Review: Wizards of the Coast – Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes (Dungeons & Dragons), Part 2

Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes is an epic fantasy supplement for Dungeons & Dragons, written and published by Wizards of the Coast.
By Dave Pierson

Learn more about Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes here
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Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes is a two-part review. Part 1 looks at the supplement from a player’s perspective; part 2 looks at the supplement from a DM’s perspective. This is part 2, a DM’s perspective of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I’ve been playing D&D for roughly 25 years, however I’ve only taken to being a Dungeon Master over the last 6 years. I’ve always been intimidated by others’ knowledge of the game, especially when it came to planes and races. I was never able to remember the details. So, when I heard that Wizards of the Coast was releasing a book that could help me, I was all about it!

Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes is all about D&D lore; specifically in regards to the races and their conflicts and cultures from across the D&D multiverse. The book is broken into 6 chapters; the first 5 range in topics from the demons and devils blood war to the lives of halflings and gnomes. These chapters make up over half the book and provide tables from which you can roll from to assist in customizing the different races for your campaign. The final chapter is your bestiary with over 140 monsters, most of the higher CR variety, which is in contrast to the monsters provided in Volo’s guide. Some of monsters are from the previous adventure settings, such as Out of the Abyss, but it is nice having these all in one location.

My first impression was, “there’s a lot of information here”, which can sometimes put me off. However, as I began to dig and read through the lore, I found myself being pulled into the descriptions of the conflicts and thinking “how can I work these in to my homebrewed world?” The additional tables for customization of the monsters assist in making scalability easier to plug them in to face my PC’s. The little notes of flare written from the perspective of Mordenkainen once again provide additional information that you can use in your campaigns to help facilitate discovery with your PC’s.

This book is perfect for those Dungeon Masters who are looking for monsters and racial options for campaigns that venture into the multiverse; or looking to tap into the conflicts of the multiverse and throw tougher challenges at their players for middle and higher tier play.

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