D&D's 2025 Monster Manual Has A Unique Challenge After 2024 Orc Changes

Dungeons & Dragons recently made some changes to Orcs in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, which will likely present a somewhat unique issue for the upcoming 2024 Monster Manual. Despite its title, the 2024 Monster Manual is set for a February 18, 2025 release date, though players with Early Access through D&D Beyond can check it out starting on February 4. D&D’s Monster Manuals typically give some background lore on the creatures inside alongside their stat sheets. However, the design ethos behind the changes to D&D’s Orcs has some interesting implications for the rest of the book.

Wizards of the Coast’s recent controversial changes to D&D’s Orcs represent a valiant effort to avoid some problematic aspects baked into the fantasy genre for years. However, if similar changes aren’t extended across D&D’s wide bestiary, they could be much less effective in combating the ideas that Wizards of the Coast wants to dissuade. The 2024 Monster Manual will have its work cut out to help preserve these changes and make them a meaningful update to Dungeons & Dragons.

D&D's Orcs Are No Longer Monsters

Orcs Are Now Closer To Humans And Elves In D&D

Originally, Orcs in D&D skewed much closer to traditional fantasy depictions like those in The Lord of the Rings. However, the 2024 Player’s Handbook made some major changes to this. Orcs are now depicted as a nomadic race with personalities that range as widely as those of humans or other sentient species in D&D, such as Elves. Whereas previous editions allowed players to play as Half-Orcs, the latest D&D materials enable players to play as full Orcs now that they are being depicted more nuanced.

These changes were made to help avoid the idea that any given fantasy race is genetically predisposed to act a certain way. This, along with the renaming of “races” to “species” in official D&D sourcebooks, was done to help avoid promoting prejudicial thinking among its players. It’s not a big leap to see how descriptions like “all orcs are violent” could be an uncomfortable parallel to problematic ways of thinking in the real world, like the idea of racial essentialism. While these changes were made with good intentions, they could become pointless if D&D's Monster Manualdoesn’t follow through.

D&D's New Monster Manual Needs To Address Other Sentient Monsters

Other D&D Species Are Just As Demonized As Orcs

Orcs are far from the only fantasy species who were broadly assigned negative traits in Dungeons & Dragons. In some instances, this isn’t necessarily as big of an issue. Any monster lacking sentience can easily be painted with a broad brush because they are more analogous to animals than people. However, the 2024 Monster Manual needs to be careful regarding other sentient races that get similar treatment as Orcs.

D&D has already laid some of the groundwork for this. Before its more recent Orc changes, similar changes were made to the lore of the Drow to avoid the same issues. However, there are still several sentient species that will need to be updated. Perhaps the best example of this is D&D’s Goblins, who are treated similarly to how Orcs previously were.

If Other Monsters Don't Get New Lore, The Orc Change Will Seem Hollow

Orcs Changes Won’t Solve Anything If A New Species Takes Their Place

Three small kobolds standing on each other to fill a large coat.

D&D Beyond’s current page for Goblins reads, “Goblins are small, black-hearted humanoids that lair in despoiled dungeons and other dismal settings.” This only paints goblins as a wholly evil species and uses the antiquated association of black with something wicked. It’s not hard to see how the exact issues associated with D&D’s Orcs can just as easily be applied to the game’s Goblins. The same goes for other humanoid monsters like Kobolds or Bugbears. Orcs may have been fixed, but what would have been the point if the buck had passed to one of these species?

It’s understandable for Wizards of the Coast to want to change some of the potentially harmful conventions of its game, and changing Drow and then Orcs are good first steps. That said, Dungeons & Dragons’ new Monster Manual will likely set the tone for other fantasy species for some time. After all, the previous Monster Manual came out in 2014, and its entries are still being used on sites like D&D Beyond. If the new sourcebook doesn’t follow suit, there will be another fantasy scapegoat to take the place of Orcs, defeating the purpose of the changes.

Source: D&D Beyond