Monster vault: I has it

[ArcaneSpringboard]

I will be so pleased if there is a bit of a return to 'classic' elementals, rather than the (useless to me) 'fiery-stone water tempest elemental' kind of thing which cropped up in MM1

They already did that in MM3.

 

[JoeGKushner]

They already did that in MM3.

How does that help if you didn't like MM1, heck, the original 4e, but wanted to give Essentials a try?

 

[the Jester]

What oozes are in MV?

 

[Dragonhelm]

Another thing you might want to consider is what seems like the amount of flavor in the thing.

Don't know if that interests you, but it's one of the things that's strongly pushing me towards getting this.

Actually, that's a huge selling point for me. I bought the Pathfinder Bestiary for the flavor it contains, even though that's not my system of choice.

I might get the book as a travel version of the Monster Manual.

 

[Aegeri]

How does that help if you didn't like MM1, heck, the original 4e, but wanted to give Essentials a try?

This statement is daft, because there is literally no difference between using MM3 creatures in an essentials game and creatures from the monster vault. They are built using the exact same rules and design principles. MM3 creatures have no particular problems with essentials than MV ones do. Also the original MM1 is being updated with essentials to essentially be like MM3. Buying MM3 or MV makes no difference, both are fully compatible books and MM3 has tons of low level creatures in it as well.

Since the release of MM3 I rarely use monsters from other sources and still haven't run out of ideas for encounters.

Edit: It should be noted the core point is that if you didn't like MM3 the MV is not going to do anything different (but both are substantially better than MM1 easily. By bounds in fact).

 

[Fiery_Dragon]

If you took all the token pages out of the box and set them aside (say because you have better options ) and packed everything back inside the box and opened it up as if it was your first unboxing, would you feel the product is a good value?

Personally, I'd rather get just the book for $19.99. The rest of the stuff - adventure and tokens - isn't work an extra $15 to me. But, that's me and I already have 5000 tokens of every D&D monster ever, so these ones are a bit overkill.

I'd get Mosnter Vault before DM's Kit, though.

 

[JoeGKushner]

This statement is daft, because there is literally no difference between using MM3 creatures in an essentials game and creatures from the monster vault. They are built using the exact same rules and design principles. MM3 creatures have no particular problems with essentials than MV ones do. Also the original MM1 is being updated with essentials to essentially be like MM3. Buying MM3 or MV makes no difference, both are fully compatible books and MM3 has tons of low level creatures in it as well.

Since the release of MM3 I rarely use monsters from other sources and still haven't run out of ideas for encounters.

Edit: It should be noted the core point is that if you didn't like MM3 the MV is not going to do anything different (but both are substantially better than MM1 easily. By bounds in fact).

Uh, did you read what I wrote?

If you picked up the MM1 and saw those crazy elementals and then gave 4e a pass, you wouldn't have picked up the MM3.

But then you hear about Essentials and ask, as this perosn did, what type of elementals are here.

Hopefully that's clearer.

 

[Aegeri]

Personally, I'd rather get just the book for $19.99. The rest of the stuff - adventure and tokens - isn't work an extra $15 to me. But, that's me and I already have 5000 tokens of every D&D monster ever, so these ones are a bit overkill.

I'd get Mosnter Vault before DM's Kit, though.

Is it really the case there are no Ancient Dragons in this book? I find that incredibly annoying if that's the case.

Also, did they redo Orcus?

And finally, what are the new dracoliches like? They aren't as horribly terrible as the ones in the original MM are they?

 

[Fiery_Dragon]

Can you put Monster Manuals I - III into the Monster Vault box?

Yes.

 

[Fiery_Dragon]

Another thing you might want to consider is what seems like the amount of flavor in the thing.

Don't know if that interests you, but it's one of the things that's strongly pushing me towards getting this.

That's a good point. There's TONS more flavour text.