I’ve been sitting on Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse (hereinafter referred to as Monsters of the Multiverse or simply Multiverse, because Mordenkainen’s got his name on another book already, and now he’s just attention-seeking) since January, as I’d been hoping to make more headway through some of the other books on my shelf. But, well, it’s just been released as a freestanding volume, and everyone’s talking about it, so I can’t let it sit any longer.
Monsters of the Multiverse collects 260 monsters—all the ones from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, as far as I can tell (ETA: Nope—the orc stat blocks from Volo’s are omitted, probably because they’re tied directly to the Forgotten Realms pantheon), plus the new dolphin delighter—and collects them in one volume, with revamped stat blocks. (Multiverse also collects all the post–Player’s Handbook race options that aren’t inextricably associated with some other specific setting, such as Ravnica or Ravenloft. Curiously, Eberron’s changelings and shifters are included, but kalashtar and warforged aren’t. PC options are outside the purview of this blog, anyway, so that’s all I’ll say on the topic.)
Multiverse is getting savaged by Amazon customers, although not as badly this week as it was last week, with the top recurring complaint being that it’s just a cash grab, selling Dungeon Masters content they already have. No. 1, I’m pretty sure that Wizards of the Coast never represented it as anything other than a revision of previous content, so don’t get mad at your own poor reading comprehension, and No. 2, I’m not sure that reviews of the product (the articulate, multi-paragraph kind, appearing in what we call “the media”) have made it clear just how much revision went into it.
Going through every stat block, a to z, I count only 60 that either aren’t changed at all or are changed only cosmetically. That leaves 200 that have received significant updates based on public opinion, playtesting or both.
Since I do happen to be pushing a book of tactical recommendations based on the stat blocks as they appear in Volo’s and Mordenkainen’s, I’m sure readers are wondering (a) what I think of the changes in Multiverse and (b) whether my tactical recommendations hold up after the changes.
In brief:
- Mostly, I think the changes are very good. They’ll certainly make your job as a DM a lot easier. I do have a couple of quibbles, but they’re subjective in nature.
- It depends on the monster.
Now to elaborate. (more…)
