Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse is arriving on May 16 and with it comes over 30 playable races! These races have been collected from across the multiverse—from the Feywild's harengon to Theros' satyr—and have been tweaked to make them setting-agnostic.
In this article, we're going to examine a few of the all-time greats when it comes to monstrous races: the goblin, hobgoblin, and kobold. We'll discuss what's changed for these races since their original appearance in Volo's Guide to Monsters and show how to build characters around them.
Ability score Increases and Languages
Newer Dungeons & Dragons races don't come with set ability score increases. Instead, players will get to choose one of the following options at character creation:
- Increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1
- Increase three different scores by 1
Instead of preset language proficiencies, you'll learn Common and one other language of your choice (with your DM's approval).
Goblin
To enable more diversified goblin characters, the updates in Monsters of the Multiverse present goblins in a more positive light than previous sources. As made apparent by adding the Fey Ancestry trait, Monsters of the Multiverse focuses on how goblins originated in the Feywild and were later conquered by the god Maglubiyet when they crossed into the Material Plane.
Goblin Traits
In Monsters of the Multiverse, goblins retain all of the traits from their previous version, with slight tweaks. They are still Small creatures that are exceptionally good at hiding, escaping danger, and taking down foes that are larger than them. Their trademark ability, Fury of the Small, is slightly changed to deal damage equal to your proficiency modifier and can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier per long rest. They are also granted the Fey Ancestry trait, which provides them advantage on saving throws made to avoid and end the charmed condition.
The most significant change comes from the ability to choose your ability score array, rather than having to work with a set +2 Dexterity, +1 Constitution. While this previous array was incredible for stealthy rogues, Charisma-focused bards or Intelligence-focused wizards would overlook the goblin as a viable race. Now, you could easily make a Strength-focused goblin Battle Master who wears heavy armor for defense and can use their Nimble Escape to move around the battlefield while using Fury of the Small to pump up damage.
Hobgoblin
Hobgoblins receive quite the glow-up from their grim depiction in Volo's Guide to Monsters. In Monsters of the Multiverse, hobgoblins are described as charismatic leaders who form deep bonds with their comrades. Like the treatment goblins received, Monsters of the Multiverse focuses on the hobgoblin's origins in the Feywild and ties that into their new racial features.
Hobgoblin Traits
In exchange for their martial weapon and light armor proficiencies, hobgoblins now receive an interesting racial feature called Fey Gift in Monsters of the Multiverse. It allows them to take the Help action as a bonus action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. Starting at 3rd level, when you take the Help action in this way, you also benefit in other ways:
- You and the creature you help gain temporary hit points.
- You and the creature you help temporarily increase your walking speeds.
- When the creature you help hits a target with an attack roll, that target gets disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes within the next minute.
Being able to take the Help action as a bonus action is already a strong ability because it grants a party member advantage on their next attack or ability check. Getting to also debuff an enemy or gain some temporary hit points make this an even more stellar resource in combat.
Previously, hobgoblins came with a set +2 Constitution, +1 Intelligence array, which provided a solid base for a tank wizard when combined with the race's light armor proficiency. The addition of the Fey Gift feature from Monsters of the Multiverse opens up the door for new builds. Combine Fey Gift with the Fortune from the Many trait—a reskinned Saving Face feature from the hobgoblin's previous appearance—and you have a solid support-focused martial class that works excellently with other martial party members. But while Fey Gift makes good use of an empty bonus action slot, builds that already have a use for their bonus action, like bards, rogues, and two-weapon fighters, might want to look elsewhere in order to maximize their action economy.
Kobold
The kobolds of Volo's Guide to Monsters is the only race to receive two ability score increases instead of the typical three. They also have Sunlight Sensitivity, which can be a challenging setback in campaigns that tend to spend more time above ground than not. In Monsters of the Multiverse, the kobold's racial traits offer a more level playing field plus abilities from their draconic ancestors.
Kobold Traits
The new version of the kobold introduces the Draconic Cry feature, which replaces the previous version's Pact Tactics. This new feature functions fairly similar in that it is a reliable source of advantage on attacks. However, it is an expendable resource, costing a bonus action and only being usable a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier per long rest. In exchange, Draconic Cry also offers allies advantage on their attacks and doesn't require an ally to be within 5 feet of you to activate it.
In place of the Grovel, Cower, and Beg racial trait, kobolds are given a new feature called Kobold Legacy. This new trait allows you to choose between a skill proficiency in Arcana, Investigation, Medicine, Sleight of Hand, or Survival, getting advantage on saving throws against the frightened condition, or a sorcerer cantrip.
Like Pack Tactics, the Draconic Cry racial trait lends itself to a martial build as it can give you advantage on attacks against enemies within melee range. This can be an excellent way to ensure you can reliably sneak attack as a rogue or when you just need to land that smite as a paladin. These martial builds will be able to make good use of either the advantage against being frightened or the sorcerer cantrip granted through Kobold Legacy. The frightened condition can be a tough one to overcome for builds lacking proficiency in Wisdom saves, and the sorcerer cantrip could be a great way to snag green-flame blade or booming blade.
A Multiverse Worth of Options Awaits
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse allows players to choose from over 30 races, each of which can be viable in any number of new and exciting builds. Players will have to be careful, however. The book also contains over 250 monster stat blocks that Dungeon Masters will undoubtedly use to put your new characters to the test!
Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his girlfriend, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.
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Posted May 17, 2022Yes, I agree. In fact as a DM I'll simply not allow any race which does not have racial stat changes. I'm already mining older editions for lore and adopt it into my game, because suddenly every race is so god damn nice and generic.
And I say this as someone whose first (and still running) D&D character is a way of the four elements Goliath monk.
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Posted May 17, 2022As a new DM, I can see where it is much less painful. You started with 5e, where there has always been a gap in lore or some garbage pulled in from 4e. There are others though, who have been DM'ing for longer and have seen the lore and know the history, lore, societies of these creatures very well. It is very saddening and frustrating to see WoTC just throw more good stuff to the trash pile, like the HUNDREDS of 3.x, 2e, AD&D resources they have abandoned.
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Posted May 17, 2022I’ve read some of the earlier books and actually played 3.5, and overall I prefer 5e in terms of both lore and ease of play. That being said, I do occasionally use some lore I mined from an old 2e or 3/3.5e book I found on DTRPG in my campaign. There’s no rule that says you can’t. I just prefer 5e in general. It’s also more inclusive than previous editions, which is a plus for me.
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Posted May 17, 2022It's d&d and the rules, updates, etc are always optional. Either use it or don't. Approve of it or don't. That's why also hombrews exist. Everything is a guideline. Use what you want, discard what you don't and work with players on what would be fun for them that would work in your world, they just offer the template.
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Posted May 18, 2022Okay, so here's my hot take on this:
Point blank, D&D is a game designed around people coming together at a table to have fun and tell a story. And the game as a whole seems to be moving in a direction that allows for better customization and more options for players to have more fun in that world. Like really, how many times can we tell the story of the Orc who wanted to be a Wizard? And if a player comes to a table wanting their Orc to have a +2 in Dex instead of Str because they want to play a Monk and a DM tells them "No, because that's not standard for Orcs", then who is this game really for?
Discontinuing the old books was a bad call, and making such hardcore changes in the middle of an already established lore was also a bad call. The one argument I can really make in favor of people harping on the "old ways" is that the changes starting from Tasha's should've been saved for either 6e or even a 5.5e so that players who want to keep the original 5e world and rules as they were can keep that and everyone who wants to move on can. With that said, I can see why they did it—because they want to move the game in a direction that allows for more variety in character creation and worldbuilding, and can bring in new players who would be otherwise uninterested in D&D as it was. I would imagine that most of the lore aspects being left out are to allow for DMs to take these creatures and create their own lore and reasons behind their traits that fit with the world they want to build, rather than trying to slap a bunch of already pre-established lore into a setting that won't fit it all.
Ultimately, the game is moving in a direction of customization. That's all any of this has been.
Why?
Because a good storyteller shouldn't have a problem with that. If anything, being given a blank slate and told to go nuts should get any good storyteller excited. And giving players the chance to help build that world with them should be even more fun. Because it's a story we're telling together. It's a game, not a book. And all these changes really do are add more variety to the kinds of stories we can tell with the worlds we build and the races who inhabit that world.
That aside, I saw someone make a point about these changes being the new core rules causing a problem because it'll make it awkward for DMs when a player wants to use custom Racial Bonuses without "a good reason" and all I could think was "why would a DM literally want to make a game less fun for their player by telling them they either have to pick a different race or play a weaker version a fun idea they had?"
That just sounds like a power trip to me, and idk any self-respecting DM who would want to run a game where their players aren't having fun or are starting the game with a bad taste in their mouth because they're being made to play a race or class they didn't want to play or in a way they didn't want to play it. In what way does it make sense for the lore of your world to be more important than your players having fun at the table? Why would you tell a story you don't want people messing with in a medium that's literally designed for people to mess with it? To interact with it? To change it?
If a player comes to you and wants to put their racial bonuses in a "non-standard"place, instead of being like "do you have a good reason?" Why don't you help them? Why don't you design your world into something that can give your players the best experience and figure out how what your player wants to do can enhance it?
Again, before anyone jumps on me, yes it's dumb they're discontinuing the older books, and these major changes should've been saved for a new edition or some kind of expansion. I just didn't like the "overcoming adversity" arguments or how these changes somehow make the game harder for DMs. You can still play your +2 STR Orc who wants to be a Wizard, the only thing that's changed is the books aren't forcing you to do it anymore. It also enables players to do more of what they wanted to do with the characters they're going to be spending a lot of weeks, months, or even years roleplaying. If you want to keep players at your table for the longterm instead of dropping out left and right or wanting to keep changing characters because they don't like the build, you should be happy with this. By all means, players should be allowed to create whatever they can have the most long-term fun with, and those same benefits extend to the DM with the kinds of NPCs they can build in their worlds, too.
And as a DM, you can by all means turn those people away from your table. You can enforce the old rules. You can ban whatever books, races, classes, and rules you want at your table because it's YOUR table. Like, let's not kid ourselves here—DMs have a lot of power, but the purpose behind that power is to facilitate fun. Nothing about the new rules takes that away from you. So at some point, you have to ask yourself when this is less about the lore and more about your ego. Why should "keeping to/playing against racial stereotypes" be more important than the game being more fun and accessible? Literally the whole world is trying to move in that direction, so why shouldn't D&D? The ASIs don't dictate a player race's strengths, because that's what the racial traits do. Everything else comes down to how that character lived their life and who they decided to be before hitting Level 1. Putting a +2 and a +1 in whatever places make the most sense for your character shouldn't ruin that.
Also, WotC should stop calling them "Racial Bonuses", cuz it sure ain't that. Lol
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Posted May 18, 2022I agree.
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Posted May 18, 2022My question is how are PC goblinoids fey, but the npc's aren't?
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Posted May 18, 2022Even the goblinoids stat blocks released in the book don't have the PC traits.
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Posted May 18, 2022Edit to clarify tone: I am not trying to belittle you in any way or be combative. If you interpret anything I say herein as such, it was not my intention and I apologize. I am guessing that's why you came to the conclusion that the DM you referenced (I'm guessing that was me) would smugly ask for a reason to not use the rules and just reply with a hard no if a sufficient reason was not offered up-front.
First, I want to ask where you're coming from... How often have you DMed? A lot of what you're saying sounds like a player romanticizing DMing without ever having been willing to put in the work themselves. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe you're just extremely lucky and have a phenomenal group.
The ultimate "customization" in the sense you describe would be to make up the entirety of the game yourself. We buy the books not to make the infinitely customizeability that is the default somehow "more customizeable," but to have guidelines to base our customizations on.
What does removing the suggested ASI add? If a DM says "no, in my world, you cannot change your ASI," than that's the DM's decision. Do I agree with that decision? Not in most cases, but it is ultimately their decision. They were a precedent to show that the different species tend to be better at things, and they translated to NPC statblocks if you use the rules found in the DMG and MM for adjusting NPC statblocks based on their species (without these rules, a dwarf commoner would not have darkvision). If the goblins of your world were more intelligent than dextrous, make the change to the default ASI and tell your players. Who would argue with that? Conversely, in a world where there is not such a precedent in the rules, telling your players "you need to pick +2 int and +1 cha for a goblin character you make because they tend to be a little smarter and more charismatic than the average person" would most likely get a "why?"
A good story teller would build on what they have provided. Yes. It is a game, not a book. If you don't want to feel like you need to follow rules (which you don't need to, by the way), write a book instead. I'm guessing I'm the one whose comment you interpreted as "you can't deviate from the default unless you have a good reason." Yes, I want an explanation regarding why you are different from everyone else of your species. How is that a bad thing? It will add depth to your character. If you're so uninspired that you can't even think of something like "I was blessed by a god," then will I say you can't make said change? No. I will work with you so that you have a reason to be different from the rest of your species.
Hey, look, continuing on you got past putting words in peoples mouth and came to the same exact conclusion they did. Well done. I ask "do you have a good reason" because I don't want to make their character for them. Will I help them? Yes, of course. I'm DMing because I want to play the game and nobody else will do it. Because it's a lot of work.
As for your question about why the DM shouldn't warp the reality of the world they've painstakingly spent countless hours bringing to life to better fit the character you spent 5 minutes slapping together... Really?... It's the DM's world. It's not the players' world. It's the players' story in that world. We get poked fun at enough when things don't make complete sense in the world as it is. We don't need to try and make everything fit while making random changes just so your character makes sense in the world. We have enough on our plate as it is.
I'm fine if you change my world... As long as you do it in the story... You need to put in the work to change the world. It's not just going to change at your whim.
"You can still play your +2 STR Orc who wants to be a Wizard, the only thing that's changed is the books aren't forcing you to do it anymore." They never have been forcing you to. As you've said multiple times, it's up to the DM, and Tasha's made the possibility officially supported as an optional rule. The new approach is just forcing DMs to do more work than they otherwise would need to do.
You seem to ultimately agree with me on just about every point, but there are assumptions being made that are causing communications to breakdown.
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Posted May 18, 2022I think you’ve summed it up pretty well.
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Posted May 18, 2022Goblin in picture is very goblin. This get's goblin approval of 4 spidersticks. Also glad to see our fey ancestry is recognized. FOR THE GOBLIN QUEEN!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!
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Posted May 18, 2022I’ve been playing D&D for over 20 years, and DMing for that whole time. (No one else around me enjoys the role as I do.) I completely disagree with this garbage take. I have *always* encouraged my players to put their mark on my painstakingly created worlds, whether it be at character creation or during the course of play. Their characters are literally a part of that world; they absolutely should have the ability, and be encouraged, to help shape it.
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Posted May 18, 2022Did you read the rest of my comment before singling out the "garbage take?"
Again, I'm absolutely fine with you changing my world if it's done in story. I'm also fine with you literally destroying my world. That would genuinely be awesome. What I didn't say was that I'm also fine with you helping shape my world or adding to it. Great. What I'm not okay with is you saying "I want to go against something that has been established in your world, so find a way to make it make sense."
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Posted May 18, 2022Damn
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Posted May 18, 2022Exactly! I have 0 issue with WoTC doing what they are doing. Heck, I am IN FAVOR of these changes moving forward. The reason there is so much bad blood between the company and many fans is because these changes were basically a massive middle finger to the people who thought 5E was perfect as-is. That's not a good argument to discourage new players coming into the game; nobody has a good reason to gatekeep. It's bad across the board. However, the point where this anger becomes authentic and valid is when WoTC basically guts the 5E that so many people sunk money, time, and effort into. Volo's, Mordenkainen's, and the PHB (to name the books focused on species) should never have been messed with. If they had left all of the original 5E content alone (no errata that removes lore and alignment suggestions) I bet a good many more people would have flocked to their defense (Wizards). However, they chose to backhand one camp and cater to another rather than make both groups happy by leaving the released books alone, or at least offering D&D Beyond or PDF support for them, and setting up 5.5E as a complete rework of race/species and representations of gender (which I am 100% down with).
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Posted May 18, 2022This is really weak sauce. The distinctive character of these races, their strong identity, has been watered down in a misguided, sad political move that adds nothing to the game. :(
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Posted May 18, 2022I'll stick with my pre morden goblinoids.
hate the new stat and fey alterations.
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Posted May 18, 2022As a relatively new and inexperienced player, I'm going throw my 2 cents in.
I'm also not good with articulating my thoughts, so bear with me.
I have no problem with there being default ASIs, based on the physical appearance of each Race, they make sense. This makes an easy starting point for new players, if you can glance at the rules in front of you knowing that you want to make a fighter or barbarian, there's the Half-Orc, they look the part and the ASI matches. Want to make a Wizard or Ranger, High Elf or Wood Elf respectively. More adventurous or creative new players might look at playing against type.
You have to remember, a lot of new players, especially younger new players don't generally have the confidence to go against type, and regardless of how ASIs are done, the physical appearance of a Race already leads to a type.
However, Tasha's codifying of the optional ASI rule, made apparent something that more experienced DMs and players already did. Pen and paper players have been able to make any change they want at character creation provided the DM and table were ok with it. Something not as easily done on online character creators, at least as far as I am aware, until we could select the optional ASI feature.
Basically, I think they should have kept default ASIs with the optional feature. And importantly, as many of you have also stated, changing ASIs is not anything new.
As stated by others, with this new change there is also the fact that people can still make their Half-Orc Wizard with the Str & Con ASIs. This is true, however I find that when given a choice most people will choose the option that benefits them, meaning you will get less characters that are not ASI optimized, I could be wrong here.
Next I would like to talk about the ASIs "stereotyping of Races".
I noticed someone use the analogy of Leonin vs Tabaxi.
I would like to use one from our own past. Ancient history buffs if I have got this completely wrong feel free to correct me, I'm relying on memory of things learned long ago.
Take the Cities of Sparta and Athens. Most peoples first thoughts of the people from these city states would be that Spartans were peerless warriors and that Athenians were philosophers, mathematicians and artisans (300 is probably to blame for a lot of this). Translated to ASIs, the Spartans would have increases to physical stats while the Athenians would have increases to mental stats. This is not to say that Sparta didn't have it's share of thinkers or that Athens was a pushover, in fact if I remember correctly Athens had quite the military presence (I believe they won at least one of the Peloponnesian wars)
My point is that stereotyping isn't inherently bad, that's not to say there aren't bad stereotypes. But when it comes to assessing a civilization or species as a whole you see certain traits becoming more common than others. The ASIs are a simple (not perfect) way to represent this. And if you are using humans as a baseline, which this game basically does, it makes sense that there are set ASI values for each different species.
My final thoughts on the matter, to those who are saying that DMs will now be put out and upset because players can put their bonus ASIs wherever they want, how does this reduce your immersion or enjoyment of the game, it's not going to make a difference to how you run the game or how the player responds to what you throw at them. It is after all just a game.
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Posted May 18, 2022Thank you so much for summing up what I have been trying to explain this whole time!
It's not that we hate the Tasha's rule, we just like a bit of guidelines for the basic bonuses of the races, that people can choose to keep or replace.
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Posted May 18, 2022What they aren't talking about above is the fact that they are making changes to yuan-ti and satyr magic resistance. It is now officially only spells, not anything with a spell-like effect or magic in general. Which I can agree with. It clarifies everything so no more arguments at the table. What I don't agree with is reducing yuan-ti poison immunity to mere resistance. This is a race of evil creatures built around snakes and poisonous creatures, and you rework the one trait that had more RP potential? Sure you could do some gnarly stuff in battle (placing down Cloud Kill and grappling a creature inside it) but a lot of creatures have poison resistance or straight up poison immunity. Removing the immunity from the yuan-ti just... doesn't sit right.
Will probably talk with my DM and ask to keep the immunity. He will most likely say yes, because this is the same DM who talked to me about creating a in-game drug that would make poisons effective against the yuan-ti, as my PC had successfully pissed off the entire Yuan-ti Royal Family in the court of law. (created by nobles to make it so they can get drunk, then stolen by the assassins guild for obvious reasons. EXTREMELY hard to make though, so rare)