Favorite/Least Favorite Monster Books

[ColonelHardisson]

The Fiend Folio does have the best cover of any 1e or 2e monster book.

 

[kenjib]

*plugs his ears*

LALALALALALALA!

Fiend Folio rulezzzz!

LALALALALALALA!

 

[Zaukrie]

Demons and Devils" book from Fast Forward Entertainment is by far the worst book I've seen yet for monsters.

I loved Legions of Hell.

Yes, the FF had many problems, but it gave us some great monsters that are not classics in the game. I also think that CC1 and CC2 have given us some great new monsters. And, if Rifts ever came out with a monsters book capturing all of the freaky, unusual monsters in their many books, I might buy that (I'd definitley buy it if they did d20 conversions, you know, a crossover book). Yes many are too powerful or too wierd, but many are really interesting.

 

[Wolfen Priest]

As for the Fiend Folio- lemme give you scoffers a list of some of the great things from that book:
-slaadi, githyanki, githzerai, sons of Kyuss, thoqqua, Lolth, mustard jellies, algoids, adherers, magnesium spirits, necrophidii, scarecrows, dune stalkers, stunjellies, sussurus, disenchanters... lots and lots of goodies (imho). Not enough for ya? How about caterwauls, caryatid columns, elemental princes of evil, crypt things, yellow musk creepers and zombies, xvarts, penanggelans, apparitions and acherai?

People keep forgetting Skeleton Warriors!! Not to mention Flinds (not original maybe, but cool enough to be copied by Kevin Siembieda nonetheless ~ see my sn *cough cough*)... The Feind Folio Rocqued, in general IMHO.

My favorite monster book would have to be the Creature Collection II, followed by CC I, then 3e MM. Yes, the CC books are just simply more interesting to read; there's more detail, often better art, and they are more unique which IMHO is what fantasy (or any) gaming is all about.

 

[Voadam]

At first Denizens of Darkness really disappointed me but the more I go through it the more I like it, it is growing on me. I am still sorely disappointed in the lack of standard arcane creation guidelines for constructs and in most of the art (although the lycanthropes are OK as is the guy who does the ghoul lord and snow wraith). However there is a lot of really cool stuff both that I had in 2e and that is new to me (because I did not own MC appendix III or the nightmare realms).

I was sorely disappointed in the 3e MM. While the stats were great and useful, the descriptions went to hell compared to 2e. And the layout and mostly poor artwork don't help. I find the srd much easier to use than the book. The new critters didn't do anything for me, acid spitters, sonic blasters etc. As a free srd with searchable and copyable computer text it rocks, but as a now $30 book I would pass.

I was also disapointed in how hard it was to come up with the monster creation rules, without the dragon article I was having a hard time reverse engineering any consistent design guidelines.

As for errors, check out the hill giant charisma compared to its description and the other giants.

 

[ForceUser]

Of the books I own...

Favorite: 3E MM. This book crams in the goodness. The format doesn't bother me because I only use it for reference while building an adventure - I write monsters up on index cards for in-play use. I can't wait for MM2!

Least favorite: would have to be CC1. Bleh. MM gave me goblins, orcs, kobolds, gnolls, and ogres. Exactly how many other evil humanoid races do I need?! CC2 is an improvement.

 

[tsadkiel]

I use the plain old Monster Manual more than any other book - I've gotten a lot of use out of the Liber Beastarius, though (I playtested it), and am really looking forward to getting my hands on the actual book.

 

[toberane]

But to keep the post on topic, of all the 3e monster books...

The topic wasn't 3E monster books, it was monster books in general.

And it might be because it was the first monster book I ever owned, and so I read it constantly for several months, or it might be becuase I was only 11 years old when I got it, but my favorite has to be the (apparently, much despised) Fiend Folio. I liked the unusual creatures, and loved the Githyanki and Githzerai.

For similar reasons, I liked the 1st edition Monster Manual 2 as well.

I don't really have a least favorite monster book, but I'd probably go with Monsters of Faerun as my least favorite. Not that I don't like it, I just haven't had much use for it so far. We game in the forgotten realms every week, and I think we've actually used it like once, maybe.

 

[toberane]

The Fiend Folio does have the best cover of any 1e or 2e monster book.

Right on! Every player I knew wanted that Githyanki sword on the cover.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I hate to ask a potentially damning question, but is there something inherant in the idea of 2 pages of monster text that offends you? As I recall, the 2nd ed. monsterous compendium had many 2 page entries.

Well, if you have the new issue of campaign, you'll see that it's not two filled out pages. It's one page, and one page of illustration. If asking about Soverign Stone...