Review: Mordenkainen's Tomb of Foes

On May 29th, Wizards of the Coast will be releasing their newest tome for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, I was able to procure a copy in advance for review. I'll be going over each chapter briefly, and giving my overall impressions as a new D&D player, with one year of playing under his belt.

Generally speaking, these chapters allow you as a player to utilize this information as a player character, to better understand their race, or the other races if you’re familiar with. As a Dungeon Master, it gives you a depth and a few playgrounds to play in, a deeper understanding of the motivations of potential villains and NPC’s. As a new player, who has only played 5e, it allows me to examine the lore of D&D, and for older players, I’m sure it’s nice to have some of their old favorites reintroduced in the most current D&D system.

Tome of Foes examines the conflicts between a few subraces, and gives their history in the D&D Universe a little more flavor in this fifth iteration of the game. The first chapter deals with the Blood War, which is a conflict between the Devils and Demons of D&D. There are subtle differences between Devils and Demons: Demons control the 9 Hells, and Devils control the Abyssal plane. We get details on the war, the major players, and the way these creatures manipulate the Material Plane and the mortals who live on it. As a new player, I wasn't around during the whole hysteria about D&D being a gateway to Satanism during the 80's (I was quite young at the time), but I imagine this is the material that parents objected to. I personally don't find anything objectionable, as the demons and devils are meant to be antagonistic toward player characters, and not as playable characters. The most illuminating information to me was the section on the Demogorgon, which the Netflix show Stranger Things borrowed the name for their creatures from The Upside Down. I actually didn't realize the Demogorgon in D&D was a major demon lord (I imagined it was just a major henchvillain like the TV show).

The next chapter deals with the different subclasses of Elf, including the Eladrin and the Drow. It's interesting the divisions between each sub-race, their divine origins and the depth of their lore. The chapter covers quite a deal on the philosophy of each sub-race, down to their aging and birth processes. My experience with the sub-races has been fairly limited to what I've seen on Acquistions Inc. and Critical Role, so this chapter was illuminating in helping me with future PC's, as well as for a few NPC's I've created in my current campaign.

The underground dwelling Dwarves were next, and this is the first time we've had the Duregar, or them fully fleshed out in 5e. The divide between Dwarves and Duregar was further detailed, and I believe the deepest look into Duregar society in quite some time. The only time I've really experienced them in any depth was in the very beginning of Critical Role Campaign 1 and briefly in the second season of Acquisitions Inc. C-Team Season 2 Arc 1. The further details on this Underdark race are amazing, with a deep lore and pantheon of gods. I'm looking forward to using some of this material in some of my own adventures.

Another underdark conflict is covered with the Gith race and the two offshoot societies, the Githyanki and the Githzerai. As a newer player, I’ve heard more experienced players talk about these creatures with reverence, and this chapter helps illuminate why. Former slaves of the Illithid, the Gith earned their freedom, but there was a divide and a bitter conflict (sensing a pattern) between the Githyanki, who are agressive raiders and restless warriors. The Githzerai, by contrast, seek peace an balance. Both sides hunt illithids with fervor, but will also attack each other. It’s an interesting three way struggle to throw players into the middle of.

The final chapter on races is dedicated to halflings and gnomes. No wars here. In fact, both races are described as peaceful, they stick to themselves and are relatively harmless... until they decide to set out for a life of adventure. The gnomes are more diverse, with inventive rock gnomes, nature loving forest gnomes or deep gnomes who mine deep inside the land.

The final part of the book is a bestiary, with statistics and information on creatures and monsters mentioned in the previous chapters. These are useful to the Dungeon Masters out there, looking for ideas to torment their players with. I myself am looking forward to wreaking havoc with some siege trolls, and bringing some anarchy to the worlds I’ve created. Wizards has delivered a fantastic supplement to 5th edition, and I can’t wait to utilize this in my next session!