Ahoy, friendos! March is here, and I’ve been busy reading, playing, and designing all sorts of neat stuff. One of which is the new 2024 Monster Manual for D&D 5e. I was lucky enough for WotC to send me a copy of the book (thank you, Wizards!), and after having it in my hands for a while now, I have some thoughts.

The Art is Phenomenal

The new Monster Manual is truly a beautiful book. If you’re a collector, I cannot implore you enough to get a physical copy. And if you can find it, the alternate art cover with the foiled Mind Flayer.

Even my wife, who doesn’t generally like the style of fantasy art most TTRPGs go with, kept commenting on how great the cover looked.

The art inside doesn’t disappoint, either. In fact, I think it’s the highlight of the release, and I’ve spent more time paging through and inspecting the pictures than I have the stat blocks. (Though that’s primarily because I haven’t been DMing D&D quite as much recently.)

At Gen Con, the D&D folks were talking about the art showcasing how the monsters could be used instead of just seeming like staged portraits. They’d be show in their lairs, in action, or just doing what they do. And y’all, these scenes are gorgeous.

For example, the Shadow entry shows precisely why these things can be a truly nasty encounter.

The gold dragon looks magically majestic and mysterious in its lair, and as Liz Lemon would say, “I want to go to there.”

And doesn’t this silver dragon look so cozy, listening to a story by the fire?

That’s just the beginning, too. And as much as I have enjoyed the D&D Beyond version of the book because of its convenience and usability, I very much think the experience of the physical books on this one is better by far. The layout is well done and thought out, and I think there is something lost on the screen—even in the app on my iPad—instead of holding the book and flipping pages. The layout designers did a standout job, and it’s worth getting one in your hands.

The New Stat Blocks Are…Meh?

The new styling for the stat blocks takes a bit to get used to. It’s not bad. I don’t want you to think that. In most ways, they work the same as before and are easy to glance at, getting the info you need.

The main issue I have is that they finally do something we’ve wanted for a while—show both the saves and modifiers that monsters have explicitly, instead of simply using the same number for both without mentioning what the saves are or where they’re found.

In practice, though, there are a lot of numbers in one place, and it looks cluttered to me. To make that part worse, many of the stat blocks have the same numbers repeated side by side. I haven’t done the math (so forgive me if I’m wrong), but the majority of the modifiers/stats are still the same number. So we get blocks with even more numbers, but they’re redundant and make the boxes more cluttered than usual.

At higher levels, this changes somewhat as the monsters’ stats and abilities become more varied. Beholders and Mind Flayers and Dragons (oh my!) typically have different mods and saves. Still, though, it’s only 1 or 2, which means it’s a lot of space for redundant information.

Maybe this is easier for new players to use, since that’s the main demographic that the 2024 core books are for. In terms of usability overall, they’re a bit worse. It makes it so that players don’t have to—and I know this sounds snarky—actually read the book itself to know “if a save isn’t listed, just use the modifier.”

It’s fine for onboarding, but not great for everyday use.

Some Good, Some Fine, Some Great.

There are a lot of things that are good in this book. The new monsters are going to be useful, and the abilities are balanced for the new 2024 core rules.

I do like how the big bads get extra legendary actions in their lairs while still having lair actions described earlier for you to use.

And one of my favorite things in the entire book is how each monster entry has a tagline that succinctly tells the reader what the monster’s deal is.

Blue Dragons are called “Dragons of Tyranny and Tempests” while Beholders are tagged “Infamous Many-Eyed Tyrant” and the Balor is “Totally Not a Balrog, We Promise” “Demon of Overhwelming Rage.”

In the same place, it’s great to have an idea of what treasure the monster would drop. Because for DMs like me, it’s always a spur-of-the-moment thing of what to give my group after a fight. Not so much boss fights, but in small encounters. Being given a quick link (in the online version, at least) to what the monsters have on them is a big help to keep the game moving forward without as much delay.

Overall, I like the 2024 Monster Manual (even though it came out in 2025, so the naming convention really bugs me).

To be 100% honest, though, I still prefer books like the Monster Vault and Tome of Beasts series from Kobold Press to even the remastered and revamped MM. I feel like they’re more dynamic and interesting with more varied entries.

But that’s not what the Monster Manual is. The MM—and especially this new one—is the core book that gives players a baseline of what they need to run the game. For what it is, it wholly succeeds at that. I will totally be using these monsters as the baseline for my games, for standard encounters, and for the foundations for homebrew that I throw at my parties and into my own design work.

Overall Score: 4 out of 5 Beholder Eyes

What do you think about the new Monster Manual (or the other new corebooks, the Player’s Handbook or Dungeon Masters Guide)?