i wish the greatwyrms were in it and more dragon style creatures like drakes n wyverns different types of them. Half dragon casters would have also been very cool.

Not much on offer for drakes and wyverns, unfortunately, but the greatwyrms can be found in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, and that book's dragon follower and dragonborn champion stat blocks could be used to fill that half-dragon caster niche, or you could use the old half-dragon rules to give the new mage stat blocks half-dragon traits.

I like the update for the free rules, where you get less than half the stat blocks and monsters

You can flavor any NPC humanoid stat block to any race and add the appropriate resistance and breath weapon. Noble Prodigy would be a good stat block to use.

The suggested replacements for drow are disappointing.

Quote from Domgor >>

The suggested replacements for drow are disappointing.

Agreed.  That lack of actual stat blocks for basic humanoids that have been part of the world since nearly inception is a massive disappointment and mistake on wizard of the coast.  In print for decades then players and DMs are told , “just do it yourself”.  Makes it even worse when using the virtual tabletop as you drow rolls bandit on the screen and has no written stat block for special abilities that used to have.  Just disappointing.

Yeah my character builder seems to have forgotten how to work since this was about to be drop. Synced entitlements. Nothing is happening. I even upgraded my subscription to give it a try and again it's messed with everything. I am guessing this is connected as everything is still in my library.

I'm surprised by how few monsters have resistance to poison damage. It makes the most interesting thing about the Poisoner feat pretty much useless. 

Also sad that they didn't use the Bloodied condition to let monsters "power up" like they did in 4th edition.

But the book looks great apart from that. The updated monsters seems to be quite nasty now (the beholder feels really terrifying).

Are we going to get an options for the new statblocks to appear on old adventures? (This has been pending since MPMM came out, but maybe I'm not dreaming too far)

I really enjoyed the PHB and DMG updates, and I like some of this book, but what the heck is up with splitting the dragons, demons and other previously grouped creatures out alphabetical by first name, and not having them in one place? I mean, the names by color/metal has always been a really lazy convention anyway, but now when I want to figure out what type of dragon or even worse demon to use I have to already know and remember what color or name? Why change this. It has worked well for the 3 decades I've played this game across all the editions. And as someone who has been playing forever, if I can't remember the details of which demon or devil is which, how are new players going to find what they want this way? As a DM, I want to have an idea, like maybe there is a demon tied to this treasure, but what type, and then go look up demons and be able to see them all together in one place so I can figure out which one to use. Same with Dragons and others. WTF?

Where are the gem dragons?

I hope we will eventually see an update for the likes of Greatwyrms, more mythic monsters to fight, and perhaps an overhaul of Vecna. Because trust me, he NEEDS it.

Gem dragons are in Fizban's book

Quote from O5P_Ghost >>

In Fizban's book

I meant why haven't they been redesigned with the rest of the dragons. Also, why didn't gem dragonborn get updated?

Quote from Quras >>

Quote from Domgor >>

The suggested replacements for drow are disappointing.

Agreed.  That lack of actual stat blocks for basic humanoids that have been part of the world since nearly inception is a massive disappointment and mistake on wizard of the coast.  In print for decades then players and DMs are told , “just do it yourself”.  Makes it even worse when using the virtual tabletop as you drow rolls bandit on the screen and has no written stat block for special abilities that used to have.  Just disappointing.

 Absolutely agree - disappointing and just lazy. The drow are a staple of the game and they have specific (and thematic) elements like their poisoned hand crossbows, faerie fire, darkness, etc. which are all replaced for generic cleric spells like light and bless. As mentioned, it is left up to the DM to overhaul the statblock. What about new players/DMs - how will they even know they need to put in this work? Very disappointing and lazy of WotC.

Guys, clearly the Drow aren't in the book because they're going to be in another book that's coming later.  Probably the Forgotten Realms setting book they've teased with Drizzt on the cover.  I'd be very surprised if that's not the case.  It's a total WotC move to take what are easily one of the most popular groups in all of D&D, the drow, and put their stat blocks in a different book, so you have to buy two books.  You people are thinking like gamers and not ruthless corpos.

Quote from DarthCinnamon >>

Guys, clearly the Drow aren't in the book because they're going to be in another book that's coming later.  Probably the Forgotten Realms setting book they've teased with Drizzt on the cover.  I'd be very surprised if that's not the case.  It's a total WotC move to take what are easily one of the most popular groups in all of D&D, the drow, and put their stat blocks in a different book, so you have to buy two books.  You people are thinking like gamers and not ruthless corpos.

 One of the most depressingly accurate posts on here. 😔

Quote from The_DragonTamer >>

Quote from O5P_Ghost >>

In Fizban's book

I meant why haven't they been redesigned with the rest of the dragons. Also, why didn't gem dragonborn get updated?

 To make you buy another book! Dur

Quote from DarthCinnamon >>

Guys, clearly the Drow aren't in the book because they're going to be in another book that's coming later.  Probably the Forgotten Realms setting book they've teased with Drizzt on the cover.  I'd be very surprised if that's not the case.  It's a total WotC move to take what are easily one of the most popular groups in all of D&D, the drow, and put their stat blocks in a different book, so you have to buy two books.  You people are thinking like gamers and not ruthless corpos.

 Looks like I was right.  In a YouTube video from last week (Feb 13, 2025) Jeremy Crawford states exactly this.  The Drow stat blocks are coming in one of the Forgotten Realms setting books due late this year (it's at the 17:57 mark):

I think their assumption is Fizban's Treasury of Dragons uses the 2024 rules and gem dragons are in that book. I guess.