I've seen this question come up a lot in the threads, so I thought I'd summarise what it is here so you can judge whether it's worth it or not.
MotM is more or less a redo of Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes to be more in line with WotC's vision for 5e in the near future (and probably the 2024 revamp). Additionally, it contains around 250 monster stat blocks, pictures for nearly all of them, and enough lore for each to understand where they come from and a bit of their personality and traits. There are also 33 player races (although some are what were formerly classed as subraces) that have had modifications like having sunlight sensitivity removed and being rebalanced to account for that. There are at least two (Harengon and Fairy) that are straight reprints, probably included more for the sake of completeness than anything.
The book itself is excellent in my opinion. It describes itself as a companion to the Monster Manual there I'd agree with that assessment. It is still essentially a rehash of the other books though, and so it's unlikely to add much if you've already have those.
From what I can tell, the "updated" Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything contain nothing novel - they have just incorporated previous errata.
The included DM screen is of the normal quality like the one you get with the core ruleset, the scene depicted is the same as the one in the Essentials Kit (Cryovain and Icespire Peak), but with a stylish foil pattern on the ends.
My assessment is that if ALL the following apply to you:
You do not own TCoE or XGtE, or you are desperate for incorporated errata.
You do not own MToF or VGtM.
You're wanting those books.
You like the idea of having it in a collector's box or just impatient and willing to pay extra for any of the previously mentioned books that will be effectively duplicated.
Then I'd consider buying it. It worked great for me because I didn't own any of the books and I wanted a matching set for my core ruleset box, I also got it on discount. For most...it's not worth the premium. You can get both Tasha's and Xanathar's off Amazon for like £60 with change. MotM is probably going to be £30 (okay, it's brand new, let's call it £40), while the set is £140. That's £40 going on it being in a box, nice foil covers and getting it early. I know most use dollars, but that gives an idea of prices. Personally, if you already on XGtE or TCoE, or both, it'll be much cheaper to wait a few months. Even if you don't...yeah, I'd think on it first. Depends on how big your wallet is, really. I'm happy with my purchase, but I think I'm a fairly niche consumer here on DDB.
If you have specific questions about the book(s), post them and I'll look it up for you.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I had been considering Tasha's and Xanathar's prior to this release, and have access to Mordenhainen's Tome. I'm not desperate for them though so can happily wait till later in the year when M3 is available separately and can probably pick up all three expansion books without the inflated "gift set" price tag.
There was an added benefit for me acquiring the expanded rules set. Though I already own copies of Tasha's and Xanathar's, I run an afterschool D&D club so having extras at the table for the kids is a nice addition to the 5 PHBs I already have. I got lucky preordering early too, because I was locked in at a lower price than what it's going for now.
[...]I got lucky preordering early too, because I was locked in at a lower price than what it's going for now.
That's interesting, because the price has gone down here, it's currently available for £100, although that's from the US so postage might be more than you save.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Haven't been hunting this, but in my part of the U.S. bricks and mortar retails the boxed set for $169.95, that's comparable to 3 hardbooks and a screen, though those screen usually come with some addons, which I guess are replaced by the slipcase. I like the idea, look, and feel of slipcases, but I worry they don't stand up well to frequent use like a game manual for a game you play a lot (I'm torn between allowing wear and tear for my Delta Green slipcased set and copy of Imaginary Landscapes that I may just run the whole thing off the PDFs that came with the game even though I usually work better with paper manuals).
Yes, you could get a much better deal on Amazon, but the retailer exclusive covers are at the same price and those won't be on Amazon unless they're at a much more exaggerated price on the secondary market (this set's alt cover doesn't really do it for me either, looks like Adventurer's League of DMsGuild stock art cover design).
Curious the MMM single release has been announced without an alt cover. That's disappointing.
EDIT: oh, and thanks for the review, it's definitely helpful.
I’ll just add that the special edition covers, box and screen art are super pretty and I love ‘em. I didn’t pay for them though, they were a present organised by my partner and the other players in the campaign I currently DM. (I had most of the original books in print, but I will probably donate those to a library or school club now.)
This is a review discussion of Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Discussions of the implications this book may have for the wider game should be taken to it's own thread
Does anyone know if we already bought the previous versions on D&D Beyond (volos, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, etc.) if those are going to receive an update? Or is the only way for us to get those updated race stats to buy MotM?
Does anyone know if we already bought the previous versions on D&D Beyond (volos, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, etc.) if those are going to receive an update? Or is the only way for us to get those updated race stats to buy MotM?
They are not updating VGtM or MToF with the information present in MotM. If you want the stuff frol MotM, you have to buy it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Unless I'm mistaken, if you buy the new books on D&D Beyond, the stats they list will replace your existing races and monsters. So, there will be a large incentive not to buy said books if you like running 5E and not 5.25E. So if you like the concept of homogenization of the races and greatly reduced spells for monsters (something that D&D Beyond makes exceedingly easy to use) it might be a good buy for D&D Beyond. Personally I'm not touching it.
Unless I'm mistaken, if you buy the new books on D&D Beyond, the stats they list will replace your existing races and monsters. So, there will be a large incentive not to buy said books if you like running 5E and not 5.25E. So if you like the concept of homogenization of the races and greatly reduced spells for monsters (something that D&D Beyond makes exceedingly easy to use) it might be a good buy for D&D Beyond. Personally I'm not touching it.
You are indeed mistaken. DnDBeyond has already stated that it will not replace anything from previous books.
Whatever was going to happen, it was never going to be "we change it for those who buy it but not for anyone else". It was always going to be either a replacement for everyone or separate entries and not changing any pre-existing content for anyone (and turned out to be the latter).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
A question, Jeremy Crawford made a big deal of upskilling a number of monsters to match there CR where it is felt they where too weak previously.
Have you seen that at all in the book, any monsters that jump out as being stronger then they used to be, or drastically changed ability wise.
Less spell casting more actions from the players handbook for a few of the humanoid monsters. If you bought witchlight and you really liked those monsters, expect more of that. The warpriest is a good example of WotC's thinking for a cleric. If you are playing digitally with all the spells at your fingertips, it doesn't help that much because its a hover for a quick explanation before you cast. I'm more in the meh zone for what they are selling.
So I bought the gift set as I didn't physically own Xanathar or Tashas, I had them digitally.
Xanathar/Tasha are just up to current errata, no changes other than that.
So having seen this video that talks about how they made some monster adjustments to CR? It speaks to the point of some monsters consistently punch to its weight class with the changes because there are more streamlined options. This video honestly is important viewing to understand the mindset behind where the changes are coming from:
I don't want to sit there and give a lot of it away, because obviously its licensed content. One example is the Alhoon, aka the lich mind flayer. In the new book, it has more hit points, loses some damage immunities, gains a new resistance, and its chilling grasp gets a significant buff. A lot of the bigger monsters have changes like this to help them stay in what their intended CR was.
The big change to it is spellcasting. It loses its former list, but it still has spells that it can use without material components. In addition, it gets a ranged spell attack, similar to the Sun Soul monk where the Radiant Sun Bolt ranged spell attack isn't casting a spell for counterspell purposes. It can use this this twice per turn with its multi attack, its single target, and it packs a solid punch.
Each monster block is given lore blocks although a lot of it is rehashed from its various sources.
So the question of "Should you buy it?". If you want easy to reference stat blocks for where the game is trending to be your source for homebrew? It's a solid reference point. If you don't own volos or the original tome of foes? It's a slamdunk. If you want a handy list of potential variant monsters to run to confuse your table of metagaming ********? Good buy.
So I bought the gift set as I didn't physically own Xanathar or Tashas, I had them digitally.
Xanathar/Tasha are just up to current errata, no changes other than that.
So having seen this video that talks about how they made some monster adjustments to CR that would make it so that some monsters consistently punch to its weight class. This video honestly is important viewing to understand the mindset behind where the changes are coming from:
I don't want to sit there and give a lot of it away, because obviously its licensed content. One example is the Alhoon, aka the lich mindflare. In the new book, it has more hit points, loses some damage immunities, gains a new resistance, and its chilling grasp gets a significant buff. A lot of the bigger monsters have changes like this to help them stay in what their intended CR was.
The big change to it is spellcasting. It loses its former list, but it still has spells that it can use without material components. In addition, it gets a ranged spell attack, similar to the Sun Soul monk where the Radiant Sun Bolt ranged spell attack isn't casting a spell for counterspell purposes. It can use this this twice per turn with its multi attack, its single target, and it packs a solid punch.
Each monster block is given lore blocks although a lot of it is rehashed from its various sources.
So the question of "Should you buy it?". If you want easy to reference stat blocks for where the game is trending to be your source for homebrew? It's a solid reference point. If you don't own volos or the original tome of foes? It's a slamdunk. If you want a handy list of potential variant monsters to run to confuse your table of metagaming ********? Good buy.
What they are doing to Spellcasters, IMHO is to deal with how they implemented counter spell. Side note easy fix, require the counter spelling individual to have to know the spell being cast via Xanathar's rule BEFORE they are allowed to cast counter spell fixes OP'ness giving spell caster mobs a lot more survivability. The only change that was need to be made to sorcerer, wizard and warlock based monsters were greatly increasing their hit points and AC + giving them the ability to have a few spells up before combat starts if they know the enemy is coming. The spellcasting as they were set up were fine.
Having alternate monsters can be of worth that being written. I'll have to look at the cost for the monsters, at best I could only see me buying the digital monsters and that's it from the books. I have gotten burned buying content since Winninger has been made lead for D&D and it seems like each new book gets worse and worse from organization to usability perspective. Even going to redacting current content, which was just a bad move overall, never steal from your customer. Imagine what would happen if Game of Thrones had some plot elements removed, like incest because its too racy from the digital books, never do that. I went through the satanic panic, and it pains me they are now in leadership roles at WotC - but hey history doesn't repeat it rhymes and their time will be ending as the cycle repeats. They should have only had the redacted content in the "true" 5.25E that is Winninger's game, and I'm sure there is a market for it.
So I bought the gift set as I didn't physically own Xanathar or Tashas, I had them digitally.
Xanathar/Tasha are just up to current errata, no changes other than that.
So having seen this video that talks about how they made some monster adjustments to CR that would make it so that some monsters consistently punch to its weight class. This video honestly is important viewing to understand the mindset behind where the changes are coming from:
I don't want to sit there and give a lot of it away, because obviously its licensed content. One example is the Alhoon, aka the lich mindflare. In the new book, it has more hit points, loses some damage immunities, gains a new resistance, and its chilling grasp gets a significant buff. A lot of the bigger monsters have changes like this to help them stay in what their intended CR was.
The big change to it is spellcasting. It loses its former list, but it still has spells that it can use without material components. In addition, it gets a ranged spell attack, similar to the Sun Soul monk where the Radiant Sun Bolt ranged spell attack isn't casting a spell for counterspell purposes. It can use this this twice per turn with its multi attack, its single target, and it packs a solid punch.
Each monster block is given lore blocks although a lot of it is rehashed from its various sources.
So the question of "Should you buy it?". If you want easy to reference stat blocks for where the game is trending to be your source for homebrew? It's a solid reference point. If you don't own volos or the original tome of foes? It's a slamdunk. If you want a handy list of potential variant monsters to run to confuse your table of metagaming ********? Good buy.
What they are doing to Spellcasters, IMHO is to deal with how they implemented counter spell. Side note easy fix, require the counter spelling individual to have to know the spell being cast via Xanathar's rule BEFORE they are allowed to cast counter spell fixes OP'ness giving spell caster mobs a lot more survivability. The only change that was need to be made to sorcerer, wizard and warlock based monsters were greatly increasing their hit points and AC + giving them the ability to have a few spells up before combat starts if they know the enemy is coming. The spellcasting as they were set up were fine.
I think the fact they were spellcasters are fine, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that the agreed upon opinion on CR is that it sucks as a rating. Counterspell is also an extremely bad mechanic. Even the rules in Xanathar are half baked.
The video speaks to a very interesting point about how internally each enemy statblock had an intended way to run it, and that's how they got that CR rating. You can see the changes now are giving DMs a much easier time on seeing what that intended pathing is. I don't agree that making monsters just bags of hit points and armor class is the answer, because that's just lazy monster making. I think a lot of the changes I'm seeing so far and really dissecting make a lot of sense and for newer DMs, it is going to make their monsters much more threatening. That is what makes this book worth a potential purchase.
If you don't agree with those mindsets though, don't buy it.
So I bought the gift set as I didn't physically own Xanathar or Tashas, I had them digitally.
Xanathar/Tasha are just up to current errata, no changes other than that.
So having seen this video that talks about how they made some monster adjustments to CR that would make it so that some monsters consistently punch to its weight class. This video honestly is important viewing to understand the mindset behind where the changes are coming from:
I don't want to sit there and give a lot of it away, because obviously its licensed content. One example is the Alhoon, aka the lich mindflare. In the new book, it has more hit points, loses some damage immunities, gains a new resistance, and its chilling grasp gets a significant buff. A lot of the bigger monsters have changes like this to help them stay in what their intended CR was.
The big change to it is spellcasting. It loses its former list, but it still has spells that it can use without material components. In addition, it gets a ranged spell attack, similar to the Sun Soul monk where the Radiant Sun Bolt ranged spell attack isn't casting a spell for counterspell purposes. It can use this this twice per turn with its multi attack, its single target, and it packs a solid punch.
Each monster block is given lore blocks although a lot of it is rehashed from its various sources.
So the question of "Should you buy it?". If you want easy to reference stat blocks for where the game is trending to be your source for homebrew? It's a solid reference point. If you don't own volos or the original tome of foes? It's a slamdunk. If you want a handy list of potential variant monsters to run to confuse your table of metagaming ********? Good buy.
What they are doing to Spellcasters, IMHO is to deal with how they implemented counter spell. Side note easy fix, require the counter spelling individual to have to know the spell being cast via Xanathar's rule BEFORE they are allowed to cast counter spell fixes OP'ness giving spell caster mobs a lot more survivability. The only change that was need to be made to sorcerer, wizard and warlock based monsters were greatly increasing their hit points and AC + giving them the ability to have a few spells up before combat starts if they know the enemy is coming. The spellcasting as they were set up were fine.
I think the fact they were spellcasters are fine, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that the agreed upon opinion on CR is that it sucks as a rating. Counterspell is also an extremely bad mechanic. Even the rules in Xanathar are half baked.
The video speaks to a very interesting point about how internally each enemy statblock had an intended way to run it, and that's how they got that CR rating. You can see the changes now are giving DMs a much easier time on seeing what that intended pathing is. I don't agree that making monsters just bags of hit points and armor class is the answer, because that's just lazy monster making. I think a lot of the changes I'm seeing so far and really dissecting make a lot of sense and for newer DMs, it is going to make their monsters much more threatening. That is what makes this book worth a potential purchase.
If you don't agree with those mindsets though, don't buy it.
Hence why I said I'd probably only buy the monster blocks as alternative monsters, the rest of it is pretty much a lazy cash grab which cuts out former content and removes racial flavors, but having extra monster stats can be useful. And I understand the irony is I'll probably have to buy the book due to the amount of monsters they offer and buying a la carte will be over the books price itself. I just don't like to reward cash grabbing behavior. This is close to DLC being issued by EA to rake the players over the coals for more money, barely just barely being useful content with the minimum amount of work fixing a problem the publisher caused themselves.
I've seen this question come up a lot in the threads, so I thought I'd summarise what it is here so you can judge whether it's worth it or not.
MotM is more or less a redo of Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes to be more in line with WotC's vision for 5e in the near future (and probably the 2024 revamp). Additionally, it contains around 250 monster stat blocks, pictures for nearly all of them, and enough lore for each to understand where they come from and a bit of their personality and traits. There are also 33 player races (although some are what were formerly classed as subraces) that have had modifications like having sunlight sensitivity removed and being rebalanced to account for that. There are at least two (Harengon and Fairy) that are straight reprints, probably included more for the sake of completeness than anything.
My assessment is that if ALL the following apply to you:
Then I'd consider buying it. It worked great for me because I didn't own any of the books and I wanted a matching set for my core ruleset box, I also got it on discount. For most...it's not worth the premium. You can get both Tasha's and Xanathar's off Amazon for like £60 with change. MotM is probably going to be £30 (okay, it's brand new, let's call it £40), while the set is £140. That's £40 going on it being in a box, nice foil covers and getting it early. I know most use dollars, but that gives an idea of prices. Personally, if you already on XGtE or TCoE, or both, it'll be much cheaper to wait a few months. Even if you don't...yeah, I'd think on it first. Depends on how big your wallet is, really. I'm happy with my purchase, but I think I'm a fairly niche consumer here on DDB.
If you have specific questions about the book(s), post them and I'll look it up for you.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Thanks for the summary Linklite.
I had been considering Tasha's and Xanathar's prior to this release, and have access to Mordenhainen's Tome. I'm not desperate for them though so can happily wait till later in the year when M3 is available separately and can probably pick up all three expansion books without the inflated "gift set" price tag.
There was an added benefit for me acquiring the expanded rules set. Though I already own copies of Tasha's and Xanathar's, I run an afterschool D&D club so having extras at the table for the kids is a nice addition to the 5 PHBs I already have. I got lucky preordering early too, because I was locked in at a lower price than what it's going for now.
That's interesting, because the price has gone down here, it's currently available for £100, although that's from the US so postage might be more than you save.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Haven't been hunting this, but in my part of the U.S. bricks and mortar retails the boxed set for $169.95, that's comparable to 3 hardbooks and a screen, though those screen usually come with some addons, which I guess are replaced by the slipcase. I like the idea, look, and feel of slipcases, but I worry they don't stand up well to frequent use like a game manual for a game you play a lot (I'm torn between allowing wear and tear for my Delta Green slipcased set and copy of Imaginary Landscapes that I may just run the whole thing off the PDFs that came with the game even though I usually work better with paper manuals).
Yes, you could get a much better deal on Amazon, but the retailer exclusive covers are at the same price and those won't be on Amazon unless they're at a much more exaggerated price on the secondary market (this set's alt cover doesn't really do it for me either, looks like Adventurer's League of DMsGuild stock art cover design).
Curious the MMM single release has been announced without an alt cover. That's disappointing.
EDIT: oh, and thanks for the review, it's definitely helpful.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Appreciate the review for sure as I was considering it....but I own all the others already. Thanks!
I’ll just add that the special edition covers, box and screen art are super pretty and I love ‘em. I didn’t pay for them though, they were a present organised by my partner and the other players in the campaign I currently DM. (I had most of the original books in print, but I will probably donate those to a library or school club now.)
This is a review discussion of Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Discussions of the implications this book may have for the wider game should be taken to it's own thread
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Does anyone know if we already bought the previous versions on D&D Beyond (volos, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, etc.) if those are going to receive an update? Or is the only way for us to get those updated race stats to buy MotM?
They are not updating VGtM or MToF with the information present in MotM. If you want the stuff frol MotM, you have to buy it.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Unless I'm mistaken, if you buy the new books on D&D Beyond, the stats they list will replace your existing races and monsters. So, there will be a large incentive not to buy said books if you like running 5E and not 5.25E. So if you like the concept of homogenization of the races and greatly reduced spells for monsters (something that D&D Beyond makes exceedingly easy to use) it might be a good buy for D&D Beyond. Personally I'm not touching it.
You are indeed mistaken. DnDBeyond has already stated that it will not replace anything from previous books.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Whatever was going to happen, it was never going to be "we change it for those who buy it but not for anyone else". It was always going to be either a replacement for everyone or separate entries and not changing any pre-existing content for anyone (and turned out to be the latter).
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
A question, Jeremy Crawford made a big deal of upskilling a number of monsters to match there CR where it is felt they where too weak previously.
Have you seen that at all in the book, any monsters that jump out as being stronger then they used to be, or drastically changed ability wise.
Less spell casting more actions from the players handbook for a few of the humanoid monsters. If you bought witchlight and you really liked those monsters, expect more of that. The warpriest is a good example of WotC's thinking for a cleric. If you are playing digitally with all the spells at your fingertips, it doesn't help that much because its a hover for a quick explanation before you cast. I'm more in the meh zone for what they are selling.
https://external-preview.redd.it/gmP1tkSq_1RnTfnQ4Nip3LwCkKzRhsc7gtMkQXWpf-0.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=0584af19370417281af10aff0a1b6562eea1ed20
So I bought the gift set as I didn't physically own Xanathar or Tashas, I had them digitally.
Xanathar/Tasha are just up to current errata, no changes other than that.
So having seen this video that talks about how they made some monster adjustments to CR? It speaks to the point of some monsters consistently punch to its weight class with the changes because there are more streamlined options. This video honestly is important viewing to understand the mindset behind where the changes are coming from:
I don't want to sit there and give a lot of it away, because obviously its licensed content. One example is the Alhoon, aka the lich mind flayer. In the new book, it has more hit points, loses some damage immunities, gains a new resistance, and its chilling grasp gets a significant buff. A lot of the bigger monsters have changes like this to help them stay in what their intended CR was.
The big change to it is spellcasting. It loses its former list, but it still has spells that it can use without material components. In addition, it gets a ranged spell attack, similar to the Sun Soul monk where the Radiant Sun Bolt ranged spell attack isn't casting a spell for counterspell purposes. It can use this this twice per turn with its multi attack, its single target, and it packs a solid punch.
Each monster block is given lore blocks although a lot of it is rehashed from its various sources.
So the question of "Should you buy it?". If you want easy to reference stat blocks for where the game is trending to be your source for homebrew? It's a solid reference point. If you don't own volos or the original tome of foes? It's a slamdunk. If you want a handy list of potential variant monsters to run to confuse your table of metagaming ********? Good buy.
If none of those apply? It's a hard hard pass.
What they are doing to Spellcasters, IMHO is to deal with how they implemented counter spell. Side note easy fix, require the counter spelling individual to have to know the spell being cast via Xanathar's rule BEFORE they are allowed to cast counter spell fixes OP'ness giving spell caster mobs a lot more survivability. The only change that was need to be made to sorcerer, wizard and warlock based monsters were greatly increasing their hit points and AC + giving them the ability to have a few spells up before combat starts if they know the enemy is coming. The spellcasting as they were set up were fine.
Having alternate monsters can be of worth that being written. I'll have to look at the cost for the monsters, at best I could only see me buying the digital monsters and that's it from the books. I have gotten burned buying content since Winninger has been made lead for D&D and it seems like each new book gets worse and worse from organization to usability perspective. Even going to redacting current content, which was just a bad move overall, never steal from your customer. Imagine what would happen if Game of Thrones had some plot elements removed, like incest because its too racy from the digital books, never do that. I went through the satanic panic, and it pains me they are now in leadership roles at WotC - but hey history doesn't repeat it rhymes and their time will be ending as the cycle repeats. They should have only had the redacted content in the "true" 5.25E that is Winninger's game, and I'm sure there is a market for it.
I think the fact they were spellcasters are fine, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that the agreed upon opinion on CR is that it sucks as a rating. Counterspell is also an extremely bad mechanic. Even the rules in Xanathar are half baked.
The video speaks to a very interesting point about how internally each enemy statblock had an intended way to run it, and that's how they got that CR rating. You can see the changes now are giving DMs a much easier time on seeing what that intended pathing is. I don't agree that making monsters just bags of hit points and armor class is the answer, because that's just lazy monster making. I think a lot of the changes I'm seeing so far and really dissecting make a lot of sense and for newer DMs, it is going to make their monsters much more threatening. That is what makes this book worth a potential purchase.
If you don't agree with those mindsets though, don't buy it.
Hence why I said I'd probably only buy the monster blocks as alternative monsters, the rest of it is pretty much a lazy cash grab which cuts out former content and removes racial flavors, but having extra monster stats can be useful. And I understand the irony is I'll probably have to buy the book due to the amount of monsters they offer and buying a la carte will be over the books price itself. I just don't like to reward cash grabbing behavior. This is close to DLC being issued by EA to rake the players over the coals for more money, barely just barely being useful content with the minimum amount of work fixing a problem the publisher caused themselves.
My biggest issue is will it add or replace content?