I personally think it was just okay. My physical copy seemed fine, but my real concern came when I saw how it was displayed on DDB. It does not work well for me. The Listing section in the app makes me weep.
That, and the earth genasi (my favorite genasi) got a bit of the shaft by moving Pass Without Trace to level 5, while Blade Ward was given at level 1. I suppose I understand, since PWT is a level 2 spell, but meh. Fortunately, I have all the Legacy content. :P
I'm of the mindset that for every hit there's a miss, so I gave this a 3/5. Races getting more out-of-combat boons is a plus, but I do miss the drawbacks such as sunlight sensitivity, being the jaded masochist I am. Some racial changes are just straight up baffling: playable Yuan-Ti Purebloods only get resistance to poison, whereas their NPC counterpart is immune, for instance. The level of detail given to each race is also inconsistent throughout the book; I'm torn between whether or not the book has too much or too little padding (see Elves and Changelings, for instance).
If I were getting this only for myself, it'd score a point lower, but I fully intend on sharing this with friends who will make great use of it. It's a shame the D&D Beyond subscription is carrying its score to the dizzying heights of average, as this has been my most anticipated book since Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. All of a sudden I'm a lot less excited for the content planned for 2024.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
I am on the fence about it at this point I think, but I have not used any of the tweaked monsters in a campaign yet.
While I liked the idea of some creatures becoming harder (they really needed to do that imo) I am not sure that they have quite hit the mark. Some of the creature abilities shifting to bonus actions are excellent and will give some creatures the ability to do a signature move in 1 turn instead of two. The new actions like "Grave Bolt" as an example, for the new Deathlock's I think are interesting and very well could prove to be more powerful in combat, but in some cases, it seems like versatility was sacrificed for adding in these new actions that will pidgeon hole the creature more. But, I haven't used them yet, so these concerns and impressions may be unfounded.
I fell like, the way that it was advertised, was a total bait-and-switch in order to push pre-order sales. "Includes 30+ races" but the catch is that they are all races that you already own, and we are re-publishing them in order to push some errata and balance changes.
There should really be a distinction between "I already have MToF and VGM" and "I don't have them".
If you already have MToF and VGM... you're getting slightly tweaked reprints, which doesn't seem worth the price.
If you don't have MToF and VGM... you're getting a lot more monsters for your money, because MMM is $30 and those two combined were something like $50-60 (I don't remember their prices).
I fell like, the way that it was advertised, was a total bait-and-switch in order to push pre-order sales. "Includes 30+ races" but the catch is that they are all races that you already own, and we are re-publishing them in order to push some errata and balance changes.
Then you did not read anything in the description. It was inexorably clear during the preorder that they were 30 reprinted and rebalanced races and 250 ish monster reprints with some mechanical changes. There really wasn’t any confusion about what was in the book, provided one actually did a cursory look at what MMM contained.
I would have put a 3, but I didn't have most of the content in the older books that was revised in this one, so getting all of that while only buying a single book bumped it up to a 4 for me.
4/5 for me personally. I do not have any of the monsters from the legacy books and only a small fraction of the playable races, so its automatically worth it. Also most of the playable races got mostly buffs or incentives to play them now. Also the reprints for the monsters are way better to read.
I'm afraid I have to echo the sentiment that with MotMV we're creeping pretty close to the point where races start to become utterly interchangable save for maybe one or two features. Which if that's what you like then alright: but it makes the world feel very... history-less to me. The fact that races no longer have cultural or anatomical trends in them feels like far too much of an over-correction to me...
On the other hand; a good chunk of the gameplay alterations to abilities (uses based upon proficiency, being able to change/choose casting stat etc.) were quite nice quality of life updates. So; not all bad, but certainly not something I'd have bought if I were concerned about my budget.
On the other-other hand; my consumer-advocacy senses started to tingle with the whole "we have this new book... so you don't need these old ones anymore! DELETE DELETE DELETE!" thing... Strikes me as the sort of thing that could very easily slip into abuse and revisionist history territory.
It's pretty bad, mostly because they are not only repeating existing content which many of us already own, but they are dumbing it down and actually making it worse.
Honestly, especially from a digital perspective, this should have been discounted for users who already owned the original material, or better yet, free. And they shouldn't have changed so many monsters. If players can't buy the old content, than this is literally 5.5, it's like their trying to sabotage their website and start Pathfinder all over again.
Also I don't see anybody talking about the options that were just lost for newer players. If you do not own MToF then you won't ever get the tiefling subraces. For some reason they could not even get that right. They just left out options but still insisted on making the old books unobtainable for anyone who hasn't purchased them already.
If I didn't already have the previous books, I think I'd still only rate this a 2.
I like the updates to some of the racial features, like PB uses rather than one time things, and the ASI stuff (though that was already pretty much irrelevant thanks to Tashas)
But I'm baffled by the following: Small creatures speed increased to 30ft but only for the ones in this book - makes NO sense, what about all the other kinds of gnomes? Feels like the only drawback to being small now is not being able to use a 'heavy' weapon or if you're running a grapple build, so for most classes there now just isn't any drawback to being small?
Some creatures not being humanoid any more and being 'fey' instead - so you can no longer target them with certain spells such as hold person by RAW and certain spells the party might want to work on them won't work either. Very frustrating in certain situations.
I feel like picking race now comes down to - pick one that has dark vision, and whatever PB uses trait you fancy.
Some of the changes to monsters that I've seen so far make no sense either, Why has Zariel lost 160HP?|
I thought this was all going to be optional content and missed the fact the previous books are no longer being sold. I already have them, but I'm still fuming that other people won't be able to get them.
I can see us having to homebrew a lot of races to get the combinations that we want.
Incredibly irritating that so many races have been homogenised, with major lore changes and no option to return to the original ideas (if one didn't already have Volo's and MToF - which I do, so I'm lucky). Removing the older options from DDB for new players is inexcusable, and makes me wonder how WotC is going to affect homebrew on DDB in the future. "You can keep what you've got, but no more new stuff. No more tweaking of existing monsters because it's badwrongfun."
The mechanical changes are dreadful, especially the bizarre thing they've done with spellcasters - eliminating reference to spellcaster levels and actual spell levels/slots makes it much more difficult to tweak spellcasting NPCs.
The whole thing feels like a step back towards 4E to me: make everything bland and interchangeable, and completely divorce NPC abilities from PC abilities.
I left D&D for years (and played Pathfinder) because of 4E and returned to it because of 5E. I really don't want to abandon it again, but if this is the direction 5E is taking, I won't be getting any new stuff.
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On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best, how do you rate the new Monsters of the Multiverse book?
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Only at 12 votes so far, but a pretty even spread.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Complete crap. They made all the playable races generic, and didn't provide any NEW races.
I personally think it was just okay. My physical copy seemed fine, but my real concern came when I saw how it was displayed on DDB. It does not work well for me. The Listing section in the app makes me weep.
That, and the earth genasi (my favorite genasi) got a bit of the shaft by moving Pass Without Trace to level 5, while Blade Ward was given at level 1. I suppose I understand, since PWT is a level 2 spell, but meh. Fortunately, I have all the Legacy content. :P
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Have to rate it low merely because it is only a reprint and update of existing material, rather than having anything new in it.
I'm of the mindset that for every hit there's a miss, so I gave this a 3/5. Races getting more out-of-combat boons is a plus, but I do miss the drawbacks such as sunlight sensitivity, being the jaded masochist I am. Some racial changes are just straight up baffling: playable Yuan-Ti Purebloods only get resistance to poison, whereas their NPC counterpart is immune, for instance. The level of detail given to each race is also inconsistent throughout the book; I'm torn between whether or not the book has too much or too little padding (see Elves and Changelings, for instance).
If I were getting this only for myself, it'd score a point lower, but I fully intend on sharing this with friends who will make great use of it. It's a shame the D&D Beyond subscription is carrying its score to the dizzying heights of average, as this has been my most anticipated book since Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. All of a sudden I'm a lot less excited for the content planned for 2024.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
After 30 votes we are at an average of 2.8 stars. Not looking very good for the book so far, but not many votes either.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
I am on the fence about it at this point I think, but I have not used any of the tweaked monsters in a campaign yet.
While I liked the idea of some creatures becoming harder (they really needed to do that imo) I am not sure that they have quite hit the mark. Some of the creature abilities shifting to bonus actions are excellent and will give some creatures the ability to do a signature move in 1 turn instead of two. The new actions like "Grave Bolt" as an example, for the new Deathlock's I think are interesting and very well could prove to be more powerful in combat, but in some cases, it seems like versatility was sacrificed for adding in these new actions that will pidgeon hole the creature more. But, I haven't used them yet, so these concerns and impressions may be unfounded.
I fell like, the way that it was advertised, was a total bait-and-switch in order to push pre-order sales. "Includes 30+ races" but the catch is that they are all races that you already own, and we are re-publishing them in order to push some errata and balance changes.
There should really be a distinction between "I already have MToF and VGM" and "I don't have them".
If you already have MToF and VGM... you're getting slightly tweaked reprints, which doesn't seem worth the price.
If you don't have MToF and VGM... you're getting a lot more monsters for your money, because MMM is $30 and those two combined were something like $50-60 (I don't remember their prices).
Then you did not read anything in the description. It was inexorably clear during the preorder that they were 30 reprinted and rebalanced races and 250 ish monster reprints with some mechanical changes. There really wasn’t any confusion about what was in the book, provided one actually did a cursory look at what MMM contained.
I would have put a 3, but I didn't have most of the content in the older books that was revised in this one, so getting all of that while only buying a single book bumped it up to a 4 for me.
Insert interesting signature here.
At 51 votes we are at an average of 2.76 stars so not a huge change so far.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
4/5 for me personally. I do not have any of the monsters from the legacy books and only a small fraction of the playable races, so its automatically worth it. Also most of the playable races got mostly buffs or incentives to play them now. Also the reprints for the monsters are way better to read.
I'm afraid I have to echo the sentiment that with MotMV we're creeping pretty close to the point where races start to become utterly interchangable save for maybe one or two features. Which if that's what you like then alright: but it makes the world feel very... history-less to me. The fact that races no longer have cultural or anatomical trends in them feels like far too much of an over-correction to me...
On the other hand; a good chunk of the gameplay alterations to abilities (uses based upon proficiency, being able to change/choose casting stat etc.) were quite nice quality of life updates. So; not all bad, but certainly not something I'd have bought if I were concerned about my budget.
On the other-other hand; my consumer-advocacy senses started to tingle with the whole "we have this new book... so you don't need these old ones anymore! DELETE DELETE DELETE!" thing... Strikes me as the sort of thing that could very easily slip into abuse and revisionist history territory.
It's pretty bad, mostly because they are not only repeating existing content which many of us already own, but they are dumbing it down and actually making it worse.
Honestly, especially from a digital perspective, this should have been discounted for users who already owned the original material, or better yet, free. And they shouldn't have changed so many monsters. If players can't buy the old content, than this is literally 5.5, it's like their trying to sabotage their website and start Pathfinder all over again.
Also I don't see anybody talking about the options that were just lost for newer players. If you do not own MToF then you won't ever get the tiefling subraces. For some reason they could not even get that right. They just left out options but still insisted on making the old books unobtainable for anyone who hasn't purchased them already.
If I didn't already have the previous books, I think I'd still only rate this a 2.
I like the updates to some of the racial features, like PB uses rather than one time things, and the ASI stuff (though that was already pretty much irrelevant thanks to Tashas)
But I'm baffled by the following:
Small creatures speed increased to 30ft but only for the ones in this book - makes NO sense, what about all the other kinds of gnomes? Feels like the only drawback to being small now is not being able to use a 'heavy' weapon or if you're running a grapple build, so for most classes there now just isn't any drawback to being small?
Some creatures not being humanoid any more and being 'fey' instead - so you can no longer target them with certain spells such as hold person by RAW and certain spells the party might want to work on them won't work either. Very frustrating in certain situations.
I feel like picking race now comes down to - pick one that has dark vision, and whatever PB uses trait you fancy.
Some of the changes to monsters that I've seen so far make no sense either, Why has Zariel lost 160HP?|
I thought this was all going to be optional content and missed the fact the previous books are no longer being sold. I already have them, but I'm still fuming that other people won't be able to get them.
I can see us having to homebrew a lot of races to get the combinations that we want.
74 votes with an average of 2.64 stars. That is pretty rough.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
1/5 for me.
Incredibly irritating that so many races have been homogenised, with major lore changes and no option to return to the original ideas (if one didn't already have Volo's and MToF - which I do, so I'm lucky). Removing the older options from DDB for new players is inexcusable, and makes me wonder how WotC is going to affect homebrew on DDB in the future. "You can keep what you've got, but no more new stuff. No more tweaking of existing monsters because it's badwrongfun."
The mechanical changes are dreadful, especially the bizarre thing they've done with spellcasters - eliminating reference to spellcaster levels and actual spell levels/slots makes it much more difficult to tweak spellcasting NPCs.
The whole thing feels like a step back towards 4E to me: make everything bland and interchangeable, and completely divorce NPC abilities from PC abilities.
I left D&D for years (and played Pathfinder) because of 4E and returned to it because of 5E. I really don't want to abandon it again, but if this is the direction 5E is taking, I won't be getting any new stuff.