'Dungeons & Dragons' Supplement Expands Monster Manual With Variant Monsters

A new Dungeons & Dragons supplement provides loads of variants for popular monsters found in the Monster Manual.

The Monster Manual is one of the core rulebooks of Dungeons & Dragons and provides hundreds of different monsters to threaten your players with in a D&D campaign. It's a great foundational tool, although it has its limits. There's a definite lack of variant versions of certain monsters, which means that you'll need to homebrew a bunch if you want to build an encounter around an iconic monster that they've already "outgrown" in terms of their level. For instance, a beholder won't be much of a threat for high level players, even if it's one of the most iconic monsters in D&D.

Luckily, there's a new supplement that adds variant versions of many of the monsters seen in the Monster Manual. The aptly named Monster Manual Expanded by Dragonix is a fantastic resource for DMs that want to keep players on their toes or want stronger or weaker variants of certain monsters. The new supplement contains over 300 pages of tougher versions of classic creatures like beholders and balors, along with variant versions of monsters like cyclopes, golems, and goblins.

It's great to have monsters with alternate abilities that keep players guessing and can toss an extra wrinkle into an encounter. Players might think that an encounter with harpies will be a piece of cake until they realize they're in the presence of a Harpy Queen, or they might be taken aback when they encounter an adolescent kraken during their sea voyage that's still a threat, but not nearly as powerful as a full-fledged kraken.

Monster Manual Expanded has plenty that should spark a player's imagination. From enormous mimics to mind flayer assassins to succubi with bardic abilities, there's plenty of monsters to add to a DM's arsenal and turn a good encounter into an instantly memorable one. Best of all, none of the monsters feel overpowered or unbalanced, so DMs can toss these creatures into their campaigns instantly with minimal prep involved.

Monster Manual Expanded is available on the DMs Guild for $19.99.