Any interest in a Monster Compendium?

[Felon]

Considering the number of books that have small monster sections, I was pondering whether a compendium of these monsters might be of any interest. Off the top of my head, material could be included from:

Miniatures Handbook
Heroes of Horror
Environment series books (Sandstorm, Frostburn, Stormwrack)
Setting books for Forgotten Realms and Eberron
Dragon magazine articles

Probably could think up other sources. The bottom line is, a lot of folks like to pull their monsters from monster books, rather than lug around a book or Dragon mag just for the opportunity to use one critter out of it.

 

[Remathilis]

And PLEASE Update/Reprint Monsters of Faerun in it!

Add Draconomicon and Libris Mortis (and Lords of Madness), Complete Arcane, Manual of the Planes, Deities and Demigods,

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd rather they didn't. The monsters make up a large part of the environment books and are a major reason to buy them, IMO.

 

[Crothian]

I don't think they need to do this. Unless they made it more player friendly like redoing the summon spells and having better rules to play monsters.

 

[JustKim]

This is like the PrC book idea, there's not enough room. Even before the format change, you were lucky to get 2 monsters to a page. Spells are more like 7 per page, and Spell Compendium is one of WotC's biggest books at nearly 300 pages. The same approach to monsters, without even touching Dragon magazine, would take 900-1,000 pages. Just going from the first few books you listed, assuming no change in format whatsoever..

28 pages for Miniatures Handbook (8 for spells)
17 pages for Heroes of Horror (7 for spells)
54 pages for Frostburn (20 for spells)
61 pages for Sandstorm (20 for spells)
36 pages for Stormwrack (14 for spells)

That's almost 200 pages.

 

[demiurge1138]

What I'd love would be if Paizo did a Monstrous Compendium, a book of all sorts of monsters from Dragon and Dungeon Magazine through the years, ala the Dragon Compendium.

Probably isn't going to happen anytime soon, but it'd rock.

Demiurge out.

 

[megamania]

It would have to be done as volumes which sorta defeats the purpose. Perhaps a Comp of NON-MM 1-4 would work. One JUST of F Realms, one JUST of Dragon mag etc....


Eberron is new / small enough that filling a book would be hard BUT perhaps do in depth insights on creatures from the various books and how they uniquely fit within a place like Eberron.

In the case of Eberron, goblinoids listed with class levels may not be a bad idea so long as they contain a strong Eberron flavor. Same with fiends and so on....

 

[Nyaricus]

Draconomicon, Lords of Madness, Libris Mortis... these are all already monster books - why do you needa compilation of them? They are specialized books, and have more info on those monsters included.

Now, doing something like the complete series with themes monsters (spellcasters, sneaks, tanks, etc) would be a neat idea. I doubt it'd sell though.

 

[frankthedm]

Oh Nine Hells yes!

I've skipped Heroes of Horror, Environment series books (Sandstorm, Frostburn, Stormwrack), and the Setting books for Eberron waiting for that damn book.

 

[taliesin15]

Clearly, there would be a lot of legal tangles to put together something truly encyclopedic, and if it could be done with less mess, and it looks like it will sell, WoTC will do it. Though I must say from my perspective that as long as I have internet access, its kind of pointless.