Uploaded January 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

---

Welcome to Episode 225 of the Mastering Dungeons podcast!

Main topic: Monster Manual Comparison!
We review the recent monster previews. How do 2024 5E monsters compare to 2014, and what do we think of the design?

Contents
00:00 Monster Manual Comparisons
01:35 How Previews Work
03:27 Ancient Green Dragon Preview
07:30 Legendary vs Reactions
12:37 Spellcasting and Theme
18:50 Numerical Changes
21:20 Kuo-Toa
30:28 Cyclops
43:49 Shout-Outs

Find our show notes and support our podcast and YouTube efforts:
patreon.com/MasteringDnD
Listen to us on your favorite podcast device:
MasteringDungeons.podbean.com
Chat with us online:
https://dice.camp/@MasteringDnD
https://bsky.app/profile/masteringdnd.bsky.social
twitter.com/MasteringDnD

Find Shawn:
twitter.com/shawnmerwin
ghostfiregaming.com
Find Teos:
alphastream.org
youtube.com/@AlphastreamRPG
https://dice.camp/@Alphastream

Mastering Dungeons is a weekly podcast, providing News and a Main segment. We separate these on YouTube for your viewing and listening pleasure.

Our intro and outro music is Metropolis Fanfare, provided royalty-free by Tabletop Audio (https://tabletopaudio.com) under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).