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Review of D&D Essentials Monster Vault by WotC
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<blockquote data-quote="GilvanBlight" data-source="post: 5392494" data-attributes="member: 77998"><p>Excellent review. Thank you for posting.</p><p></p><p>The one thing I don't see you mention that I thought was one of the best improvements in this book over the 4e Monster Manuals is the amount of background information on the monsters.</p><p></p><p>Some of us have been playing D&D for years and know exactly what an Orc is or more importantly what something unique to D&D like an Owlbear or a Grell is. There are a lot of people out there, especially now with the launch of essentials and the Red Box who don't have this background. The original Monster Manuals had almost no information on the monsters. Heck there weren't even pictures of all of them. All you had was a few sentences of Lore that the players could figure out with Knowledge checks.</p><p></p><p>The Monster Vault addresses this problem with about 2 pages of information on each monster. Even more impressive this information isn't just Tactics and isn't all related to combat. There are some great plot hooks and ideas for using the various types of monsters in roleplaying elements of your games.</p><p></p><p>Lastly, to me this makes the book fun to read. It's not just a bunch of stat blocks and tactics. I actually got into D&D by buying the 2nd edition Monster Manual (the Binder) without even owning a PHB or DMG. I would spend hours reading the ecology of the Purple Worm or the Societal Norms of Ettercaps.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GilvanBlight, post: 5392494, member: 77998"] Excellent review. Thank you for posting. The one thing I don't see you mention that I thought was one of the best improvements in this book over the 4e Monster Manuals is the amount of background information on the monsters. Some of us have been playing D&D for years and know exactly what an Orc is or more importantly what something unique to D&D like an Owlbear or a Grell is. There are a lot of people out there, especially now with the launch of essentials and the Red Box who don't have this background. The original Monster Manuals had almost no information on the monsters. Heck there weren't even pictures of all of them. All you had was a few sentences of Lore that the players could figure out with Knowledge checks. The Monster Vault addresses this problem with about 2 pages of information on each monster. Even more impressive this information isn't just Tactics and isn't all related to combat. There are some great plot hooks and ideas for using the various types of monsters in roleplaying elements of your games. Lastly, to me this makes the book fun to read. It's not just a bunch of stat blocks and tactics. I actually got into D&D by buying the 2nd edition Monster Manual (the Binder) without even owning a PHB or DMG. I would spend hours reading the ecology of the Purple Worm or the Societal Norms of Ettercaps. [/QUOTE]
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