Elemental Evil is one of three major big bads in the D&D 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide

If you're all about attacking the darkness, then you should be rolling initiative against Elemental Evil. In the Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, the included Greyhawk campaign setting comes with three primary enemies:

• Chromatic Dragons: red, green, blue, black, white
• Iuz the Evil, a cambion demigod super bad guy
• Elemental Evil, a classic, faceless adversary

Two out of three bad guys in Greyhawk apparently show up with "Evil" already in the name. Perfect. It's good to fight the good fight against black-and-white evil. None of this tiring shades-of-gray kind of villain, which has finally been done to death.

Just kidding. It's still a good trope. Someone named Iuz the Evil that is maybe not entirely evil? Chromatic dragons that play against type? And what if the Elemental Evil in your game tells a complex story that doesn't fit neatly inside of an alignment chart? It's your game, Dungeon Master. Though it sounds like designer Chris Perkins wants to assure you that at least Iuz and all of his followers are evil and beyond redemption. 

Elemental Evil is a "classic, faceless adversary" in Greyhawk. It's perpetuated by secret cults operating underground, learning evil lore, and doing their best to reintroduce these evils to the world of Greyhawk wherever possible. This elemental evil is made up of demon lords, primordial beings, and other nihilistic beings that just want to watch the world burn. 

If you're wondering whether or not the new Dungeon Master's Guide is for you, by virtue of the fact that you're even wondering about that question means the answer is: yes. That's just how it works sometimes. Becoming a Dungeon Master in the first place often means you're the only person willing to do it. Don't worry. The new DM's Guide is written for you.

Skip to 11:35 in the video below if you'd like to get straight to the Elemental Evil discussion over at Wizards of the Coast.