Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual alt cover features Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 star Olena Richards \/ Wizards of the CoastDexerto is able to exclusively reveal the alt cover art for Dungeons & Dragons\u2019 upcoming Monster Manual revision. Dungeons & Dragons is in the midst of a very busy year as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. Part of this celebration includes the long-awaited revised core rulebooks releasing between Fall 2024 and early 2025. The Player\u2019s Handbook, Dungeon Master\u2019s Guide, and Monster Manual will all be getting glow-ups that include rule changes, fresh content, and lots and lots of new artwork. Wizards of the Coast has given Dexerto an exclusive first look at the alt cover for the Monster Manual \u2013 which will be available to purchase from local games stores on February 4, 2025, two weeks before the book\u2019s wider release on February 18, 2025. The alt cover\u2019s design is pretty simple, focusing on a single mind flayer reaching towards the viewer and offering them a tadpole. But within that basic concept is plenty of detail. For one, the detailing on the mind flayer\u2019s forehead looks regal \u2013 like the gold framing around the image, but it also resembles a brain, making it a great fit for a mind flayer. Josh Herman, Head of Art for D&D, discussed the inspirations for the artwork, which was created by Olena Richards with gold framing by Simen Meyer. Herman shared the unique challenge the Monster Manual alt cover posed for the team. While it was an easy decision to focus on heroes for the Player\u2019s Handbook and villains for the Dungeon Master\u2019s Guide, deciding how to express what a monster is proved more difficult since \u201cthere are so many [monsters in D&D] and they can be doing so many different types of things.\u201d The team\u2019s choice to focus on a single creature led them to consider several options before settling on a mind flayer. Longtime D&D players will, of course, recognize these otherworldly psionic creatures, making it a fitting choice. As Herman says, \u201cThe mind flayer is a really great villain that\u2019s super classic to D&D in every possible way. It\u2019s great in combat, it has great lore, it has really great roleplaying opportunities.\u201d That the mind flayer\u2019s profile has been so greatly raised by its inclusion in Stranger Things and Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 certainly didn\u2019t hurt either. And while the team may not have specifically chosen to put an illithid front-and-center because of Larian\u2019s acclaimed CRPG, it was definitely on their minds. This made the Monster Manual alt cover art a way to entice gamers who are new to D&D. \u201cIf you said 12 months ago \u2018Have you heard of a mind flayer?\u2019 I don\u2019t think everybody would have, but now I think a lot of people do,\u201d Herman said. \u201cWe wanted to put that out there as a \u2018this is also the same game as Baldur\u2019s Gate 3\u2019 to help create that extra connection with fans that this is sort of the same thing.\u201d That welcoming feeling extends to the artwork itself. \u201cThe subject matter and even the pose was a welcoming in \u2013 but with a mind flayer, that\u2019s not always genuine,\u201d Herman explained, \u201cIt\u2019s certainly a little tongue in cheek.\u201d All in all, Herman says the Monster Manual art cover is meant to be a book for book lovers. Since these are exclusive to local game stores, the team wanted to \u201cpay respect\u201d to fans who visit these kinds of shops and purchase physical products. 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 Monster Manual alt cover features Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 star Olena Richards \/ Wizards of the CoastDexerto is able to exclusively reveal the alt cover art for Dungeons & Dragons\u2019 upcoming Monster Manual revision. Dungeons & Dragons is in the midst of a very busy year as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. Part […]<\/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-80433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80433","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=80433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}