D&D: The New ‘Monster Manual’ May Mean Change For Upcoming Player Options
In the 5.5E Monster Manual, goblins are fae, kobolds are dragons, and kenku are monstrosities. But what happens when a player plays one?
One of the big, sweeping changes in the new Monster Manual is a reclassification of a number of monsters. As we saw in the Medusa stat block entry, they’re reclassified as monstrosities. In fact, a number of monsters that were formerly humanoid have had their type adjusted.
This raises the question: will that mean more nonhumanoid player options? And how will that play out in the game? Here’s what we know so far.
Monster Taxonomy And YOU – An Adventurer’s Guide
Typically, D&D player characters are all humanoids. Whether they’re elves, dwarves, dragonborn, or whatever else, what have you. Even the living constructs known as the Warforged from Eberron were classified as humanoid. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked when WotC started working on the new edition.
We saw rumblings of what the new edition might look like in big design choices in the latter adventures, starting with Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure. WBtW introduced two new species for players to play as the Harengon and Fairies. Fairies were classified as Fey, which was a departure from the norm.
Then, in one of the last big update books for 5th Edition, Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, a number of species options were added which had previously been humanoid only:
- Centaur
- Changeling
- Fairy
- Satyr
And then the Astral Adventurer’s Guide released and added even more options to the nonhumanoid category, including Autognomes, which are constructs, Plasmoids, which are oozes, and Thri-Kreen, which are monstrosities.
All that to say, it looks like D&D has been moving away from “humanoid-only” as an option for a while now. Buuuut, will the changes in the Monster Manual carry through to the player side of things in future supplements?
Are More Nonhumanoid Humanoids (Or Humanoid Nonhumanoids) Coming To Faerun
One of the books we know is coming out later this year is a Player’s Guide to the Forgotten Realms. And while we’re not sure exactly what should be in it – the new Artificer Unearthed Arcana playtest does seem to suggest that there will be more player options. Including, many are hoping, the things left behind in the edition transition.
Which, for Faerun itself, could mean more playable species like goblins and kenku. And maybe autognomes, too; I don’t see why not. And there’s definitely room for yuan-ti. All of this is to say that there are gaps in the roster. And perhaps we’ll see more humanoid creatures that aren’t classified as Humanoids.
This carries with it some subtle benefits, mostly being immune to spells that affect only “humanoids” like Charm Person and Hold Person. Really, that’s it. But it’s a fun consideration, and there’s room for designers and DMs to play around with abilities like that.
It’s the start of a new edition, and everything’s wide open, so why not play around?
