D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

A great product by Wizards of the Coast - really hits the sweet-spot. The art is generally quite good, ranging from "pretty good" to "terrifically terrifying." On a side note, I was a bit disappointed by the Tarrasque picture - it looks like a rubber bath toy. I would have liked to see more gristle, muscularity, and "tendonosity."

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

A superb new version of a venerable classic D&D book, this edition of the Monster Manual delivers on almost every count. From the painted-style, beautiful layout to the lush monster illustrations to detailed statblocks and monster ecologies, it has everything you need. Except a good listing of monsters by Challenge Rating. The addition of Legendary Actions (for monsters) and Lair Actions (for locations) are a great rule innovation, and the return of detailed monster histories, ecologies, behaviours and links to D&D history (eg, Asmodeus, Tiamat, Icewind Dale, etc.) are very much welcome. With only a few exceptions the monster illustrations are excellent (elementals and sphinxes were poorly done, IMO) and very evocative, and the addition of background landscape art, small objects and fetishes and scroll quotes make the whole product feel like an ancient libram brimming with secret lore. Overall: It's great! Buy it!

4 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

First off, I have to say that this Monster Manual is MUCH better than the 4th Edition one (in my opinion of course!) and I like that there is more information and descriptive text in the monster entries than there seemed to be before. I actually like flipping through this book and just reading a random entry. However, knowing how fantastic of a job a monster book COULD be (check out Kenzer and Company's Hacklopedia for Hackmaster 5th Edition), I felt that there wasn't much "soul" in the book. Certainly a must-have for any DM looking to run 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons.

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

After a so so Players hand book my expectations where low, but bam this one they hit out of the park

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

I seriously cannot believe how many monsters they crammed into this tome. Thankfully, unlike some 4th Edition D&D books, this has a fair amount of fluff on each of the creatures. There are only two drawbacks worth noting, and neither is enough to lower my review score:1) There is no index by Challenge Rating. This is easily remedied by printing out a download WotC made available for this very problem. I'm not sure how this was overlooked, but at least it's been addressed.2) There is a small appendix of what appears to be animals. Occasionally, it includes something you might consider a monster, such as the Winter Wolf. Looking for the Winter Wolf and can't find it under 'W'? It's in the appendix. Thankfully, there's only a few questionable classifications in there.

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

My favorite MM so far.

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

Loved the art, loved the monsters

4 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

I like the art of this book. Apparently WotC finally realized that it does help selling books.There are many good things about this book, but let's talk about the dark side:1. High level monsters doesn't look scary. A large amount of them only know slash and bite and are very poor tactically.2. I expected more description and background of monster species. That I think worth sacrificing the number of monsters included. I know most of these monsters are already well decorated in old editions, but everybody want something new, right?3. So many magic resistance. That make spellcasting characters feel useless. On the otherside, not many monster has magic weapon. It's hard for me to believe that the badass big T doesn't even has magic weapon trait.

5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

Excellent work with many customization options. I'm very proud of WotC work, they have really grown up The descriptions are just what you need to know without overwhelming details, the monsters choice brings back in auge some old school creatures like Modrons and Flumphs AND you have got to love lair rules!It is true that it lacks a CR table, but you can simply find it free on the internet (such as many other sources for the game).

4 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual

My kids and I love this book. This book like the Player's handbook, is absolutely gorgeous. The book is extremely sturdy and well bound. The pages are well designed the layout just beautiful. The collection of monsters is great and it contains a wide variety of creatures and monsters for every level and difficulty. The editing is great, the descriptions really nice, more on some than others. The stat blocks are easy to read and standout and are part of the art of the pages it seems to me. The index is good. There are several creatures that I wish never made it in here though and wish their were others. I despise the robot like or mechanized creatures like Modrons and hope that steampunk/gearpunk, space aliens and gun stuff just does not make its appearance. To me it seems out of place in a fantasy game. I know the debate that this can create, this is just my opinion. The book could probably use some tables categorizing kinds of creatures (Giant Spiders, I remember dozens of kinds, Undead, Conjured, Fire Breathing ones, etc.) and also could use more descriptions of monster's environments, eating and lifestyles, etc. Some of the descriptions went into planes, relationships with Gods I am totally unfamiliar with, and did not offer much in way of descriptions. Pathfinder Bestiary books are the measure I am using agains these and they do a decent job of categorizing monsters, have climate and environment identifiers, charts and table that are relatively useful. I recommend downloading from the DnD website the list of monsters by challenge pdf. Overall this is a beautiful book with a good variety of monsters. I have yet to find a Monster Manual that I do not throw some monsters out and never use. This is no exception. Most manuals also do not offer all the information I want on a monster and that requires me to improvise, which is fine and to be expected. I do wish though the ones I do use a lot were better talked about: I've always been a NPC and Miscellaneous Creatures kind of DM anyway, so a lot of this book, as does most of the Monster books out there, don't have much of what I am looking for.