Dungeons & Dragons Reveals Alternate Art Cover for Monster Manual

Dungeons & Dragons is turning to one of its most iconic monsters as the “star” of its new Monster Manual. Today, Wizards of the Coast (via Dexerto) revealed the alternate art cover for the Monster Manual, which is being re-released as part of D&D’s 50th anniversary. The artwork by Olena Richards depicts a mind flayer holding out an illithid tadpole to the viewer, as if offering them the chance to go through ceremorphosis and become a mind flayer themselves. Richards also did the art for the alternate cover of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, which depicts Lolth the Spider Queen wrapping a hapless adventurer with webs. The main cover to the Monster Manual was revealed earlier this week.

Mind flayers, of course, are at the heart of Baldur’s Gate 3, the smash-hit video game based on Dungeons & Dragons. The monsters date back to the earliest days of Dungeons & Dragons and are a hivemind species of brain-eating psionic ceremorphs that stun and sedate their prey using their psionic powers. While mind flayers are rather weak physically, their impressive psionic mind blasts and the prospect of killing a victim off with one brain slurp make them one of the game’s most feared villains. 

Like the previously revealed alternate art covers for the 2024/2025 Core Rulebooks, this alternate art cover will only be available at hobby stores. 

Dungeons & Dragons is re-releasing the Core Rulebooks with wholesale rules revisions and updates, with the Monster Manual adding both low and high CR monsters to help DMs fill their adventures. Additionally, several monsters are getting re-tooled statblocks to bring them in line with their Challenge Rating. 

The new Monster Manual will be released in February 2025. Pre-orders for the book start later this month on D&D Beyond.