The 2025 Monster Manual will have every creature found in the 2014 version.
Or will it?
One of the notable changes to the Monster Manual is how many previous-listed Humanoid are having their creature types changed. Goblins are Fey, Kobolds are Dragons, and Gnolls are Fiends. But what about those creatures that are very much humanoids, and even playable in the PHB, like Drow or Orcs? Well, there is a conversion guide. If you are running an older adventure that has an Orc, for example, this will tell you what stat block to use now.
As full humanoids, the old Orc and Drow stat blocks are now being treated like other humanoid NPC blocks, using equivalent options that are species-neutral.
Notably, this also changes a few other things.
In many cases, if some monster type like a Cyclops only had the one stat block, but now has different variants, the equivalent of the original will likely have a new name. There are also cases such as the Androsphinx and Gynosphinx, which were initially distinguished by gender, but are now distinguished by their lore and role as creatures.
Finally, as creature templates are going away, some old template creatures are being presented as their own distinct creature stat blocks.
So, let's go down the list (care of Pointy Hat's broad Monster Manual review). We'll list the old name first and the new name or alternate stat block second.
Aarakocra - Aarakocra Skirmisher
Acolyte - Priest Acolyte
Adult Blue Dracolich - Dracolich
Androsphinx - Sphinx of Valor
Azer - Azer Sentinel
Bugbear - Bugbear Warrior
Bullywug - Bullywug Warrior
Centaur - Centaur Trooper
Cult Fanatic - Cultist Fanatic (presumably to make it clear they're in the "Cultist" NPC family)
Cyclops - Cyclops Sentry
Deep Gnome - Scout
Drow - Priest Acolyte
Drow Elite Warrior - Gladiator
Drow Mage - Bandit Deceiver
Drow Priestess of Lolth - Fiend Cultist
Duergar - Spy
Duodrone - Modron Duodrone (almost certainly to keep all the Modrons together now that the book is fully alphabetized)
Faerie Dragon (if green, blue, indigo, or violet) - Faerie Dragon Adult
Faerie Dragon (if red, orange, or yellow) - Faerie Dragon Youth
Fire Snake - Salamander Fire Snake
Flying Sword - Animated Flying Sword
Gas Spore - Gas Spore Fungus (curious - I'd assume it would be Fungus Gas Spore to keep it with the other fungi)
Giant Poisonous Snake - Giant Venomous Snake (points for pedantry! A poisonous animal poisons you when you eat it. A venomous animal can inflict poison with a bite or other attack)
Gnoll - Gnoll Warrior
Goblin - Goblin Warrior
Grick Alpha - Grick Ancient (wonder if this is just to move away from the erroneous "alpha wolf" idea that was adopted by the worst kind of people)
Gynosphinx - Sphinx of Lore
Half-Ogre (Ogrillion) - Ogrillon Ogre (curious to see how the lore looks for these guys)
Half-Red Dragon Veteran - Half-Dragon
Hobgoblin - Hobgoblin Warrior
Kobold - Kobold Warrior
Lizardfolk - Scout
Lizardfolk Shaman - Lizardfolk Geomancer (interesting - Lizardfolk are getting their own unique stat blocks, just not the "baseline" one)
Lizardfolk King/Queen - Lizardfolk Sovereign (that simplifies things!)
Merfolk - Merfolk Skirmisher
Minotaur - Minotaur of Baphomet (curious to see if this is a fiend like the Gnolls are - this opens up room for friendly humanoid NPC minotaurs)
Monodrone - Modron Monodrone
Orc - Tough (which is itself, as we'll see, the new name for the Thug.)
Orc Eye of Gruumsh - Cultist Fanatic
Orc War Chief - Tough Boss
Orog - Berserker
Pentadrone - Modron Pentadrone
Poisonous Snake - Venomous Snake (again, good pedantry there)
Quadrone - Modron Quadrone
Quaggoth Spore Servant - Myconid Spore Servant (presumably broadening out what can become spore servants)
Quipper - Piranha (aw, ok. No weird fantasy name for a real animal)
Rug of Smothering - Animated Rug of Smothering (again, probably just to keep all the animated objects together. I don't know what an unanimated Rug of Smothering would even be)
Sahuagin - Sahuagin Warrior
Sahuagin Priestess - Sahuagin Priest (I guess figuring Priest is the gender-neutral term)
Shrieker - Shrieker Fungus (Ok, I feel like Fungi are going to be an exception to the strict alpabetization)
Swarm of Poisonous Snakes - Swarm of Venomous Snakes (the pedantry trifecta!)
Swarm of Quippers - Swarm of Piranhas
Thri-kreen - Thri-kreen Marauder (curious if they'll be monstrosities, given that the playable version is)
Thug - Tough
Tribal Warrior - Warrior Infantry (very smart change here, and frankly also really interesting to see a whole "warrior" group of NPCs)
Tridrone - Modron Tridrone
Veteran - Warrior Veteran
Young Red Shadow Dragon - Shadow Dragon (though I hope a Shadow Dragon will be higher-CR than just a young red dragon version of it. Do any adventures use the Young Red Shadow Dragon and would be unbalanced by having a higher-CR monster? Because I'd be pretty sad if the only shadow dragon we got was only like CR 10).
Yuan-Ti Pureblood - Yuan-Ti Infiltrator (yeah, I mean the whole "pureblood" thing is supposed to mark them as bad guys, but... whatever. This description is actually probably a better name for it.
And there you have it! Only a few changes that I think will really affect things - I might still give Drow villains Drow poison. You just need to add that to the NPC stat blocks (that said, in my homebrew setting, the Drow play a very different role generally).
I had been skeptical, given all the changes to attitudes about species (including just calling it species,) that we'd get straight up "Orcs" in the Monster Manual, and this explains how they'll be handling it. Works for me! Again, my primary concern is that the old Template-based creatures (which were, oddly, all dragons) get a sufficiently cool and powerful stat block. I'm not worried too much about the Dracolich, but I do hope that the Shadow Dragon is at least scary enough to challenge a tier 3 party.
We're now less than a week before early access to the Monster Manual starts on D&D Beyond, so you can rest assured I'll be delving deep and talking about the cool stuff in it. We're also due another preview video on Thursday I think for Celestials.
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