James Lyman – The Wizard of the Coast – Hebungle Rich
Cast monsters are now spell slotless
Spellcasting monsters in the 2025 Monster Manual have moved from the traditional spell slot system to a more streamlined approach. This change is intended to make encounters faster and allow Dungeon Masters to run powerful spellcasters smoothly without juggling complex spell lists. The new design is especially evident in powerful magical creatures like Lich. We use this as an example of how these changes manifested.
Old and new approaches
Previously, Spellcasting Monsters acted like player characters with spell slots and a vast list of prepared spells. The system provided versatility, but also required a lot of bookkeeping. The updated design replaces the spell slot mechanic with something similar to innate spellcasting (previously considered a monster trait in 5E).
With this new system, monsters have access to a certain number of spells, allowing them to cast a set number each per day.
Let's take a closer look at how this will affect 2025 Rich.
New Rich: Streamlined Spellcaster
Instead of getting the same spellcasting as the Level 18 Wizard with daily spell slots, the new Rich has a list of spells you can cast at will, twice a day, or once a day.
This is what's different:
Willy Spells: Rich is free to detect magic, detect thoughts, dispel magic, and cast utility spells such as fireballs (Level 5) and lightning (Level 5). Limited Spelling: Can cast animation dead, dimension doors, and planar shifts twice a day. Powerful Daily Spells: Its most devastating abilities, powerful utility spells like Chain Lightning, Death Finger, Power Word Kill, and Scriring are each available once a day. Reactions for Defense: Lich can cast reaction-based spells such as regular Counterspell and Shield, but they are found in the Reactions section of the Statistics block. Spell Attack: There is also an Eldrich Burst. This is either a melee or ranged attack as the default options for MulitAttack. They can choose to use this in conjunction with the old-fashioned paralyzed touch, rather than casting a spell as a magical action.
How did globalized, innate spellcasting change the 5E landscape?
As original spellcasting now serves as the default for spellcasting monsters, 5E has moved from creatures that act like PCs towards more predictable themed playstyles. This change removes flexibility, but allows spellcasters to always have access to the most important spells.
This change also allows monsters to use multiple spells and spell-like abilities for their users in one turn. The 2024 Player Handbook changes the rules for multi-spelturns, so you cannot cast a spell by consuming more than once per turn. Monsters don't have spell slots so you can use spell-like and bonus actions without hitting this rule.
Not much change but streamlined combat
One of the biggest impacts of this change is that spellcasting monsters have a more focused combat role. It's gone when DMs had to decide whether creatures should cast counterspell using the last level 3 spell slot. Instead, monsters are designed with pre-selected abilities that reflect the intended combat role. This means:
Low cognitive load on DMS: No need to track slots or weigh complex spelling options. More Efficient Action Economy: Monsters can use bonus actions and reaction-based spells without sacrificing main action spell resources.
Bonus action and reaction spells are easy to use
The main advantage of the new system is that bonus action and reaction-based spells are burned into the monster mechanic. In older editions, DMs may forget that due to the complexity of tracking spell slots, creatures can use shields or counterspells.
Also, if you run out of spell slots and go deeper into the encounter you pulled out, you may not be able to use these spells.
Now these abilities are simply listed under the creature's bonus actions and reactions, making them available every time
Spell-like effects can counterspell your PC
Effects like Lich's paralyzed touch and spell-like effects like Eldrtich Burst are spell-like effects, not spells. This helps with consistency, but it has side effects that make counterspell effective, as it only works when you cast spells using verbal, somatic, or material components.
What does this mean for other spellcasters?
Rich is just an example of this broad change. From Mind Flayer to Euglos (and the current Dragon!), the other spellcasters in the 5e followed a similar model. This shift ensures that powerful enemies will maintain their magical talent without the need for extensive preparation and tracking work from DMs.
For DMS, this means that encounters will run faster, and for players, it means that monsters use the most thematic spells, but there may be more predictable “video game-like” turns. No more DMs to forget the days of spellcasting monsters running from handy spells during combat, or half of their spell list!
