D&D: Adventurer’s League Says Hello Monsters Of The Multiverse, Goodbye Volo’s And Tome Of Foes
If you play D&D in the Adventurer’s League, the new monsters/races in Monsters of the Multiverse are all that apply now.
Alongside Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse‘s official release, WotC has an announcement. The Adventurer’s League is changing/updating their character creation rules. Adventurer’s League announcement. Adventurer’s League is the official, WotC-sanctioned organized play for D&D 5th Edition. If your DM has ever limited you to “Player’s Handbook +1” that rules comes from the League.
Following Monsters of the Multiverse, Adventurer’s League will require players to update their characters. The announcement indicated that player races in the new book are the only valid ones for Adventurer’s League play.
Adventurer’s League Monsters of the Multiverse Update
Here’s a quick look at the official announcement.
If you possess a character with one of the race options presented in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, you must update your character to the new entry as presented in that product. This has always been the policy of D&D rules usable with D&D Adventurers League campaigns.
However, we also understand that a large number of playable races have been impacted by the changes. We ask that Dungeon Masters and fellow players with access to Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse exhibit some patience as players spend some time updating their characters to the revised races’ mechanics.
As WotC outlines in the announcement, this has always been the policy of Adventurer’s League. When Warforged and Orcs were updated via new books or errata, for instance, players were required to update to the newest version.
And the same holds true for DMs using monster stat blocks, though they have a little more flexibility.
There are revisions to all of the monster stat blocks from Volo‘s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, as well as some new stat blocks. Published adventures playable in D&D Adventurers League with older versions of the stat blocks will not be changed; however, Dungeon Masters may choose to use the new stat blocks in their place as long as it does not significantly impact the challenge rating of the encounter.
Official D&D Adventurers League adventures will start using the new stat blocks from this point forward. Dungeoncraft adventure designers will need to use the updated stat blocks for monsters appearing in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse starting with the next season (beginning September 1).
Of course, this leaves some players in an awkward position. As the rules updates in Monsters of the Multiverse have come in the form of a brand new book. Not in terms of errata available for download. So some players might find themselves in the position of playing a character like a Tabaxi or a Lizardfolk out of Volo’s Guide to Monsters and find themselves unable to access the new rules without making another purchase.
This has some players upset about the changes. But again, this has been Adventurer’s League policy in the past. And as we near 2024 and a release of a “new evolution” of D&D, will likely continue to be the policy.
You can read the entire announcement here.
Happy Adventuring!
