Jeremy Crawford, one of the lead game designers for Dungeons and Dragons, promises that “the monsters are suddenly gonna hit way harder” in the 2025 Monster Manual. Speaking at a press event on October 25, Crawford promised players would face a real challenge after steamrolling encounters with their new-and-improved classes. “Some creatures will feel similar, but some monsters will feel like you’ve been hit by a truck.”
The 2024 Player’s Handbook, released in September, gave DnD classes a serious makeover. This included a bit of balancing, but overall, many builds seemed to get a power boost out of the new rules. This has left many wondering how Wizards of the Coast will adapt its DnD monsters to keep encounters challenging.
As of writing, Crawford says the final touches were made to the Monster Manual just days ago. This third and final part of the new core rules is due on the DnD release schedule in February 2025.
Crawford has no regrets about letting 2024 characters fight 2014 monsters in the meantime, however. “In many ways, I’m glad we’re in this transitional period because it proves you can use the new rules with the 2014 edition”, he says.
If your new DnD character build has made battle feel trivial so far, it seems like a rude awakening is on the way. Plenty more Kaiju-like titans will be appearing, and “some monsters have 100 or more hit points than they had before”.
Crawford promises that these redesigns are within reason, though – the most threatening monsters have been saved for higher-level parties rather than level-one runts. “As you go up, monster power increases”, he adds.
Among the new beasties that Crawford name-dropped are the Arch-Hag and the Blob of Annihilation. Both monsters have been teased before, but Crawford was able to shed a little more light on these imposing foes.
“The Blob of Annihilation (CR 23) is the highest-level ooze in the game”, Crawford says. “It can roll over entire towns, and if you die inside it, you are imploded.” The threat of implosion means you must time its demise carefully – or risk wiping out half your party. It can also hurl clumps of itself around and absorb them back into its central mass.
While not a kaiju-sized beastie, Crawford promises us the Arch-Hag is a mean creature that “can just wreck you”. It’s the highest-CR Fey in all of Dungeons and Dragons, and can curse multiple opponents at once with a Crackling Wave. You’ll want to avoid these curses, if possible, as Arch-Hags can also use ‘Witch Strike’ as a bonus action to automatically damage cursed targets.
The new Monster Manual will be almost 1,000 pages long and populated with over 500 monsters. The Arch-Hag and the Blob of Annihilation are among the 75 brand-new stat blocks, and we’ve also seen other minor spoilers in the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide.
For more on the new rule set, here’s our 2024 Player’s Handbook review, plus our 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide review. We can also tell you all about the new rules for DnD 2024 backgrounds.
Source: Wargamer
