5 out of 5 rating for D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual
Tome of Horrors might have more monsters and Hacklopedia might look better, but neither of them is as well balanced as the new Monster Manual. The book has everything that you need for a D&D campaign, and even more: there are some rare, weird and strange stuff, that you probably never used before. It seems the writers were running out of space, the animals and many of their bestial cousins were compressed in a single appendix at the end, with short descriptions. It's okay for the mammoth and the smilodon, but maybe the blink dog or the phase spider deserved as much space as the displacer beast. Still, it's a very nice selection of creatures.The descriptions are well done. Not unnecessarily verbose and quite evocative. The key elements are even emphasized at the beginning of each paragraph. There might be some lore changes that you won't like, but the opposite is possible too. For example I don't know what to think about the aboleths reincarnating on the elemental plane of water, but on the other hand the merrow becoming more than a simple aquatic ogre is something I tottaly dig. The stat blocks are useful and clear, even if a bit bigger than I would prefer. Many creatures have variants that give them more power, usually without changing the CR - the summoning ability of demons and devils, and dragon magic is handled this way.The art is usually good, even if there are some mediocre pieces. Some creatures were redesigned or have unusual visuals, but I found these nice and interesting. The archmage with the corpse paint in the NPC appendix made me chuckle quite a bit.Summa summarum, the 5e Monster Manual has a balanced selection of monsters, the right amount of information, and completely satisfying art and layout. It's a must-have for 5e DMs.