2025 D&D Monster Manual Will Exclude Feature Absent in 2024 DMG

The 2025 Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual: Key Features and Insights

The highly anticipated Dungeons & Dragons 2025 Monster Manual promises an impressive lineup of over 500 creatures, including more than 85 brand new entries. This exciting addition follows the release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide, all while ensuring compatibility with the materials introduced in 2014. However, one notable omission from this edition will be the feature of monster creation.

Clarifications on Monster Creation

At a recent press briefing for the 2025 Monster Manual, it was confirmed that the resources for monster creation and customization will not be included. When asked about the details of the “How to Use a Monster”chapter, Wesley Schneider, the principal game designer and co-lead of the Monster Manual, emphasized that this section would focus primarily on the fundamental aspects of utilizing monsters within the game.

Wesley Schneider: If you want to get more into developing things, into tweaking things, so on and so forth, that’s really where the [Dungeon Master’s Guide] is going to serve you well.

While the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide does contain a brief discussion on creature customization, it primarily emphasizes the practice of reskinning existing monsters. In contrast, the 2014 edition provided comprehensive guidelines for building creatures from scratch, leading many fans to hope for similar intricate rules in the upcoming Monster Manual.

Understanding the Reasoning Behind Omissions

Ensuring Dungeon Masters Are Guided

In a 2024 interview with Screen Rant, Chris Perkins, the creative director, described the absence of extensive monster creation tools in that year’s materials as a deliberate choice aimed at creating an accessible starting toolkit for Dungeon Masters (DMs). This approach prioritizes reskinning methods to facilitate quick adjustments, thereby minimizing risks of DMs generating creatures with imbalanced Challenge Ratings (CR) that could destabilize encounters. Senior game designer James Wyatt also suggested that the optimal strategy for crafting unique monsters involves modifying pre-existing ones.

Though Perkins did hint at the potential for revisiting comprehensive monster creation guidelines in future publications, he noted that the 2025 Monster Manual is not the expected venue for such developments. Still, there remains the possibility that future supplements, akin to Xanathar’s Guide to Everything or Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, could expand on this topic.

The Pros and Cons of Reduced Options

Embracing Risky Experimentation

While streamlining the process for custom monsters can aid novice DMs in staying on track, many players still find the lack of a robust creature-building system disheartening. As a DM, it is common to make minor adjustments to existing monsters when their initial abilities seem inadequate or when alignments to player levels are necessary. Although the comprehensive guidance from the 2014 edition is less frequently utilized, its return would be welcomed by many in the community.

Options remain abundant beyond the new core rulebooks. DMs can still refer back to the guidelines found in the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide, explore suggestions from third-party materials, or seek inspiration online. While it is understandable to prioritize clarity and accessibility in the Dungeons & Dragons 2025 Monster Manual, there is hope that upcoming publications will once again embrace the richness of detailed monster creation.

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