Anyone else miss monster books?

[Glyfair]

I can never have enough monster books.


Okay, maybe I can, but monster books are always first on my list to buy.

Addendum: I include the following books under 'monster books:'
- Draconomicon
- Libris Mortis
- Lords of Madness
- Advanced Bestiary

There are monster books and then there are books about monsters. Monster books are primarly for giving a number of monsters to use. Book about monsters give details on how to use them or delves deeper into their background. The above I consider "books about monsters" (except possibly the Advanced Bestiary which I don't remember the details about).

I like both, but I think I prefer monster books. Of course, even my monster books I prefer to give some information about the monsters. The Monster Manual III probably is about the level of information I like in my monster books.

 

[Li Shenron]

Besides the original MM, I haven't bought any other monster book from Wizards', but I have GR's Armies of the Abyss and Legions of Hell, plus the Monsters of Rokugan.

I've been tempted a couple of times to buy the MM2, but when I browse through it I really find only a bunch of monsters which inspire me. These generic books are IMHO a bit running out of ideas... I remember that I was truly appalled by the FF for example.
One of our gamers (and DM) has many WotC books and tried to use them, but at the end the weird monsters with no true background are used in one encounter, and disappear without leaving a mark. If they have at least some otherwise unavailable abilities, they can make for an interesting battle, but that's it.
On the other end of the spectrum, I don't even have space to allocate new "big" creature races. Those would be nice, I remember reading about Nerras, and thinking that they would make for a great NPC race to base an entire campaign around. But if I only use them in a single adventure, it's not deep enough for my taste, and the number of these potential long-term-used races is even too much in those books.

So overall this confusion of mine has basically prevented me to buy more monster books. Instead what I tend to do is to build upon creatures from the MM, using character material. Perhaps I would like books about a type of creature, but instead of focusing on new monsters, I'd like the to expand the existing monsters. Maybe Lords of Madness did something like that... only a pity that aberration are one of my least favourite type.

 

[jdrakeh]

More creative and interesting monsters...less of the monsters that just exist for people to kill them.

Amen. I'd like to see fewer tomes of 'gonzo' monsters for killin' and more themed monster books with some real thought put into fleshing out a series of monsters as characters approrpriate for a given environment (like the old D&D Creature Crucible books).

 

[fnork de sporg]

Well, how gonzo are we talking about?

 

[Pinotage]

Yes, please. More monster books, particularly templates. I love templates. Books on special abilities for monsters would be nice as well, so you could create your own using those abilities.

Pinotage

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I'd like to see monster book structured around a theme. Maybe one book that contains nothing but a crapload of undead, another book would cover outsiders, etc, etc. When I construct an adventure it is usually structured around a theme. If the monster books were similarly structured it'd save time flipping through books.

On the other hand I'd like to see it go back to 2E Monstrous Manual format with the loose leaf pages in the big binders. When running a game I could just take the pages I needed and leave the rest at home so I wouldn't have to tote around a bunch of monster manuals. It'd be cheaper to add more monsters too. Production costs would be lower since game companies wouldn't have to pay publishers for binding... just hole punching.

 

[philreed]

On the other hand I'd like to see it go back to 2E Monstrous Manual format with the loose leaf pages in the big binders. When running a game I could just take the pages I needed and leave the rest at home so I wouldn't have to tote around a bunch of monster manuals. It'd be cheaper to add more monsters too. Production costs would be lower since game companies wouldn't have to pay publishers for binding... just hole punching.

This is what PDFs are for these days.

 

[Dog Moon]

I miss the ecology and habitat sections in the monster manuals. Those made the creatures more interesting and gave them more personality. This is what I would like to see. I also would like to see a few more 'Good' creatures because most creatures are evil and designed basically to be cannon fodder. It seems to me that the only Good creatures are Angelic/Celestial creatures with a few additional odds and ends here and there. I know the monster books are supposed to have encounters for the players, but Good creatures can be used in plenty of encounters too.

The other thing I want more of is pretty much Savage Species 2. Monsters need more options besides taking normal (N)PC options.

 

[Sammael]

I really don't need more monster books. I think WotC are on the right track with their "Creaturenomicon" series, going into more detail about existing monsters and releasing only a couple of new ones per book.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

This is what PDFs are for these days.

Yeah but the PDF's aren't all that cheaper than the hardcover books. I'd rather go back to a binder format with cheaper add-ins. Publishers could still PDF the add-ins which would hopefully be cheaper as well since the cost of a hardcover figures in when deciding on a price for a PDF version of the same book. Publishers want to make sure that the print copies still sell which is the reason the PDF versions still cost so much when the production cost for a PDF is negligable.