Mordenkainen, the Lord Mage of Greyhawk, renowned for his seminal piece, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, returns with his second official work, Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. This book summons in one place over 250 monsters and 30 playable races, the greatest number of monsters since the Monster Manual and the most player race options since the Player’s Handbook! Pulling together options previously found in Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, this book will provide a one-stop reference for a vast number of options for your D&D game.
This article was last updated on May 12, 2022.
What's in Monsters of the Multiverse?
The first thing you’ll notice is an array of updated races, some with modified or improved abilities, and some with new ones! Those little kobolds have just become a lot mightier! You'll also find monsters have been improved to make the lives of Dungeon Masters easier when running combat. For example, some monsters have seen changes to streamline spellcasting. Others have received buffs to their damage and resilience to help you better challenge your adventurers. New and updated lore also shifts focus away from any one particular world and instead toward the wider Dungeons & Dragons multiverse. All of this combines to present a variety of options that empower DMs and players to tell the stories they want to tell!
Here, we answer some frequently asked questions about Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse:
- What is going to happen if I own all of the existing content from Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and don't buy Monsters of the Multiverse?
- Will two versions of every monster be maintained on D&D Beyond?
- Will the character races in Monsters of the Multiverse be available in addition to the old versions?
- Will I be able to share older content or access older content in a campaign?
- Will I still have access to a character created using Volo's Guide to Monsters or Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes?
- If I want one of my characters to use the new content in Monsters of the Multiverse, but not another, will that be possible?
- I built an encounter with monsters from my Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and Volo's Guide to Monsters purchases. Will that still be usable after May 17 if I don't buy Monsters of the Multiverse?
- Will I have to purchase Monsters of Multiverse on D&D Beyond even if I already own Volo’s Guide to Monsters and/or Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes?
- Can I still buy Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on D&D Beyond?
What is going to happen if I own all of the existing content from Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and don't buy Monsters of the Multiverse?
You won’t need to take any action on older content, as it will not be removed from your account, be hidden from you, or have its statistics changed! You will notice, however, older content being designated as legacy content. For example, a legacy badge (LegacyThis doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.Learn More) can be seen when navigating to a monster’s statistics page or when hovering over a monster tooltip.
You will also see race naming conventions updated to denote “(Legacy)” on the Races page and a legacy badge appearing next to old subraces on race pages. In the character builder, old races can be identified by the book source shown below their name.
Will two versions of every monster be maintained on D&D Beyond?
If you own the old content and purchase the new content, yes, you will have two different versions of official content. Older content has been designated as legacy content.
Will the character races in Monsters of the Multiverse be available in addition to the old versions?
Character races presented in this new book are new versions of existing character races. Purchasing Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse will not replace older character races, but rather, will provide new ones with updates compared to the originals. If you want to use the new version of the tabaxi, for example, you will need to purchase the new book, or purchase the tabaxi character race from the book’s additional purchase options in our Marketplace.
If you already own a character race that has been updated in the new title, you will continue to have access to them in their current state; that character race will not be changed or updated except to designate it as legacy content.
Will I be able to share older content or access older content in a campaign?
Yes! If you are a Master-tier subscriber and own the older content, you can still share it in new and existing campaigns. Similarly, if you are accessing shared content in a campaign from a Master-tier subscriber, that content will still be accessible.
Will I still have access to a character created using Volo's Guide to Monsters or Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes?
Yes! If you own that book you will still have access to that race and character. Any existing characters will not be changed with the release of Monsters of the Multiverse. Players who purchase Monsters of the Multiverse will be able to update their characters themselves by selecting the new version of a race in the character builder.
If I want one of my characters to use the new content in Monsters of the Multiverse, but not another, will that be possible?
If your Dungeon Master allows it, then yes. If the game hasn’t started yet, this would be perfect to bring up during your session zero.
I built an encounter with monsters from my Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and Volo's Guide to Monsters purchases. Will that still be usable after May 17 if I don't buy Monsters of the Multiverse?
Absolutely! Your previously owned content is not being removed from your account. Your encounter, and the monsters in it, will remain intact. In the Encounters tool, you may notice a legacy badge (LegacyThis doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore.Learn More) appearing next to monsters’ names to identify them as content from older books.
Will I have to purchase Monsters of Multiverse on D&D Beyond even if I already own Volo’s Guide to Monsters and/or Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes?
Whatever book content you already own on each digital platform will still be accessible for your use, and to gain access to both the new and updated content in Monsters of Multiverse, you will need to purchase Monsters of Multiverse.
Can I still buy Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on D&D Beyond?
Starting on May 16, you can acquire the streamlined and up-to-date creatures and character race options, as well as a plethora of exciting new content, by purchasing Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. On May 17, Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes will be discontinued from our digital marketplace.
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse releases on D&D Beyond on May 16. You can preorder it from the D&D Beyond marketplace.
Davyd is a moderator for D&D Beyond. A Dungeon Master of over fifteen years, he enjoys Marvel movies, writing, and of course running D&D for his friends and family, including partner Steph and his daughter Willow (well, one day). They live with their two cats Asker and Khatleesi in the south of England.
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Posted Jun 12, 2022Trying to learn about race lore and monster lore in detail just got essentially banned from D&D beyond if you didn't own the legacy content beforehand. You can tell me that M:MotM is up to date without not allowing me purchasing options for VGtM or MToF. Trying to get into forgotten realms lore and now I'm gonna have to refer my elven players to ******* or SCAG if they wanna learn about Elves, when MToF literally had an immense amount of info on it. Not the end of the world, just a little dissapointing to say that the stat blocks weren't up to date and then turn around and block access to the lore too.
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Posted Jun 13, 2022The books are no longer in print. That is WOTC's decision. If they're no longer licensed for print, then DDB can't sell them either. That doesn't prevent legacy ownership. That also doesn't prevent finding the books at a second-hand bookstore. They exist in the world beyond the scope of digital ownership with D&DBeyond. Bemoaning that your players can't read about them is only because you/they haven't looked hard enough. Blaming a company that has no control over the matter is pointless.
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Posted Jun 13, 2022The point of DDB is to be the quintessential and now official digital supplement and toolset of D&D 5e. So to sit there and tell users of this digital space that they should go seek the physical makes no sense and is pretty disrespectful while also not even addressing their issues. While you're correct that DDB is beholden to WOTC and their decisions, the rest of your comment has nothing to do with anything DDB users need or want.
Basically: the point of DDB is to use the digital, why tell us to go use the physical instead?
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Posted Jun 13, 2022This is why I warned people early that these books were gonna go out of print and suggested folks buy them way back then. People didn’t listen or dismissed me. 🤷♂️
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Posted Jun 13, 2022You couldn't be expected to reach everyone anyway. That's not your job, and you weren't equipped with the tools to do it on a large scale. You're not an Official Source -- and the actual Official Sources weren't saying anything.
Beyond announced it about a week ahead of the delisting, despite having shadow-announced it a full month or so earlier still. (My numbers are getting less and less specific as time passes, but the info is searchable -- I'm just lazy.) Why they neglected to publicize this shadow announcement remains a mystery. And even in their main announcement, it was buried at the very end, when it could've had its own post and an announcement banner.
That's the reason people feel the rug has been pulled out from under them. And they're right to feel that way.
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Posted Jun 13, 2022Thanks. And you’re right, they really should have made a bigger deal of the announcement and should have given it a longer lead time.
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Posted Jun 13, 2022Mordenkainen's and Volo's were released 4 and 6 years ago. To suddenly need the content of these books now, when you hadn't needed them in half a decade prior to now, is frankly on you, not DDB.
There's no "pulling the rug" from anyone. 5e has lasted far longer than expected based on previous editions, and anyone even remotely familiar with the franchise should expect all these books to be removed/revised/replaced sooner rather than later as the game continues to evolve.
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Posted Jun 13, 2022To be honest, this is how people that still use legacy settings like Greyhawk or Dark Sun and Mystara have been dealing with the lack of lore and background. I've got used to it, and people ignored my remarks about the lack of lore coming out in the new books.
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Posted Jun 13, 2022Brand new players and DMs come into the game all the time what are you talking about? Of course there's always need for more lore and depth to the game.
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Posted Jun 13, 2022It must be hard living without the internet.
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Posted Jun 14, 2022Stop talking physical on a digital platform with all of our concerns are with said digital platform. It's just a strawman that literally nobody is talking about.
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Posted Jun 14, 2022You're whining about something a digital platform has no control over about discontinued books still sold in bookshops and whose digital contents can still be found on the internet abroad, and yet claiming that WotC is somehow banning lore.
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Posted Jun 14, 2022These Physical Vs Digital arguments are like TIE Fighters. Before the Mods come and say something I recommend that everyone:
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Posted Jun 15, 2022Actually the digital platform in this case is now owned by WotC so they have complete control. Also digital legacy content is from this point on inaccessible on official channels to anyone who does not have it.
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Posted Jun 15, 2022Beyond still has no control. WotC has complete control. Beyond may be owned by Wizards now, but it is not Wizards. You want to complain to Wizards, then complain to Wizards. This is like complaining to a Whole Foods about an Amazon problem.
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Posted Jun 15, 2022Sucks that all the tiefling varients got the Legacy Hammer
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Posted Jun 15, 2022Yeah, though with the ability to change ability scores ultimately most of them were really just alternate racial spells; all you need to do is copy Tiefling in homebrew and talk to your DM about the spells you'd like to swap for.
Levistus was the most unique one due to the cold theme (including resistance) or the winged variant that traded the spellcasting trait for a flying speed.
I went a step further and made a "Custom Tiefling" race that lets me just pick as options, but a couple of the spells prevent public sharing, and I'm not sure if it would be permitted anyway (it's not actually reproducing any text from an official source, only the options, and the official source is now discontinued).
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Posted Jun 16, 2022Would love if the old books were still purchasable since there are some parties who are switching to digital and don't use the new book.
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Posted Jun 16, 2022I think the general assumption is that Wizards will see complaints coming through D&D Beyond. They’d certainly be stupid not to have their eye on it, given that it is a massive point of customer interaction where feedback would be abundant. I would argue the analogy is more like tapping the shoulder to get the attention of the head.
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Posted Jun 16, 2022Maybe we can get it back in a few years in the form of print on demand. We can only hope.