Fans of Dungeons And Dragons know that there are three core books vital to everyone’s library: Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual. The first release for D&D in 2025 will complete the trilogy of the new core books.
2024 Monster Manual is due out next month in February 2025. Wizards of the Coast brought together a few members of the press for a virtual preview to highlight what has changed and what has stayed the same. It will be exciting once the Monser Manual is released to be able to get the complete version of the new core rulebooks
More Monsters For Dungeons And Dragons
The monsters are the main draw. Each one has been looked at by the current design team with ten years of players feedback and experience in Fifth Edition behind them. Many of the monsters got tweaked and adjusted though any old monsters still keep their old Challenge Ratings for maximum compatibility.
New monsters include variations on he classics to provide more encounter variety. Cultists, for example, offer different versions based on the powers they worship. Many monsters that were one simple template in the 2014 version of the book now have multiple entries to change things up a bit.
More attention has been paid to monsters at higher Challenge Ratings. The designers want to provide tools and unique challenges at all levels. That often means providing upgrades of low level monsters rather than just throwing more goblins at a problem.
That also includes apex monsters which represent the ultimate boss fight version of a monster. Examples include elementals that cause different natural disasters each round of a battle. Each monster type seems to have one, such as an ooze that’s Godzilla-sized where players can fight around it, on top of it, and inside it.
More Inspiration For Dungeons And Dragons Dungeon Masters
The layout of 2024 Player’s Handbook and 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide show a renewed focus on making things easier for new players and Dungeon Masters. In this corebook, consideration has been given to how people look things up in reference guides. The main text is organized alphabetically with an appendix in back offering references by creature type and Challenge Rating.
Individual entries offer art that suggests the kinds of things that the monsters do in the world. Entires also have charts that can be rolled on to suggest details for encounters. Is the gargoyle hiding up the trees or is there some nearby stonework where it has built a nest.
Each entry is built with table use as top priority. The ideal use for the book is for the Dungeon Master to flip to an entry and have everything they need to run an encounter with the creature. There are also more variations so that players don’t get too familiar with a single monster type.
Early access on D&D Beyond begins on February 4 for Master Tier subscribers and February 11 for Hero Tier. The Dungeons And Dragons 2024 Monster Manual will release globally on February 18, 2025.
