Dungeons & Dragons: Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse: 1

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Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. That has the benefit of opening up new opportunities for Dungeon Masters (DMs) to present classic enemies to their players in new and interesting ways. However, the two species, which originate from the magical Feywild dimension, were originally intended to be first featured in Monsters of the Multiverse, with the sourcebook having been ready for printing as early as the middle of 2021, but was delayed due to supply chain issues. Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse will make monstrous races far more convenient to play, which many players have been asking for.

As with language, acknowledging that a concept such as alignment is dependent on personal history and not biology is a respectable move, plus, it alligns with the changing mindsets held at modern tables, that our characters tend to be more grey than a nine-point chart can categorise. The wizard Mordenkainen soars through the Astral Plane astride a ki-rin—unaware of the astral dreadnought slinking toward them—in this painting by Grzegorz Rutkowski. For Monsters of the Multiverse, it means tinkering with some of the math under the hood, and enshrining subtle changes that have been made since 2014 to adapt the game for a modern, increasingly more progressive, and now thoroughly mainstream audience. I never had trouble with the default spell slot system, but even I have to admit its partly because I try my best not to run more than one spellcaster at a time (more if they aren’t complicated spell lists).That last part applies to monsters too; these foes can be dropped into any setting, and rules changes ensure that they're at their most dangerous when they make the trip. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. I’m aware that DMs are empowered to change whatever they like about statblocks and I’ve heard the argument that you can just change whatever you want as a DM, but it misses the point that good dm tools make the job much easier. I intend to come back to spell lists another time and examine them in greater detail than I have this past week, but one thing I notice at first glance is that certain spells of a particularly coercive nature seem to have been purged from all monster stat blocks.

Respectful consideration of word choice, removal of unnecessary fluff, and understanding of homebrew integration. A magic-using monster’s most potent firepower is now usually represented by a special magical action, rather than relying on spells. The overhaul not only makes its melee attack worthwhile, but lets it combine spells and attacks, while swapping its big damage spells for field control effects.The greater issue is probably that geas and imprisonment both take 1 minute to cast, and the Spellcasting action now comprises only spells that take 1 action to cast. Whilst I agree that imprisonment is not a fun spell to be hit with as a PC, that sort of advice is more in the territory of what constitutes good DMing than good monster design – there are many, many ways to make combat boring for a single player without casting imprisonment, but removing the spell entirely strips us of wonderful opportunities to build plot hooks and story beats around imprisoned enemies. As with races, the monsters have also had a thorough adjusting of t heir abilities, most often, making them stronger. Dungeons and Dragons has nearly 50 years of lore under its belt, so this step in respecting a shift towards homebrew says a lot. And in areas such as the description of Changelings, steps have been taken to focus on the characteristics of the creature itself rather than their community’s history, allowing these builds to better fit into Homebrew settings and thrive as whatever unique character you want to create.