The Giant Spider with minor changes from its 2014-version. The poison damage from the bite is now straight extra damage, no saves and no paralysis on reaching 0 hit points, and the web attack is now dexterity saving throw, rather than an attack roll.

 

Not much has changed with the blood hawk from 2014-version, but with the reintroduction of the the Bloodied condition, this avian terror now has the opportunity to live up to its name, dealing extra damage against bloodied enemies, which means having a bunch of these gang up in a weak creature can be quite dangerous.

 

The updated Dire Wolf has taken a massive cut i hit points in the 2024-revison, having its hit point total almost halved compared to the 2014-version (22 hp vs 37 hp). Beyond that, aside from losing the keen smell and hearing trait, and gaining advatage on perception in general, it remains largely unchanged.

 

Just like all goblinoids, the Worg has changed its creature type to Fey in the new edition. Other than that, there are few changes from the previous version, though keen smell and hearing is a thing of the past, and the knockdown has been replaced by a type of built in distract action to any successful bite attack (which also does less damage now).

Keen smell and hearing has been replaced by a flat expertice on perception for the 2024 verion of the wolf. While it retains the pack tactics of the 2014-version, the bite does slightly less damage (despite highter strength), but the toppling is now automatic on a hit.

 

Aside from one extra hit dice (amounting to a total of 9 hit points), the 2024 Ogre is identical to the 2014 Ogre.

 

The skeleton gets a minor, but still quite significant upgrade from the 2014 version, by having its dexterity raised by two, improving attacks, damage, initiative and armor class.

 

The 2024 Giant Badger is tougher than the 2014-version, with higher armor class and more hit points, but on the flip side, it has lost its multiattack, leaving it with only one bite attack.

 

The kobold has been rebranded as Kobold Warrior in the 2024 edition, and are now dragons - not humanoids. With slightly better armor class and a few more hit points than the previous version, their sling attack has been removed, leaving them only with daggers, for both melee and ranged attacks.

 

The Giant Fire Beetle has received some minor updates from the 2014 version, but being a challenge 0 monster, it's still mostly harmless. The only update is that they now have a climbing speed, and that their bite now only does a single point of fire damage - making certain player characters (gold and red draconians and infernal tieflings) completely immune to them.

 

The 2024 Giant Centipede is slightly sturdier than the 2014 version, and while its bit no longer delivers the paralyzing poison of it previous incarnation, it does automatically give the Poisoned condition every time it hits.

 

Next on the list of updates - the Stirge. This little critter has has more than doubled its hit points from the previous version, which now means it might survive more than one hit, but still more likely not. Other than that the persistent damage is now Necrotic, and the Stirge no longer has a "feeding limit" of 10 hit points.

 

The 2024 Brown Bear actually sees quite a downgrade from the previous version, with fewer hit points, lower strength, loss of extraordinary smell and a claw attack that does significantly less damage. The only upgrade is the automatic prone condition from a successful claw attack. All this possibly to curb the power of certain druids.

 The next update is the Berserker:

This is the first creature covered to get a bit of an update with the new rules. Gone is the reckless attack, replaced by Bloodied Frenzy (the term Bloodied being revived from 4th edition in the new rule set).

As an aside, since most humanoid "monsters" are now purged from the Monster Manual, the conversion rules presented therein suggests the Berserker as suitable replacement for the Orog.

 

With the arrival of the newest edition, we'll make another go at completing the bestiary - this time for the Free 2024 rules - with its admittedly diminished selection of monsters.
First out is the update to the Flying Sword, now known as the Animated Flying Sword

 

 This post is a placeholder post for some of the monsters that appeared in the Forge of Rogbrok and Great Arms Race, that didn't make it to the new 2024 Free Rules.

Animated Armor

Giant Lizard

 

 

Oozes, jellies and slimes are group of monsters that's been with the game since it's earliest beginnings, and though it might not be quite as (in)famous as the Gelatinous Cube or even the Green Slime, the Ochre Jelly has been with the game pretty much from the start.

Most notorious for its ability to split into smaller duplicates, an unlucky adventuring party could theoretically end up being swarmed by a single jelly.

Describes as an amoeba in the earlier texts, this would make the an Ochre Jelly the largest single celled creature around, the current record held by the Syrringammina, an aquatic single celled organism, that can reach about 20 cm in diameter.

 

 

The Phase Spider is an advanced form of the "normal" giant spider. In addition to normal spider abilities, such as poison, spider climb and web walk, it has the ability to skip between the material and ethereal plane, which gives them an excellent opportunity to ambush and surprise its foes, and evading retaliation.

The Phase Spider first appeared in the Greyhawk supplement for the original D&D, and has been featured in the main monster book ever since, though often sharing a stat block with various spiders in general. The mechanical aspect of the Phase Spiders ethereal jump has varied over time, often making them nearly impossible to attack unless the characters were fast or clever enough.

In terms of look, there was initially no real discernible difference between a Phase Spider and a normal Giant Spider.The Phase Spider got a make-over in the Monstrous Manual for second edition, where the Phase Spider was described with a "raised thorax, and human like head", a play on the similar pronunciation of phase and face.

By third edition the human like head was gone, and it was from that edition it gained the pale while and grayish blue colour palette that has stuck with it since.

 

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is native to south eastern Asia, as well as the eastern-most area of Russia and Chinese Manchuria (the Siberian tiger). While larger species of cats have lived (most notably the saber-toothed tiger), the tiger is the largest one alive today - though the hybrid offspring of a male lion and a female tiger, called a liger, can grow even bigger (the two species do not share a natural habitat, though so the hybrid only occurs in zoos).

 

The polar bear (Urus maritimus) is the largest living species of bear alive today. They inhabit the northern arctic region living off a diet of meat, mostly seals. Known by many names - ice bear, white bear or nanuuk, the polar bear was almost considered a mythical creature by many Europeans for most of the medieval and renaissance period.

In D&D the polar has been part of the game since the earliest editions, though often forgotten, overshadowed by the larger cave bear or dire bear. 5th edition D&D doesn't actually include stats for these types of bear, except as a "variant option" where the cave bear shares the same stats as the polar bear.

As a fun side note - the cave bear (Ursus spealeus), and extinct species of bear, roughly the same size as the polar bear, living in Europe and Asia up to about 24,000 years ago (so, co-existing with humans), probably lived off a diet the consisted largely of plants - meaning they might not have been quite as fierce as their size might have implied.