Coming from the original AD&D - not bad
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I last played AD&D over 20 years ago, so my books are from the original rules. I bought this because I wanted to introduce my kids to the game, but had lost my Monster Manual, and this was the cheapest version going. It certainly is an upgrade on the original in terms of professionalism. The layout is good, the indexing is good, the binding and paper quality is excellent, and of course the artwork is infinitely better than the original.
My only quibble is that this is not very user-friendly to those mixing old and new. In the old system, armor class went from 10 (none) downwards. This has now changed (for the better), but there's no mention of this in this book at all, making it not only incompatible with old systems, but also unhelpful. I found all the detail I needed to translate armor class, and many other useful pieces of information, on the Wikipedia entry, but it wouldn't have taken much space to mention the changes in an introduction to this book. Other changes are the introduction of the Challenge Rating (again, had to do research to find out what that was), and various modifiers that I'm happy to ignore. I have no idea whether these happened in version 2 or 3 - to me, it doesn't matter, and I doubt I'm the only one.
Apart from that, I'm very happy with this book, and prefer it to the original.
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Houston we have a problem!!
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Well, I've collected the whole 1st edition hard cover set and almost all the 2nd edition hard covers with all the monster book yearly updates, so I know my D&D, and this book, it needs help. I believe it's bad enough that they seem to have placed more emphasis on game mechanics then role-playing, but they kinda butchered the Monster Manual. First I'll give credit where it is due, the artwork is outstanding. When compared to the Monstrous Manual of the 2nd edition, quanity does outweigh quality. A DM needs many monsters, and that's why the 2nd edition set of books was so outstanding. Unfortunately, now I have to buy all kinds of different books just to get the collection of monsters I have with my 2nd edition set, (I'm having enough problems figuring out the new system, after 17 years of playing by the old rules, so changing all those books over to 3rd edition is out of the question for me). Still though, the book looks cool, and like I said the art is beautiful. Plus, it's nice that they put all abilites stats with the monster, but no ecology or habitat info. Hmm? Well, if your as big a role player as me, it's nice to have. If your only a casual DM. Stick to the old books, and just change the stats to 3rd edition play if you have the patience.
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Great pictures, but...
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Well, the art work is excellent, a great improvement on the last edition, which tended to portray almost cartoonish images of the monsters. The new artwork makes them look far more... well, monstrous. Compare the old and new images of sealion, for example. Another improvement is the inclusion of a full description of the extraplaner monsters, Tanari, Baatezu and Celestials. In the last editions, a few lame examples were provided which failed to convey anything about their society or culture. The 'advancement' rules which alow you to create 'boss' enemies - or just a really tough bodyguard - are useful too, but it was eaasy enough to do that in the last edition, though you needed the DMG to calculate experience points. The monster templates at the back of teh book are great, allowing you to craft foes tailor made to fit into your campaign.
So why only four stars? Well, the book suffers from some major drawbacks. For one, it no longer includes as thorough a description of the monsters' ecology and background as the last edition. These provided very usefull information for a DM with which he could realistically introduce them into a campaign. It gave him a reason for the monsters to attack the PCs (defending home /young etc). This can be a problem if you don't have the last edition - unless your willing to create an entire ecological system for your game world. Another cause for complaint is the removal of certain Monsters. Although new ones were introduced to replace them, the book is still short of the amount of creatures it had in the last version and you may find yourself having to convert stats from 2nd ed to 3ed, because a monster you have used in your last game isn't covered in the new rules. This might not be too much problem for an experienced DM, and newcomers probably won't notice, but its still annoying.
Note: I wasn't bothered by the unusual print format, but many have been. Just one more problem.
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Disappointingly Short
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Of the three core rule books for 3rd Edition the Monster Manual is inarguably the most disappointing. Compared to the 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual it is actually rather feeble. Only about 300 creatures (compared to the 600 in the 2nd Edition MM) are featured in the book and each entry is ridiculously short. The ecology and habitation sections which DMs relied on in 2nd Edition games for adventure ideas and encounter hooks are now totally gone to fit more monsters in. But the small page count and the often ridiculously huge pictures means that barely half the number of monsters is included compared to 2nd Edition. Even worse, many familiar creatures have been banished to expansion books. Want information on the githzerai? Tough, you'll have to look in the Psionics Handbook. Want to create a dracolich? Nope, go buy the Forgotten Realms sourcebook. The whole point of the 2nd Edition MM was to collect together the most popular and commonly-used monsters from the thousands of Monstrous Compendium sheets and expansions used during the reign of 1st Edition (and early 2nd) and put them in one easy-to-use tome. 3rd Edition MM blows that away immediately, forcing you to buy almost every book that comes out on the off-chance there are some new monsters in it. The artwork is superb and the detailed stats, including advice on how to make the monsters more powerful to challenge higher-level PCs (a race of ninja assassin goblins, anyone?), is a godsend given the relative complexity of the 3rd Edition monster/PC creation rules, but overall the book leaves a bad taste in the mouth, with WOTC charging you the same as TSR did five years ago for what is essentially the same book but with only about half the content.
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Simply Terriffic!
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The new Monster Manual is fabulous. The art work perfect, and the rules even more! Many new foes for your players to slain and be defeated by. It is even good if you aren't a DM. It is just so good... Simply a must have in dungeons and dragons.
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