While video games have a different set of parameters compared to a traditional RPG, the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (2025) proves that there is one thing that most video games just can’t compete with. The two are very different in many ways, although sometimes a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 comes along to make it feel like you are playing the TTRPG. However, there is something that D&D can pull off that not many video games can even begin to try.
There are many new monsters in the 2025 Monster Manual in D&D, but there are also a vast amount of creatures from past versions of the manuals as well. It encompasses a lot of different enemies from all corners of the map, and that gives both the DM and the players a lot of different ways to interact with the world around them. This variety is key to the advantages that a tabletop game like D&D can have over a similar video game.
D&D’s Enemy Variety Is Hard For Video Games To Match
Storage Space Prevents Games From Reaching The Same Potential
The 2025 Monster Manual has over 500 enemies for DMs to utilize, and it gives you a variety that nothing in video games can really match. In Avowed, for example, there are only a handful of enemy types, and you will be facing the same ones throughout the game. You usually get a new type when you enter a new area, but that is the extent of the variety.
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It is not a mark against Avowed specifically, as this is true of nearly every video game. Developers typically put more effort into other parts of the game. Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the only exceptions, with 25 different types of enemies and subtypes of each of those. However, Diablo 4 only has 10 different types, and many games have less.
While there might be exceptions, video games already have massive file sizes, and Baldur’s Gate 3 asks you to set aside 150 GB, even if the file size is a little smaller. Too many more enemy types and the games get even bigger, leaving us scrambling for space on our hard drives. Whereas the Monster Manual can fit as many as it needs to, and if the book gets too big, a volume 2 can always be made to accommodate it.
The 2025 Monster Manual Can Sustain So Many Adventures
Something For Every Corner Of The Map & Every Party Of Characters
With the amount of variety, you can have an adventure in any setting, any time, any place in a game of Dungeons & Dragons, and it will never really feel like the same adventure. You can always pick a new enemy to send at your players, or a new NPC or something different to interact with. You can also create themed campaigns around a subset of enemies, which could be fun for something a little shorter.
That’s not even to say anything of DM’s who venture out to create their own creatures, and it’s not unique to D&D among TTRPGs. Others, like Blades in the Dark, can allow the DM to make any kind of NPC, enemy, or monster they want with a guideline as to how to handle those kinds of enemies. There are plenty of guidelines like that for D&D as well, and it makes it fun to experiment and try to make something that the Monster Manual didn’t cover.
D&D & Video Games Have Very Different Strengths
Two Very Different Formats With Occasional Similarities
A TTRPG like D&D is always going to have the advantage as far as variety over a video game unless storage options get a little better. The strength of a tabletop game is being able to use your imagination to do anything you want to, which can’t always be programmed into a game even when there are choices available. This can lead to a lot of creativity, variety, and new adventures all the time.
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That being said, a video game has the strength of a world built up around you. You don’t necessarily have to have a group that can play consistently every week, and the world is already built around you. The art in many games is stunning, and there are places that can leave you feeling breathless in a way I haven’t yet experienced in a true theater-of-the-mind. But that’s okay because they have strengths in different area codes and I enjoy both D&D and video games for very different reasons.
Dungeons and Dragons
- Original Release Date
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1974
- Publisher
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TSR Inc., Wizards of the Coast
- Designer
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E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson
