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Mike Shea

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
18096 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

I also want to compare it to both 2014 monsters, but also monsters from Tales of the Valiant and monsters from the Level Up Advanced 5e. Because I think we now have all of these different monster sets. I might take a look at some MCDM monsters as well. People want me to look at MCDM monsters, but that might be so many. I might want to do that another time. All right, so is it good? Yes, it's good.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

I also want to compare it to both 2014 monsters, but also monsters from Tales of the Valiant and monsters from the Level Up Advanced 5e. Because I think we now have all of these different monster sets. I might take a look at some MCDM monsters as well. People want me to look at MCDM monsters, but that might be so many. I might want to do that another time. All right, so is it good? Yes, it's good.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

Is it better than the 2014 Monster Manual? Yes, it's better than the 2014 Monster Manual. If you want a D&D Monster Manual, this is the one to get. It is really, really good. It's got 500 monsters. There's a lot of improvements. It looks really good. The physical design is great. The artwork is really cool. The layout is great. It's got a lot of things, a lot of things to love.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

Is it better than the 2014 Monster Manual? Yes, it's better than the 2014 Monster Manual. If you want a D&D Monster Manual, this is the one to get. It is really, really good. It's got 500 monsters. There's a lot of improvements. It looks really good. The physical design is great. The artwork is really cool. The layout is great. It's got a lot of things, a lot of things to love.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

Is it better than the 2014 Monster Manual? Yes, it's better than the 2014 Monster Manual. If you want a D&D Monster Manual, this is the one to get. It is really, really good. It's got 500 monsters. There's a lot of improvements. It looks really good. The physical design is great. The artwork is really cool. The layout is great. It's got a lot of things, a lot of things to love.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

Lots of aspects that I really like. probably the number one benefit that it has is that monsters now hit at their challenge rating almost all the time so this was a problem that dnd 2014 had where certain monsters had like trap abilities where they were expected to behave a certain way only when certain things happened

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

Lots of aspects that I really like. probably the number one benefit that it has is that monsters now hit at their challenge rating almost all the time so this was a problem that dnd 2014 had where certain monsters had like trap abilities where they were expected to behave a certain way only when certain things happened

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

Lots of aspects that I really like. probably the number one benefit that it has is that monsters now hit at their challenge rating almost all the time so this was a problem that dnd 2014 had where certain monsters had like trap abilities where they were expected to behave a certain way only when certain things happened

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

So examples were you'd have certain monsters where it was assumed that they would be able to inflict a status effect, and therefore the status effect would reduce the amount of damage they did to account for it, and then they'd do less damage if the status effect didn't work. So this one looks really, really solid.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

So examples were you'd have certain monsters where it was assumed that they would be able to inflict a status effect, and therefore the status effect would reduce the amount of damage they did to account for it, and then they'd do less damage if the status effect didn't work. So this one looks really, really solid.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

So examples were you'd have certain monsters where it was assumed that they would be able to inflict a status effect, and therefore the status effect would reduce the amount of damage they did to account for it, and then they'd do less damage if the status effect didn't work. So this one looks really, really solid.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

They did a much better job of the monster hitting at its challenge rating for most monsters in the book. It's not 100%, it's not perfect, but it definitely hits them all. So that's one thing. Is it better than the 2014 Monster Manual? Yes. Is it an improvement? Yes, it is. But now we're in a different world.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

They did a much better job of the monster hitting at its challenge rating for most monsters in the book. It's not 100%, it's not perfect, but it definitely hits them all. So that's one thing. Is it better than the 2014 Monster Manual? Yes. Is it an improvement? Yes, it is. But now we're in a different world.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

They did a much better job of the monster hitting at its challenge rating for most monsters in the book. It's not 100%, it's not perfect, but it definitely hits them all. So that's one thing. Is it better than the 2014 Monster Manual? Yes. Is it an improvement? Yes, it is. But now we're in a different world.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

And in that different world, we have other options like the Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault and like Level Up Advanced 5e's Monstrous Menagerie. Both products, which I really, really like. So the question is, is this better than both of those? Honestly, I wish I could say yes. I just want one awesome monster book so I don't have to worry about the other ones.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

And in that different world, we have other options like the Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault and like Level Up Advanced 5e's Monstrous Menagerie. Both products, which I really, really like. So the question is, is this better than both of those? Honestly, I wish I could say yes. I just want one awesome monster book so I don't have to worry about the other ones.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

And in that different world, we have other options like the Tales of the Valiant Monster Vault and like Level Up Advanced 5e's Monstrous Menagerie. Both products, which I really, really like. So the question is, is this better than both of those? Honestly, I wish I could say yes. I just want one awesome monster book so I don't have to worry about the other ones.

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

But the reality is they all have advantages over the others. They all have advantages over the others and they all have disadvantages over the others. So it's hard for me to point at any one book and say that book is definitely better than the other. One thing I will say is my cursory look, I'm happy to take this back,

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

But the reality is they all have advantages over the others. They all have advantages over the others and they all have disadvantages over the others. So it's hard for me to point at any one book and say that book is definitely better than the other. One thing I will say is my cursory look, I'm happy to take this back,

The Lazy RPG Podcast - D&D and RPG News and GM Prep from Sly Flourish
D&D 2025 Monster Manual First Look โ€“ Lazy RPG Talk Show

But the reality is they all have advantages over the others. They all have advantages over the others and they all have disadvantages over the others. So it's hard for me to point at any one book and say that book is definitely better than the other. One thing I will say is my cursory look, I'm happy to take this back,