4 out of 5 rating for Volo’s Guide to Monsters
I'm forced to eat my words with this review somewhat, since I initially maligned Volo's during its release for its choice to split the book into 3 sections, two of which I had significant doubts about in regards to quality and usefulness. Some of these were a happy surprise with how well done they were, while sadly some of my initial predictions did come to pass.
Pros:
- Artwork is amazing, as usual. Wizards has a good track record here and they continue to maintain it, with mind-flayers, hags, and yuan-ti looking as sharp as ever. Not much else to say here, I can't think of any art in the book that came off as sloppy or inaccurate.
-Some of the lore sections are really well done, such as the Hags, Yuan-ti, and Illithids. These entries expand upon existing lore and offer some much needed diversity in how these enemies can be presented.
-Monster design is great, with a lot more of the entries having unique or iconic effects translated into distinct abilities for that specific monster, rather than using filler spell-lists. We also get a lot of great variants within existing monsters, like some new illithid variants, beholder offshoots, and orc variations.
-fairly setting agnostic. While it does bear the title of Volo, this is not a product married to the realms or its lore, which is a plus for me. If you're a huge realms fanatic, this might be the opposite.
Cons:
-in contrast to Pro #2, some of the other lore entries are pretty bland and uninteresting, with offerings like the kobold and goblinoids not offering anything new that wasn't already well known or alluded to in the basic MM.
-The section on races is pretty awful, to be honest. The ones that are pseudo-balanced still require DM oversight as they're pretty damn niche (Triton as a player race?), and more egregiously the section on playing the more monstrous humanoids straight up tells you they didn't bother balancing those options. To me this is like paying for a broken tool, because for me buying an official product should carry with it the assurance that the designers used their industry experience and skill to offer something better than the homebrew options floating around long before Volo's was announced, and that just isn't the case here. As a player resource I find this book severely lacking.
-Price. The only reason I'm giving this product a 4 star rating is due to the fact that I got it 50% off, which I feel is a reasonable price for it. At 50$ this would likely sink to 3 or even 2 stars, potentially.
In summary, there's a lot to like about Volo's, but intentional design has left some parts feeling like too little butter spread over too much bread. There's some real progress in monster design though, and there are some admittedly great additions to existing lore that I underestimated before getting my hands on it, despite other elements confirming my initial fears. If you can pick it up on a sale then I'd do so.