Anyone else miss monster books?

[Raloc]

On another thread talking about Monster Manual IV, it was noted that perhaps with five years worth of d20 companies making various monster books, that there are enough monster books and any more are a waste of time.

I disagree 100%.

With monsters able to be customized with levels, hit dice advancement, and templates, among other bits now like specific feats, PrCs, substitution levels, paragon levels, etc... monsters can be as changing as the GM needs them.

Now I remember Mongoose was coming out with a huge monster book for Gen Con, but thanfkully, they had John Cooper look it over and decided to do it right and hopefully when those 3.5 monsters are revealed, the issues will be minmized.

Necromancer has Tome of Horrors III coming out.

Wizards has Monster Manual IV coming out.

Silverthrone Games just came out with the PDF, Template Troves III.

I say that the era of monsters is not quite over year and that the saturation point some fear for new monsters, hasn't hit the same level as some of the hatred we see for Prcs, Feats, and other bits.

Opinions? More monster books in '06 or less?

Personally, I love monster books. A good monster or template can really swing a session. I used a mindvoid rogue as the enemy captain of a ship for the first session in my campaign, and the players loved it (and couldn't figure out wth it was either, which was fun).

Edit: That said, I agree with the general tone of the thread, in that I don't want just a strange/weird appearance with a boatload of hit points, as that's entirely useless to me.

 

[Dark Psion]

I would like to see more books like the Draconomicon, that play off the 3rd edition Creature Types. I also like the Ecology type articles and books. I would love to see more pdf.s like the Elminster's Ecologies back in 2e.

Monster books are also the one book where the art really matters, the recent Iron Heroes Beastiary has horrible art, so bad I have trouble taking the monsters seriously. So quality does mater.

 

[jgbrowning]

If anyone's interested I'll be releasing the first A Magical Society Agressive Ecology PDF next year in January called The Undead Leviathan. It's roughly 18 pages going over a single ecology and how players can interact with it. There will be more to come, but they're slow to write.

joe b.

 

[Imret]

There's a lot of good ideas that've already been offered in this thread, so I'll keep it brief.

Quite simply, I love monster books, ecology entries or not. All three Monster Manuals, FF, both ToH, loads of template collections, all the WotC "about monsters" books...I'll buy monster books for settings I don't intend to play in (IK, Dragonlance, Midnight) on the strength of one browse-through if I have to stop more than a half-dozen times to read the whole entry of a monster that fascinates me. If I can look at a creature and see a niche for it, I'm happy with the product before my eyes.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

I'm luke warm on monster books myself. I have tons of monsters that have spawned adventure ideas that I will probably never get to use (like my artic campaign) so monster books are the last thing I am looking for right now. That said stuff like Lords of Madness really appeals to me as they go into a specific type of monster in much more detail than normal.

 

[Nightfall]

Give me Tome of Horrors III or give me death!!

Better yet just give me Tome of Horrors III.

 

[fafhrd]

I have one request. No more golems. All the sane ideas have been done. Most of the insane ideas as well. I don't want to see any cheese golems or feces golems or any other (insert substance here) golems.

Who can afford these blasted things anyway? If PCs balk at the price tag, you can bet that those poor ....um, poor npcs surely will. Ever looked at their suggested wealth by level? Hmph. I particularly enjoy the alchemical golem's eberron flavor text, where the creation reqs are likely well beyond good ol' Tzandro's capability.

 

[Nightfall]

That's why I liked the Scarred Lands. Our all golems are spontantous (or at least funded by a city.) Well maybe a good number of them are anyway.

 

[fafhrd]

That's why I liked the Scarred Lands. Our all golems are spontantous (or at least funded by a city.) Well maybe a good number of them are anyway.

Night,

Can you explain what you mean by spontaneous?
<-totally ignorant of SL

 

[Knightfall]

But another MM ? Nope.

Normally, I'd give Monster Manual IV a shot, but WotC says it will use the new stats block format, which was originally used for NPCs in several recent products and on their website. I don't like the new format at all, for monsters entries, and I will vote my displeasure by not buying it. (Strangely, I don't mind it "too much" for NPCs.)

Change for the sake of change. Yuck.

I would like to see more books like the Draconomicon, that play off the 3rd edition Creature Types. I also like the Ecology type articles and books. I would love to see more pdf.s like the Elminster's Ecologies back in 2e.

You know, when I first started reading this thread the first thing that came to mind was the 2E Elminster's Ecologies. Those were some of the best resources that made monsters more than just a collection of stats.

Another great monster book is the Creatures of Freeport book by Green Ronin. It has less monsters in it, but it goes into more detail about a new monster's place in the world and in a campaign. Great book. I also agree with Nebulous regarding FFG's L&L Monster's Handbook, which is a diamond in the rough, when it comes to d20 monster books.

I tend to be very picky about which d20 monster books I buy. Up until MM IV, I've bought all the official MM-style books, although I hummed and hawed over Fiend Folio and Monster Manual III. I bought the former for the Ahuizotl, Bacchae, Caryatid Column, Dark Ones, Fensir, 'Half-' templates, Jackalwere, Mongrelfolk, Ophidian, Selkie, Shedu, Skulk, Spriggan, Yurian, Zodar, and the Yugoloths. I bought the latter for the Eberron races, alternate Lizardfolk & Trolls, and the Yugoloths, but was impressed by the number of new creatures (not old 2e monster converted to 3e) even though the stats were not bulletproof.

Of the other d20 monster books out there (and not mentioned above), I've bought the following: Creatures of Rokugan (3.0), Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts (3.0), and Minions: Fearsome Foes (3.0). As I am a contributor to both Book of Templates: Deluxe Edition (3.5) and Template Trove I (3.5), I was provided a free copy of the PDF versions.

I've toyed with the idea of purchasing some of the titles in Goodman Games "The Complete Guide" series, but have held off so far. I'd love to see a revised print version of the Complete Guide to Treants, and I'm "seriously" considering the Complete Guide to Fey. However, my FLGS doesn't seem to order in a lot in this series, and I can't say for certain whether or not I believe it will be worth my time to hunt for them. I've also looked carefully at "The Wanderers Guild" series, but have yet to seriously consider any of those.

Anyway, as you can tell, I'm very picky about the monster books I buy. For some reason I decided to sell JD&HG. In hindsight, it was a mistake even though it was a 3.0 book. :\

Cheers!

KF72