D&D: The 2025 Monster Manual Alt Cover Has the Most Welcoming Mind Flayer You’ve Ever Seen
WotC unveiled the alternate art cover for the upcoming 2025 Monster Manual, which features a Mind Flayer right out of the opening cinematic of Baldur’s Gate 3.
Well this is the last big cover reveal in the new core rulebooks. D&D 5.5E will have some gorgeous books, whatever else you may say. And today we got a look at the alternate art cover (available only in your FLGS) for the 2025 Monster Manual.
Thanks to Dexerto, who cover a fair amount of Baldur’s Gate 3 news, we got to see the new cover in all its glory. And, as you might imagine, Josh Herman, head of art for D&D, had a few things to say about the new Olena Richards designed cover.
That Mind Flayer Just Wants to Say Hi and Offer You a Parasite
And let’s just check out the new cover in all its glory. The new Monster Manual will feature only a single foe, but what an eminently recognizable one. This is a Mind Flayer, and not just any mind flayer, but one evoking Baldur’s Gate 3 with its outstretched hand and the yawning maw of a Mind Flayer tadpole awaiting within. Just ready to get right up in your ocular orbit where it can slip into something more comfortable (your brain).
Of course the design is no coincidence. As Herman told Dexerto:
“The mind flayer is a really great villain that’s super classic to D&D in every possible way. It’s great in combat, it has great lore, it has really great roleplaying opportunities.
If you said 12 months ago ‘Have you heard of a mind flayer?’ I don’t think everybody would have, but now I think a lot of people do. We wanted to put that out there as a ‘this is also the same game as Baldur’s Gate 3’ to help create that extra connection with fans that this is sort of the same thing.”
And you can see the resemblance, clearly. It’s not a bad way to attract new players, which is I think a big goal of 5.5E. Capitalize on the success while also growing. Just like a Mind Flayer colony.
At any rate, the pose of the Mind Flayer is meant to be cheeky. Welcoming while also threatening. Which is what you want out of a good monster. Keep an eye out for the new Monster Manual in 2025. We know that alongside Mind Flayers, the book will feature several brand new to D&D monsters, as well as revived versions of old favorites we haven’t seen in quite a while.
The Monster Manual releases February 18th, 2025!
