The consideration of Orcs and other fantasy species as people (autonomous characters as opposed to rampaging monsters), has been a long fought-over concept. Opinions on whether Orcs in particular should be wholly considered evil-aligned monsters in D&D have been split since the game's inception, and it's still an increasingly sore point among community discussions. Especially when Wizards of the Coast actually decides to change anything. In the new 2025 Monster Manual, Orcs and Drow have been removed altogether with their stat blocks replaced by a range of more generic NPC templates. The decision has left some in the community feeling cheated.
With Dungeons & Dragons sitting on our best tabletop RPGs list, it's hard to ignore the thrashing around of fans whose worldviews are threatened by recent changes in the 2025 Monster Manual. What we're looking at is a complete removal of Orc and Drow from the book – they're not listed in the contents page. Instead, Dungeon Masters are encouraged to apply NPC stat blocks with the Monster Conversion table when introducing Orc and Drow non-player characters, to which the manual clearly states they are welcome to apply any alignment.
