2000 monsters

[OchreJelly]

I performed a wide-open search on the DDI creatures tab today and 1997 results were returned. This strikes me as quite a few creatures this early in the 4E life cycle! Granted many of these entries are leveled-up or leveled-down versions of existing monsters, and you can argue whether 12 different types of kobolds is still one monster type (personally I like this approach).

I'm curious how many critters there were in past editions. I can remember (not so fondly) my overstuffed binders from 2E. They seemed to release monster supplements frequently for that tabbed binder -- while I hated that method of organization it seemed like a lot of monsters. Does 4E lend itself to easier monster design? Is that why it seems like a lot to me? Or do the earlier editions eclipse this easily and I just don't know it?

 

[Stoat]

It's a remarkable number, but probably quite inflated. In addition to monsters that have been leveled up or down, the DDI also includes creatures who are simply standard monsters given names. It also includes several reskins. For example, there are a lot of lvl 1 minions that mechanically identical to the giant rat.

 

[Drkfathr1]

I think its a testament to the ease of monster design in this edition, but I wouldn't really qualify all those re-skinned and leveled creatures to be seperate monsters. Not really.

If someone dumps a scoop of peas on my plate and tells me I have 300 vegetables on my plate, I still really only have 1.

 

[OchreJelly]

I hadn't really considered the reskins and minions do seem pretty tough to differentiate much, other than normal level scaling.

So even if we cut the number in half it still seems like a sizable number. Numbers aside though, I actually was surprised at how much I liked the leveld-up and down versions. Example of game-prep: I wanted a balanced encounter that involved human bandits and when I filtered on 'human' it was nice to mine all the available options, at the very least because someone else did the work for me.

Another observation: to date there really aren't that many (if any) level gaps. I did a search spanning 20-25 level critters and got over 200 entries.

 

[fba827]

i don't mind the leveled up/leveled down, that can be helpful in designing.
It's the named villians in there that is a little 'off' to me - i'd rather have them differentiated a little better.

 

[Echohawk]

I'm curious how many critters there were in past editions.

There were a total of approximately 8500 different monsters published across D&D, AD&D, AD&D2 and D&D3.X.

I don't know offhand exactly how many were published for each version of the game, but 2e had far more than any previous edition, and I don't think ever 3.X quite caught up with 2e's critter count.

 

[OchreJelly]

Holy cow! What a resource -- I knew the internet would pull through. Man 2E did have a lot. To quote the source:

"The Monstrous Compendium series would eventually span fifteen sets of looseleaf pages, four annuals, seven soft cover books, one electronic release and the hardcover Monstrous Manual collection."

I guess I stopped buying 2E late its cycle and didn't realize it had 15 supplements. Or maybe I just never bought the campaign specific ones (beside FR and Planescape). Now 2000 monsters doesn't seem like that much

 

[Voadam]

There were a total of approximately 8500 different monsters published across D&D, AD&D, AD&D2 and D&D3.X.

I don't know offhand exactly how many were published for each version of the game, but 2e had far more than any previous edition, and I don't think ever 3.X quite caught up with 2e's critter count.

3e had five hardbound monster manuals.

Most of the 2e monstrous compendium appendixes were 64 pages long weren't they?

If you count OGL or d20 stuff I think 3.x trounces all other editions combined.

For hardcovers alone that I can think of off the top of my head:
Five WotC Monster Manuals
Dragonlance Bestiary of Krynn
Ravenloft Denizens of Dread
Kalamar Dangerous Denizens of Tellene
Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary
Creature Collection I-III
Monsters of Norrath
Monsters of Luclin
Manual of Monsters
World of Warcraft Bestiary
Book of Beasts
Monsternomicon I & II
Tome of Horrors I-III
Monster Encyclopedia I & II
Encyclopedia of Demons and Devils I & II
Denizens of Avadnu
Book of Fiends
Bestiary of Loerem
Warlords of the Accordlands Monsters and Lairs
Book of Templates Deluxe
Advanced Bestiary

 

[Echohawk]

3e had five hardbound monster manuals.

Six actually, Monster Manual I-V plus the Fiend Folio.

Most of the 2e monstrous compendium appendixes were 64 pages long weren't they?

Yes, the looseleaf ones were generally quite short. The later softbound appendices were longer (mostly about 128 pages).

If you count OGL or d20 stuff I think 3.x trounces all other editions combined.

Yup, no doubt at all about that. I suspect that the number of creatures from official 3e D&D sources isn't too far off the total number of 2e creatures, but if you add in all the d20 sources, the total would be several times that of 2e, easily.

 

[avin]

Compendium could have a filter for monsters that are the same from MM just renamed.