Anyone else miss monster books?

[Hussar]

For a monster book, I would love to see a decent number of fairly stock monsters done up as standard and then advanced all the way to the max in stat block format. Little or no art, just reams of stat blocks so I could just leaf open the book, find the correct creature, advanced up to the right CR and poof, enter the stat block into my adventure.

I have enough "creative" critters to last me for quite a while. What I want now is for someone to do all the tedious grunt work of advancing/templating these critters so I can cut down on my prep time.

 

[Shade]

I'd like to see a Monster Manual-style monster book about once a year. So many great monsters still exist in past versions of the game that have yet to be officially updated, and many more great critters are found in the pages of Dragon and Dungeon, all of which could be included in an annual book.

I'd like to see these books follow the format of the Fiend Folio rather than the Monster Manuals, however.

In addition to these books, I'd love to see them continue in the tradition of Draconomicon and Lords of Madness with themed books. The upcoming Fiendish Codex sounds like it will be the pinnacle of what I'm looking for.

What I don't want to see are batches of new monsters just for the sake of being new (when an update of a classic would suffice), any more variants on existing humanoids (i.e. forestkith goblins, poison dusk lizardfolk), or sample advanced creatures that are nothing more than monsters with class levels. (I'm fine with those that have been advanced by Hit Dice, or better yet are actually different than their lesser versions, like the ancient night twist).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'm always up for a new monster book. It's useful for keeping the PCs on their toes. But I'm not so keen on new templates. "Oh look, a goblin made of negative-energy charged jelly!"

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I only really used the MM, the first TOH, and the Green Ronin fiend books. I think that pretty much covered my monster needs. Eventually you start getting stuff that is too nutty or niche for me to find use for.

 

[Nebulous]

I always enjoy new monster books, although the usefullness of them varies from product to product. I am more indundated with monsters than i will ever truly use, EVER, but i like to pick through the books. As someone else mentioned, a great picture of a monster can write an adventure all by itself.

The Monster's Handbook by Fantasy Flight is one of my favorites, with feats and such for modifying existing categories of monsters.

 

[Henry]

I don't actively hunt for them, but I'd say the rate of release for 2004 and 2005 were just right for me. The big thing for me is not to make a bunch of silly monsters (triapheg? Trilloch? Flumph?) but to make some that I can use.

In-game, though, I don't try to introduce a bunch of different types - if I'm introducing more than 50 or so in a campaign, I'm putting in too much "wow" factor and not enough thought to what these things are doing out there.

 

[Kunimatyu]

I want more monsters that use geniunely good gameplay principles. Monster Manual 3 was very big on this, with creative monsters that would often sidestep PC metagaming attempts. Nearly every MM3 monster I've sent up against the party has forced them to think and generally been a much more fun fight than many others. (for those interested, Skindancer, Summoning Ooze, and the Voidmind template were real winners)

Don't get me wrong, I love the ecology stuff and fitting the monster into the world. But give me an awesome illustration and a small writeup on the monster and I can put it in my world in an interesting way.

What I don't want is yet another 6HD thing with Improved Grab.

 

[JamesDJarvis]

I agree with Crothian.

A new book of monsters like the Monsternomicon would be great. Filled with unique concepts linked with interesting backgrounds, plot hooks and great illustrations ... a book like that would be a winner.

But another MM ? Nope.

the Monsternomicon is fanatstic and I would certainly buy more monster books if they were of that calibre and style. I'd buy the MM agains if id was dressed up like thmonsternomicon, I'd even buy an Ebberon book that was as good as the monsternomicon.

 

[Jackelope King]

Fewer Monster Manuals. These are almost as useless to me as modules and adventures are, since I vastly prefer using NPC humanoids as opponents in combat. I get plenty of little monster suppliments from campaign settings and other supplimental material (like the monsters included in Complete Arcane) that I have little need for more monsters I'll rarely (if ever) use.

More things along the lines of WotC's Nemesis series... Lords of Madness was my favorite WotC book of the year. That's how I'd like to see monsters presented, not as yet another 200-odd pages of things I might use someday if I run that sort of game.

 

[jdrakeh]

Well, how gonzo are we talking about?

Well, specifically, I meant monsters where 'gonzo' is the primary feature. As in 'sack of hit points with wicked cool appearance' - I'd rather see more monsters with fleshed out ecologies that are presented with an eye towards suspending disbelief, as opposed to merely looking cool.