Feb 17

Feb 17 Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse is a Mistake

When I first purchased Mordekainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, I glanced through it, looked at a couple of the new monsters, and promptly put it on my bookshelf. Time passed, and when I was researching lore for our Deep Dive series, I pulled it out of the bookcase and started reading in depth. I was about halfway through when I put it down, started rubbing my temples, and thought,

This book is utter garbage.

Before I start my rant, I appreciate some of the new monsters. I love when they reskin creatures from the previous editions. It presents a new challenge for my character to overcome, or at the very least, turn into a crispy critter when I blast them in the face with a fireball. But dolphin delighter? I mean, give me a fucking break. A psychic dolphin bard is not worth the ink that was used to write it, plus the name sounds like it is something that follows a dolphin around and jerks it off. Sure, I'd want to kill it immediately, but why, of all the creatures to choose from, did they go with this one?

What's my problem with Monsters of the Multiverse? Let me break it down.

Race

Some races' history is fraught with subtle (and not so subtle) racism. Orcs and the Drow immediately come to mind. I could write a book about racism in D&D. It's an issue that Wizards of the Coast is attempting to address, with limited success. It's a divisive issue. Old timers raging against the changes, blind to the problem and calling anyone who wants to change it 'woke' at the very least or fucking idiots for those with a smaller vocabulary. The other side sees the entire concept of race as something that should be eliminated and that WotC and everyone who thinks otherwise is insensitive at best or racist at worst. But…

Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater when trying to address the issue. The issue of stat bonuses started with Tasha's and has carried over to MotM. Stat bonuses have always been a part of D&D for a good reason. They make sense, given the wide range of differences between them. They can and should influence what race you choose in conjunction with what class you choose. Allowing you to increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1 or increase three other scores by 1 is a bullshit copout. A halfling has always been portrayed as a nimble and agile creature, so stripping the race of their bonus to Dexterity makes no sense.

The same goes for negative ability modifiers. Wizards is so paranoid about inferring that a race could have an ability flaw they have eliminated all of them. I'm sorry, but no matter how long a gnome has been lifting weights, it will not be as strong as other races. The fairy is a small creature commonly petite, almost fragile in its construction. Wouldn't it make sense then that their Constitution could be a flaw?

This now brings me to racial traits. When you choose a race from MotM, you'll no longer have to worry about any adverse effects your race has. Sunlight sensitivity has been erased like it never existed. Sorry, but the deep gnome and duergar are natives of the Underdark. Do you know what the Underdark doesn't have? Sunlight. Is it annoying to deal with? It sure is, but instead of getting rid of it, the flaw can fall off after a certain amount of time above ground as they get acclimated to the bright blue sky. The tendency has been to give new playable races overpowered abilities to make you a superhero at level one. Flaws can add depth to a character and a challenge to overcome.

I also wanted to point out that the game was also blatantly sexist. All you do is have to look at the artwork to see that women weren't taken seriously but as objects. Dragon Magazine #3 (1976) has an article titled Notes on Women & Magic encouraging those who played female characters should have a penalty for their Strength score. If that wasn't bad enough, the article recommended the female Charisma stat with a Beauty stat. No wonder, so few women played the game.

Number of Playable Races

Variety is good. I just can't shake the feeling that WotC is making every creature under the sun into a playable race to fill page space. Make an actual template for creating a playable race using the creature's description in the sourcebooks are a guide. Once Wizards has gone back and created detailed and colorful lore for existing creatures, they may come back to recreating the Minotaur race, giving a single paragraph of description and discarding any previous information about the race.

Alignment

I've got a great idea. Let's add the word "typically" to every creature's alignment, and the problem will be solved. Wait, what? Wizards did that already? Well then, we can put the entire alignment mess to bed then.

Whether you add typically, commonly, generally, or any other similar word to something's alignment will not fix the overarching alignment issue. I'm a fan of the alignment concept, but it's broken. In fact, it has always been broken. The point is closely tied to the problems behind race, and throwing in a single word isn't going to make it go away.

I don't have a solution to the problem. I'd like to see alignment replaced with morality and/or ethics. We could make alignment fluid, with a character and DM evaluating someone's alignment every and making changes based on their actions. We could get rid of the concept of alignment entirely. That would be a mistake, but that's just me. One's alignment adds to the game, influences a character's choices, and is closely tied to which deities your character prays to, especially the cleric.

There's no one answer, but it needs to be fixed beyond saying that every creature can be any alignment if they choose to be. A Blackguard is not going to be good, not when their description reads as such:

Blackguards are paladins who broke their sacred oaths and now indulge their own villainous ambitions. They consort with Fiends and Undead, and they reject many of the goodly things from their former lives.
Blackguards often adorn their armor and weapons with dread accoutrements or are marked by eerie phenomena. You may choose a blackguard's accoutrement or roll on the Blackguard Accoutrements table to determine it.

Sorry, but if a blackguard wakes up one day and decides to give up its evil ways and atone for its horrible deeds, it's no longer a blackguard. Period. At least devils are always evil. Because if you run into a devil who's acting all nice and good, you should know it's trying to screw you over.

Change for the Sake of Change

Did we really need to change the bard? Why did they need to replace Song of Rest and Taunt with Cacophony? I must have missed the bus on the need to alter the NPC bard. How about Orcus? It's one of many creatures that changed the layout of the stat block without any fundamental changes to its abilities. Of course, it makes sense to move using the wand of Orcus under the Action header. It takes an action to use its abilities! Again this feels like page filler, thereby increasing the size of the book and justifying its price tag. Maybe there's a reason it's already dropped from $44.95 to $32.95.

You can agree or disagree with everything above. You're entitled to your opinion, and I respect that. I am here to say that I think that Monsters of the Multiverse is a bullshit book, a money grab, and shame of Wizards of the Coast for releasing it.

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