Quote Originally Posted by Witty Username View Post
The debate isn't whether one should be allowed to book dive mid game so much as should abilities like say wild shape be allowed to expand with splat books and monster content vs having a set of rules for how it works and never expand beyond that point (either by a set list like find familiar or the generic stat blocks like the Tasha's beastmaster and summons rules)

Also, whether players other than the DM should be allowed to read the monster manual.
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I like using monster statblocks for player abilities for verisimilitude purposes (if say a sky beast is nothing like an owl, saying it is an owl works poorly for me). That and I would prefer things like Summons to have CRs at the very least, in case I use them as a DM.
I disagree; the debate is very much about diving through books in general, with all that comes with. For some, the problem is the time and effort (ideally not done during a session). For others, the problem is exposing DM material to the player. Yet others, the problem may be expansion of options with splats.

The last I actually find least worrying. I mean, theorectically the more options the more likely one is to be unbalanced and push the envelope. However, the MM is unbalanced enough that this hasn't really been an issue. Furthermore, the whole point of additional content is for, well, additional content - so unless the argument becomes that we should never have expansion material for anything I don't see why we would single out beasts here.