What the new 5E statblock reveals about monsters in D&D 2024

[@unknowncomic4107]

I have been assigning and using a "Passive" initiative for monsters for quite a while now. I am glad they incorporated this into 2024.

[@clarkside4493]

Hey! Me too!

[@iampineappleonpizza]

Passive initiative in the statblocks is so nice

[@EventyrGames]

Yeah, it's a nice feature and a good reminder for GMs to remember to use passive scores for ease of play!

[@CaptainFalcoyd]

@@EventyrGames It's pretty bad to use set initiative if there are like 10 of the same monsters though. Then they all attack in a row without any player turns in between, which can easily spell disaster for the group.

[@MatEnAlks]

@@CaptainFalcoyd But nobody tells you to, you can still manipulate set initiative with e.g. a d4 if you want, but as a general idea, if you are slow blob or blind you shouldn't be able to just immediately when and where to move the moment start fights, if you are some hyperactive, hyperaware entity, it makes sense that you get to move first, especially on your natural terrain. It has some logic, and if you like that logic, you can just take it and apply it.

[@GeekMasterGames]

Just adding "PB +2" next to the xp is actually a really useful bit. Just letting us know for sure that the Proficiency Bonus is +2 in case of niche cases.

[@garryame4008]

I hate that they separated saves and mods, but kept ability score. The stat blocks need to be simplified, not more complicated

[@johnpaullogan1365]

as long as they keep stats for players they need them for monsters for ties in contested checks

[@EventyrGames]

If there's one thing I wish D&D would kill, it's the ability scores. It's so redundant and messy, but its a sacred cow, so what can we do. As is, we need them to settle ties, as John points out, as well as for the very few niche abilities that reduce or increase ability scores. But yeah, ability scores should just not be a thing, really ^^

[@shadow-faye]

​@@johnpaullogan1365ties are just another roll aren't they?

[@johnpaullogan1365]

@@shadow-faye technically from 2014 phb. If the contest results in a tie, the situation remains the same as it was before the contest. Thus, one contestant might win the contest by default. If two characters tie in a contest to snatch a ring off the floor, neither character grabs it. In a contest between a monster trying to open a door and an adventurer trying to keep the door closed, a tie means that the door remains shut.

[@johnpaullogan1365]

however i have yet to see a dm who doesn't give it to the creature with the better score but thats just my experience

[@mslabo102s2]

Literally no negativities. This is exactly why I have really high hopes in 2024 core rules: the sheer ammount of QoL improvements.

[@lovethepandainyou]

Same here. I have been DMing a lot of 5e (2 weekly games) since the alpha tests. And I have soured over the system over the years. Most of the changes seem to adress my complaints with the system.

[@EventyrGames]

There is a lot of QoL stuff here, my only real gripe with the statblock is the (imo) slightly uglier abilities/saves layout, but it's a minor thing I'll likely get used to fairly quickly :)

[@TwinSteel]

Love seeing your uploads in my feed Been using passive initiative for a bit and really like it - the layout is a bit strange - probably a layout space reason - I wonder how they’ll do creators that get a bonus to saves against the poison effect - cutting the chaff in attacks seems reasonable - someday they’ll figure out a way to register monks’ fists as weapons - I like adding different damage types - I’m hoping they’ll give more strange resistances and vulnerabilities, like radiant for demons - definitely like them adding more unique abilities - hopefully there will be more interesting attacks instead of claw/claw/bite we so often see - congratulations on the success of Wanderer’s and Delve ❤

[@James-xb7qc]

Resistances/Immunities can now be placed under a single bullet point. Elves have advantage against being charmed. That could be put into Resistances. In theory they could rule that a Resistance to a condition gives you advantage on the save.

[@EventyrGames]

I don't think you can single bullet them, as you'd still have to clarify which are immunities and which are resistances - or which are damage types and which are conditions. I would love to see a rule that resistance to a condition is advantage, though, that just really, really makes sense.

[@James-xb7qc]

​@@EventyrGames damage types and conditions dont share names. The closest is Poison and Poisoned.

[@andycrowson1013]

The passive initiative thing is odd to me. Most of my fights are filled with 2 or 3 different types of creature at most. With passive initiative all your bandits (for example) would all take their turns in a row. So it seems useful for fights with single creatures or a diverse set of creatures, but otherwise i probably won't use it.

[@EventyrGames]

I almost always have all bandits go on the same initiative anyway, especially if there's three or more, since anything else is just a lot of clutter. It's GM preference, though, so I like that the option is there, regardless of whether you want to use it or not.

[@andycrowson1013]

I often times roll a d4 for my packs of weaker enemies. I use the result to determine how many bandits act between each PC turn. Finding a flow of back and forth more engaging and interesting.

[@haukionkannel]

If you have 100 minios,,. Then it is usefull, so it depends on what kind of encounter the players are against!

[@magustomoe]

glad to see you are still around!

[@henrymalinowski5125]

Looks like they were looking at the PF2e monster manual for these changes; in a good way.

[@lord5814]

Correction,they look dnd 3.5.

[@SmileyTrilobite]

This reminds me of Bob World Builder’s videos on overly wordy stat blocks and new DM clarity thru extra words vs succinctness/lack of clutter.

[@alexplayer8367]

Really like the changes, run high CR monster will still be a problem for inexperienced DMs, but they did a great job.

[@Rollsspelsmusik]

What does the "PB +2" mean on the CR/EXP? Edit: Just figured out that its Proficiancy Bonus.. Weird place to put it though.

[@EventyrGames]

It's actually been there for the past few books, except it was aligned to the right before, which I actually found more readable, but that's a minor nitpick.

[@shadow-faye]

I wish it was under initiative

[@mstieler8480]

I'd have to guess since this is a creature not utilizing a weapon, there would be a difference between a "melee attack" vs. a "melee weapon attack" denoting what abilities become unusable when a creature's weapon is disarmed.

[@EventyrGames]

That could be it, good catch.

[@thescoon1]

I will 100% be using passive initiative from now on. Sick of rolling my own initiatives. It's reached the point with combat where I've been tempted to give my players the stat block of any allies they have so they can run them rather than me.

[@josipgalic1471]

Hey @eventygames ! Not really regardingthe topic of the video, but I have a question 😁 Do you plan to do DM's Resource/ Complete bundle for Vecna? Wanna know should I wait for you to publish it before starting prep 😅 Thank you!

[@craigcochrane2284]

Resistances can be something other than damage, hence "magic resistance". They could have folded that under Resistance and saved 5 lines. They should also move CR up to the top and XP to the second line (right justified on the alignment line) and divide Ability Scores by 6 and just have the saves in a block below.

[@migriv412]

Thank you for the review but this does not really tell us anything about how monsters that threaten a party has changed, will monsters have weapons mastery? or will HP and AC be increased

[@PsyrenXY]

Alignment for monsters was never going anywhere - that's useful info for a DM who might need to figure out how a totally alien creature like a Nothic will behave in a given situation.

[@rpghorrorstories]

I do like Alignment in statblocks, but I also prefer the 3E method of including "often/usually/always X alignment," though with mortal characters (i.e., player species), I would never allow anything more common than "often" unless I am specifying a member of an organization like the "Mindlesly Rampaging Baby Eater Collective".

[@EventyrGames]

Can't you even eat babies without being evil anymore? What's the world coming too..

[@EventyrGames]

I somewhat agree. I do think that the "typically" or "often" phrasing helped (less experienced) GMs realize that it's not ALL creatures of that type that behave this way. But it's not a big sticking point for me either way.

[@Matrunks]

speed could go under or above initiative and the wording of the trigger could be cleaner, other than that I think it looks good

[@sputnik90]

Hey welcome back!

[@EventyrGames]

Thank you, appreciate it!

[@axenik]

Melee means weapons not just unarmed

[@milenburgjoys]

Missed your content!

[@myunihausen]

I hope they fix the CR scale or hp of the creatures to give them a chance. Players get bored when things are too simple.

[@EventyrGames]

They've been bragging a lot about their new encounter building system and rebalancing of monsters so they better fit their CR, so I'll be excited to see that.

[@javierguerrero2076]

Glad you are back 😉

[@EventyrGames]

Thanks! 😃

[@jcraigwilliams70]

It's not bad... Personally, these days I much prefer stat blocks like you see in Fate: Trained Thug (Fair) Aspects: The Ways of the Streets, Violent Criminal Skills: Fair (+2) Fight, Average (+1) Athletics and Physique. Or the "stat blocks" from Ironsworn: COMMON FOLK Rank: Troublesome (3 progress per harm; inflicts 1 harm)

[@diggles27]

CR needs to be more prominent, ideally top line next to name

[@EventyrGames]

It always made sense for me to just slap it in the top right corner, which isn't used for anything anyway.

[@thescoon1]

Curious about CR here. CR has been hot garbage for working out encounters, and this should reflect a need to redesign the way monsters are built. The question really should be: 'does this creature survive a single round of combat against a party of 4 at their current level?' - If it doesn't, it's attacks mean basically nothing, as a single attack round will rarely render a monster frightening to anyone. Single-threat combat almost never feels threatening in D&D though, especially past lvl 3/4 unless you're being unreasonable, so either something needs to change to the design of single-threat encounters, or threats need to be balanced based almost solely on their survivability.

[@shadowmancer99]

Thing is, this makes no sense, cause it says that this creature is NOT proficient in ANY Saves...which i thin would be dont...shouldnt it get at least Wisdom...?? LOL

[@James-xb7qc]

It's a low CR creature, maybe they just thought being that low it didn't need any

[@jasondahfolf4325]

It’s a CR 1 creature, one that is clearly designed to be a potential minion at higher levels. Its signature ability in combat is to give itself or an ally a notable buff to a saving throw. With that in mind, it would be annoying if it had proficiencies in any saves

[@rpghorrorstories]

It's possible that because this is a familiar stat block, players might get to choose its good saves.

[@EventyrGames]

It's not that weird for a CR 1 monster, although I prefer to give most monsters a proficiency in at least one saving throw, just to make them more dynamic and such.

[@Lord_zeel]

Mostly happy with it, but the ability layout... I'm not really into. Harder to find a specific score at a glance. It is nice to have all the scores, mods, and saves laid out, but all the boxes are a little too samey which can make finding the right one tricky.

[@EventyrGames]

100% agree. I think there is/must have have been a better way, but I see why they made the changes they did. I do think it could probably be done in a column layout like before, which I think was much easier to decipher at a glance.

[@ARealBigFatRappingMonkey]

Look in Monsters of the Multiverse and creatures after that -monsters have much less spells, like the cr 20 Iggwilv and cr 26 Vecna has only 25% of spells of a player wizard that's level 20, Vecna can't even cast a 9th level spell -monsters cant upcast -all spellcasting is the same, wizard creatures (and npcs) dont get spellbooks anymore so you can only get spellbooks from other players or by buying them(who would sell spellbooks if only about 1 or 2 people in the whole world uses them?), npcs cant use them because they dont cast spells like players -magical weapon attacks turned into force damage, say goodbye to your rage being useful -creature types swapped around, example githzerai turned into abberations for some reason in the Planescape book, a bunch of people gonna be confused when hold person doesnt work on them when theyre standing right next to a player githzerai that the spell would effect, ect, no explanation -abilities taken away, much less legendary actions, for example Vecna had no legendary actions and was given a bunch of reactions instead, and madness was taken away from demon lords, which was a big plot point in Out of the Abyss -creatures labeled as clerics, druids, ect while having no spells at all to cast or a just a few to cast and having no abilities of said class that would tell you they're that class besides the tag they have, examples being a bunch of creatures in Glory of the Giants -lore taken away and sterilized -the most "buffs" most creatures have is getting their creature type oddly changed, magical damage into force damage which only really effects barbarians, and a slight buff to health, usually by like ten points TL;DR expect almost every monster to get nerfed, especially spellcasters, and don't expect to find any spellbooks on wizards anymore because npc wizards can't even use them.

[@EventyrGames]

Oh, I have a lot of issues with the newer monsters we've seen in the latest adventures, and I agree with many of your gripes here. Those are not present in this statblock, though, but we've yet to see bigger and more complicated monsters in 5E2024. I do hope they don't lean too hard into some of those changes, because there's a lot about their new ways of doing statblocks for 5E2014 that I wasn't/isn't a fan of.

[@TwinSteel]

🥳❤️👍🏿

[@sadis72]

i feel like the stats are too messy and they dont feel like a good enough upgrade for 3-4 years in the making personally lol

[@EventyrGames]

I think the small tweaks were good and I don't know if it needed a big overhaul. There's a few thing I'd have changed if I were in charge of statblocks, but there's nothing huge I feel they missed, really.

[@altian98]

Answer: none