Dungeons & Dragons artist reveals what to expect from revised Monster Manual content Wizards of the CoastHead of art for Dungeons & Dragons Josh Herman shared details on the upcoming Monster Manual revision with Dexerto, including the team\u2019s goals and how much new artwork we can expect from the book. While discussing the Monster Manual (2025) alt cover design, Herman answered some questions about the book\u2019s contents, providing a good preview of what to expect when the third and final revised core rulebook releases in February 2025. Herman estimated the new book has over 300 new pieces of artwork, telling us \u201cI would say it\u2019s almost entirely new art from cover to cover. We\u2019re still actually commissioning, but we may use some old illustrations, mostly because they\u2019re still good.\u201d Though we weren\u2019t able to see any new monster art, Herman told us the team\u2019s goal with the new artwork was \u201cto help communicate what the player experience is.\u201d \u201cWhen you see an illustration [in the Monster Manual (2025)], we\u2019re hoping the artwork can show you the size of the creature and what it generally might do. If there\u2019s something special about it in its stat block, has a certain kind of attack, that has been represented in the artwork. Maybe what kind of environment it lives in,\u201d he explained. This new context is primarily aimed at helping Dungeon Masters run their games, making the Monster Manual a more valuable asset, with Herman saying, \u201cWhen you flip through a piece of Monster Manual artwork in the 2025 version, we\u2019re hoping it does what [the artwork in the Player\u2019s Handbook does for players].\u201d Herman used the rust monster as an example, explaining, \u201cThe 2014 [Monster Manual] shows the rust monster by itself,\u201d which gives the reader a visual but doesn\u2019t show what the creature can actually do. He says the new rust monster art will show it rusting someone\u2019s equipment, providing more specific details to spark a DM\u2019s imagination. That means D&D players should expect to see more monsters in action, including artwork of creatures and characters engaged in combat. Of course, a revision like this provides a chance to make more significant changes to monsters, with Herman saying these \u201cvisual updates or redesigns\u201d are meant to \u201creflect where we want them to go in the future or give a glow-up.\u201d Herman also discussed how the Monster Manual\u2019s appeal extends beyond D&D players. \u201cA lot of people I know who have never played D&D, the first book they picked up was the Monster Manual,\u201d he said, explaining that they were interested in the creatures, artwork, and lore. This makes him hopeful that the revised Monster Manual will have the same impact, telling us \u201cI genuinely hope non-D&D fans buy this book only to look at the monsters. If you only bought this to look at a rad monster book, good! That\u2019s fine!\u201d Dungeons & Dragons\u2019 2024 Core Rulebooks will be available to preorder from the D&D Beyond Marketplace on June 18, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dungeons & Dragons artist reveals what to expect from revised Monster Manual content Wizards of the CoastHead of art for Dungeons & Dragons Josh Herman shared details on the upcoming Monster Manual revision with Dexerto, including the team\u2019s goals and how much new artwork we can expect from the book. While discussing the Monster Manual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}