Collections of Monsters (Your best resource)

ChurchyLaFemme

First Post
Hey guys,

I've recently established DMing as an appropriate playground for my mind's constant plots and creations. Appropriately, I've been compiling a collection of resources to help manifest my ideas — I've been particularly fond of those that tackle broad concepts like horror, cosmology and vile darkness. My newest interest is monsters; I've read through several 3E books (MM1&2, Fiend Folio, etc.), and each has had its strengths and weaknesses. In line with my not-too-specific mentality, I've enjoyed templates the most up to this point (leading to me ordering the Advanced Bestiary earlier today).

Still, I'm curious which books and magazines (d20 or otherwise) have provided you with the most inspiration! Ideally, there's one perfect compilation to be discovered (wishful thinking, I know) and purchased.

Please provide some sense of the general method of delivery/description. For instance, I'm a fan of detailed pictures/personalities, while not so big on lore and history. Thanks!
 

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Denizens of Avadnu, I would imagine you can find this book cheap as unfortuantely it did not sell well. But it is a hard back full color monster book with very creative creatures in it. I want to mention this one specifically because of all the great monster books out there it is one of the least known. I wrote a review on it years ago, hopefully it, the review, holds up.

[sblock]Denizens of Avadnu

Monsters, monsters everywhere and not a hero to kill. That’s how its feeling these days with so many good quality monsters books. This one though separates itself by its look and organization. I have never heard of Inner Circle Games before. This is the first book I have seen by them; though I did review a PDF of theirs that is basically an extension of these books (it covers mainly high level monsters). But after this one release I am now eagerly awaiting whatever else these guys do. This book will put them on the d20 radar; I just hope they can stay there.

Denizens of Avadnu is the monster book for the campaign world Avadnu of which I have not seen, I am not sure its out yet. The book is full color with glossy pages. It is over two hundred and twenty pages and is hardbound. I am very surprised they went this rout for their first product. It is a great way to get noticed and it worked. But it is a gamble that I hope works for them.

This book is filled with monsters, many of them strange and weird. The book was written with the understanding that many people will use this book for different campaign worlds. They separated the Avadnu information from the general information for this purpose. They also suggest that one slowly introduce creatures from here into other worlds because they are a bit different. I like that the authors are aware of it and make note of it in the introduction.

Before I get to the specifics of the monsters and other things in the book I really want to mention the art and layout. This is a good looking book. The pictures are very styled making the feel of the creatures and setting come alive. The stats are all in a black background with the monster information on the normal tan that they use. Next to each stat black the CR is listed in a bigger number on a red background so one can easily see the CR.

The book has some new ideas in it like the Voidspawn. This is a new subtype that is really evil. There is not a lot on where they come from but killing one will leave an aura of evil on the people who kill it. They can also make creatures summoned near them evil as well. There area few new skills like scent which is great as a skill. Another one I really like is perfect recall; it is for creatures with life spans of thousands of years so they can recall with perfect clarity anything they have experienced. Some of the new feats I am not so wild about though. They have what are basically met magic feats for spell like abilities. To balance them the abilities can take a few rounds to use when modified. Spending a few rounds for one ability even if it was maximized seems a little weak.

The monsters themselves can be a little strange, but they seem well balanced and interesting. There is the Blood Ooze, a creature borne from battlefields and places of mast slaughter. Then there are the flying Phylaerns. These ancient and good creatures are a sign of hope and are thought to be the servants of the gods. Then there is the Wispheri, a race of giants that get so bit they actually turn to mist and go to the Ethereal plane. There are many creative and strange creatures in this book. The level of creativity is very high and impressive.

All in all this is one of the better monster books on the market. The production value here is very high and the creativity is just flowing through the pages. It is one of the most impressive first products I’ve seen. Heck, its one of the most impressive products on the market. [/sblock]
 


Also by GR: the Book of Fiends is very, very good.

So are the 3.X "monster type" series of books from WotC that I've read: Lords of Madness, Draconomicon, Fiendish Codices.

For inspiration, Paizo's compile Dragon Ecologies and Classic Monsters Revisited are excellent fluff-wise (and I hear good things about their other "monster revisited" books).

If you like templates, I hear great things about the Book of Templates (Silverthorne games). I have this on PDF but haven't had a chance to read it yet.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention EN World's own Creature Catalog. Stats are 3.X and the monsters are older, but there are some really cool ones there.
 

Complete Minions Full color 3.5 monster book pdf by Bastion Press. Exotic alienesque art from the odd stylings of Todd Morasch. Good monster descriptions with links between several monsters. I've used a bunch from here.

I really like the template sourcebook pdfs from Silverthorne Games. There are theme ones such as the symbiote and disease template sourcebook and then the ever expanding big general book of templates. The deluxe book of templates is also a print book that was distributed by Goodman games.

Ravenloft 3e by Arthaus/White Wolf produced Denizens of Dread and Denizens of Darkness, 3.5 and 3.0 horror themed monster sourcebooks in both print and pdf. I DMed a bunch of ravenloft in 2e and these were familiar favorites, I really liked the 2e descriptions and art of them. At first I was dissapointed by the sparser descriptions and different art in 3e but it grew on me and I've used more than a few from it. I still find the 2e ones more evocative though if you can find those.

I've found I really like terrain themed monster books so:

EN Critters Series of 3.5 pdfs with a neat little background setting and good descriptions with links between the monsters and full color though not so refined art. The monster token sheets are a nice touch.

The "Into the" series by DragonWing Games are 3.5 terrain sourcebooks that are about one third monster book each.

If you want stats for terrain and CR appropriate monsters then you want the Monster Geographica series by Expeditious Retreat Press which collects and organizes OGC monsters by terrain and CR from different sources and updates them to 3.5. Sparse descriptions and no art but useful stats and niches. Complimentary art counter collections for each of the monsters is done in products from Fiery Dragon. The full color art is done by Claudio Pozas and is excellent.

Another one with superior art is the insanely cheap 3.5 275 page full color Complete Book of Denizens by Inner Circle. The print version is Denizens of Avadnu and available cheap as well. Check out the art gallery on their website for good alien monster inspirations.

Tome of Horrors Revised is another insanely good deal pdf with tons of old edition monster conversions plus new monsters sprinkled throughout, a particularly fun demon and devil section. The print 3.0 version is hard to find and often expensive but out there. The descriptions are sparse but a ton of old favorites about which there is a lot of existing material. The follow up ones are all new monsters.
 

This is great stuff guys =). I appreciate the feedback.

I'm wondering if there's one ultra-resource, a favorite among your collection that makes its way into every one of your campaigns. I'm going to school soon, and I anticipate most of the cores will be available (Monster Manuals, Draco/Madness/Libris, etc.); what interests me more is the idea of one, eccentric collection that features a general spectrum of monsters that sheds new light on the idea of a 'generic' NPC encounter. I want to introduce a fresh fantasy 'norm' in my upcoming games.

More than for my benefit, however, I wanted to encourage a discussion on your favorite creature compilations. I remember seeing a thread on favorite Forgotten Realms sources — essentially, I'm wondering which book(s) have influenced (or provided) the monsters in your campaigns the most?
 

For me the go to one is Complete Minions. I got it early, read it completely through, liked it, I've used it a bunch, and it has a bunch of concepts I like. Its monsters and concepts are in my consciousness ready to fill needs that I seen in my games. I own all the creature collections, for example, but have only flipped through them so they are not as prominent when I consider monsters to fit in my immediate gaming needs as a DM.

Finding one source you like and are familiar with is the key part I believe. When my game went to a LE military Outlands planar gate city and I was considering replacing the default humans with more exotic races the asherake from CM jumped into my mind instantly as a possibility. When coming up with ideas for the goblins in my Wildwood game I thought of the CM Faust as a good goblinoid chieftan. When looking for a low CR jungle ambush beastie the Vore was there. When looking for an exotic nonhuman forest good guy humanoid tribe the dover came to mind. When retooling a demon artefact causing a drought the salt demons were in my consciousness.

Denizens of Dread and Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary are close seconds.

Many big monster sourcebooks can fill the same purposes. Monsternomicon can give you ogrun, different goblins, and wierd trolls and trollkin as sentients while it has plenty of non sentient beasties, odd undead, and different fiends. The creature collections can give you rat men, odd undead, etc. Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary can give you lots of fey, beasties, gem golems, etc.

Find one you like, then delve into it so it becomes familiar to you. If it is a third party one IME it is highly likely it will be new to the PCs in your game.
 

You like horror and vile darkness? Then you need to check out The Book of Unremitting Horror from Pelgrane Press (the link is to the PDF version; print copies were made also, though).

Written for d20 Modern, this book describes a series of original monstrosities, all except one opening with a short (usually a single page) of opening fiction that's incredibly chilling in how it drives home the horror of what the creature is about. Extremely well done line artwork and an "all that remains" section detailing the creature's victims make each entry truly frightening to read. This is definitely a monster book to pick up if you want to have vile darkness in your games.
 

Hey guys,

I've recently established DMing as an appropriate playground for my mind's constant plots and creations. Appropriately, I've been compiling a collection of resources to help manifest my ideas — I've been particularly fond of those that tackle broad concepts like horror, cosmology and vile darkness. My newest interest is monsters; I've read through several 3E books (MM1&2, Fiend Folio, etc.), and each has had its strengths and weaknesses. In line with my not-too-specific mentality, I've enjoyed templates the most up to this point (leading to me ordering the Advanced Bestiary earlier today).

Still, I'm curious which books and magazines (d20 or otherwise) have provided you with the most inspiration! Ideally, there's one perfect compilation to be discovered (wishful thinking, I know) and purchased.

Please provide some sense of the general method of delivery/description. For instance, I'm a fan of detailed pictures/personalities, while not so big on lore and history. Thanks!

My favorite MM's are Monsternomicon I and II; however, I use a lot of what I consider to be cool books such as:

Green Ronin's Book of Fiends
WotC's Fiends of the Abyss (or some similar title that is escaping me right now).
Necro Games Tome of Horrors I, II, and III
Sword and Sorcery Creature Catalog I, II, and III
 

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