Volo’s Guide to Monsters provides something exciting for players and Dungeon Masters everywhere.
> Dive deep into the story behind D&D’s most popular and iconic monsters, including beholders, mind flayers, and the yuan-ti, as well as classics like orcs, gnolls, and kobolds.
> Gain access to rules and story for dozens of monsters new to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, such as the froghemoth, the neogi, and the vargouille.
> Open up new race options, including the goblin, the orc, and the firbolg.
http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/volos-guide-to-monsters
Discuss.
>>47567961
Volo's Guides were literally some of the BEST 2nd Ed products, so that's not surprising they're using the title.
Seems like this is basically MM2+Monsters of Faerun, though Faerun seems to be the default in the regular MM what with Helmed Horrors chilling out there.
> Most popular and iconic monsters
> New race options
> Not a single mention of kobolds
> What the fuck even are firbolgs
Shit book.
>>47567961
Wait, this will have froghemoths in it?
Awesome. I wonder if they'll bring up how they're literally supposed to be aliens or not?
>>47567990
Looks like we got a 3e babby here.
Firbolgs are old stuff; 2e MM.
They're a type of smaller giant, relatively civilized and friendly if I correctly recall.
Honestly they're sorta like Goliaths before Goliaths were around, though I do not recall of Unearth Arcana ever made them playable or not.
>>47567990
>Doesn't know Firbolgs.
>Wants shitty spawn of Tiamat.
Mate, let me introduce you to my maul as I call upon the power of the Giants to crush your draconic ass.
>>47568026
What's the point of having them, if goliaths already exist and are even a PC race, though?
>>47568046
It's always nice to have someone who knows the classics on these threads.
But realistically, it probably WILL add Kobolds.
>>47568054
That is actually a decent point.
If I recall correctly they're actually MUCH larger then Goliaths are, but not positive. At least Large-sized:
>>47568054
Goliaths (as far as I know) are in a state of being part giant, and being their own race.
Firbolgs are clearly the spawn of Giants, or more accurately, come from the Mother of Giants, and her lover Ulutiu(?) an Ice God.
>>47567990
Playable kobolds could show up. 224 pages is room for plenty of content. Goblins were probably thrown on the description because they ranked really high in the survey about desired options a year back.
>>47567961
>Open up new race options, including the goblin
FUCK YES!
Will Pirate upon release!
>>47567961
>kobolds
Which version of the Kurtulmak story will they showcase?
I really hate how they barely release any books for 5e. It's been years already, and it's, what, the second one that's not an adventure?
>>47568272
It'll be two years in August.
>>47568272
Blame WotC and the realities of the gaming market.
WotC and Hasbro has finally realized that no matter how hard it tries it can't ACTUALLY turn D&D into money maker in par with MtG and despite it's fame it's still a niche market.
Doesn't help that with MtG you can basically sell shit over and over again because it's a CCG but with D&D the costs of printing and writing and developing a book are outweighed by the fact that most people will only buy it just once and most will likely pirate it a anyway.
>>47567961
so a mm2-phb2 combo
I can dig it
>>47568136
I'll bite.
What's the gnomes version of this tale?
>>47569948
That Kurtulmak was jealous of the gnomes and was stealing their jewels, or that he was stealing jewels that were the souls of unborn gnomes. In same cases it's that Glittergold was just pulling a prank on Kurtulmak.
Doesn't stop Glittergold from committing genocide with no repercussions. #koboldlivesmatter
>>47567990
Fuck the modern kobold.
>>47570008
I know, right?
>>47567961
>we are too lazy to write up new creatures so here is 250 pages of recycled fluff that we have to put almost no effort into about creatures you already have the stats for
>plus race templates that can be thrown together in 5 minutes
>>47570061
You sound jaded
>>47567961
>t. Volo
why do we accept this kind of shilling on here again?
I really want notes throughout the book that are basically Elminster correcting Volo in the most condescending way possible and Volo being like "fuck you, old man."
>>47570075
I am.
5e has a lot of obvious laziness in design and (especially) editing. I cant blame them for reducing the release speed of the books but they cant even keep up with unearthed arcana. Every other month is just fucking homebrew taken from DM's guild.
So now after a SEVERAL month wait we are finally getting a new book that isn't a shitty module and we can pretty much guarantee that at least half the book will be lore that is recycled and mostly useless to people not using forgotten realms as their games setting.
can you imagine if the firbolgs get that "hold two handed weapons in one hand" trait they had forever ago?
imagine being a 10ft firbolg paladin, holding a greatshield as big as you in one hand and a maul in the other
>>47568272
think they don't wanna make 5e too bloated.
and as much as I'd like more supplemental shit, it's just not really a reality money wise. D&D is currently "fake nerd cool" so it gets alot of buzz but 95% of those kinds of people don't actually play and certainly don't buy anything.
>>47567961
I like the cover, great work.
>>47567990
>> Not a single mention of kobolds
The OP's post literally says "kobolds" you fucking buffoon.
>>47567961
>> Dive deep into the story behind D&D’s most popular and iconic monsters, including beholders, mind flayers, and the yuan-ti, as well as classics like orcs, gnolls, and kobolds.
>>47567961
It will be shit
>>47567961
This is going to be awesome!
I'm running a campaign in 2017 that will be based heavily on yuan-ti, so this is perfect.
mfw
>>47569948
It's just a prank, bro.
>>47569968
Dude, they're underground. Shevarash is the Elven deity of straight-up ethnic cleansing. Anything's possible when you just want to kill not!people living underground.
>>47568026
>Firbolgs are old stuff; 2e MM.
Firbolgs were included in 4e as Fey giants that were unaligned if I remember correctly.
>>47575372
Are you making them allied with 40k's lizardmen because that's what I'm doing because it's fucking cool
>>47567961
>new
>the neogi
>new
wat
>>47567961
Noice! Didn't we have a "WHIRR TEH FUGS MM2????"-thread just a day ago or so?
>>47570314
They should at least ramp up the release schedule of little tidbits of material on UeA or something. That way they could at least fight off bloat claims with "not official" or somesuch (no fucking idea how that's supposed to earn them monies though...).
5e really fucking needs some more material for the players by now.
>>47579242
>5e really fucking needs some more material for the players by now.
Why? Have you played all the available classes and archetypes and races already? Are you incapable of ever playing a class more than once?
You really don't need a fucking constant torrent of never-ending new rules for the the game to be enjoyable.
Sure maybe it would be nice for you to have same more stuff to read, but there's no way in hell you're actually playing through all the rules so quickly that you've gotten bored of them and now desperately need new rules to freshen things up. So fucking spare me your hyperbole. 5E doesn't "need" more material. You just need to learn some fucking patience. Maybe try actually playing the game instead of just reading the books once and then whining for more.
>>47578786
New to 5e dimwit, new to 5e. It helps if you actually read ALL the words in a sentence.
>>47568026
>>47578070
They were in the 3e Monster Manual II.
>>47570314
In 2e the 'L weapons in one hand' thing was a byproduct of how the weapon size stuff works. I can't remember how 5e does weapon size.
>>47570233
WotC basically relegated the D&D team to a broom closet and cut the staff to I think 8 people. Possibly less.
They're taking the laziest possible path they can to keep D&D warm. Probably waiting for the movie to give them a spike of interest, but by then there'll probably just be Mike Mearls as the sole person of the department, eating string cheese and forcing people to make perception checks to advance the plot.
>>47582283
>I can't remember how 5e does weapon size.
Two-handed weapons require two hands to wield.
Attacks with heavy weapons made by small creatures are made with disadvantage.
>>47582361
>I like to makes stuff up
That's nice.
>>47582123
Not him, but I don't want to learn fucking patience. I want to give them my money in return for product.
Why in the fuck are they not taking advantage of me? How often does that happen in business anyhow?
>>47582821
WotC has been cutting the D&D team by about 10% every year for a long time now. It's one reason there's such an anemic release schedule--there's just not enough staff available to put out content quickly enough. The conversion guide was delayed because the one guy working on it got stuck with jury duty, for cryin' out loud. What professional company gets a product stalled like that?
I suspect they opened the DM's Guild specifically to pick up the slack, which is just downright embarrassing for the flagship product of the hobby.
"We'll have the fans do our work because I suck at my job." - Mike Mearls, probably.
>>47582960
>one of the latest DM's guild homebrew spotlights was a subclass for druid that gave them a balanced animal companion that makes the BM rangers look like garbage
Isn't there an easier way to say that you are bad at your job
>>47582960
Sometimes I worry D&D won't last the 8 years to its 50th anniversary. Why don't Wizards just license the name to somebody?
>>47582960
>What professional company gets a product stalled like that?
One that doesn't care about the product because it owns Magic the Gathering.
>>47583257
because wizards is owned by Hasbro who is more jewish than the nation of Israel
>>47583278
But if they license it, they get money for not doing any work. That's one of the most Jewish things going. And it's not like Hasbro don't already do that with Transformers.
>>47583315
The Jews at hasbro would rather lose money than help someone else gain money.
Sure they would make money out of the deal but that means whoever they licensed it to makes money as well.
They would rather let it die out for a decade or so and then make a big ass deal about making more DnD and advertise the shit out of it to get hype.
>>47583066
You say that like making BM Rangers look like garbage is a particularly skillful thing to do.
>>47583383
>remember D&D?
>we're bringing it back for the 50th anniversary!
I could see that.
>>47582123
>PHB
>Two years of nothing.
Contain your mad, bro.
>>47583444
>two years of nothing
SCAG and EEPC.
>>47583444
>>47583497
Not to mention all the Unearthed arcana and other supplements they've thrown out for free.
There's plenty of content for 5e, and there's no way anyone has played it all yet.
>>47570016
Gross
>>47582844
Protip: the world does not actually revolve solely around you.
Your single purchase does not constitute a guarantee of a product's profitably. Just because SOME people will buy something doesn't mean it's actually cost effective to make and sell it.
So quit your petulant whining and fucking grow up.
>>47582960
Look, the thing you need to understand, is that right now, everything is working as intended. You need to see things from Hasbro's perspective. WOTC is not Paizo or Onyx Path. They are a tiny part of a vast corporation. Hasbro isn't interested in the amounts of money that Paizo and Onyx Path make. Those amounts are enough for those companies to keep hiring freelancers and scraping by, but to Hasbro that's money that's not worth the effort needed to bend over and pick it up. It's nothing to them.
MTG money is the kind they're after, and rpgs, as they've always been published, just don't make that much. Nowhere near it. Which is why with 4E they tried the whole online subscription model of DDI in an effort to turn D&D into an MTG style moneymaker.
But, it didn't work. So with 5E they're trying another new business model for rpgs. They've downsized the actual R&D of the game and slowed it's release schedule, because they don't actually expect to make money from the books. They hope to make money from the licensing, all the products that surround D&D: the books, board games, computer games, maybe a film, t-shirts. All that. To Hasbro, the actually game itself is more like advertising for all the licensed products. The license is valuable, the game is not.
It's actually identical to the way that Disney own Marvel comics and WB own DC comics. They don't give a shit about the pittance that the comics make, they're interested in the licenses. Actually, the same thing also applies to White Wolf being bought by CCP, except in that case CCP ended up shutting it down after they got the license. So it could be worse.
>>47582844
>I want to give them money, but they're making it so hard. Why can't they just sell me what I want?
Hey reddit.
Man you assholes are super salty about 5e being the DM edition.
There is so much content to make *games* but people only care about making 30 character sheets without background stories on mythweavers.
>>47583066
Link?
>>47589120
In the /5eg/ MEGA folder. Rulebooks/Unearthed Arcana/May 2016 Dungeon Masters Guild Review. Circle of the Beast, I think.
>>47568026
Firbolgs were made a playable race in the book Giantcraft (I could be remembering the title wrong). It was a FR book explaining the Ordning, rune magic, why giants are tolerated in some areas, etc.
They were 8 to 10 feet tall, had +strength but -charisma due to no one liking giants.
They could wield two handed weapons in one hand, were never allowed to wear armor (natural ac of 3), had "monstrous size", and were always LG.
Their society was based almost entirely on honor and charity, and they were considered enemies of other giants for not only being impure Giantkin, but also for the fact they ignore the Ordning.
Volo is still alive?
I thought he died during the events of Throne of Bhaal or during the shitstorm that was 4th edition.
>>47589224
>special ability
>something any L-size creature gets for free
Quality game design there.
>>47589262
Not in AD&D.
Firbolgs also did double damage if they two-handed a weapon.
>>47589247
I would think it'll be one of his many unpublished works that was found again years later.
Like his guide to all things magical being his first book fluff wise, but was the last one published.
>>47589306
>Not in AD&D.
Weapon Size: All weapons are classed according to a size
category—S, M, L, G, or H. Small (S) weapons are approximately
two feet or less in size; medium (M) weapons are two
to five feet long; large (L) weapons are generally six feet or
greater in length. Giant (G) and huge (H) weapons are not
found on the lists, since these are items normally used by
ogres, giants, and even greater creatures. They are not items
of equipment a PC can normally buy!
A character can always wield a weapon equal to his own
size or less. Normally this requires only one hand, except for
some missile weapons (bows and crossbows in particular). A
character can also use a weapon one size greater than himself
although it must be gripped with two hands. Beyond this
size limit, the weapon is not usable without special means
(most often magical).
From the 2e PHB. 8'-10' is L, and a 2h sword is L, so the Firbolg's special ability doesn't mean shit.
>Firbolgs also did double damage if they two-handed a weapon.
I don't see that in FOR7, where is it?
>>47589348
My bad, I'm on mobile so I was using http://www.lomion.de/cmm/gianfirb.php to quickly remind myself of their stuff.
On the weapons, I honestly have no idea how I forgot that rule, and was just thinking about how I remembered some monsters (iirc most giants, trolls, etc) specifically mention they can do it in their rules text.
