Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition

Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition | Wizards RPG Team | The best of the 4e core books, but still leaves me feeling a bit sour

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	Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition Wizards RPG Team Wizards of the Coast, 2008 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 53 reviews view larger image
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The Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game has defined the medieval fantasy genre and the tabletop RPG industry for more than 30 years. In the D&D game, players create characters that band together to explore dungeons, slay monsters, and find treasure. The 4th Edition D&D rules offer the best possible play experience by presenting exciting character options, an elegant and robust rules system, and handy storytelling tools for the Dungeon Master. The Monster Manual presents more than 300 official Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game monsters for all levels of play, from aboleth to zombie. Each monster is illustrated and comes with complete game statistics and tips for the Dungeon Master on how best to use the monster in D&D encounters.

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Like the new monster design, but...

the book is by far the weakest of the three core books.

The good:
The new mechanics focus on the "screen time" devoted to each monster and keeps things simpler. Most entries provide knowledge check info with DCs and useful info. Book is colorful and includes lots of creatures and variations

The bad:
Other than the DC check knowledge, background info on the creatures is really sparse. In some cases variations in a entry don't even have a phsyical description of how they are different. Templates would be better served in here than in the DMG (though that's a minor quibble).

Overall, still well worth the money if you are going to run a game.

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The best of the 4e core books, but still leaves me feeling a bit sour

This is the best of the 4e core books for me, but still left me feeling a bit sour.

First the good. In the tradition of the 1st edition AD&D Monster Manual, this book dispenses with lengthy descriptions of monsters and instead focuses on stats. Only in rare circumstances do we get lengthy prose regarding a monster's motivations outside of being fodder for the adventurers to beat up on. Filling in the details is left to the DM. The new stat blocks are straightforward and much easier to use than their 3.5 counterparts. Special abilities are in the stat block rather than hidden amongst the monster's descriptive text. That's a welcome change indeed. Also, one of my favorite things from the last two 3.5 MM's is carried over: knowledge checks to see what our heroes might know about their current foe. All in all, this is a very easy to use book.

Then there's the bad news. There are a lot of monsters missing from this book when compared to its 3.5 counterpart. Yes, some of the new core monsters were pulled from books other than the first MM, but leaving out monsters as classic as metallic dragons reeks of a mandate from marketing. Just like with the PHB, things many veteran players expect have been left out for the sole reason of saving them for another book to sell. You want your metallic dragons and the rest of the giants? Buy `Monster Manual II'. Then there's the artwork. A friend and I spent about 10 minutes playing `spot the recycled art' with this book. Roughly 10-15%, maybe more, is culled from 3.5 books. Were the contracted artists unable to meet their deadline for new artwork, or did someone at Wizards decide to cut the budget? You be the judge.

So what we're left with is a very well designed Monster Manual that's easy to use, but missing a significant number of iconic monsters and wholly original artwork. That's good for a 3 in my book.

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