All The Monsters Changing Monster Type In D&D 2024

And how this will affect gameplay.

With the release of the 2024 Monster Manual has come a bunch of changes to the monsters we’ve been familiar with over the last decade. For some of these monsters, this has involved changing their monster type as well.

Below I’ve pulled out all the monsters that have seen their monster type change with the revised edition. I’ve also taken a look at how this might affect your gameplay.

Which monsters have changed creature type?

Goblins DND 2024 — Goblins: Wizards of the Coast

Below I’ve listed out all the monsters that have changed type and what they’ve become in D&D 2024. Where there are several variants for the same monster type, I’ve just included them as a single entry to avoid confusion as the 2024 Monster Manual adds and renames a lot of variants:

Monster	CR	2014 monster type	2024 monster type
Darkmantle	1/2	Monstrosity	Aberration
Githyanki	Various	Humanoid	Aberration
Githzerai	Various	Humanoid	Aberration
Grick	Various	Monstrosity	Aberration
Grimlock	1/4	Humanoid	Aberration
Kua toa	Various	Humanoid	Aberration
Piercer	1/2	Monstrosity	Aberration
Roper	5	Monstrosity	Aberration
Axe beak	1/4	Beast	Monstrosity
Flying snake	1/8	Beast	Monstrosity
Giant eagle	1	Beast	Celestial
Giant elk	2	Beast	Celestial
Giant owl	1/4	Beast	Celestial
Giant vulture	1	Beast	Monstrosity
Stirge	1/8	Beast	Monstrosity
Guardian naga	10	Monstrosity	Celestial
Gorgon	5	Monstrosity	Construct
Half dragon	5	Humanoid	Dragon
Kobold	Various	Humanoid	Dragon
Aarakocra	Various	Humanoid	Elemental
Lizardfolk	Various	Humanoid	Elemental
Merfolk	Various	Humanoid	Elemental
Bugbear	Various	Humanoid	Fey
Bullwug	Various	Humanoid	Fey
Centaur	Various	Monstrosity	Fey
Goblin	Various	Humanoid	Fey
Hobgoblin	Various	Humanoid	Fey
Worg	Various	Monstrosity	Fey
Empyrean	23	Celestial	Celestial or fiend
Gnoll	Various	Humanoid	Fiend
Jackalwere	1/2	Humanoid	Fiend
Lamia	4	Monstrosity	Fiend
Oni	7	Giant	Fiend
Sahuagin	Various	Humanoid	Fiend
Spirit Naga	8	Monstrosity	Fiend
Kenku	1/4	Humanoid	Monstrosity
Quaggoth	Various	Humanoid	Monstrosity
Thri-Kreen	Various	Humanoid	Monstrosity
Trogolodtye	Various	Humanoid	Monstrosity
Werebear	5	Humanoid	Monstrosity
Wereboar	4	Humanoid	Monstrosity
Wererat	2	Humanoid	Monstrosity
Weretiger	4	Humanoid	Monstrosity
Werewolf	3	Humanoid	Monstrosity
Sphinx	Various	Monstrosity	Celestial

As you can see, a huge 45 monsters have changed monster type in the 2024 revision.

Why have some creatures changed their monster type?

Primarily, it’s been a case of rethinking how that creature was created or where they originated from. For example, goblinoids have always originated from the feywild. While they kind of do fit the humanoid mould, they are fey creatures.

We see a similar thing with a lot of monsters being recategorised as aberrations. The idea is that any creature that has undergone transformations from an aberrant influence should now be considered aberrations. This includes the likes of the gith and the kua-toa who have both been influenced heavily by mind flayer servitude.

In a slightly more unusual change, many giant versions of beasts were recategorised as celestials. It was felt that if they were intelligent enough to speak, that they fit the mould of magical, celestial creatures instead.

We’ve also seen many humanoids change categories as well. This is despite many of these humanoids being playable races. This includes things like centaurs (now fey), aarakocra (now elementals) and the already mentioned gith and goblins. This is a little more divisive as the lines between humanoid playable species and these creatures are quite blurred. Playing as one of these creatures will have you designated as a humanoid, but fighting as one will mean it has a different designation.

The explanation given is that a player character is more integrated into humanoid society so takes on the humanoid creature type while those not designated as humanoids have not had this influence. I’m not convinced this is really the case. Many PCs might have originated from another plane or society and be stumbling into humanoid society.

A better solution might have been to have multiple creature types, but this isn’t the case.

How might these changes affect gameplay?

Gith dnd 2024 — Gith: Wizards of the Coast

Although gameplay won’t be affected massively by what creature type a monster is, there are some important changes to be aware of.

Hold, dominate and charm person spells become less useful

With there being a reduction in the number of humanoids around to encounter, spells like these that only work on humanoids become less useful. Attempting to cast hold person (or any of these other spells) on a goblin (or other former humanoid) will no longer work. You’ll need the higher level hold monster for that.

Polymorph spells

Spells like polymorph allow you to shape-shift a creature into a beast. This can be useful on enemies, to make them less of a threat, but also on allies to grant them capabilities and extra hit points they wouldn’t have had ordinarily.

But, as you can see above, several beasts have been recategorised as other monster types. This means there’s no longer an option to transform into a giant eagle or giant vulture for instance. In fact, this change leaves a bit of an absence of giant flying creatures available for polymorph. Yes there are giant bats and wasps still, but they remain pretty fragile creatures.

Fortunately, true polymorph remains unaffected by these changes.

Druid’s wildshape

Along a similar vein, a druid’s wildshape feature lets them shapeshift into beasts. But again, with less creatures now categorised as beasts, your options are a little more limited, especially with some stronger flying options being recategorised.

Protection from evil and good

This spell will protect you from creatures of certain monster types (namely aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends and undead). With so many more humanoids now fitting into these monster types, protection from evil and good is subtly better now. It will now protect you from the likes of goblinoids, kua-toa, gith, lizardfolk and sphinxes for instance.

And even more spells that affect certain monster types

And there are more spells that only work on certain monster types that will now work on a wider variety of creatures. This includes spells like; detect evil and good, hallow and banishment (which works on any creature, but will work permanently on certain monster types).

Conversely, spells like dominate beast and beast senses will work on fewer creatures now.

There you have it. All the creatures changing their monster type in D&D 2024. Have you spotted any other monsters I’ve missed from the list, or other ways these changes will affect gameplay? Let me know in the comments below.