Reviewing 5E D&D Monsters - Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse Appendix

 

And so, we reach the end of our coverage of Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, the two secondary bestiary books for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. The statblocks of both books were re-released and collected together as Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. And there are a fair bunch of statblocks in both Volo's and Mordenkainen's, many of which I didn't talk about in my initial coverage because they covered what are essentially variants of humanoid races, or just 'class' templates. And just like what I did with both Monster Manuals, I decided to lump all of these stats as a separate 'appendix'.

There are a couple types of statblocks that I stack here. A bunch of them came from the appendices of the original Volo's and Mordenkainen's, and they consist of several beasts that didn't make it to the Monster Manual, as well as additional 'classes' turned into statblocks, including one of my favourites, the Kraken Priest. But there are also additional statblocks for new variations of the races that Volo's highlighted, like more kobolds, giants and hobgoblins. I think they skirt the edge of relevance and irrelevance; by dint of appearing in a dedicated bestiary it makes them more setting-agnostic compared to a lot of the specific classes that appear in other adventures, but on the other hand I also find out that I really can't talk too much about, say, a Fire Giant variant or a Hobgoblin with some extra training. I also feel it disrupts a fair bit when we're talking about new monsters like Froghemoths and Morkoths and Oblexes and we have a random 'oh, by the way, some other orcs, I guess'. 

(The only exception I did for these are the Yuan-ti and Mind Flayer variants from Volo's, because they are biologically different and interesting enough that played into the 'monster' vibe of both species.)

I don't know if I'll make these appendix reviews a regular thing, becuase there are a lot of very setting-specific statblocks in the adventures. But we'll see, if there are enough of them. 

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[Originally published in various articles from 2020; recollected and remastered in June 2026]

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Archdruid

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 12

Volo's Guide to Monsters pads out a bunch of the holes in the original Monster Manual (a problem that isn't quite as felt with the 2024 version) in terms of NPC statblocks. Several classes aren't represented as adversaries, and there is a dearth of NPC statblocks between the low-level thugs and guards, and the powerful archmage. A lot of these are just around as really convenient stat-blocks that the DM can just pick up to pad out an encounter. Volo's gives us a CR 12 Archdruid to represent the bosses of the weaker druids, with a slew of spells up to 9th level and the ability to transform to powerful beasts or elementals.

Multiverse gives it a table to roll its form, and it goes from typical elementals to mammoths to dinosaurs to the flail snail. Are you even a proper archdruid if you don't master the form of the flail snail?

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Archer

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 3

Many of the guards and warriors just don't have ranged weapons, and the 'Archer' can be used to represent anyone using a bow, I guess, whether they are part of a proper army or adventuring unit, or just a hunter at the edge of civilization. Neat. Not quite sure if 'type of arrow fletching' is the most valuable differentiator roll-table, though. 

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Bard

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 2

Again, some of D&D's primary classes just wasn't represented in the original 5E Monster manual, and the Bard as a flavour-wise non-combatant just wasn't represented at all. 5.5E/2024 introduced the Performer, of course, but before that book we've got  

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Blackguard

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Neutral Evil; CR 8

Blackguards are evil paladins! In 3.5E at the very least, Paladins who broke their sacred oaths become Blackguards. In 5E's class system, this is somewhat represented by the Oathbreaker subclass for paladins, but 'Blackguard' just sounds a lot cooler, doesn't it? And unlike the playable Oathbreaker, the Blackguard is played up as being a lot more outright evil, consorting with fiends and undead. 

Unlike the Archer above, Multiverse's table for the Blackguard is a more fun list of evil armour decorations. Death mask helmet, demon boar helmet, bloody hand prints on the cloak, severed hand necklace, a swarm of flies hovering around her, and my favourite: the cool 'curls of inky smoke seeping from the joints of her armour', which is so cool. Also, there is 'length of cloth bearing the words: I choose violence'... that last one feels more like something that an edgy teenager would do, right? It's not even carved into her armour or tattooed into her flesh or anything. It's just like a random scrap of fabric she's waving around. 

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Cattle

• 5.5E/5E: Large Beast; Unaligned; CR 2 (Aurochs)
• 5.5E/5E: Medium Beast; Unaligned; CR 1/4 (Deep Rothe)
• 5.5E/5E: Large Beast; Any Alignment; CR 1/4 (Ox)
• 5.5E/5E: Large Fiend; Any Alignment; CR 1/2 (Stench Kow)

Volo's Guide to Monsters gives us a bunch more beast stat blocks, which is something that various books in the future would gradually do... it's a bit funny, isn't it? Waiting for real-life animals to finally be announced into D&D? Out of the four 'cattle' stat blocks, we've got two that are real-life creatures. We've got the CR 1/4 Ox to represent many of your regular milk cows, buffalos, oxen, and regular cattle.

We've got the surprisingly sturdy CR 2 Aurochs, which is an actual real-world prehistoric cattle! Prehistoric isn't actually the right term, extinct is the right term since they only went extinct in the early 1600's. The term Aurochs is really popularized by Game of Thrones... or the book counterparts, at least.

In D&D's Forgotten Realms, orcs ride Aurochs into battle. I've always assumed that above-the-table, this was done just because they sound alike. 

The Deep Rothe (pictured above) are Underdark cattle, with the special ability of being able to communicate to each other with Dancing Lights. That is so trippy! That is the kind of 'animal, but weird' that I really want more of in these settings. Multiverse notes that scientists aren't sure if the Rothe's Dancing Lights is a sign of Underdark adaptation/mutation, or a potential origin from the Feywilds. Cute!

And even deeper, you've got the Stench Kow. The 'K' spelling is important, apparently. Stench Kow are actually fiends, are orange and green, and expel a hideous stinky miasma that is toxic to those around them. Apparently it's a common wizard past-time to summon these fiends and disguise them as cows? Okay, asshole wizards? Anyway, the cow level is real in D&D, I suppose.

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Champion

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 9

Champions are mighty warriors who have honed their skills, usually also having influence in their towns and settlements. I suppose pre-Monster-Manual-2024, this statblock would be more useful but the revised Monster Manual added so many extra Knights and Fighters that this guy is a bit redundant, isn't he? 

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Dinosaur

• 5.5E/5E: Tiny Beast; Unaligned; CR 1/4 (Velociraptor)
• 5.5E/5E: Medium Beast; Unaligned; CR 1/4 (Dimetrodon), 1 (Deinonychus)
• 5.5E/5E: Large Beast; Unaligned; CR 1/4 (Hadrosaurus)
• 5.5E/5E: Huge Beast; Unaligned; CR 2 (Quetzalcoatlus), 4 (Stegosaurus)
• 5.5E/5E: Gargantuan Beast; Unaligned; CR 5 (Brontosaurus)

We've got seven new dinosaur statblocks in Volo's Guide to Monsters, and just like my commentary on the ox above, it really is hard to find places to sneak in real-world animals like these. I am quite happy that dinosaurs are given enough respect after 3E and 4E for some bizarre reason decided that they shouldn't be in fantasy? 

We've got several 'iconic' dinosaurs from pop culture that missed out on the original Monster Manual. We've got the Stegosaurus, with its rows of plates and spiked tail. I suppose in the original manual, the Stegosaurus kind of overlapped with Ankylosaurus and Triceratops as a burly, four-legged herbivore with a defensive gimmick? We've got the Brontosaurus, classified as gargantuan and representing all large sauropods as the large, long-necked and long-tailed herbivores. 

Velociraptor and Deinonychus are here thanks to Jurassic Park. The CR 1/4 Velociraptor statblock is the biologically-accurate Velociraptor, being a turkey-sized pack hunter that would be more pests than anything to humans. The Deinonychus, at CR 1 and the medium size, is what the movie Raptors would be.

We've also got the Hadrosaurus statblock to represent all the herd animals, which tend to show up all the time in dinosaur media but just don't quite have a cool enough 'gimmick' that they tend to become the 'boring herbivore'. I appreciate that they did get a statblock, though, and the Hadrosaurus could be used to represent Parasaurolophus, Maiasaura, Iguanodon, Corynthosaurus, Tsintaosaurus and a whole lot of others.

Quetzalcoatlus, at a whopping CR 2, is a souped-up Pteranodon statblock, which is basically what they are in real life. Because real world is crazy, the Quetzalcoatlus's wingspan can reach up to 30 feet or 11 meters, and a standing height equal to a giraffe. 

And finally, we've got the Dimetrodon, a surprising inclusion for me. Dimetrodon's a pre-dinosaurian reptile with a body close to the ground and a sail on its back, and I do like the Dimetrodon, but I am surprised that they got picked over many other more iconic-in-pop-culture dinosaurs! But I suppose what they are looking for is more diversity in the 'tropes' that a stat-block represents. Like, if I wanted to use a Spinosaurus in my campaign, I could just pop in a T-rex statblock, or something like that? Anyway, I am a huge, huge dinosaur geek, if you can't tell. 

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Dolphin

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Beast; Unaligned; CR 1/8
• 5.5E: Medium Fey; Chaotic Good; CR 3

The Dolphin statblock was added in Volo's Guide to Monsters, because people really, really like dolphins! Just like the real-world reputation that they enjoy, Dolphins in D&D are also noted to be very friendly and protect swimmers from sharks and other aquatic predators... even moreso in this fantasy world, thanks to the existence of druids and spells that allow communication with animals. 

Monsters of the Multiverse adds the Dolphin Delighter as its only proper new statblock, as a CR 3 fey. Dolphin Delighters reside in the Feywild and specifically want to bring joy and delight to those who travel the seas of the Feywild. They telepathically sing sea shanties to you, leap in and out of water, and are able to cast healing magic. Their healing magic, of course, is all glittery and sparkly! A delightful dolphin friend. 

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Drow 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Chaotic Evil; CR 13 (Arachnomancer), 18 (Favored Consort), 9 (House Captain), 14 (Inquisitor), 20 (Matron Mother), 11 (Shadowblade)

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, which has a heavy Elf focus, gives us five brand-new Drow statblocks, to really pad out a Drow campaign instead of just having the four statblocks from the Monster Manual (the strongest of which is the CR 8 Priestess of Lolth) and maybe some Driders and Draegloths to fill in the elite warriors. We get statblocks for Drow all the way up to CR 20, which is nice. Only two of them get artwork in Tome of Foes, but Monsters of the Multiverse gives all five variations updated artwork. 

Going by alphabetical order, we have the CR 13 Drow Arachnomancer, who gets a gorgeous new art that shows it cocooning his foes in spiderweb, and nicely mutated extra eyes under that hood. Arachnomancers are able to transform into spiders, and possess other spidery powers, such as a poisonous touch, wall-climbing and webbing. Very spider-man-y, and I am always up for a '-mancer' class. 

Next up is the Drow Favored Consort, which is one of the highest ranks that males can achieve in the very matriarchal Drow society. 5E doesn't play it up as much, but the description does note that each Priestess and Matron has a Favored Consort. (Which is a bit odd since the 5E Priestess is a mere CR 8 to the Consort's CR 18...) Favored Consorts play up the role of concubines or courtiers, except the ones you are fighting like this tend to be intelligent and cunning enough both physically and socially to keep their position that many others are fighting for. Multiverse adds an extra bit of lore about the Consorts, noting that some of them are powerful spellcasters have broken free of traditional Drow structure and are leading free cities that fight Lolth. 

The CR 9 Drow House Captain is just a more melee-oriented Drow that leads other Drow into combat, and he also has some additional tricks that allow him to move around troops in the battlefield, like the 4E Warlord class. House Captains tend to be the first sons of Drow Matron Mothers, and some have also reneged to join in the fight against Lolth. 

The CR 14 Drow Inquisitor, given a pretty cool jet-black armor and cape set in Multiverse, is the Drow's secret police, who rather hilariously has the job of keeping the backstabbing and treachery 'at a manageable level'. They basically are there to keep the hierarchy intact, and have a bunch of fancy abilities like Spectral Daggers, Death Lances... and the ability to detect lies innately. These guys are the types to be interesting in a full Drow politics Morrowind-style campaign, I feel. 

Going slightly out of order alphabetically, next up is the CR 11 Drow Shadowblade, who are essentially rogues and hunters for the Drow. They also have a pretty metal backstory where to become a Shadowblade, they must kill a Shadow Demon and absorb their essence. They travel out of their secretive cities to hunt down thieves or those that escape from the city; or in locations where multiple Drow houses fight each other, Shadowblades are employed as assassins between houses. So there's a huge tension between Inquisitors and Shadowblades, I imagine. Multiverse notes that communities free of Lolth's taint employ Shadowblades to kill infiltrators of Lolth. 

The big boss of the Drow is the CR 20 Drow Matron Mother, who was buffed in Monsters of the Multiverse to even have lair actions. The lair is the Matron Mother's palace or temple, and the lair actions are flavoured as magical runes and sigils that the Matron Mother has set up to activate against her foes, including telekinetic blasts, surveillance scans and spectral webs. Matron Mothers are charged by Lolth and are powerful spellcasters and manipulators, with the only real thing that might screw over her power being Lolth's own fickle favour. Matron Mothers have an insane amount of spellcasting up to 9th level spells, has a bunch of magical weapons, can summon demons, and can buff her minions (while also dealing psychic damage to them). 

I do like the direction that Monsters of the Multiverse has taken with some of these elite Drow, by the way, noting that many powerful Drow that have broken themselves off of Lolth's influence on their culture now fight a resistance against the evil, Lolth-aligned Drow. The 'Mothers of Rebellion' are noted to lose some of the more demonic abilities in the statblock, but otherwise are still quite powerful spellcasters. 

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Duergar

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Lawful Evil; CR 12 (Despot), 2 (Kavalrachni), 2 (Mind Master), 1 (Soulblade), 2 (Stone Guard), 6 (Warlord), 2 (Xarrorn)
• 5.5E/5E: Medium Construct; Lawful Evil; CR 2 (Hammerer), 3 (Screamer)

We've got nine new Duergar stat-blocks, and while only two received artwork in Tome of Foes, some of them received new artwork in other books, and Monsters of the Multiverse would give us several more, bringing it up to six. One of the Duergars to not get artwork is the CR 12 Duergar Despot, the most powerful Duergar among the variants in 5th Edition, a leader who has replaced hits body parts with mechanical augmentations. It's a psychic, cyborg dwarf! The Despot, in addition to having psionic abilities, also has an 'iron fist', a 'flame jet' and a 'stomping foot' modifications onto its mechanical limbs, and their psychic engine can explode if sufficiently injured. Unlike something like the Drow or Githyanki elites, though, the Despot isn't given any lair actions or legendary actions. 

The Kavalrachni also doesn't get artwork, although one is presumably depicted in the Steeder art. It's a combination of 'cavalry' and 'arachnid', which I thought was kind of cute. Kavalrachnis ride female Steeders into war, and in addition to being trained in mounted combat, are able to make themselves and their mounts invisible. I like this quite a bit, even if I kind of hoped the Duergar had different underground beasts compared to the Drow. 

The Duergar in general is given a fair bit of a positive spin in Tome of Foes, which detailed the circumstances that the Duergar ended up being so estranged with the other Dwarves, and highlighting just how the Duergar still keep aspects of their Dwarvish culture about community and craftsmanship; they're just a lot more dour and practical about it. The Duergar Mind Master, for example, looks a bit more monstrous, but he's actually wearing a skull-shaped mask. They act as spies, and augment their spying abilities with illusions, invisibility and the 'reduce' ability to shrink down into the size of a rat to infiltrate locations.

The Duergar Soulblade is a simple combatant, who fights with a psionic 'soulblade', has a bunch of extra psionic spells, and also has invisibility spells. Duergar Stone Guards are elite troops deployed in phalanxes (and having bonuses if they are fighting as a group), but do not have any psionic abilities other than the 'Enlarge' and 'Invisibility' abilities. 

The Duergar Warlord is a CR 6 leader that is basically a stronger version of the Stone Guard, with a bunch of martial tricks, the Enlarge ability, Invisibility, and buffing her allies. The Duergar Xarrorn (which is a made-up word) are specialists who construct weapons with alchemy and smithing. Multiverse's art gives us a fancy one with a tinkered-up weapon that looks like something out of Mad Max. In practice, Xarrorns just have an artificer-themed 'Fire Lance'. I feel they could've done more to make a mad scientist dwarf interesting. 

And finally, we have two Duergar that are considered Constructs instead of Humanoids, and this happens when a Duergar is fused into a machine, and the machine itself is powered by the Duergar's psionic energy, and emotions like pain is channeled into power. While this sounds horrific, and some Duergar are forced into the position, it's also a cyborgification one can undertake consensually. 

Given artwork is the Duergar Hammerer, used for both construction and siege engines. It's got a giant hammer and a claw! The Duergar Screamer, not pictured, uses psychic screams to either grind rock into dust like a louder drill, or to attack intruders. All of these 'psionic cyborg' stuff does help to give the Duergar a bit more identity for sure. 

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Gnolls

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid (5E)/Fiend (5.5E); Chaotic Evil; CR 9 (Flind)
• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Chaotic Evil; CR 1 (Flesh Carver), 1/2 (Hunter)
• 5.5E/5E: Medium Undead; Chaotic Evil; CR 1/4 (Witherling)
  

These elite Gnolls have a special place in my heart because one of the most ambitious campaigns I've been in included a 12-player raid against many of the gnolls that were introduced in Volo's Guide to Monsters. We start off with the CR 9 Flind, a type of particularly powerful gnoll leader that is transformed by Yeenoghu, the demon lord of gnolls, into a champion. It's also notably retconned between Tome of Foes and Monsters of the Multiverse from 'humanoid' to 'fiend', preceding and foreshadowing how the 5.5E update just changes all Gnolls into fiends. 

The Flind tends to be the leader of the gnoll warband, who has special insight from Yeenoghu that allows it to pinpoint the weaker enemies for the band to descend upon. Flinds carry a special flail gifted by Yeenoghu that has creepy glowing skulls instead of spikes iron balls, which causes wracking pain, paralysis and disorientation when it hits. Flinds also buffs any creature with the 'rampage' trait, which includes gnolls and other Yeenoghu-associated monsters like Leucrottas, Shoosuvas and Abyssal Maws. If a Flind is slain, any gnoll that picks up the flail gets transformed into the next Flind. 

The Gnoll Flesh Gnawer dual-wields swords and moves around stabbing everything in their path, going straight for weakened and wounded foes to finish them off. Gnoll Hunters are ranged attackers, skulking on the edges of the gnoll warband and launching arrows to clear the way for the rest of the horde. Their arrows are viciously barbed to cause as much pain to hobble the enemy. Both of these aren't the most interesting, but they do help to add some variety to the Gnoll army.

The coolest one is probably the Witherling, which isn't exactly a gnoll... but a bunch of gnoll bones strapped together with necrotic power and leather straps into a shambling undead. It does play into the gnoll themes of hunger and cannibalism. Gnolls sometimes turn on each other and feed them; or maybe members of their pack get slaughtered in combat with their prey. The remaining gnolls just gather the bones, and bring them back as Witherlings. It does really fit the idea of an all-devouring, mindless horde of hungre and brutality as they charge, kill others, kill their own, and any of them that fall just get turned into more Witherlings. 

Pretty need additions to the gnoll warband, and that session was a really good showcase of 

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Giants:

Volo's Guide to Monsters really codified the Giant Ordning and the hierarchy of the six families of true giants (Storm, Cloud, Fire, Frost, Stone, Hill) and their connection to the giants' gods, as well as their place in the Ordning. Before Glory of the Giants unironically gave us six more variants of each type of true giant and went overboard with the Ordning theme, Volo's gave each of the giants an 'elite' variant. They're all quite nice, and does solve some of the problems of the original set of giant statblocks being quite same-y.

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Giant; Chaotic Neutral; CR 11 (Cloud Giant Smiling One)
• 5.5E/5E: Huge Giant; Lawful Evil; CR 14 (Fire Giant Dreadnought)
• 5.5E/5E: Huge Beast; Chaotic Evil; CR 12 (Frost Giant Everlasting One)

The Cloud Giant Smiling One is one of the two favourites among the Volo's giants. They are really tied to the lore of their associated god, Memnor, who is a trickster god that use deception and illusion in the pursuit of wealth. They overstep all bounds of decorum with their behaviour, and I really like the art of the Smiling One floating above the ground and holding a variation of that half-smiling-half-crying theater mask on her hand. These masks represent the Smiling One's triumphant smirk as well as their disdain for their second-class place in the Ordning. They've got some more advanced spells like being able to turn into clouds and controlling the weather, but I'm here more for the the 'vibes' of these elite giants than to compare each of them to their base statistics.

The Fire Giant Dreadnought is just really, really cool-looking. There's just something so cool about that sneering Fire Giant in burly armour, and instead of a weapon and a shield, he's holding two gigantic tower shields with spikes pointing out. At the size of a giant, he probably is just holding two towers full stop. Dreadnoughts are those in Fire Giant society that were consigned to a lowlier role because of their lack in forgecrafting, but end up being so good at physical labour that they are given two shields which have these interiors that the Dreadnought feeds hot coals into. The glowing 'Tron lines' aren't just decorative after all! Dreadnoughts are also multi-functional, happily using their shields to shove around coal and ore around the Fire Giants' foundry. 

The Frost Giant Everlasting One is an attempt at combining the Frost Giant with trolls. Frost Giants that are desperate to look for more power can turn to the troll god Vaprak, who will give them visions and nightmares of cannibalism. If a Frost Giant is receptive, Vaprak will send a troll to the Frost Giant to be devoured, turning them into an 'Everlasting One' -- giving it the ability to into a Vaprak-empowered rage, but most importantly regeneration. The art isn't the most obvious at first glance, but this sometimes results in extra heads, and indeed the 5E Everlasting One art actually has two or three snarling heads around the main one -- those aren't trophies or decorations! Interestingly, these Everlasting Ones only suffer these mutations if they do not heed Vaprak's subsequent visions, and the mutations often cause them to be ousted by their tribes. Pretty cool!

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 6 (Mouth of Grolantor)
• 5.5E/5E: Huge Giant; Chaotic Neutral; CR 10 (Stone Giant Dreamwalker)
• 5.5E/5E: Huge Beast; Chaotic Good; CR 16 (Storm Giant Quintessent)
  

The Hill Giants always have the trope of eating a lot as they go around and raid smaller folk. Those that eat so much that their appetites consume them become the Mouth of Grolantor, driven into a frenzy as they keep consuming -- but as the art shows -- never becomes full. The other Hill Giants see the Mouth of Grolantor as a sign from their deity, chain up the Mouth of Grolantor and after a ritual, if found 'worthy' will be starved to manic desperation and held captive until they are released in war or raid. So enraged is the Mouth of Grolantor that their primary action is even random, letting the DM roll the dice to see just what they do. 

The Stone Giants live in a strange society where they live mostly in their caverns and tunnels, painting and sculpting and viewing the upper world as a dream. Nothing in the upper world is permanent, so they view it as a dream-world to seek inspiration from, but to eventually return. Those that are lost in the dream or banished become Stone Giant Dreamwalkers. They are 'divorced from reality', and while this might be handwaved as just how the strange Stone Giants view the world, the Dreamwalker's strength of belief that 'nothing is real' ends up bleeding out and warping reality around them. They collect interesting things as they go around the world, which merge with their bodies -- and the Dreamwalker in the art has an anchor and a ship's steering wheel embedded to his body. I do find this reality-warping aura to be very cool and probably the thing that separates this monster as making fun of some real-world beliefs.

Finally, we have the Storm Giant Quintessent. These Storm Giants try to prevent their natural death but instead of becoming a lich or something undeath, they use a ritual to transform into 'subconscious storms'. In this state, they become permanent fixtures in the terrain, becoming an ever-raging blizzard or thunderstorm. They can revert to their true giant forms temporarily. That's a pretty cool concept, and in battle the Quintessent is just a more powerful storm giant spellcaster that manipulates nature. Again, all of these one-offs are a lot more impactful when they are the only one! Glory of the Giants really ended up making 'turn yourself into a mass of elements' a lot less cool when other giants are also able to do it.

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Githyanki 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Lawful Evil; CR 10 (Gish), 12 (Kith'rak), 14 (Supreme Commander)

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes gives us a bunch of new Githyanki elites, and while I'm not the biggest fan of the Gith in general, even I know that the Githyanki Gish should've probably been included in the original Monster Manual. The 'Gish' is a made-up term originating from the 1st Edition Fiend Folio's description of the Githyanki monster and society, and is used in D&D circles to denote a 'fighter-wizard', something that is equivalent to saying 'spellblade' or something in later D&D slang. The Githyanki Gish stat block is exactly that -- a swordfighter with an impressive list of psionic spellcasting. 

The Githyanki Kith'rak holds the rank equivalent to a commander. The Githyanki has always had a long hierarchy in their culture. Ten warriors obey a 'Sarth', and ten 'Sarths' obey a 'Kith'rak'. I do like having funky alien terms, although some older material do go overboard with how in-depth they go with Gith ranks.

And finally we have the Githyanki Supreme Commander, who leads armies. Each of them command ten Kith'raks, and the Supreme Commander is noted to ride red dragons into battle. Okay. Presumably, these Supreme Commanders only take their orders from the Githyanki Lich Queen Vlaakith. Not a whole ton to say about the three Githyanki variants -- the Gith get a whole lot of lore in Tome of Foes, but I actually think the 2014 Monster Manual does a reasonable job at delivering a similar portion of this content. It's welcome, of course -- it's more lore. But I do admit that there's really only so much interest I could drum up about the Gith in general. 

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Githzerai 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Lawful Neutral; CR 16 (Anarch), 10 (Enlightened)

It is a bit odd, by the way, that the two new Githzerai statblocks in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes actually got brand-new art that, as far as I can tell, was comissioned specifically for the book. But the reprint in Monsters of the Multiverse replaces the Githzerai Anarch and Enlightened art with a piece of art taken from the 4th Edition Monster Manuals. Which... I do like that piece of art, but it is quite strange. Was there something objectionable about the two pieces from Tome of Foes? It's the only one to have its art changed instead of having art added. 

The Githzerai get two variants. The comparatively weaker Githzerai Enlightened has spent hours in meditation to transcend their forms and reality, and is a higher rank of being able to do psionic monk abilities than the previous Zerths.

The more interesting one is the CR 16 Githzerai Anarch, who has such mastery over meditation and psionic powers that they are meant to be encountered in the strange dimensions of Limbo where the Githzerai are based out of. In Limbo, the Anarch show off the sheer scope of their psionic powers -- not to impose their will or to enhance their weaponry, but to control their endlessly malleable home. This leads to Anarchs being able to have lair actions like changing the gravity of the battlefield, moving objects, creating objects, and launching blasts of energy of any kind -- as long as the Anarch is in its base in Limbo. It is the grounds for a pretty cool boss fight. ____________________________________________________

Hobgoblins 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Lawful Evil; CR 4 (Devastator), 2 (Iron Shadow)

Surprisingly, the goblinoids didn't get a ton of brand-new statblocks, only really getting two Hobgoblin variants and two associated monsters in the Nilbog and Barghest. It wouldn't be until the Monster Manual 2024 that the regular Goblins would have more statblocks to play with. 

Tome of Foes introduces two elite Hobgoblins -- both of which utilize magic as opposed to the otherwise very martial hobgoblin society. The first is the Hobgoblin Devastator, who are enrolled within training facilities the moment they display aptitude for magic. Devastators focus in battlefield magic, unleashing fireballs and other destructive magic. Their 'education' is very much geared towards utilization of magic in the battlefield, making them more 'field-ready' compared to other wizards and sorcerers from other cultures. 

The Hobgoblin Iron Shadow plays on the quasi-East-Asian-inspired vibe of the 5th Edition Hobgoblins by becoming ninja-monks able to unleash shadow magic. Iron Shadows serve the Hobgoblin armies or fey courts as secret police or assassins, spying to ferret out treachery, rebellion and betrayal. They are fanatically loyal, possess great agility and stamina, and wear masks meant to resemble monsters. The training is noted to be particularly difficult in order to enforce not just the skill, but also loyalty. 

Originally noted to being loyal to Maglubiyet and being a bit of a 'religious police' thing going on, Monsters of the Multiverse makes a case that Hobgoblin Iron Shadows and Devastators can also be used to represent goblinoids that are native to the Feywild, a bit of a foreshadowing to the retcon in 5.5E that most goblinoids get retconned to being fey instead of humanoids. Not sure if that fits the 'secret police' vibe of the Iron Shadows, though. These two are all right. I don't have much to say about them, otherwise.

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Kobolds

• 5.5E/5E: Small Humanoid (5E)/Dragon (5.5E); Lawful Evil; CR 1 (Dragonshield)
• 5.5E/5E: Small Humanoid; Lawful Evil; CR 1/4 (Inventor), 1 (Scale Sorcerer)

Huzzah, wacky wacky Kobolds! Again, similar to the Hobgoblins and Gnolls being subtly gaining Fey and Fiend characteristics as the statblocks are expanded and revised, the Kobolds graduate from being little lizard-men to little dragons! The Kobold Dragonshield, standing at a humble CR 1, is considered a dragon. They are the champions of their tribes, and are selected by the dragon that lords over the kobold tribe and invested with power to protect the eggs. Dragonshields bear the titular 'dragon shields', made up of discarded scales from the dragon it serves. Dragonshields have the ability to resist their dragon's respective elemental breath, and the ability to resist being frightened, flavoured as rallying in the face of death to try and honour their dragon lords.

The Kobold Inventor is my favourite, though. They work off wacky Looney Tunes style inventions, going around creating contraptions out of salvaged and scavenged material to create such fun wackiness like the 'Basket of Centipedes', the 'Green Slime Pot', the 'Rot Grub Pot', and the 'Scorpion on a Stick'. I actually wished the Kobolds were all similar to the Kobold Inventor and rely more on wacky improvisations made up of scrap. The inventions don't always work, but even if they distract or freak out their enemies -- and who wouldn't be, if a basket of centipedes get launched at your face? Love the artwork, too.  

And finally we have the Kobold Scale Sorcerer, who has fashioned a set of fake wings out of papier-mache. They are Kobolds born with innate talent for magic, so essentially just Sorcerers. These Scale Sorcerers end up getting high ranks in the tribes, filling out the role of advisor. When serving a dragon, a Scale Sorcerer often serves as the dragon's diplomat and mouthpiece, which is a double-edged sword. On one hand, they are favoured by the dragon theoretically... but on the other, they are exposed to the dragon's capricious temper a lot more acutely. 

All of them are quite fun and filled with personality. Love them!

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Kraken Priest

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Monstrosity; Chaotic Evil; CR 5

Love the Kraken Priest. The artwork is just cool, this half-naked muscular cultist surrounded by... not quite octopus/kraken tentacles, but tentacles nonetheless as the waves of the ocean rise up around him. Kraken Priests are, as their names imply, worshippers of Krakens (or any undersea eldritch elder being, I suppose!) who are rewarded by their dark fathom-patrons with great power. They are actually transformed to monstrosities, which is a nice touch. 

Kraken Priests, of course, go through changes in appearance. It's not always tentacles! Some of them have inky-black eyes, some have featureless faces, some have their bodies covered in eyeballs and mouths that dribble seawater. That's neat! Some of the other books do feature beings like 'Drowned Ones' or 'Fathomers' and other sea cult monsters, but I do like that the main bestiary features Kraken Priests alongside Sea Spawns and Deep Scions, as more 'mundane' worshippers of Cthulhu. 

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Martial Arts Adept

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 3

That's just a Monk! And the Monsters of Multiverse, which adds little blurbs and rolling tables, identifies the Martial Arts Adept as such. It is weird that some classes like 'Druid' or 'Wizard' or 'Bard' or 'Warlock' are all right to be used as enemy statblocks, but 'Monk' and 'Cleric' become 'Martial Arts Adept' and 'Priest'? Anyway, the little blurb notes the various ways that Monks can be encountered. Some are protecting their monasteries, some are traveling to search enlightenment, and some may be bodyguards. There's also a tattoo roll table, which... yeah. Not as silly as the Archer fletching, but the 2024 Monster Manual tables are much more improved by making them more about potential encounters, motivations or adventures. 

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Master Thief

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 5

It's a nice statblock as we don't exactly have a 'thief' one in the Monster Manual. I guess the 'Assassin' doesn't quite work that well, and the Master Thief has a lot more skills involved with sneaking and getting into vaults and banks; and its abilities are designed to dodge and escape rather than kill. Just like many historical thieves, Master Thieves are noted to often have a romanticized reputation, and Multiverse gives us a table of calling cards to roll for, from a rose petal to an origami cat to a cute note saying 'it's been fun'. 

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Orcs

• 5E: Medium Humanoid; Chaotic Evil; CR 4 (Blade of Ilneval), 2 (Claw of Luthic), 2 (Hand of Yurtrus), 1/2 (Nurtured One of Yurtrus), 3 (Red Fang of Shargaas)

Orcs are one of the races that were spotlighted in Volo's Guide to Monsters, and their segment is easily the least favourite of mine out of the ones given to us. There's always a sense of explaining the D&D/Forgotten Realms lore with some of these civilizations, of course -- explaining the goblinoids obeying Maglubiyet, or how Yuan-ti culture is bound to their attempts to achieve apotheosis. Even the different kinds of giants in the Ordning are technically emulating their pantheon. But the orcish segment revolves so much on very specific mythology, of specific sub-members of the clan that worship very specific gods. It feels a bit different compared to how the goblinoids and giants all have their variants already established, and the pantheon is written to be designed around them.  

So I'm not the most surprised that the five 'elite' Orcs are removed in Monsters of the Multiverse; the only statblocks to be entirely eliminated from the reprint. It does somewhat work with the eventual retooling in 5.5E of the orcs being a bit less tied to Gruumsh and his family of war gods, but we'll briefly cover the five (four and a half, technically) orc subtypes here. 

We have the Blade of Ilneval, who worship the devious battle-captain Ilneval, who lead minions from the front of battle and act as commanders that help to direct the ferocity of his troops in the chaos of the battlefield. Not the most interesting. He doesn't even get artwork! What gets artwork is the Red Fang of Shargaas, who worships the orc deity of sneakiness and darkness. Worshippers of Shargaas tend to be physically weaker and pariahs, living in the outskirts of the tribe. They act as assassins, and ride giant bats to do covert operations for the tribe as they channel the stealth magic granted to them by their patron god. 

The Claw of Luthic is a worshipper of Cave-Mother Luthic, the matron goddess in the orc pantheon. These powerful women grow out their nails and laquer them, and raise bears as companions alongside orc young. They use Luthic's magic to heal, protect and curse. In other words, a cleric. They live deep within the dens or settlements, taking a more protective lore. 

The Hand of Yurtrus is probably my favourite, to... to probably no one's surprise if you've seen my writing. Reminding me of the spawns of Papa Nurgle from Warhammer 40K, the worshippers of Yurtrus venerate death and disease. The Hands of Yurtrus also dwell on the fringes of the orc lair, communicating to the rest of the tribe via Luthic's worshippers. The Hands wear pale gloves made up of flayed elf skin, and remove their tongues. If plague strikes a tribe, the Hands of Yurtrus will isolate those that 'can be saved but not healed', and turn them into the pictured Nurtured Ones of Yurtrus, which are bloated with pustules and warts and essentially act like one of those exploding zombies in many zombie shooter games.

And... yeah, these orcs are a bit too specific to these gods and trying to emulate the specific gods of the pantheon for me to really be super memorable (except for the Nurtured One, of course). Pretty neat for an orc campaign in the Forgotten Realms, but I do feel like the expansion would probably work better by explaining less specific orc members of a raiding party instead of having half of them be 'members of the tribe that are pariahs'. 

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Ogre 

• 5.5E/5E: Large Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 4 (Battering Ram), 2 (Bolt Launcher), 3 (Chain Brute), 2 (Howdah)

While they didn't get a devoted section in the lore segments, the Ogres get four new variants (although only two get artwork). They're meant to be subjugated Ogres that are mobilized to war, presumably by either Orcs or Hobgoblins based on the context. 

The first one is the Ogre Battering Ram, which receives an art piece! It literally is just an Ogre holding an entire battering ram, which I feel is a direct reference to Lord of the Rings. In addition to being tougher than the average Ogre out there, the Ogre Battering Ram deals extra 'siege damage' towards buildings and fortifications. 

The Ogre Bolt Launcher is similar, wielding a massive crossbow that's essentially a ballista to most other humanoids. I do get the general vibe that these ogres are meant to be walking siege machines! I like the detail that the ammunition is still a bit too large for even Ogres to carry, but the Ogre is happy enough to rip random trees and use them as ammunition if needed. The Ogre Chain Brute swings around a great spiked chain to knock smaller foes off their feet. Not the most interesting, although this reminds me a fair bit of the Zelda 'Ball and Chain Knight' bosses. Not much to say here. 

And finally we've got the glorious Ogre Howdah. Howdahs are those little platforms where smaller people ride in, and in real life are attached to like, elephants and whatnot. But in the fantasy world, you get to place them on ogres!  Ogre Howdahs can carry tiny little goblins with spears and bows, wading int battle while their friends lob arrows down on enemies. Ultimately, all four ogres are... all right, filling in a neat, flavourful niche. They are still just ultimately big brutish people filling in the role of a siege engine... which is still fun enough!

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Swashbuckler

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 3

Pirates are cool, pirates are popular, pirates are awesome, and pirates actually made it into the revised 2025 Monster Manual. But before that, we had Swashbucker as a catch-all statblock for a more suave, more stylish style of pirate. More Jack Sparrow than Blackbeard. The table given by Multiverse lists some flourishes that Swashbucklers do in a fight, like colourful insults, flicking a coin or a dagger, showy embellishments or ending each sentence with a ha-HA!

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Trolls

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 13 (Dire Troll)
• 5.5E/5E: Large Giant; Chaotic Evil; CR 9 (Rot Troll), 11 (Spirit Troll), 7 (Venom Troll)

The Trolls get to be a lot more fun than just 'X monster with a new weapon and/or magic'. Trolls in D&D are defined by their regenerative properties, and with regeneration also comes mutation. And so we've got four trolls that have mutated in one way or another. The Dire Troll is the strongest of the four introduced in Tome of Foes, resulting in a Troll that cannibalizes other trolls. All the regenerating flesh has mutated and transformed the troll into an unnaturally large size, with regeneration that goes haywire. Extra heads and arms grow from there the normal limb positioning are supposed to be, and even extra little fangs and eyes appear here and there. That's not just regeneration gone wild, but the Dire Troll also goes around picking up random organs from their victims and 'graft' them onto their bodies. 

The Rot Troll is created when a troll regenerates in a location rich with necrotic energy, 'developing a symbiotic relationship with the deathly power'. A Rot Troll's body is in constant state of decay and regeneration, flesh sloughing off and regenerating even as it exudes a toxic miasma. Interestingly, by the time adventurers meet these Rot Trolls, their regeneration has been so exhausted that they are no longer able to access it. 

Spirit Trolls are created from those that regenerate after being blasted with psychic energy, being so altered that they regenerate in a noncorporeal form, morphing into an insubstantial body. The Spirit Troll can now move through creatures and objects. They're dumb enough to be unaware of their predicament, however, so they just otherwise behave as a normal troll.

And lastly, Venom Trolls are created when a troll survives a heavy poisonous attack, bloating it up into a huge, fat, purulent creature not dissimilar from the 'Nurtured One of Yurtrus' in the orc folder. The Venom Troll, of course, unleashes globs of venom from their fangs and claws, and each attack that hits the Venom Troll causes poison to spill out and hit those around it. Overall, pretty fun set of extra trolls. I like them. 

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War Priest

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 9

War Priests are priests that are found on the battlefield, which in fantasy game terms means clerics/priests that wade into war and cast healing and buffing spells. It is nice to bring someone who can launch Flame Strikes at the enemy when they're not healing your troops! War Priests are also noted to double as strategists to warlords and commanders. I think this is a nicely different niche from the Archpriest statblock that they printed in the 2024 Monster Manual.

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Warlock

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 4 (of the Archfey), 7 (of the Fiend), 6 (of the Great Old One)

We have lots of cultists in the Monster Manual, but the Warlock statblocks (coming in three different flavours) adapts the class a bit more faithfully into an enemy statblock. The writeups for them suggests various Fey, Fiendish and Aberration allies respectively for the Warlock of the Archfey, Warlock of the Fiend and Warlock of the Great Old One. I don't have much to say about this, other than the fact that I recognize the new Monsters of the Multiverse art for the Warlock of the Great Old One to be the exact same one as the Magic: The Gathering card for 'Herald of Hadar' from the D&D crossover. I guess for these humanoid NPCs, they can really share artwork with their MTG cards, huh? 

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Warlord

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 12

Here's a fun trivia, in 4th Edition Bard didn't make it into the basic Player's Handbook and was replaced with the 'Warlord' class in an attempt to purge the sillier, more whimsical aspects of the fantasy genre. Silly 4E! I do like the Warlord all right as a mechanics concept, powerful war-commanders that are experienced in battle, and can either inspire allies or frighten enemies by their sheer presence. At a respectable CR 12, the Warlord enemy is a neat little army commander that feels more tied to the fantasy of someone commanding minions as opposed to just being a strong soldier or knight. 

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Wizard

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Humanoid; Any Alignment; CR 1/4 (Apprentice), 9 (Abjurer), 6 (Conjurer), 8 (Diviner), 5 (Enchanter), 9 (Evoker), 3 (Illusionist), 9 (Necromancer), 5 (Transmuter)

And we'll close off this gigantic pile of elite monsters and NPC statblocks with nine 'Wizards'. Didn't we already have an Arhcmage in the Monster Manual? Well, the wizards are a bit more specialized with a specific school of magic; as schools of magic are defined in the Dungeons & Dragons system anyway. Going through very quickly, we've got Abjurers that are focused on creating protective wards, Conjurers that summon creatures from other planes, Diviners that can look into the future, Enchanters that befuddle the mind of enemies, Evokers that shoot FIREBALL and similar destructive spells, Illusionists that create illusions to trick enemies, Necromancers that raise the dead to create minions, and Transmuters that transform objects from one thing to another. 

There is also with a CR 1/4 Apprentice Wizard, who is just going around doing menial work while learning magic. So, unpaid interns. Got it! These feel to be more... organized compared to the other cultists and mages we've gotten in the Monster Manual, I guess, to fill out like a Hogwarts-style magic school or whatnot. I don't mind it as much since it's split similarly to the actual subclasses for the Wizard. I do like that Monsters of the Multiverse does give some of them a bit of a writeup, noting how sinister the mind-controlling Enchanters can be, or how Necromancers can sometimes use their ability to help hunt the undead instead. 

Can't say I have much to say about them otherwise, but it's nice that Multiverse gave all of them art pieces, even if many of them were lifted from the Magic: The Gathering crossover with D&D.