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Favorite/Least Favorite Monster Books
- Thread starter JoeGKushner
- Start date
Grazzt
Demon Lord
But to keep the post on topic, of all the 3e monster books, my least favorite has got to be the "Demons and Devils" book from Fast Forward Entertainment. Talk about a waste of space.
I have a few others that rank near the top (one or two aren't even out yet, so they don't count, I guess), but Monsters of Faerun wasn't all that impressive to me. Nothing to do with the Realms or anything, just didn't find a lot of useful stuff in there.
Same thing for Denizens of Darkness (new Ravenloft monster book). Seems they wasted a lot of space tacking the templates (like Dread template) on monsters and just throwing them in the book.
I have a few others that rank near the top (one or two aren't even out yet, so they don't count, I guess), but Monsters of Faerun wasn't all that impressive to me. Nothing to do with the Realms or anything, just didn't find a lot of useful stuff in there.
Same thing for Denizens of Darkness (new Ravenloft monster book). Seems they wasted a lot of space tacking the templates (like Dread template) on monsters and just throwing them in the book.
the Jester
Legend
Out of what I've seen my least favorite MM so far has to be the Ravenloft Denizens of Darkness. I mean, come on! For the steep price they're asking I'd expect a little more meat. Color art isn't essential, but if I'm paying a buck for less than ten pages if it ain't there _everything else_ better be... and it wasn't. The number of monsters alone was pitiful. Though prolly worth $16 as a softbound.
For my favorite, I'd say the 3e MM covers so many bases that it's got to rank pretty high, but I suspect the Tome of Horrors will be even better. (When does that thing come out, anyway? I've got most of the stuff that'll be in it printed out and in a binder, but I'd like to thin it out...)
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?
Granted, the FF was the home of some of ad&d's biggest dogs, like the nilbog and the clubnek, but there's a lot of great stuff in there. Give it another chance. Convert something weird and use the FF pic for it for a trippy, dirty-feeling monster.
For my favorite, I'd say the 3e MM covers so many bases that it's got to rank pretty high, but I suspect the Tome of Horrors will be even better. (When does that thing come out, anyway? I've got most of the stuff that'll be in it printed out and in a binder, but I'd like to thin it out...)
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?
Granted, the FF was the home of some of ad&d's biggest dogs, like the nilbog and the clubnek, but there's a lot of great stuff in there. Give it another chance. Convert something weird and use the FF pic for it for a trippy, dirty-feeling monster.
Alaric_Prympax
First Post
Teflon Billy said:
Ah...no, LoH is my favorite. Sorry for any misunderstanding.
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Grazzt said:
I thought that the art was really shameful in Denizens of Darkness too. Very 4th party looking. Pitiful considering the wide array of artists that the series has. I mean the old books had much better art and layout. Just my personal rant on an expensive b & w hardcover.
Grazzt
Demon Lord
I agree that the artwork was very poorly done in Denizens, but also I just didnt find anything really exciting in it.
Not to go off topic or anything, but if you guys have that book and the other new 3e Ravenloft books, does it seem to you that they just arent capturing the spirit of Ravenloft with the way they are doing the stuff in 3e? I mean, I wasnt a big 2e fan, but some of the best 2e stuff was in fact Ravenloft stuff.
Maybe its just me, but the new 3e RL stuff seems to be missing something..though I can't put my finger on it. Ah well, perhaps its just me.
Sorry for the minor hijack.
Not to go off topic or anything, but if you guys have that book and the other new 3e Ravenloft books, does it seem to you that they just arent capturing the spirit of Ravenloft with the way they are doing the stuff in 3e? I mean, I wasnt a big 2e fan, but some of the best 2e stuff was in fact Ravenloft stuff.
Maybe its just me, but the new 3e RL stuff seems to be missing something..though I can't put my finger on it. Ah well, perhaps its just me.
Sorry for the minor hijack.
Holy Bovine
First Post
I have to admit that I only have the two Creature Collections from S&SS, MM 3E and Monster of Faruen.
Of those 4 3E monster books I was most dissappointed in CC1. Now some of the monsters are unbelievably cool (Wrack Dragons, Stick Giants, the Hags just to name a few) but the badly screwed up CRs and very amatuerish artwork hurt this product - prehaps fatally.
I do realize that the CR thing has been fixed with some errata (and that did help a lot) but since I can't really pick anything I haven't read I stick with it as the poorest of those 4.
Now to those dissing the Fiend Folio I say only - BAH!
BAH!
Of those 4 3E monster books I was most dissappointed in CC1. Now some of the monsters are unbelievably cool (Wrack Dragons, Stick Giants, the Hags just to name a few) but the badly screwed up CRs and very amatuerish artwork hurt this product - prehaps fatally.
I do realize that the CR thing has been fixed with some errata (and that did help a lot) but since I can't really pick anything I haven't read I stick with it as the poorest of those 4.
Now to those dissing the Fiend Folio I say only - BAH!
BAH!
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