The highly-anticipated Monster Manual (2024) is a Core Rule update for Dungeons and Dragons, and it’s about to hit the shelves (Feb 18, 2025). New, reworked, and re-imagined creatures grace this monstrous tome with 363 pages of monsters, but there is one critical failure in this glam-up — the ability to play bird-themed druids effectively. Read on to see how this plays out, and how you can homebrew quick solutions to help your bird druid come to life.
The First Problem: Direct Nerf
The primary problem with the Monster Manual (2024) for druids is the lack of high-CR (Challenge Rating) beasts with flight speed, including the removal of CR 1 flying beasts. Circle of the Moon druids will feel this hardest, as they can Wildshape into Beasts up to CR 6, but even regular druids have lost access to crucial CR 1 Beasts with flight speed. Currently, the highest CR beast with a flight speed in the new rules is the Giant Wasp with a CR of 1/2. This is a direct downgrade, as the 2014 rules included the Giant Eagle, Giant Owl, and Giant Vulture which have each changed classification, and are no longer Beasts. Giant Owls join the Giant Eagle in the Celestial category, while Giant Vultures are now categorized as Monstrosities.
The full list of re-categorized flying animals (formerly beasts) is as follows (listed by CR order):
- Flying Snake (Monstrosity)
- Stirge (Monstrosity)
- Giant Owl (Celestial)
- Giant Eagle (Celestial)
- Giant Vulture (Monstrosity)
The Second Problem: No New Flying Beasts
With the updated rules allowing druids to Wildshape into creatures with a swim speed as soon as they gain that feature, many players have speculated that the Monster Manual would include new options for flying Druids to make that progression feel more impactful. Unfortunately, there are no new flying beasts to use, meaning players are soft-capped at a CR of 1/2 for flying creatures in the core rules. Even if you expand the search to other resources, there are not any CR 4+ Beasts in the greater published collections to date, meaning players can’t just rely on older publications to fill the gap.
The Third Problem: DM Permission
The last problem revolves around the new Core Rules’ position that DMs have final say over what other sources a player can draw from. This means that the two other options from older resources are shaky at best. This includes the CR 1 Giant Swan from The Wild Beyond the Witchlight and the CR 2 Quetzalcoatlus from Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. If DMs decline to allow their druids access to these forms, or if the player doesn’t own these books, they continue to be limited by the Monster Manual‘s changes.
The First Solution: Old Statblocks
Players who already have access to the 2014 rules can continue to use the 2014 statblocks for beasts such as the Giant Eagle, Owl and Vulture. This is a fairly significant deviation from the new tuning, however, as CR 1 creatures saw some major reworkings. Iconic traits such as Keen Senses are removed and replaced with features like resistances and spellcasting, and the attacks of these creatures are greatly simplified for ease of use in the 2024 version. But they remain Beasts, have a CR of 1, and are still perfectly serviceable.
The Second Solution: Homebrew
There are a number of ways to approach homebrewing flying beasts for druids to use. Players may want to keep forms they’ve been used to using, or may want more variety, so your strategy will depend on your group.
- Re-designate some flying creatures as beasts using unaltered 2024 statblocks. Celestials and Monstrosities are likely candidates.
- Add flying speeds to existing statblocks, such as changing Giant Scorpion to “Winged Scorpion”.
- Rule that Circle of the Moon players can magically have a flight speed while Wildshaped after a certain level.
2024 Beasts to Grant Flying
The following list is creatures which lend themselves well to both Wildshape and beast-flavored fantasy in your world, regardless of their designation in the Monster Manual (2024). Granting these creatures a flight speed is unlikely to wreck your game, and can create more diversity and satisfaction at your table. Rename them to something thematic and move on. For example, a Lion with a flight speed might be re-named a “Giant Tressym”, and a Giant Constrictor Snake might be a “Giant Winged Serpent”.
CR 1:
- Brown Bear (Appendix A p. 350)
- Lion (Appendix A p. 364)
- Tiger (Appendix A p. 371)
CR 2:
- Giant Boar (Appendix A p. 355)
- Giant Constrictor Snake (Appendix A p. 355)
- Polar Bear (Appendix A p. 367)
CR 3:
- Giant Scorpion (Appendix A p. 359)
- Ankylosaurus (Appendix A p. 348)
CR 4:
- Elephant (Appendix A p. 353)
CR 5:
- Giant Crocodile (Appendix A p. 356)
CR 6:
- Mammoth (Appendix A p. 365)
2024 Creatures to Designate as Beasts
The following list details creatures who can easily be designated as Beasts without breaking your game. Note that any creature with Spellcasting is not included on this list, as its CR includes that ability and players shouldn’t be able to endlessly cast spells they don’t have prepared in Wildshape. Note, this will only get you a few new options, as there are very few suitable creatures with a fly speed in any official 5e content.
CR 1:
- Giant Vulture (Appendix A p. 361)
- Hippogriff (p. 169)
CR 2:
- Griffon (p. 159)
- Peryton (p. 238)
CR 3:
- Manticore (p. 202)
CR 4+:
No suitable candidates in Core or Expanded Rules.
Suggestions and Best Practices
As with all parts of playing a game, everyone is at the table to have fun. No matter how you choose to flesh out a bird-druid, make sure the DM, the character’s player, and anyone else at the table is having fun. Perhaps the simplest way to move forward is to take the CR 1-3 Monstrosities and Celestials above and designate them as learnable Wildshape options. This doesn’t expand the character’s power too far, and each of their statblocks is included in the Monster Manual (2024), meaning they’ll be easy enough to access without material modification. Whenever possible, it’s best to reduce chances of confusion, so minimally-modified statblocks will often be the best option. Changing a creature type is significantly less likely to break game balance than adding and removing abilities to force something to work.
Hope for the Future
The Dungeons and Dragons team is doubling down on their commitment to make the game as fun as possible for everyone, and have been very transparent that they’ve done their best to ensure this updated material is as backwards-compatible as possible, but that there would be some hiccoughs. My hope is that this problem will be addressed directly by the developers, so players who engage in drop-in games and Adventurer’s League play can play their favorite class fantasy without depending on generous interpretations by the DMs they play with. Best case scenario, I am hoping they will release some official statblocks for beasts to fill in the gaps as free material, so druids won’t need to collect disparate adventures, guides, and collections in order to have a full suite of tools to use.
TL;DR
In the latest update to Dungeons and Dragons, the Monster Manual (2024) has re-designated several crucial birds from the Beast category into other categories. Because of this, the current highest-rated bird available for Wildshape is is the Giant Wasp with a Challenge Rating of 1/2. Since an entire subclass (Druid’s Circle of the Moon) relies on the Beast category creatures to define its iconic powers, this is a direct nerf to druids who prefer bird Wildshapes at any level of play. The suggestions above can help you homebrew some solutions, but we will continue to hope that the developers take action to remedy this soon.
