The final Monster Manual for 3.5, and the worst creature supplement at that.
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Just when you thought Wizards were done wringing every last penny out of D&D 3.5... and boy, have they saved the worst till last.
I'll hit you with the bad first. There are three sections devoted to pre-existing monsters with class levels: vampires, kuo-tao and hobgoblins. Now I can understand how this could be useful to some people, but it seems to me it should either be a free web supplement or a separate book. Each of these sections takes up more room than a regular monster entry. That means you miss out on several new monsters for each one of these entries. Most of the monsters are either regular humanoids with levels and feats tacked onto them or very esoteric monsters that would have little impact on a regular game.
Another negative is the two maps that were included; each takes up about a page and were published separately on the Wizards website, which, I'm afraid, just signals yet more filler.
Now the good...
I'm afraid there isn't any. Of course, there are a few nice new monsters, but you could take all the genuinely new ideas from the last three Monster Manuals and barely have enough to make ONE supplement.
I'm sorry to say I returned this book. I won't be purchasing any more Wizards D&D supplements. Why is this? Well, for those of you that don't know, next Spring they're launching D&D version 4. That's right. They're making 3.5 obsolete, and why is this? There are two reasons... one is waning interest in the game, so they want to relaunch it to get new interest. That I can accept, as I love D&D and don't want the game to fade away (again). But the primary reason is that they have simply milked every last concept out of 3.5, and so they're going to start all over again. That is something I find a little offensive. I might sound cynical, but many of the older gamers have seen this all before. Well, I'm done with the rehashed material, the money-wringing supplements. It's ironic really, I never really like 3.5 at first, but I've become a big player of it. Who knows, D&D version 4 might actually be a better system, as the relaunched Star Wars Saga Edition RPG from Wizards this year is over the previous effort. But I'm burned out with it. I've collected so much 3.5 material, I can't see how they can expect committed players like me to leave all that behind.
I wish you happy gaming, but avoid this supplement. It's a waste of time.
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