"Bait Monsters" and the "Trained Mindset"

[Rechan]

I remember people were mad the Mycomid wasn't in the 3e MM.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

I would say that anything in the 3.5 SRD Monster listing that does not get left out on the "Stupid or Redundant Monster Principle" should be in the first Monster Manual.

The giants in the 3.5 SRD have a lot of redundancy: Hill and Stone are the weaker non-magical giants, Fire and Frost the Norse elemental ones, Cloud and Storm the magical ones that live in cloud castles. I was expecting them to to cut one each of the Hill/Stone and Cloud/Storm pairs, so this is a bit of a surprise.

 

[hong]

You could have fire and frost giants in the MM, but without separate stat blocks for each. You just say "frost giants look like such-and-such; they get cold resist instead of fire resist, and blah bonus instead of foo bonus."

You know, kind of like how aquatic elves don't have a separate stat block to normal elves in the 3.5 MM.

 

[howandwhy99]

WotC needs to make money to be profitable.

If you are an RPG player, prepare to be manipulated into spending more money.

This isn't a condemnation on publishers, it's a fact about the nature of RPGs. Only the SRD is needed and even then new rules are only an option thereafter. It's lousy as a business model.

So, Miniatures need to be randomized to be profitable. If iconic monsters in MM books need to be split up for hardcovers to be profitable, -- for WotC to be profitable -- then I'd rather they stay in business.

--
That said, monster creation rules are almost undoubtedly going to exist. Make your own (or steal all the ENworlders' who will certainly be doing so).

 

[psionotic]

I do hope they leave out some iconic monsters, simply so they can make them suckers good.

Example: Mind Flayer. I don't want the Mind Flayer coming out until the Psionic rules are out. Granted, since monsters won't just get slapped 'spell like ability' and whatnot, this might be less necessary, but I want the MF to jive with psionics in any fashionable way, rather than have to shuffle back and forth.

The only thing gone in the MM that would make me mad is Kobolds. Because by god, I love kobolds, and they better not be gone.

I quite agree about Mind Flayers... If their 'power source' is still going to be Psionic (and it should be) then I'm fine with leaving them out of the game until MM2, assuming psionics will be in the PHB2. Unfortunately for me, that almost means I'll have to wait for my beloved Gith.


Also agree that kobolds *must* be in the MMI. For me, they are the most iconic low-level dungeon foes. I <3 them.

 

[pawsplay]

D&D had frost giants.
BECMI had frost giants.
AD&D had frost giants.
AD&D 2e had frost giants.
D&D 3e had frost giants.

If it doesn't have frost giants, it isn't D&D.

Mystara had frost giants.
Greyhawk had frost giants.
Forgotten Realms had forst giants.
Eberron had frost giants.

If it doesn't have frost giants, it isn't a D&D world. (Yes, I know that puts Dark Sun and maybe Krynn out, which should be obvious).

 

[Lackhand]

Yes, but demonstrate continuity of frost giant _stats_.

I suspect that there will be fire giants; one palette swap later, and I've saved both 1) my campaign and 2) pagecount

 

[Jhaelen]

You could have fire and frost giants in the MM, but without separate stat blocks for each. You just say "frost giants look like such-and-such; they get cold resist instead of fire resist, and blah bonus instead of foo bonus."

You know, kind of like how aquatic elves don't have a separate stat block to normal elves in the 3.5 MM.

That's exactly how I'd like them to do it:
Give some basic stats that are common to all varieties and then one or two paragraphs for each of them to provide some ecology and one or more signature abilities.

 

[Rechan]

Um, Folks?

James said straight up 'Just because Frost Giants aren't in the MM1 doesn't mean that they're not in D&D.' What is this "It's not D&D if there's no Frost Giants" when they will be in there, just in another MM?

 

[pawsplay]

That's exactly how I'd like them to do it:
Give some basic stats that are common to all varieties and then one or two paragraphs for each of them to provide some ecology and one or more signature abilities.

I think there is a bigger difference between hill giants and frost giants than that.