As it should be, the Tarrasque is the highest Challenge Rating monstrosity in the D&D 2024 Monster Manual
Like Dragons and Undead, Monstrosities is a category of creature in the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Monster Manual. It just so happens to be one of the most famous collections of creatures in D&D's 50-year history. We're talking about:
- Displacer Beast
- Doppelganger
- Drider
- Mimic
- Owlbear
- Rust Monster
- Stirge
- Tarrasque (while neck and neck with Tiamat at Challenge Rating 30, Tiamat is instead found in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons and the Rise of Tiamat, not in the Monster Manual)
There are some new faces to the Monstrosities category. Many of these new faces migrated from the Humanoid category. The most notable migrants into Monstrosities used to be categorized as Humanoids. For example: Lycanthropes, such as:
- Werebear
- Wereboar
- Wererat
- Weretiger
- Werewolf
Werewolves and such may have started as Humanoids, but they're not Humanoids anymore. There are also things that affect Humanoids that the designers didn't want affecting Were-creatures anymore (like the Hold Person spell now requires Hold Monster instead). They've added the curse of lycanthropy into the stat block itself, instead of making you look elsewhere in the book for what lycanthropy does.
So, taking were-creatures as well as the aforementioned creatures (e.g. Owlbear, Rust Monster) into account, what is a Monstrosity? It's classic D&D. Storybook creatures—Dragons notwithstanding. Monstrosities were either crafted or distorted by magic ("A wizard did it," or, "This used to be another type of creature because of a curse.") That's the common thread among Monstrosities.
Also mythical creatures, such as the guardians of the gods. This is the category for:
- Medusa (male options now, too)
- Hydra
- Chimera
- Basilisk
- Minotaur
There are a few creatures that moved out of the Monstrosity category, too. Gnolls were Monstrosities but are now Fiends. And if the Internet has ruined you, too, you can be forgiven if you get a chuckle out of a new variant of the Cockatrice that is a giant Cockatrice.
Many of the creatures found in the Monstrosity category—even if they've just made a lateral pass over from another category—have been in the Monster Manual from the very first edition of D&D.
As promised, every creature found in the 2024 Monster Manual has gotten a tune up. Whether from buffed stats, broadened abilities, easier to use for Dungeon Masters, or even just sensible categorial shifts like the creatures that've moved in and out of the Monstrosity category.
