Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="GregoryOatmeal" data-source="post: 5724187" data-attributes="member: 6667661">Everyone likes a good list post. Here's another one for you guys.What are your favorite monster-encyclopedias? I'm talking monster manuals that are fun to peruse for ideas on a Tuesday night. Monster books that are just good fun reads on their own right. Any edition will do. I imagine there's probably even some good monster-books that aren't in the realm of gaming. If it's D&D (or D&D style) lets stay away from the core books, as they're essentially almost all the same content. I'm looking for ideas beyond the usual orcs, goblins and zombies.My list is (in no particular order)1) Dark Sun 4E Creature Compendium - If you want to run 4E Dark Sun put your original MM in the closet because this is all you need. Using monsters from any other source (except maybe scorpions and gnolls and a few others) would just dilute the distinct flavor of the campaign setting. Personally I found the 4E books gave me a better grasp of the setting than the 2E books. It was easier for me to "get" what the art was portraying and translate the stat blocks into fleshed out creatures. YMMV of course. 2) Planescape Monstrous Compendiums (all 3) - TSR populated the planes with interesting creatures - these books are just overflowing with creativity and originality. Unlike other monster manuals it feels like many of the creatures are designed for player-interaction rather than combat. Since their functionality seems geared towards populating the planes rather than filling combat sessions I find these books to be incredibly useful when not playing AD&D 2E. The distinct and simple art style really does justice to all their wild ideas.3) Pathfinder Bestiary 2 - In terms of production values, quantity and quality of monsters this is a huge step up from any second Monster Manual WOTC/TSR ever produced (no disrespect to the original AD&D MM2). WOTC seems to be treading water with variants of trolls and reprints of existing monsters from previous editions like Myconids. Meanwhile Paizo is filling big, beautiful books with original monsters. Great value.Post as many as you feel merit a place here.</blockquote>

Verification