Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Monsters of the Multiverse Comes Out Independently May 17

 Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse is the revision/conglomeration of the content found in Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, along with a couple other things, being packaged in the Rules Expansion Gift Set that comes out this month.

Given that the other two books in said set are previously-published books, those of us who have been keeping up in our 5th Edition collections are unlikely to want to drop the cash to buy this three-book set.

Now, there's an interesting question to be asked: if you have the existing monster books, is Monsters of the Multiverse worth getting?

That's obviously a matter of opinion, but I think that there's an argument to be made for it: what I've seen of the playable races in the book (all previously published in Volo's and Mordenkainen's as well as some things found in Eberron, as well as the Elemental Evil Player's Companion and other supplements,) there's been enough significant revision to some of these to make them mechanically quite different. Even beyond implementing the Tasha's-era rules about ability score bonuses, some races have just been totally reworked. Genasi, for example, who have always had a cool story but underwhelming mechanics (except maybe Fire Genasi) have now been reworked and significantly improved (my dream of an Air Genasi Monk has been looking more viable).

We also got some early previews of how monsters are being reworked. In particular, we're getting a big revision of the way that spellcasters work - transitioning them from a system of spell slots like a player character and more to kind of "signature attacks" that the DM can reliably use each turn in combat, and then some utility spells for them to retain their versatility.

Unfortunately, the release date is four whole months after the box set, which means that those who want this thing a la carte are going to have to wait a long time. In a way, this will serve as something of a preview of 5.5/6th Edition, which comes out in 2024.

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