Favorite third party monster book

[Voadam]

Going down a mental list of what I would call my favorites, the first one in the poll would be Creature Collection 3. I couldn't possibly call all of them my favorites, since the second and especially the first one were really poor, mechanically. So I didn't vote.

Please consider any in the series for ToH or Creature Collections as counting and just specify here which one. So feel free to vote for CC and consider it cast for CCIII.

What would be the first one not on the poll? If you like it better than CCIII then vote for other.

 

[Huw]

Monsternomicon for me. Great art, excellent background and plot hooks, and lots of attention to detail. Plus, I have a signed copy

 

[freyar]

This is a timely poll for me, since I don't have any of them and am looking at monster books as birthday presents. Anyone want to tell me how any of these books compare to the WotC monster gift set (MM2, MM3, and FF)? Thanks!

 

[Mark Plemmons]

I would love to see a detailed write-up of the contents of Beastiary of Krynn and Dangerous Denizens sometime.

There's an ENWorld review of Dangerous Denizens here that might help.

 

[JustKim]

This is a timely poll for me, since I don't have any of them and am looking at monster books as birthday presents. Anyone want to tell me how any of these books compare to the WotC monster gift set (MM2, MM3, and FF)? Thanks!

MM3 is an excellent book, I think the only flak it received was in response to the John Cooper review that brought to light quite a lot of (very small) errors. Fiend Folio was one of those 3.25 books, written during the revision process, and I wasn't a big fan of any particular monster. It receives pretty high praise in "favorite monster book" threads, though, so I think I am a minority.

Monster Manual 2 is alongside the worst of the third party monster books. The new monsters are dull, the updates to older monsters are way off- linnorms need to be completely rewritten- and the updates you can download for the book are only revision-related. It's worth noting that the MM2 that comes in the set has not been revised, it's simply a reprint.

My favorite? Probably Dangerous Denizens, simply because I've actually used monsters from it instead of saying I will eventually. The amount of detail was just right.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's an ENWorld review of Dangerous Denizens here that might help.

He does a good job talking about the appendices, but I don't really get much of a feel for what monsters are in the bulk of the book from that.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I loved the Monsternomicon and can't wait for the second volume. ToH was OK, but didn't really trip my trigger. Denizens of Avadnu is a great monster book filled with bizarre creatures unlike anything else on the market.

 

[DaveMage]

They are all very good, but I had to go Greene.

 

[DMH]

There is one other kind of monster book, of which I know of only one example. Genjitsu's Shaping the Self took the paragon levels and expanded the idea. More or less, they are leveled templates.

 

[VictorC]

No love for the Bestiary of Krynn? It took second place at the Ennies a couple of years back.

It's got my vote... hands down.