the setting

[@PsyrenXY]

I like both approaches. Printed settings can have "official" explanations for some of these mysteries, but the core/setting-agnostic books can be vague so that DMs and writers can do their own thing

[@akhlives2385]

Can we make a "Todd's dad jokes" segment. It'll be killer...

[@JoeMazzolaTheFirstPersonCook]

22:52 a perfect Dunmer appeared 😅

[@intelli-gent9863]

I immediately thought "Better do what they say" and "You N'wah!"

[@ethsa1670]

You guys should allow Joe Manganiello to make his dragon lance TV series.

[@RustyhairedLamialp9575]

Kuo-Toa 🤝 orks Belief so powerful it warps reality

[@bryanabbott6169]

Sounds like we're getting a new Ooze, the Cranberry Jelly. 😯

[@RawCauliflower]

My question is what type of low CR (CR1/8-CR1) aberrations are we going to get. There are so few that exist, you have to use homebrew to make up your own if you are doing a tier 1 adventure.

[@natezabinski5615]

Seconded. Coming up with an encounter with CR 1/8 slaad tadpoles is a challenge. It's basically "rats in the basement," but they have magic resistance, and there's a ticking clock until they mature into regenerating xenomorphs. A good horror adventure, but you need additional books for variety. And we're not made of money.

[@Nemo12417]

My suggestion? Take an existing monster and turn it into an aberration.

[@Dolmio12]

You can use Gazers and Starspawn Grue (from MotM), or Dolgrim (from Eberron.

[@natezabinski5615]

@@Dolmio12 That's 50 USD for used books. To get 2 statblocks.

[@RawCauliflower]

@ Like I said, still only a few. I would say the Starspawn Grue is the most adaptable to different scenarios. Dolgrim you need to homebrew nerf because it is too OP for its CR. Otherwise I find fielding tiny mobs very awkward (like single cranium rats).

[@TheFinerDnDetails]

I LOVE oozes. They're just fun. And I love the mystery and the existential thought that aberrations inspire! Has even inspired by own solution to The Far Realms, in a manner of speaking. Heheh. Also love the idea of this: Person: "Mindflayers are people too!" Mindflayer: "HOW DARE YOU?!" Side note: Wonder if Duergar are aberrations now too. Would explain their absence in the new PHB.

[@MissionZer0]

Not a DM, but now obsessed with the idea of the aberrations being eternal. If you really know your players you could craft quite the story of a being who the players all discover had moved in points of their ancestry to ensure they were here together now to do whatever thing, even if that thing is just to witness something benign like someone tripping over a cart. The building up to give this bizarre indecipherable payoff just seems like it would be a fun adventure you could reference forever.

[@JunMiyazaki]

Suffered 2D6 psychic damage because of the dad jokes, well played :)

[@SwiftNimblefoot]

29:20 - The proper plural of Slaad is Slaadi! ;) They would correct you for that! Then eat you! Or invite you for a game. :)

[@phoenixapple]

I'm really happy to see oozes get some love. I saw The Blob when I was a kid and the horror of creatures like it has stuck with me

[@erikschelter418]

This munster manual sounds and looks great.

[@AnthonySpray]

Glad to see all the videos but as someone who ordered both physical and digital in nov and still waiting for it...... can we get a older version digital in the meantime???

[@memeslich]

love the preview content, but i miss the todd talks review and overview content that explained stuff in great detail on the dndbeyond channel

[@SgtBuffagor]

Yes, yes, please acknowledge that some monsters are pulled out of thin air without some sort of vast ecology behind them! We've all seen the 'prehistoric monster' pack of plastic figures that the original owlbear and rust monster came from. A beholder was a floating head, with laser eyes sticking out of it. A Gelatinous Cube just fits into square hallways. I black pudding, or ochre jelly, or green slime -- whatever, Gary Gygax watched The Blob one day and went with it. Sometimes this stuff is really shallow, don't worry about justifying it.

[@RovingBiologist]

Oozes Not in our world? Look up a plasmodial slime mold sometime 😊

[@bladey3015]

I hope we get official Slaad Lord statblocks

[@RevocerGM]

39:14 - I have to ask (and I'm certainly reaching here) but Todd if you read this - was this idea inspired by the unexplained Mosaic Tomb in Planescape: Torment?

[@SeanBoyce-gp]

33:14 that's great. Would be even better if those weapons had equivalent Magic Items. Because I KNOW players are gonna ask for them. I know there's a handwaved argument, but that's not quite as fun as letting players try to figure out the alien weaponry.

[@mortimersmith591]

Tom Waits reference? Awesome.

[@Winslow187]

15:12 How have I never seen this? Dark city. I checked out the preview. Looks good. Now I have to watch it later.

[@DanJMW]

A really underrated film - and The Matrix borrowed some of its sets!

[@jonathangibson9482]

I love the palpable suffering from the dad jokes.

[@ndukwui]

So when playing a Gith as a player option are they now Aberrations or still humanoids?

[@WanderingRagabond]

Lovely! If gith end up playable tho, they're gonna be VERY powerful just from not being classified as humanoid. We've been there before. Can't wait for the video on Fiends! My other favorite creature type.

[@arturzalewski98]

So how we can have slaad abbarations??

[@AsheepSFW]

33:30 Oozes starts here

[@SwiftNimblefoot]

Wow, love that you guys referenced Dark City because I often felt the aliens - basically inhabiting dead bodies - indeed are a lot like Mind Flayers, with their alien mindset, how they are incapable of understanding human emotions, and their hive-mind, not to mention how much "tuning" resembles psionics. Even the one member of them who develops emotions by injecting himself with it is considered by the others as an aberration.

[@gothicshark]

Ok...now I want to make a Kuo-toa Empire tribe, the "Emperor" wears a funny hat and is named Nei Pou Ian.

[@Tanglangfa]

Nothing is as terrifying as a kid with a balloon which is just an ooze which pops when the kid yanks on the string. 😈

[@GoGoGlennzilla]

Hang on, is there any input on what happens when the Barbarian inevitably tries to pick up and use the Slaad's Chaos Blade?

[@ZebulonsPi]

Straight up, I love you guys just riffing, talking about Kuo-toa smoking too much, etc. You guys actually PLAY, and it feels more like hanging out with experienced people and listening to them talk about how they run their games and develop their worlds than some marketing spiel. Please keep this kind of thing going forward, I'd love you to cover ALL books this way going forward!

[@rpghorrorstories]

Wait, I thought that the Githyanki/Githzerai split happened before Vlaakith (who was the distant ancestor of the Lich Queen Vlaakith) rose to prominence.

[@ZenDenny9]

Correct. The initial split involved two factions - the Githzerai, led by Zerthimon - and the Githyanki, led by Gith (for whom the species named themselves). These two were the leaders of the rebellion against the Mindflayers, & after that initial conflict, they divided on the basis of how they wanted to progress as a society. I guess maybe they're retconning some of the lore? (Somewhat understandable, if for no other reason than avoiding the weird overlap of Gith the individual & Gith the species)

[@Corga12]

I think one thing about making some monsters different categories was smart was it makes them less human. We run into the issue of “person in a monster suit” less. Gnolls being fiends makes them feel properly monstrous and inhuman. Same with Kuo-Toa. There will be exceptions but they should stay exceptions.

[@Magnushamann]

If anything saves DnD 5.5, its Todd's dad jokes!

[@michaelhughes3749]

The Dad Jokes are fun! Loving the sneak peaks!

[@davidcassell4659]

Don't tell Todd that Ginni Di has an entire Gelatinous Cube love song. And cosplay. And name - her name is Gellian.

[@samj7160]

I want my 44 minutes back and an Aboleth conversation

[@ricochet666]

Please let Todd keep telling his Dad jokes. I love them and so do my players

[@jeffdougan]

Could y’all release written articles for these to help out everybody who retains better by reading?

[@johnmillerpere_grin6371]

Aberrant: "departing from an accepted standard" Yep, the name checks out.

[@Millstone1985]

2:20 Is that a gibbering orb? If so, I am very happy.

[@DarkCreed]

Similar to ooze? Slugs and snails!

[@dylanwatts1045]

I love aberrations, and I'm glad to see kuo-toa adopted into the family. They've always felt too Lovecraftian to be just humanoids

[@benodoms63004]

Blob of Annihilation!!

[@CrimsonTemplar2]

I feel like they Very Specifically avoided mentioning Deep Ones (even though Lovecraft is in the public domain) when talking about Kuo-Toa.

[@docsapper11]

so does this mean that Gith and every other former humanoid that was moved to fiend or monstrosity are immune to the hold person spell because they are not humanoid anymore

[@Zagarth12]

Is that Minsc in the background?

[@heww5682]

Why are Gith aberrations now but Tieflings aren’t fiends? Are they not both people shaped by another plane?

[@Neibaff]

My guess is that Tiefling (mostly) comes from the material plane while gith don't. If genasi are considered elemental and not humanoid then yes I wouldn't understand either

[@kjj26k]

Teiflings just have some infernal traits, they are still mortal creatures from the Material Plane. Gith are straight up aliens.

[@Rythmicrythyn]

​@@Neibaff I think they're main problem is this very justification. Because again if gith are abberant because of their exposure, and goblins are now fey because of their new origins, it's hard to argue and justify, especially since all of the ones they've changed are being done so for the same reason that tieflings exist

[@Rythmicrythyn]

I think the majlr thing is why can't they just have both tags? They are appropriately humanoids, taking that away just seems weird.

[@gailengigabyte6221]

@@Neibaff from my understanding, Tieflings (and by extension Aasimar) are more or less dissidents of outer planar beings and forces, so them being humanoids are ok, though I understand the issue of them not being treated as Fiends. A bit wiffed, imo, that Dragonborn aren't considered Dragons, due to kobolds being treated as such in the new book (Also Goliaths aren't treated like giants, but I understand why they're humanoid).

[@williamjusino3640]

at first I thought the gelatinous cube was the farmer, not what was being farmed

[@bearcat1868]

I have a major soft spot for Oozes. :D

[@Marinator421CZ]

I want a compilation of all the dad jokes here.

[@matthewgordon3281]

Vicious Mockery as Dad Jokes.

[@briancollins4314]

Great Plan vs Great Modron March: coming soon to a FLGS near you!

[@superpheemy]

The Ooze category is one of the reasons Juiblex is so horrifying as a Demon Prince

[@dannybob42]

I think it's pretty clear that the oozes are a byproduct of the legend that is Ivan Ooze

[@michaelswallace]

I ran a Thanksgiving themed one shot where the players were trapped in a hallway with cranberry sauce gelatinous cubes (well, ribbed cylinders) ambushing them.

[@Droogie128]

Are we going to get a preview of the new beasts?

[@Lhight85]

Speaking of modrons, I would have liked to see the higher level versions. 5e only went so high.

[@markt7177]

Todd I ❤ the dad jokes!!!

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Trying to describe Abberations without using Lovecraftian speedrun :P

[@EmilyMemily-it3xp]

42:04 you can see right through them. Edit: that was my guess, I mean.

[@simonvega2178]

28:39 We already knew it.

[@disciple012]

I love the dad jokes.