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New "Lore On Giants" Preview from Volo's Guide to Monsters
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<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7701711" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>Not really. You can describe a monster however you want. You could describe a Mind Flayer as a hideous insectoid creature with a jagged chitinous barb that punctures the head and sucks out brains. Really, D&D could just have a 4-8 generic statblocks that work for all monsters and just lists of unique powers that you can mix-and-match to create whatever you want. The <em>Monster Manual</em> could be 32-pages long and cover everything with that method. </p><p></p><p>Fluff defines a monster. </p><p></p><p></p><p>OMG, what if they released an actual MM2 and there were only 50 good ones?! Or NO good ones!! </p><p></p><p>I don't think that's likely though. When you're doing 100 monsters you have time to make them all count. When you have 300, you're going to slack off with a few. Picking the best 100 monsters for Volo should make it easy to really have some great foes. </p><p></p><p></p><p>I participated in a few of those threads. It was hard to list more than a couple hundred monsters, not enough to fill a MM2, even a 256-page one. </p><p>More high level threats would also be good. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Except you can enjoy the <em>Volo's Guide</em> when not actually playing just by reading the entries. And the fluff might give you ideas for adventures or suggest how to use adventures. And it will be a book that is usable for longer, since fluff doesn't expire during an edition change. </p><p></p><p>Plus there are races. So it will have that impact. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Also, with the DMsGuild and OGL, I don't see as much need for another "big book of monsters". Any monster you could want has probably been updated a couple times. And with stuff like the <em>Tome of Beasts</em> out there we don't *need* new monsters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 7701711, member: 37579"] Not really. You can describe a monster however you want. You could describe a Mind Flayer as a hideous insectoid creature with a jagged chitinous barb that punctures the head and sucks out brains. Really, D&D could just have a 4-8 generic statblocks that work for all monsters and just lists of unique powers that you can mix-and-match to create whatever you want. The [I]Monster Manual[/I] could be 32-pages long and cover everything with that method. Fluff defines a monster. OMG, what if they released an actual MM2 and there were only 50 good ones?! Or NO good ones!! I don't think that's likely though. When you're doing 100 monsters you have time to make them all count. When you have 300, you're going to slack off with a few. Picking the best 100 monsters for Volo should make it easy to really have some great foes. I participated in a few of those threads. It was hard to list more than a couple hundred monsters, not enough to fill a MM2, even a 256-page one. More high level threats would also be good. Except you can enjoy the [I]Volo's Guide[/I] when not actually playing just by reading the entries. And the fluff might give you ideas for adventures or suggest how to use adventures. And it will be a book that is usable for longer, since fluff doesn't expire during an edition change. Plus there are races. So it will have that impact. Also, with the DMsGuild and OGL, I don't see as much need for another "big book of monsters". Any monster you could want has probably been updated a couple times. And with stuff like the [I]Tome of Beasts[/I] out there we don't *need* new monsters. [/QUOTE]
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