Best Monster Books for 3.5

[Aus_Snow]

The Monster Gift Set wasn't a bad buy, so yeah, MM2, MM3 and FF are books I wouldn't discard.

Tome of Horrors and Book of Fiends, though already mentioned, are just that good.

Denizens of Avadnu is worth a look, but only if you want something a bit different. Unusual setting (implied setting, I suppose, being a monster book) and well, unusual monsters too. Freaky, weird, abberant, that kind of thing. Not all of them, mind you.

Oh, and yes, Book of Templates, deluxe edition - with this and/or Advanced Bestiary, you can suddenly get heaps more mileage from your other critter books, without even having to do very much.

There are some truly stunning PDFs available, but I'm not sure if they're your cuppa. Seems a number of folks around here are not keen.

I also like a couple of the fey books, but again, they wouldn't suit everyone's tastes.

 

[Voadam]

Complete Minions is the 3.5 pdf version of Bastion Press' full color 96 page Minions book. Well done evocative descriptions and how the monsters fit into campaign worlds plus wierd otherworldly lean Todd Morasch art. I used a ton of stuff from this.

Fantasy Bestiary by Atlas Games is a 3.0 one I keep going to for my 3.0 games. A huge fantastic collection with a lot of more medieval style stuff.

I used some of the Ravenloft monster book from Arthaus/Sword & Sorcery Studios/White Wolf. I love Ravenloft and the whole gothic horror D&D monster theme.

3e and the OGL produced a ton of fantastic monster books.

I would add my voice to the Tome of Horrors and Book of Fiends endorsements as well.

 

[Voadam]

Theme monster books were also useful to me.

XRP's monster geographica set were fantastic sets of statblocks by CR for various terrain themes. A little light on description and no art (separate art counters by Fiery Dragon) but super useful for when you need a woodland CR 6 monster right now. Or a CR 12 marsh one. Or a CR 3 desert one.

Bastion Press/DragonWing Games put out some terrain sourcebooks that were 1/3-1/2 monster books and they were very good as well. Into the Black, Into the Blue, Into the Green.

EN Publishing has nice pdfs for this as well, presenting monster sourcebooks for places with a tiny bit of setting and good monster descriptions, they have a jungle one, a frozen tundra one, an extraplanar fiend one, etc.

 

[jaerdaph]

In addition to all the good suggestions so far, I'd like to recommend Book of Templates Deluxe Edition from Silverthorne Games.

 

[Grazzt]

I think I would have to vote Tome of Horrors as well...

I'll vote for these too...then again, I'm slightly biased.

But I'd also go with Book of Fiends (Green Ronin) and Fiend Folio (WotC). Both good books IMO.

 

[Alzrius]

Sometimes the best monsters are those that really exist in the world. It wasn't until very recently that people stopped believing fantastic things about wild animals, and stopped fearing their strength.

Betabunny Publishing's massive book, The Bestiary: Predators helps remind GM's of that, and gives a huge amount of actual information on real-world animals (and the occasional cryptid as well).

I recommend all the Tome of Horrors series, GR's Book of Fiends and Monsters of Freeport, plus (I know this was 3.0 but worth it OMO) Dangerous Denizens for Kalamar.

Actually, Dangerous Denizens is v.3.5 (and is a great book, easily equally the best of WotC's v.3.5 monster books).

 

[DMH]

Goodman put out a pdf for 3.5 that collected creatures from its adventures.

The last Wanderer's Guild book is 3.5, Monsters of the Savage Snow (from 3 AM games).

For more templates there are Bodies and Souls from Second World and Template Troves from Silverthorne (both pdf).

 

[freyar]

Great recommendations here.

I'm slightly surprised Grazzt didn't mention it , but his sig does: EN World's Creature Catalog is a free source for converted monsters from older editions.

 

[Wicht]

Actually, Dangerous Denizens is v.3.5 (and is a great book, easily equally the best of WotC's v.3.5 monster books).

Absolutely. I just wish Kenzer would have released it as OGL.

For those that like templates, Rite Publishing has a new book, now available for preorder, entitled, "The Book of Monster Templates."

 

[Eridanis]

Here's another vote for GR's Advenaced Bestiary.

I'll also throw Eden Studio's LIBER BESTARIUS into consideration. It's a book that never got much attention (even on its release), but has some of the most flavorful monsters I've ever seen for 3e.