D&D (2024) More D&D 2024 Tidbits: Aasimar, Goliaths, Town-Eating Gelatinous Cubes

Here are a few more tidbits from Game Informer's magazine coverage of the new edition's rulebooks.

• Iconic characters like Bobby the Barbarian, or Raistlin and Caramon Majere feature in the art.
• Each class and each subclass has its own piece of art.
• Species now include Aasimar, Goliath, and Orc.
• Bastions are in--player built bases.
• Greyhawk is the sample setting in the Dungeon Master's Guide.
• Each book is 384 pages.

Monster Manual

• 75 new monsters in the Monster Manual; over 500 in total.
• Challenge rating remains the same.
• There are some new lower challenge vampires, and a higher challenge one called the Nightbringer.
• Blob of Annihilation is a gelatinous cube that can eat towns.
• Elemental Juggernaut, Archhag.

 

[Yaarel]

I’d rather have it all alphabetical so I do not need to know the type first to find something

You would rather not need to think about the creature type of something. But normally it is obvious.

Then, since the creatures already organize thematically by type, there is no problem looking up the names alphabetically. For example, in a list of Dragons, there is no problem looking Green Dragon under the letter G.

 

[mamba]

You would rather not need to think about the creature type of something. But normally it is obvious.

it frequently is, if you have been playing for a while, but why even bring it into the mix, to me nothing is gained by that

There will always be cases where I am not certain, and now I have to look in two or three places for it… Do I find Draconians under Dragon or Monstrosity

 

[Yaarel]

There will always be cases where I am not certain, I now I have to look in two or three places for it… Do I find Draconians under Dragon or Monstrosity

Fair enough that "Monstrosity" is somewhat meaningless.

I prefer:
Beast = any animal that could hypothetically in reallife, ignoring physical limitations such as size

(Thus Owlbear is a Beast.)

Then:
Monstrosity = magical Beast


(Thus, Draconians wouldnt be a Beast and would be a Dragon.)

 

[Yaarel]

When sectioning the Monster Manual by creature type, there would be no Humanoid section. Or rather, the Humanoid section is the same thing as the Player Character Species section.

Then, for monster statblocks, Human is a Beast (Humanoid Beast). Elf is a Fey (Humanoid Fey). Etcetera.

 

[Reynard]

I think they said challenge ratings for existing monsters were going to stay the same, but that they'd be reworking the monster statblocks to bring them more in line with the ratings they have, where needed.

Very late to the party and this is probably already said, but: they kind of have to do it this way, if the old adventures are going to be forward compatible.

 

[Faolyn]

Beast = any animal that could hypothetically in reallife, ignoring physical limitations such as size

Real life animals can be both extremely tiny and exceedingly huge, so fortunately you'd have a lot of leeway there.

 

[Parmandur]

Very late to the party and this is probably already said, but: they kind of have to do it this way, if the old adventures are going to be forward compatible.

Ery much so. Folks are coming floating two issues WotC is addressing, one in the MM and one in the DMG:

1. In the MM, many Monaters underperformed or overperfkrm for their CR because the Monster was slightly miscalculated in 2014. So aome CR 3 critters were chunps, some CR 5 hit way above their weight, etc. So for the new MM, mu h as was done with Monsters of the Multiverse, everyday being tweaked to more accurately fit the assigned CR.

2. In the DMG, the 201t Encojnter Guidelines were a quick and dirty substitute for WotC in-house Encojnter building system which is a complex series of intercon ected Excel spreadsheets because they couldn't print that in a book. Mostly the 20q4 guidelines work as their internal system does, but has more misses and room for dire miscalculation. For the new DMG, they are providing a refined method to design Encounters that ia less likely to create pushover or accidental TPK scenarios.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I assume the Nightbringer name isn't just for flavour, but that they literally make it night whereever they are no matter the actual time of day? I doubt Nightbringer will make it to the SRD,but who knows.

 

[bedir than]

Does anyone else remember the Househunters from Dungeon magazine? House-sized mimics.

One of the books that came out during the pandemic had an art scene where nearly everything was a mimic.

I can't remember the book now, but it is a horrifying scene.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

One of the books that came out during the pandemic had an art scene where nearly everything was a mimic.

I can't remember the book now, but it is a horrifying scene.

It was either Tasha's or Xanathars.