Best 3.5 monster books?

[Aberzanzorax]

Tome of horrors 1-3 by Necromancer Games

Monsternomicon 1 and 2 by Privateer Press


I liked the flavor of Sword and Sorcery's Creature Compendiums 1-3...but I'd put them on a (but just one) tier below "greatest".

Fantasy Bestiary by Atlas had a great approach, but the monsters themselves were slightly generic for me...also on tier "almost super awesome, but not quite". Ditto for Liber Bestiarus.


Then there were the monster books that were more specialized...but not sure if you want to know about those as well. (e.g. Book of Hell, Anger of Angels, Libris Mortis, etc)


EDIT: agreement on book of Unremitting Horror. BE CAREFUL if you buy it though...if you care about system there's one for Gumshoe and one for d20, as is mentioned above.

 

[Desdichado]

My clear favorites are the Monsternomicon by Privateer Press and the Book of Fiends by Green Ronin.

 

[Stormonu]

My favorites are

Tome of Horrors (Revised)
Creature Collection (Revised)
Fiend Folio

Of course, I've also got my own out - Bestiary Malfearous on RPGNow/DriveThruRPG. (Hey, I like it). Also, I have a free follow-up version Bestiary Nefarious on ScribD, though it lacks the pics & counters of the previous volume.

 

[Shemeska]

MM3

And then there are the books of the monster line:
Fiendish Codex I
Lords of Madness
Draconomicon
Fiendish Codex II

- of note, I'm not including LM, because compared to the others of its line, it's disturbingly light on flavor text and just didn't strike me as a source of continued inspiration compared to the others, which are some of the best 3.x books out there.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

MM1, just because it has most, if not all the "basic" monsters you would have in a campaign.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Zaukrie]

I have some of these available, if anyone wants them...

 

[Ghostwind]

Book of Fiends
Monsternomicon 1 & 2
Minions: Fearsome Foes

I get more use of these than anything.

 

[jdrakeh]

I have some of these (e.g., Advanced Bestiary, Book of Unremitting Horror, Libris Mortis, et al.) but will need to follow up on quite a few others. Thanks for the suggestions, folks.

 

[Knightfall]

I must also vote for Monsternomicon, Vol I v.3.5; Tome of Horrors: Revised; Denizens of Avadnu (see below); and Creature Collection: Revised.

However, with the Avadnu book, I would look at getting The Complete Denizens of Avadnu PDF from RPGNow.com. It is updated to 3.5. I think the original DoA is 3.0, but I'm not sure.

Personally, I like Tome of Horrors II and III more than the first one but that is because I prefer books over PDFs.

I also recommend Creature Collection III and the monster book for Arcana Unearthed, which is v.3.5.

 

[humble minion]

Repeating what everyone else says really.

MM1
MM3
Lords of Madness
The Monsternomicons
Book of Templates Deluxe
Advanced Bestiary

MM5 had some really excellent work in it, but the book as a whole was pretty uneven.