Dungeons & Dragons' 2025 Monster Manual will feature artwork depicting several classic monsters like Hags and Medusas as being either male or female. Next month, Wizards of the Coast will release a new Monster Manual for Dungeons & Dragons, with updated stat blocks and artwork for over 500 monsters. The new Monster Manual is part of a wider rules revision for Dungeons & Dragons, but the book's designers are also updating some of the underlying lore and ways certain monsters are depicted within the game.
In a video posted today by Wizards of the Coast, D&D designers Jeremy Crawford and Wesley Schneider revealed that the 2025 Monster Manual would include artwork showcasing some D&D creatures of both male and female genders. While creatures like Hags, Medusas, or Dryads have traditionally appeared as females in D&D artwork, the new Monster Manual will include artwork showing both male and female versions of both creatures. Other creatures, like the incubus and succubus, would now be depicted as having both different forms and different abilities. In the 2025 Monster Manual, an incubus can appear as either male or female and can shift into a succubus that has different abilities.
Does Adding Gendered Forms To Monsters Matter In Dungeons & Dragons?
Changes Make D&D Lore Feel More Unique And Less Derivative Of Classic Myth
While some will find adding gendered versions of certain creatures to be controversial, many of the changes are related to creatures that pre-date D&D lore. For example, Medusa was originally a monster pulled from the Greek myth that was originally a female human and later became a female-presenting monster. The Medusas in Dungeons & Dragons have no such lore and thus don't need to be shown in a particular fashion. Likewise, other creatures with origins from classic myths (like the dryad and satyr) have very different lore and features in D&D and thus don't need to be presented as being a certain gender. Plus, some of these creatures (like the Medusa and satyr) have already appeared in both genders in other D&D books.
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Keep in mind that this will likely only affect a small number of monsters in the 2025 Monster Manual. For instance, dragons have multiple genders in D&D, and beholders have always been genderless (although a very small number of beholders have been shown to present themselves with male or female characteristics). Still, this is a change that may raise some eyebrows in some corners of the internet, even if there's no difference in terms of game mechanics between a male hag and a female hag.
Our Take: These Changes Make D&D Feel More Unique
Dungeons & Dragons' Changes Make These Monsters Feel Less Derivative Of Their Mythological Origins
Custom image by Christian Hoffer
Many monsters in Dungeons & Dragons have roots in various mythologies, ranging from the tarrasque to the rakshasa. While some of these creatures have nods to their real-world origins, they more often than not have become wholly different kinds of creatures within D&D lore.
Making some hags male or letting dryads be either male or female doesn't impact the game mechanically, but they do offer up a chance for official D&D designers and DMs to make the game feel more unique and less derivative.
Custom image by Christian Hoffer
Custom image by Christian Hoffer
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