D&D 5E MM 5.24 or the MM 5e (w/ MM Expanded, Bloodied & Bruised, Home-Field Advantage) ?

Greg K said:

I was inquiring as I did, because the new Monster Manual is supposed to have variants for various monsters and reintroduce the Bloodied Condition. Bloodied and Bruised introduces Bloodied for 2014 MM monsters and the Monster Manual Expanded includes variants for the MM 2014 monsters. I threw in Home-Field Advantage (or optionally, Legendary Bestiary: Lair Actions for Low-Level Monsters), because it expands on Lair Actions for 2014 MM monsters and I don't know exactly what the new MM is doing with Lair Actions.

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The 2024 MM is mostly like a slightly improved 2014 MM. For example, bloodied is hardly ever referenced. It is not something special every creature has. Most of the monsters in 2024 are just revisions of the monsters in 2014. So basically all those 3PP books will still work with the 2024 MM to add options just like they would to the 2014 MM. With one caveat: Lair Actions.

The 2024 MM does not have lair actions. Monsters are more powerful in their lairs (getting an extra Legendary Resistance and Legendary Action in their lairs), but no actions they can take on initiative count 20 like before. Additionally, in the 2024 MM the area around a creature's lair has effects similar to the 2014 Regional effects, but they have more mechanical impact than simply being "signs" of the monster like they were in 2014. For example, here the are for a red dragon:


That being said, you can still use 2014 style lair actions if you want. I find them more interesting than the 2024 approach and will continue to use them myself.

The best thing about the 2025 Monster Manual from a gameplay standpoint is that some of the new and revised monsters are legitimately cool. The Archhag, the Blob of Annihlation, the Haunting Revenant.

I'm hit or miss on some of the redesigns. The Arcanaloth's entire damage budget is in a basic multiattack now, but it does have a nifty new banishment attack.

Greg K said:

Which do you prefer, the Monster Manual 5.24 alone or the 2014 Monster Manual with the Monster Manual Expanded, Bloodied & Bruised, and Home-Field Advantage (or Legendary Bestiary: Lair Actions for Low Level Monsters)?

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Don’t know many of those products… A monster book (as opposed to a database or spreadsheet or stats-only list) is something i reference for ideas, lore, cool pictures - anything to inspire my creativity.

If i need to just get to the stats, I will either get them online or have them copy-pasted into my document.

So no matter how many cool mechanics a book has, something like the Monster Overhaul by Skerples will always have more value to me from the creative angle. So VGtM is a good book for me. AFAICT the 2014 MM has more lore/inspiration than 2024 MM, so I’d go with 2014 MM (even if I find mechanics of most 5e monster books lacking personally).

Greg K said:

I was inquiring as I did, because the new Monster Manual is supposed to have variants for various monsters and reintroduce the Bloodied Condition.

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the 2014 MM with the additions. You get a few new monsters with 2024, but 2014 plus the first MME easily has more monsters already, 2024 also does very little with the bloodied condition, so the 3pp books are much better at that. Finally, 2024 gets rid of lair actions, so if you want to ‘replicate’ it with 2014 books you do not need Home Field Advantage.

The MMEs will eventually get updated to 2024 I believe.

You know, I've bought a lot of the 3PP monster books but I've recently stopped because it turns out I really like the classics, and there are only so many battles, you know? So before I get to some weird variant on an Ogre, I kinda just wanna use a good old fashioned Ogre. I'm lame, is what I'm saying.

Clint_L said:

You know, I've bought a lot of the 3PP monster books but I've recently stopped because it turns out I really like the classics, and there are only so many battles, you know? So before I get to some weird variant on an Ogre, I kinda just wanna use a good old fashioned Ogre. I'm lame, is what I'm saying.

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Yeah, I have a lot of monster books also.

And still mainly use the main one. I will look through the others for unique things, or things that fit my world mythos (like void dragons) but usually stick with the standards.

Clint_L said:

You know, I've bought a lot of the 3PP monster books but I've recently stopped because it turns out I really like the classics, and there are only so many battles, you know? So before I get to some weird variant on an Ogre, I kinda just wanna use a good old fashioned Ogre. I'm lame, is what I'm saying

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You are not the only one. I typically find myself going to monsters from Tolkein, mythology, and Legends, and a few inspired from early pulp authors. Going back to when I started DMing with 1e, I might have used a Beholder once and I don't think I have ever used piercers, cloakers, rust monsters, etc. let alone other monsters created specifically for 2e, 3e, 5e.

Stormonu said:

Haven't heard of Home Field Advantage, but the 2014 MM + the three MM Expanded I'll take any day over the 2024 MM.

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Home-Field Advantage is a DMsGuild Adamantine selling level book of Lair actions for 320 monsters from the 2014, Volo's Guide to Monsters, and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes- over 170 of which are for the first two tiers of play .