I mean, as a site, if different versions of monsters are starting to be made more frequently, or even if alternate versions start to be produced (like a cold themed version of a previously fire themed creature), it would probably make sense for some sort of version toggle button? So that one could toggle between a recent version of a creature and an older version.
I know that in the past it has been DnDBeyond policy to update content, ...
In the past it has been DDB's obligation to update content. A licence requirement is a bit stronger than a policy, at the very least in the sense the former is not a voluntary decision to stand by or to reverse as you see fit. This will be WotC's call first.
This doesn't really change anything about what I am saying.
This book is NOT just a minor update to a few lines of text, It is a full revision and that has not happened before. The small updates of the past are irrelevant because the game is moving into new territory. 5e as a whole is being revised and this is part of it, though I understand it is just a preview of what is to come and not the whole picture.
You should include quotes with this assertion. From what I've heard, it could absolutely be errata and I definitely didn't hear the term "full revision." There was very little substance about the actual content between the marketing buzzwords that are going to accompany any release they want to hype up.
I know that in the past it has been DnDBeyond policy to update content, ...
In the past it has been DDB's obligation to update content. A licence requirement is a bit stronger than a policy, at the very least in the sense the former is not a voluntary decision to stand by or to reverse as you see fit. This will be WotC's call first.
This doesn't really change anything about what I am saying.
This book is NOT just a minor update to a few lines of text, It is a full revision and that has not happened before. The small updates of the past are irrelevant because the game is moving into new territory. 5e as a whole is being revised and this is part of it, though I understand it is just a preview of what is to come and not the whole picture.
You should include quotes with this assertion. From what I've heard, it could absolutely be errata and I definitely didn't hear the term "full revision." There was very little substance about the actual content between the marketing buzzwords that are going to accompany any release they want to hype up.
“We revised the content in Monsters of the Multiverse so that it plays even better than it did before. Many of the monsters have new abilities and new bits of lore, which will make them even more fun to include in your campaigns,” Crawford said in a press release. “We also shifted the lore focus so that this material is relevant no matter where you play in the D&D multiverse, not just in the Forgotten Realms.”
Something that may be worth considering, is in the character builder there are three "distinct" races of playable Orc: the bog-standard Orc, the "Orc of Exandria", and the "Orc of Eberron", all of which are mechanically exactly the same, at least as far as I can tell. There's also the variant Human, variant Tieflings, and numerous variants of Half-Elves and Elves, including (somewhat irksome) Valenar and Aereni variants for High Elves and Wood Elves that as far as I can tell exist only in the old Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron document (which technically speaking, should be defunct).
I don't know exactly what route DDB is going to take (or be forced to take) but I can see there being room for a "Mordenkainen's Variant" of X race, rather than a total replacement of their vanilla versions.
Yeah, to substantiate that Golaryn is not just chewing a hype sandwich of "marketing speak," they specifically mentioned monsters (including NPC monsters like Archmages) who used to have spell slots, will be governed differently so the DM doesn't have to administratively sweat spell selection or slots when planning on playing the monster.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I haven't seen the video, so I'm just going by what I've read on these threads.
We're also assuming that the new stats for monsters are intended to replace old ones, and are not intended to be alternatives. Indeed, the fact that the title references the "multiverse" kind of implies that these are alternative monsters rather than just updates. That it's been described as a new book while it's accompaniments are described as updates also makes me wonder.
Ultimately though, this is all speculation. We don't seem to have enough information to understand what it is, so saying whether it'll be free updates or not is pure guesswork at this point.
If you watched the video or read any of the probably two dozen by now articles that reported on what was actually said your conjectures are just off. For one, those who watched the talk, and maybe some of those press outlets reproduced these pages, were shown a few pages showing a monster or two from a prior book and what that monster stat block looks like in the new book. It's also abundantly clear that these aren't supposed to be "alt" monsters but a presentation of what monsters are going to look like in stat blocks going forward in 5e products (I'm presuming that also means the 2024 whatever books, but that's speculation). The reason why they said multiverse in the title is because all these creatures are creatures that could be found in a number of places in the D&D multiverse, meaning (and they say this) setting agnostic.
Just to go meta briefly, it's ok to not know something and read and glean information from folks who can directly quote. You don't have to post if you don't know. One can extrapolate from what is known, and that's being done here. But speculations predicated on professing to have not witnessed or consumed the source of said info, I just don't know why folks are trying to make contentions against folks who are quoting sources. It's literally misinformation. I mean, just wait till the Sage Advice column that will go into what was covered in the announcement with more depth. It's no one's duty to post "I haven't consumed any of the available information but my inner light tells me..." That's just misinformation.
It is true it is unclear how DDB will handle this book, and future "updates" along substantial whole new book lines. That can be agreed upon. However, what this future book is, there's plenty of info already on it. Everything in the book is a "revisitation". Why would they do that? Again, to offer a glimpse of what the future of D&D is going to look like.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Something that may be worth considering, is in the character builder there are three "distinct" races of playable Orc: the bog-standard Orc, the "Orc of Exandria", and the "Orc of Eberron", all of which are mechanically exactly the same, at least as far as I can tell. There's also the variant Human, variant Tieflings, and numerous variants of Half-Elves and Elves, including (somewhat irksome) Valenar and Aereni variants for High Elves and Wood Elves that as far as I can tell exist only in the old Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron document (which technically speaking, should be defunct).
I don't know exactly what route DDB is going to take (or be forced to take) but I can see there being room for a "Mordenkainen's Variant" of X race, rather than a total replacement of their vanilla versions.
The deal with the Orcs was the original Orc race had the -2 ain’t, and instead of Primal Intuition with 7 Skills from which a player can choose 2, if I recall correctly it was just Intimidation. Then, in a Nov ‘19, Eberron Rising came without the Int penalty and with its 7 available skills while the OG was still crappy. Then, in March ‘20 Mercer’s Wildmount landed, but his version of Primal Intuition only has 6 skills to choose from, not 7 of them. (Exandrian Orcs apparently don’t know much about Nature. 🤷♂️ I’m willing to bet that either WotC added that to Eberron Rising at the last second, either after it was too late to update Wildemount before print, or else they did it on purpose. The only other possibilities are that it was a simple oversight or else that was an intentional decision by Mercer & Co.,only messers Mercer and Crawford could say for sure I suppose. After that was when WotC released errata that included an official update to Volo’s Orcs.
Aside from Exandran Orcs offering a slightly (🤏) different set of Skill options, the other significant difference I know of are:
The names (since that is technically a thing).
The narrative and descriptive texts including names, society, and religion. Those are very different from setting to setting. While not mechanical in any way are still significant to the feel of the Characters, presuming the Player has read them and cares. (Tall order, I know.)
The Size and Alignment sections are different among the three as well. Everyone knows Volo’s Orcs are gonna get woke, but they haven’t yet. They still have a he C/E slanderously listed for alignment, and the same vague (yet oddly restive) age range of 12-50 as well. For Size: Eberron and Wildemount both include an actual size modifier to assist with “random (not really) character generation,” or a “quick pick” method for stuff most players don’t give a hoot about. For alignment, Eberron’s is nett includes the more progressive (yet still unacceptable) sentence: “They are generally chaotic, but can be any alignment.” Mercer’s Orcs state that they either go whole hog with their allegedly Chaotic natures, or otherwise reject it so hard that they go Lawful. (Apparently none of them try to find their Zen. 🤷♂️)
Finally, the only other major difference I can think of is that Volo’s OG are gonna get redone with the new format reassigning ASI and Alignment sections completed away from their race/specie/lineage/(whatever) entry itself, whereas I didn’t hear that either Eberron or Wildemount were getting the treatment.
Ok. So now that we know that March is the release of the Critical Role Adventure, when do you think we will see Monsters of the Multiverse as a separate book?
I hope it is really soon after the gift set is released. I don't want to have to buy the gift set or wait several months either.
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She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
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I mean, as a site, if different versions of monsters are starting to be made more frequently, or even if alternate versions start to be produced (like a cold themed version of a previously fire themed creature), it would probably make sense for some sort of version toggle button? So that one could toggle between a recent version of a creature and an older version.
You should include quotes with this assertion. From what I've heard, it could absolutely be errata and I definitely didn't hear the term "full revision." There was very little substance about the actual content between the marketing buzzwords that are going to accompany any release they want to hype up.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
“We revised the content in Monsters of the Multiverse so that it plays even better than it did before. Many of the monsters have new abilities and new bits of lore, which will make them even more fun to include in your campaigns,” Crawford said in a press release. “We also shifted the lore focus so that this material is relevant no matter where you play in the D&D multiverse, not just in the Forgotten Realms.”
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Something that may be worth considering, is in the character builder there are three "distinct" races of playable Orc: the bog-standard Orc, the "Orc of Exandria", and the "Orc of Eberron", all of which are mechanically exactly the same, at least as far as I can tell. There's also the variant Human, variant Tieflings, and numerous variants of Half-Elves and Elves, including (somewhat irksome) Valenar and Aereni variants for High Elves and Wood Elves that as far as I can tell exist only in the old Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron document (which technically speaking, should be defunct).
I don't know exactly what route DDB is going to take (or be forced to take) but I can see there being room for a "Mordenkainen's Variant" of X race, rather than a total replacement of their vanilla versions.
Yeah, to substantiate that Golaryn is not just chewing a hype sandwich of "marketing speak," they specifically mentioned monsters (including NPC monsters like Archmages) who used to have spell slots, will be governed differently so the DM doesn't have to administratively sweat spell selection or slots when planning on playing the monster.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
An example of one of the stat blocks taken from the latest Sage Advice located Here .
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
If you watched the video or read any of the probably two dozen by now articles that reported on what was actually said your conjectures are just off. For one, those who watched the talk, and maybe some of those press outlets reproduced these pages, were shown a few pages showing a monster or two from a prior book and what that monster stat block looks like in the new book. It's also abundantly clear that these aren't supposed to be "alt" monsters but a presentation of what monsters are going to look like in stat blocks going forward in 5e products (I'm presuming that also means the 2024 whatever books, but that's speculation). The reason why they said multiverse in the title is because all these creatures are creatures that could be found in a number of places in the D&D multiverse, meaning (and they say this) setting agnostic.
Just to go meta briefly, it's ok to not know something and read and glean information from folks who can directly quote. You don't have to post if you don't know. One can extrapolate from what is known, and that's being done here. But speculations predicated on professing to have not witnessed or consumed the source of said info, I just don't know why folks are trying to make contentions against folks who are quoting sources. It's literally misinformation. I mean, just wait till the Sage Advice column that will go into what was covered in the announcement with more depth. It's no one's duty to post "I haven't consumed any of the available information but my inner light tells me..." That's just misinformation.
It is true it is unclear how DDB will handle this book, and future "updates" along substantial whole new book lines. That can be agreed upon. However, what this future book is, there's plenty of info already on it. Everything in the book is a "revisitation". Why would they do that? Again, to offer a glimpse of what the future of D&D is going to look like.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Just for accuracy that stat block is from Wild Beyond the Wytchlight, I mean, it could also appear in MMM (oh, now I see what they did there).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Sorry, you are correct I will edit my post.
However, the article does provide a little insight into what we will see going forward, including M:MotM.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
The deal with the Orcs was the original Orc race had the -2 ain’t, and instead of Primal Intuition with 7 Skills from which a player can choose 2, if I recall correctly it was just Intimidation. Then, in a Nov ‘19, Eberron Rising came without the Int penalty and with its 7 available skills while the OG was still crappy. Then, in March ‘20 Mercer’s Wildmount landed, but his version of Primal Intuition only has 6 skills to choose from, not 7 of them. (Exandrian Orcs apparently don’t know much about Nature. 🤷♂️ I’m willing to bet that either WotC added that to Eberron Rising at the last second, either after it was too late to update Wildemount before print, or else they did it on purpose. The only other possibilities are that it was a simple oversight or else that was an intentional decision by Mercer & Co.,only messers Mercer and Crawford could say for sure I suppose. After that was when WotC released errata that included an official update to Volo’s Orcs.
Aside from Exandran Orcs offering a slightly (🤏) different set of Skill options, the other significant difference I know of are:
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Ok. So now that we know that March is the release of the Critical Role Adventure, when do you think we will see Monsters of the Multiverse as a separate book?
I hope it is really soon after the gift set is released. I don't want to have to buy the gift set or wait several months either.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master