D&D MORDENKAINEN'S TOME OF FOES (D&D Accessory)

Admittedly, I haven’t read through this book in its entirety. As an elf and gods found, I mainly focused on chapter 2, as I had been hearing rumors about lore changes, and I wanted to read it for myself. And I am coming away with mixed feelings. There are some significant lore changes that override a lot of previous lore. I realize this book is not Faerun-specific, but they still changed a lot. Yes, I am one of *those* people who care about the lore of the setting. To me, it isn’t just fluff you can use with mechanics. It’s an established, rich world with a history and flavor.

One of the things I *did* like was that they made the elves springing from Corellon’s blood a fact, rather than a racial myth (though, considering its been part of the legend for so long, I kind of took it as fact, anyway). But the other Seldarine (including Lolth) also sprang from his blood, apparently. I found that part a little strange, and it gets rid of Araunshnee, but oh well. I’m also glad they used both male and female pronouns to describe Sehanine (and that they made her/him Corellon’s beloved again, rather than changing it to Angarradh like they did in 4e).

Elven souls (or spirits, as they were called in earlier editions) have long been reincarnated, because they are creatures of the natural world. However, some remained eternally in Arvandor, and Arvandor has always been a reward for the elves who pass on. Now, it is still a reward, but they are barred from being their eternally because of the treachery of the primal elves. So, when elves reach old age, they undergo Transcendence, then pass onto Arvandor, where they may spend a decade or millennia, then are reincarnated again as an elf. This part isn’t too much of a change, but it is enough to make me notice. The true immortality of the soul, and how the elves can get glimpses of their past incarnations is poetic, but I don’t like that Arvandor has essentially become a pretty waystation or summer house between incarnations.

And the fate of the soul of a half-elf is uncertain. This is a change, as before, your afterlife was determined either by your patron deity, or the god that is best aligned with their moral and ethical outlook. Now, it seems like the fate of half-elves and elves who don’t worship the Seldarine (this is rare, as most elves do, but some have been known to worship others, like Silvanus or Mielikki) is uncertain. What?

They also got rid of the Descent—or rather, changed how it came about. There were no Crown Wars. Instead, the treachery happened before elves were mortal (when they were known as primal elves). They probably did this because MToF covers multiple settings, and they are trying to give the drow and elves of each setting the same origin story to simplify things, but it gets rid of some unique history. I wasn’t a huge fan of the original Descent, but it has been in the lore so long, I would rather they had started making changes, rather than getting rid of it completely. So, the Descent of the Drow would still be part of history, but, thanks to the work of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun, things were beginning to change. But nope, that’s not the direction they took.

Speaking of Eilistraee and Vhaeraun, this is the change that bothers me the most: drow souls, as part of the curse due to the primal elves’ treachery, aren’t reincarnated, and it is not specified where they’re souls go. Do they not even go to Lolth, now? I suppose one could assume that, by default, the “other planes” implies the realm of whatever god they identify with, but why not be more specific? Are the drow essentially intelligent zombies now, and their souls just go “poof”? And the uncertainty of Eilistraee’s followers, too. Why not just go to Eilistraee’s realm, like they used to? And since when was Vhaeraun mute?

I realize I’m probably overreacting, but I have been invested in this setting for years, and to see such a sudden, drastic change bothers me, and I’m tired of Vhaeraun and Eilistraee constantly being shoehorned into a corner and only dealt with when absolutely necessary.

Like others, my book was received with damage. There’s plastic coming off of it on the back as well as a dent. I will keep this book but wished that it was in better condition especially since this is a new book.

It's practically the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide with some monsters.

It's cool to have a better grasp on how the politics and coltures of the Forgotten Realms works, but if you were hoping for mechanical content, you'll be disappointed.
It comes with...
1 New Race (2 subraces)
3 New Elf subraces
2 Pages of Demonic Boons
That's it. They took an Unearthed Arcana and bloated it into half a book.
The other half is solid monsters, mostly devils and demons, and actually fairly solid.

The first half though... "Elves don't like Drow. Here's ten pages on why.
Dwarves don't like Duergar. Here's ten pages on why.
Gnomes and Halflings are quirky, aren't they? Here's a bunch of pages on why.
Oh, BTW, there's also the Gith and they're like the Duergar, but not. Oh, and some elves. People like elves. MONSTER TIME! Then 100-150 monsters, several of which are reprints."

If you're new to the hobby and have the PHB, but not the Monster Manual, and you want to play around in Hell, it's a great book. Otherwise it's the weakest theu've put out.

This book had great potential - when I read the product blurb, I was genuinely intrigued by the concept. I was especially interested in the blood war lore/fluff, because no other D&D book has covered this topic in detail.
Unfortunately, this book fails to deliver in every promised area.
Let me start with the biggest problem of this book. A ton of campaign setting-specific material is presented in a strangely setting-agnostic way. I started to get annoyed on page one of this book, when they tried to shoehorn Mordenkainen and Bigby (two Greyhawk characters) into the Forgotten Realms setting. It gets worse from there. There's material from Greyhawk, FR, Eberron, and Dragonlance all mashed together. Maybe this could make for an interesting compare-and-contrast read if you already know everything about these settings...but I doubt that anyone who knows the settings would enjoy this hodgepodge. For the uninitiated this must be a nightmare. I can imagine some new players reading this book and getting inspired to explore the mythal of Qualinost, only to discover that - oops - our DM doesn't use the Dragonlance setting and owns no Dragonlance books. That would be extremely frustrating as a player.
This annoying campaign setting menagerie continues in the bestiary section of the book. For example, the Marut has been stripped of almost all lore, and now does a flat 60 damage on a slam. How boring.
I think that the reason that this problem gets to me is because 5th edition as a whole does not handle campaign settings well. There haven't been any "official" campaign setting books, and to my knowledge there are no plans for them. The D&D encounters (adventurer's league) modules are set in FR, but that also results in major shoe-horning (e.g. Curse of Strahd). The only good move they've made on this front is presenting lists of deities in the PHB that are organized by campaign setting. That was a good idea...but without any updated campaign settings it isn't very useful to players. Sadly, I don't think my favorite setting, Dragonlance, will see any published content in 5e, even though that was promised to us in the 5e launch.
In short, this book's lack of focus makes it an unreadable mess.

WotC typically makes fantastic D&D products and have done wonders for the game. However, this book is lacking. Designed for DMs and focuses almost exclusively on evil races. Basically it is a much poorer version of the old Fiend Folio of the 80s.

My favorite 5e source book so far. Very well thought out lore and mostly awesome monsters (I know I'm in the minority, but I hate the goofy Giff). Only one minor complaint - I've come to look forward to the disclaimers in the 5e books. This one is blah and seems like a thrown in after thought. In a book that shows so much thought and care, this lack of detail is a bit glaring. But, the minorest of quibbles. If you want a deeper, more immersive D&D world to play in, this book is a must have.

This book should have been called Mordenkainen's Miscellanery.

For a Tome of Foes the book dwells extensively on Player Character races, with about half of the (often cringe worthy) story sections being devoted to Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings. Little of which is devoted to the adversarial traits of such races. There is some space on Drow and Duergar, but ultimately it is not the meat of those chapters. The Gith chapter is split between useless hero and vapid, ennui ridden villain race (who did save us all from the Mindflayers). Only the Blood War chapter is actually devoted with any conviction to setting for suitable antagonists, and even that is over washed with why the big bad ruler of the Devils is actually the only thing saving the cosmos. In short, the fluff section is largely wasted on non-foes and even the foes included are presented as by turn victim or necessary evil.
Somehow it is far less effective than Volo's Guide to Monsters in creating credible and fleshed out fodder for stories and encounters.
The Player options listed are not terribly inspired, but functional enough. For example, Eladrin are basically defined by what side effect their periodic teleport ability has...
When we finally get to the slightly more than half of the book devoted to the Bestiary, we find it over run with pages of full texts that could easily have been sidebars for templates (I'm looking at the near dozen pages for Drow and Duergar). Somehow, in the clutter, we don't have room for many of the Devil Rulers listed in their story chapters. The Demon section is much better stocked.
Page economy aside, there are a few nostalgic gems, many of which could have used more exploration.
Which is really my complaint. In a Tome of Foes we spend dozens of Pages on non-foe lifestyle notes. Even if it were neither boring nor poorly presented (it often is), it is wildly off topic.
The art is as expected for the edition. Generally good with a few gems.
Ultimately, I hoped for more on encounter building, adversarial monsters/person's, and generally enemies to throw at my players.
The "Tome" delivers half of what it should have, with the remaining space filled with half-baked dreck.

Came in perfect condition! I’m super excited to use some of the new elf subraces for my homebrew game, they have a lot of cool things about them that I love! Also, the beastiary in the back is well worth the money even without the new player races and pact boons, as one of my favorite alien races is now featured: The Giff from the 2e setting Spelljammer! This also features stats for the Demogorgon, which is great if you’re thinking about buying the adventure he’s featured in just to get his stats, as this supplement has a lot more useful stuff that goes with the new monster stats.

I have read all the different books Wizards have come out with and this is my favorite so far. The monsters in it are awesome with a lot of good high level options which was always an area they could have expanded. It also adds lots of lore and character options which are really cool! Every time I flip through it I want to try all of them!