In Dungeons & Dragons, the Dungeon Master's Guide has always been an incredibly helpful tool for beginner, intermediate, and professional dungeon masters. From creating a campaign and its non-player characters to establishing adventures and running an actual game, the Dungeon Master's Guide is the go-to book for anything related to running a campaign. Despite its utility, however, the Dungeon Master's Guide hasn't always been a perfect resource, and selecting a focus for the book will always have certain tradeoffs.

The 2014 edition of the Dungeon Master's Guide struggled more with organization than anything else, but it did include some very helpful resources. One feature that was both easy to access and rewarding to reference was the Monster Lists appendix, which sorted monsters both by challenge rating and terrain. The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, however, has dropped that seemingly essential feature, a change that could seem odd among useful additions like the Lore Glossary, new advice for all kinds of masters, an updated system for magic items and potions, and more.

Monster Lists Are Missing In D&D’s 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide

The Monster Lists appendix in the 2014 guide was separated into two categories: by environment and by challenge rating (CR). This allowed dungeon masters to search for enemies or monsters that would work well in certain terrains that their maps were built around or on challenge ratings, which could be useful if said dungeon master needed a monster strong enough for a final battle. The monsters sorted by challenge rating were especially useful, as dungeon masters could grab appropriate creatures for a party of any level at a moment's notice.

The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, however, no longer features the Monster List appendix, which means this will no longer be the DM's go-to for finding monsters appropriate for the campaign setting. This was an incredibly useful feature for DMs, as they had everything they needed in one place to run a successful campaign. Obviously, the Monster Lists appendix was not comprehensive, failing to provide the necessary details or stat blocks, but it helped develop the campaign.

How Monster Lists Make Running A D&D Campaign Easier

Monsters Lists are extremely useful and underrated at the same time. The selection of monsters in D&D is absolutely massive, with the 2025 Monster Manual set to feature over 500. In such an ever-expanding universe that has existed since the 1970s, the Monster Lists allowed for a condensed yet specific view of monsters, their terrains, and their challenge ratings. This simplified view was useful for both planners and those who just winged their campaigns.

Challenge ratings were useful for managing monsters and setting up combat that appropriately matched the players' levels. Even for those who ran one-shot campaigns last-minute to make up for a delayed campaign, the Monster List in the appendix of the Dungeon Master's Guide made it easy to grab a certain monster with a certain CR. Likewise, being able to quickly view which monsters existed or thrived in certain terrains or environments helped when planning out contextually appropriate threats in the wilderness or a dungeon.

Monster Lists Belong In D&D’s 2025 Monster Manual

While being incredibly useful in a single book attempting to contain everything a DM needed to know, the Monster Lists did not necessarily belong in the Dungeon Master's Guide. The appendix ittedly provided help in planning a campaign, but no additional information about the monsters was provided. It would force a DM to look up monsters through two separate books, which isn't the most efficient or practical way to prep a game.

This problem is compounded by the fact that the 2014 edition of the Monster Manual doesn't have a Monster Lists appendix that sorts by terrain or challenge rating, despite having appendices for stat blocks, NPCs, and miscellaneous creatures. The Monster Lists appendix belongs in the Monster Manual more than it does in the Dungeon Master's Guide, as it could allow an easier and more simplified navigation system. Though there are still some months to go before the updated Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual releases in 2025, the likely inclusion of the Monster Lists appendix should help make the wait worthwhile.

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