I was watching some RPG YouTube, and of course there was talk about Monsters. And with the recent OMG CONTROVERSY with the newest Monster Manual, I got to thinking about something that is more inherent in D&D and in fantasy games in general, why so many monsters? I’ve played various other games, and read many books, watched many movies, but it seems that fantasy games, with D&D leading the charge, seem to have more monsters than any other medium in the genre, or other genre’s in particular. So yeah, why are there so many monsters?
First, the new monster manual is atrocious… they people that worked on it should all be fired.
They made the weakest and lamest challenges, then threw in a lot of bad mechanics and obviously “bugged” creatures.
I think this is symptomatic of the larger problem that this new edition was pretty much only made to make money.
I’ve mostly read the new PHB, but I feel like the clarity of the updated rules make it obvious how needlessly confusing much of original 5e was.
Sure, charging full price for what is mostly rephrasing and polish does feel a bit rich.
But refusing to give the new edition it’s own damn name makes my blood boil. Trying to explain to my players that while most parts of fifth edition is compatible with fifth edition, some parts of fifth edition is actually not compatible with fifth edition, has significantly shortened my life span.
I just explain it as “LOL zombie apocalypse werewolf destroys your character if it puts them at zero hit points … but 2024 5e thinks it’s fine because they removed all its resists and regeneration”. Or
“It’s a Carrion Crawler, failing one saving throw means you are permanently afflicted … yes you get a new save every six seconds, but you automatically fail it forever”.