MM
I didn't see any recycled art when I was flicking through it.
Most monsters get 1 page, 2 versions of the monster each. Very little fluff for standard monsters. Though there are a lot that get several pages; Hags, Harpies, Humans, etc get two pages or more.
There's no apendix for typical animals; they're interspersed with the normal monsters. There's a dire version, and either a Paragon version (a Feywild boar) or a normal version (wolf, cave bear)
Dragons get 4 age categories: Young, Adult, Elder, Ancient. The various dragon roles are: Black (Lurker), Blue (Artillery) Green (Controller) Red (Soldier) White (Brute)
The Needlefang drake's stats seem correct. No change to the Zombie minion either.
Destrachan is in. Yaun-ti are paragon-level foes. Galeb Duhr are in - weren't these in 2e? Same with Helmet Horror. We have dragonspawn from the MMV; odd. Purple Worms: Solo soldier. Battlebriar (MMIV or V).
DMG
Templates:
Battle Champion
Bodyguard
Death Knight
Death Master
Demonic Acolyte
Devastator
Feyborn
Frost Adept
Lich
Mummy Lord
Mummy Champion
Savage Berzerker
Scion of Flame
Shadowborn Stalker
Vampire Lord
There's a template for every PC class.
Templates are very small. The layout is thus:
Name: Elite Role (And possibly Role2)
Defense increases
Action Point 1
Hit points per level
Ability/Power.
That's it.
There are two pages on Monster Design Steps. In this section, there are three tables:
Monster Stats By Role. It looks something like this:
Code:
Roles (Brute ARtillery Bla bla)
Init Bonus
Hit Points
AC
Attack vs. AC
Attacks vs. Other Defenses* *Reduce attack bonus by two for attacks that target multiple opponents
Next is a table for Normal Damage by Level:
Code:
Level Low Medium High
1-3 1d6+3 1d10+3 2d6+3
There's a note like how artillery and controller monsters that effect mulitple opponents should use the low, while low accuracy powers like brutes and lurkers should use the high.
There is a third table, Limited Damage By Level. These are for powers that a monster may use only once in a fight.
Rules for Creating New Elites and Solos fit into this dynamic, etc.
Three pages on creating NPCs. Six pages on creating house rules.
Traps and Hazards: 9 pages. There are a few one-shot traps (Pit trap, glyph of warding, etc). I only saw one solo trap (the soul gem), but I didn't read through any to see if they are elite-makin'.
Terrain: There's a lot of stuff here. Break DCs for doors, how much HP objects have, etc. There's notes on Difficult Terrain, Obscuring Terain, Hindering Terrain, Challenging Terrain (Takes a successful skill check to get through), etc. There's also fantastical terrain (remember the mushrooms that did clouds of poison damage? Those are here, along with a lot of other stuff).
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