Sly Flourish Obsidian Vault
Lazy RPG Talk Show Notes
5-2 SRD quote soon
2024 Year In Review
2024-10-27 Lazy RPG Talk Show Notes
2024-11-03 Lazy RPG Talk Show Notes
2024-11-10 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2024-11-17 Lazy RPG Talk Show
2024-11-24 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2024-12-01 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2024-12-08 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2024-12-15 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2024-12-22 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2024-12-29 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025 D&D Monster Manual preview videos
2025 MM Comparison to Forge of Foes
2025 Monster Manual Deep Dive
2025-01-05 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-01-12 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-01-26 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-02-02 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-02-12 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-02-23 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-03-02 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-03-09 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-03-16 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-03-23 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-03-30 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-04-06 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-04-13 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
2025-04-20 – Lazy RPG Talk Show
A quick glance at the 2025 Monster Manual
Anatomy of a situation — the Infiltration of Red Eagle Tower
Answer to Adam R
Avoid the Zeitgeist
BG3, Stardew Valley, and Thoughts About Copyright
Blurgate and the Two Year Anniversary of the OGL
Bob World Builder WOTC & D&D Popularity Survey
Build a D&D 2024 Character on Paper in Ten Minutes
Can RPGs Die?
Chessex Mat Versus Pathfinder Flip Mat
CR Deep Dive
Crafting Dangers of the 2024 DMG
Defending yourself out of the fun
Don't Betray the Characters
Enshittified D&D Beyond
Experiences at PAGE
Experiences at Winter Fantasy
Experiences with A5E
Experiences with Shadow of the Weird Wizard
Following the Independent RPG Community
Hard Truths about Crowdfunded RPG Products
How and when to fudge without dice
I suck at names
Initial Thoughts on the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide
Legendary Resistance Alternatives
Let's Build an Adventure with the City of Arches
Memoirs of a Dracolich
Missing stuff from D&D 2024
Monster Overhaul spotlight
Musk on D&D
New minis for Sigil?? Where's my self-hostable Gold Dragon minature docker??
Notable Sections of the 2024 DMG
November 2024 Patreon Q&A
October 2024 Patreon Q&A
Patreon Q&A
Play D&D 6e Today!
Pool Table Game Mastering
Quick Shadowdark house rules
Roll20 Cancels Tales of the Valiant Character Sheet Plans
RPGs I’m looking forward to
Self-Hosting Owlbear Rodeo 1.0 on a Raspberry Pi
Sigil appears to be dead
Slow Medium and Fast monster initiative
Sly Flourish news
Talk Show Topics Feb 2025
Tariffs and RPGs
The 3-2-1 quest model
The danger of Enspelled Weapons
Thoughts on Gamehole Con
Thoughts on the D&D 2024 Beholder
Top RPG Products Used at the Table
What do you need to prep for your session?
index

A quick glance at the 2025 Monster Manual

Main Points

  • I'll do a deep dive of the D&D 2025 Monster Manual on 16 February released 17 February on Podcasts and YouTube.
  • The 2025 Monster Manual is better than the 2014 Monster Manual. Most stat blocks hit at their intended CR (not all – some are weird).
  • For me, it's a toss-up on how it compares to A5e's Monstrous Menagerie and Tales of the Valiant's Monster Vault. All have their plusses and minuses. All three are better than the 2014 MM (which was fine for the most part).
  • The biggest sin of the 2025 Monster Manual is a return to burying important actions in the spellcasting block. It does it a lot. This is a big sin that drops it like 20% in my overall rating.
  • It serves D&D just fine. I'd say D&D 2024 serves D&D just fine and D&D 2024 improves a lot over D&D 2014.

Oh, here's a lich!!

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