Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual (2024) Review -.

On Feb. 18, the third and final core manual for the revised fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons will be released. World’s best role-playing game updated its 5E rules system last year with some important but not defining changes for a sixth edition. But to distinguish between what is current and what is new, this revision is unofficially referred to in this review as D&D 5.5E.

After the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide in 2024, we now get the Monster Manual (2024), a central piece for creating our role-playing adventures and also for getting to know all sorts of creatures that populate the Dungeons and Dragons universe (or universes). Since it has not yet been released, Wizards of the Coast has given us a digital copy of the Monster Manual in advance, which will be accessible through D&D Beyond.

The beauty of this digital version is that it allows quick access to each creature and its data and statistics for designing encounters. And it’s no small change, because from the 500 samples which now appear in the manual, 75 of them are new, and there are also 9 new “superpredators” such as arch witches and the Blob of Annihilation, which only the highest-level groups can defeat. And as for the physical edition that will be released tomorrow in English (in other languages, such as Spanish, it will not be released until October), we know that the definitions and statistics of the monsters have changed, as well as the entire organization compared to the 2014 edition.

This is a big improvement, because in earlier versions of the Monster Manual you could find yourself in the situation where you couldn’t find a sample by name in the main index because it was a variation or subspecies of another monster. For that, you had to consult the second index on the back pages of the 2014 edition. This is no longer the case: All creatures, humanoids and monsters are listed in alphabetical order in the initial index, and are grouped by variation in the same group. Thus, the zombie spectator now does not appear in the zombie category, but in the same group as normal spectators, onlookers and graftirans. For a list of the previous version, see Appendix B.

It is important to understand this one, because one of the most important changes in this D&D 5.5E is that the challenge rating (CR) of a sample may have changed. Encounters that used to be good for high levels may now fall short, or vice versa. But fortunately, the other great addition to this Monster manual is that it establishes new rules for forming “Versatile Groups,” in which different types of creatures (e.g., gnolls and goblins working together) can appear. These rules serve to balance the encounter, number of creatures and experience points to defeat them. A welcome addition to enrich campaigns.

All in all, this Monster Manual 2024 (or 2025) is along the same lines as last year’s 50th anniversary revisions to the Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide, polishing up what was already a refined and versatile version of the game and adding an expansion that keeps it consistent with the brand without looking for those new rules in other systems, as could happen before. It is the third pillar on which the game system is built, so we consider it a priority purchase for any Dungeon Master making the jump to the new revision of 5E. For players, it is an entertaining file to learn more about the universe and its inhabitants, as well as to think about how to approach each encounter and battle. We can’t wait to start developing encounters with this guide and see what threats we will face in the future.