3.5 Monster Manual Issues

[Anubis the Doomseer]

Wyverns are dragons in mythological terms. The 'wyvern' is (one of many) Welsh folk versions of dragons.

Whoever did the math on the wingspan better not be designing airplanes. I know "it's magic" is the excuse of the day but damn - can't you at least TRY and be accurate?

And if comaring them to dragons was the problem - why not buff up dragons? They've always been a bit weak. I like them 100ft long + with the huge sky-blocking wingspans. Makes them epic and a worthy foe for high level characters.

- Ma'at

 

[hong]

So I've been flipping through my new 3.5 ed books, looking for relevant changes to one of my characters, who happened to be a lycanthrope.

1. I like the fact that afflicted lycanthropes now have a ECL modifier. So now we know what happens when your PC gets bitten and fails that saving throw.

2. Why is it that the lycanthrope stat modifiers are, for the most part, very different from the "revised" ones in Savage Species? SS changed their stats around (as well as the stats of the base animals) so that some of them (like the weretiger) weren't so grossly overpowered (+12 Strength?!), but the 3.5 MM happily ignored SS and went right back to the original stats. What's more, it makes all lycanthropes a mere +3 ECL, from the cool, but comparatively inoffensive werewolf to the walking monstrosities of death that are the werebear and weretiger.

3. I loved the combat tactics breakdown that Wizards advertised when they were pushing the new book. Why is it that so few of the monsters in the 3.5 MM have it? I mean, the way Wizards was talking, it sounded like every one of the monsters was going to have one of these. Many monsters that could have benefitted from such a breakdown (dragons, powerful outsiders, etc.) don't have them. What's up?

So, um, that's only 3 Monster Manual issues. You said there were 3.5.

 

[KDLadage]

Hong, have I told you lately just how funny you are?

 

[d4]

here's 0.5 of an issue:

any else notice that gargoyles are now monstrous humanoids instead of magical beasts?

(i think this is a good change, btw)

 

[KnowTheToe]

I am hoping that a continuing Tactics feature for different monsters might become a regular feature on the Wizards website. That would be something I actually use!

That is a really good idea. Who do we flood with email requests?

 

[Anubis the Doomseer]

here's 0.5 of an issue:
any else notice that gargoyles are now monstrous humanoids instead of magical beasts?
(i think this is a good change, btw)

I liked them better back in OD&D when they were constructs but that's just me.

 

[Darkness]

One thing pleases me.

The Rakasha and the Nightshade no longer have "immune to spells of x level or lower" in their descriptions. For the nightshade, that was taken from Basic D&D (3rd Edition) and it never was a good fit, as spell level immunity was never really a good fit with (A)D&D. Both now have SR instead.

Yeah. The rakshasa now has SR 27 (20 + HD). Which also equals 20 + CR 7.
Therefore, a 7th-level caster can pierce its SR only on a 20. Good enough for me...

 

[sithramir]

The forums don't like half questions. It rounded his other half question down so he only had 3 questions. That must be it!

 

[Voadam]

The forums don't like half questions. It rounded his other half question down so he only had 3 questions. That must be it!

The forums don't care, but to comply with official D&D rules it had to be rounded down. You can read that in the basics section of the srd.

 

[Voadam]

Re: Re: 3.5 Monster Manual Issues

Note that wererats are now CE instead of LE.

First orcs, now wererats, the whole D&D world is going back to Chaos.

It's a sign of the apocalypse I tell you! Ragnarok is nigh! Repent, the end is near!