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 16, 2022I expect all of (or at least much of) that lore from Volo’s Guide and Mordenkainen’s Tome will also be combined and reprinted in a lore only supplement much like M3 is a mechanics only supplement.
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Posted Jun 16, 2022That would be nice.
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Posted Jun 16, 2022There are no legally accessible PDFs of anything from 3e on up through 5e.
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Posted Jun 16, 2022Well I wouldn't say that's true.
https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/161671
But that said, .pdfs aren't "print on demand." That's usually a service from somewhere like DMsGuild that sells .pdfs, but doesn't keep print copies around. But you can order a printed copy, and they will print it...at your demand. You then receive a professionally printed and bound copy by mail.
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Posted Jun 21, 2022I keep getting directed here to find the mephistopheles tiefling but im having no luck which pack or item should I find it in?
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Posted Jun 21, 2022Annoyingly you now can't; it's been discontinued along with Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, if you didn't already own that book on D&D Beyond, then there is no longer any way to access it.
However, you can fairly easily reproduce it yourself in homebrew if you want to; just copy the base Tiefling, give it a new name, and under the Spells section of Infernal Legacy, swap thaumaturgy to mage hand, hellish rebuke to burning hands and darkness to flame blade.
This will give you you a Mephistopheles Tiefling you can play with privately, just don't try to publish it (as it's official content, even though it's been discontinued).
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Posted Jun 23, 2022Honestly this book has made me angry. Makes it a pain for me to look up race information from the two previous books that I had purchased (Redirects you to buy Monsters of the Multiverse). I wouldn't mind so much if they offered this as an option, but they literally took the ease of use I had already paid for from me.
I think if you have the older books, you should be able to get a refund for them. At least towards the purchase of this book. If not I should at least get a major discount for the trouble this is causing me and my players. I am a master tier subscriber and own every source book, but I can not bring myself to purchase this one. I think it is great for people who don't own the previous two, but really a slap in the face for those that do. Maybe $10-$15 for us to get updates would be somewhat fair, but full price (or 10% off in my case for owning all previous sourcebooks) is just too much for me to justify. I want to buy it, but in doing so I feel I will be playing a part in inviting something like this to happen again.
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Posted Jun 23, 2022Personally I'd rather just get the updates automatically applied to these monsters and races I already owned. I shouldn't have to go through some refund process that not everyone will know is a thing.
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Posted Jun 24, 2022I guarantee that if all the race and monster updates had been errata, the outcry would've been far worse than what we've got for the current situation. Enough people hate the changes in the Multiverse book that it would have been an absolute mess.
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Posted Jun 28, 2022I don't have the old book and the new book doesn't have the tiefling bloodlines so if I wanna use those I have to homebrew them, which kinda sucks. :(
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Posted Jun 29, 2022Then give it an option in the builder to switch to one set of features or the other like they already made with the Tasha's options
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Posted Jun 29, 2022The Tasha options were different enough to pay for. As are these. I'm fine with it. I can see the argument for not decommissioning the two older books (though it doesn't affect me, I already have them), but the idea that the entire book's worth of material new and different enough that a lot of people are angry and others are suggesting toggles for it...doesn't merit being a new book that costs money is absolutely baffling to me.
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Posted Jul 10, 2022The Wizards are taking the piss at this point
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Posted Jul 10, 2022That's probably the biggest gripe about MotM, is that they did not include ALL the races from previous publications and change them in the same way. I find this simply makes it more confusing for newer players since they're used to reading about or dealing with the original versions of the races. It makes zero sense to do something for Eladrin, but not for High Elves, or Elves in general. And how are Dwarves, one of the most beloved and iconic races in all of fantasy, not even mentioned in MotM? If all the races were done at the same time, there would be a lot less disappointment on these forums, because the changes to the monsters themselves hardly get mentioned because the changes are so subtle and minor compared to what's being done to the Races.
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Posted Jul 11, 2022PHB races aren't included because the entire PHB is being revised for whatever the 5.5e thing in 2024 is gonna be. This is a known thing.
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Posted Jul 16, 2022Why the discontinuation? I would still buy the old books and the new book, but I feel less inclined to buy the new book if all that it is doing is just reprinting old content and calling it new. and it seems that there are options in the old books that is not in the new books Tiefling blood lines.
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Posted Jul 17, 2022I think that's the biggest question. Why would WoTC simply not allow players to purchase the old books as well. Seems like a great opportunity to make more money, and it's not like they have to do any more work on D&DB to implement them. I can understand the decision to stop printing the books, but the digital version on D&DB is already done, so there's no need to stop selling those.
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Posted Jul 20, 2022Okay so why are the books still $50? I have all three, so don't take this as anything but someone pointing out how lame it is to force people into something like this when you didn't even really add anything aside from a little flavor text.
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Posted Jul 20, 2022This part.
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Posted Jul 20, 2022Here's an idea: make it so that you can add books you already own to D&D Beyond so that people aren't wasting their money on this crap, and so that people who *do* want the physical books can still add them to their DDB instead of having to look at "YOU DON'T OWN THIS CONTENT" when they try to use the statblocks within lol