General Monster Manual 3 Thread

[TerraDave]

I too would like to see older monsters revised to account for these fixes. Maybe some revised versions of iconic MM1 monsters could be released thru DDi or one of the Essentials supplements?

Its Monster Vault. Also comes with counters.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hello there!

Just wanted to echo the general opinion on this book. It is excellent. Its now vying with Open Grave and the Realms Campaign book for the position of 'my favourite 4E book'. Great work WotC.

Minor nitpicks I would have are...

1. The new changes are a tad baffling and don't seem to be universally applied (hopefully DMG3 will make sense of this).

2. Assuming (for example) I wanted to run an adventure culminating in a battle with Ogremoch - pretty much every other statblock in his entry would be irrelevant in that adventure. I understand that you don't want the Ogremoch entry filling the book, but you could probably have something akin to a two-tier structure with some stat blocks revolving around his cult and others revolving around his realm's inhabitants.

3. The flipside of #2...without a focal personality or icon, many race entries (and I am thinking more towards the epic side of things) seem a bit anaemic. Thats one of the reasons I always thought demons made for such great villains...because you have these unique demon lords and princes as focal points. Its something lost to the Forsaken, Tulgar and Weavers. Again, this isn't something that works for all entries, but in the spirit of 'more fluff' a few more personalities can't hurt.

But as I said, those were minor nitpicks, its a brilliant book and I thoroughly recommend it.

 

[Aegeri]

Bunch of powers

I've never seen PCs take those ever. Many of them IMO would be very useful, because recharge powers are often the most dangerous!

 

[Gort]

I've never seen PCs take those ever. Many of them IMO would be very useful, because recharge powers are often the most dangerous!

They're especially good against solos.

 

[avin]

Finally got mine MM3 and I gotta say THANK YOU Wotc, for the extra fluff.

I was gladly surprised that Ultroloths mantained some of their Yugoloth feeling.

 

[tallyrand]

I've just gotta ask, were Mimics always this smart? Int of 19 and 26? Seriously, forget hanging around in a musty old dungeon, I'd hire one as my accountant. I mean is ambushing people really that ingrained in them, are adventurers really that delicious? These guys should be running the show, not "lurking within the shadows to devour the remains of victims that [other] monsters cannot consume." The lvl 16 Impersonator Mimic has more going for it than the Doppleganger ever dreamed.

 

[fanboy2000]

are adventurers really that delicious?

Yes. The entirety of the D&D universe is, I think, built on this being true.

 

[tbarrie]

I've just gotta ask, were Mimics always this smart? Int of 19 and 26? [...] These guys should be running the show, not "lurking within the shadows to devour the remains of victims that [other] monsters cannot consume."

Well, they wouldn't necessarily be running the show, because of course they have to compete with all the other 4E creatures who are much smarter than humans on average. (A quick list using the Monster Manual 3 alone: Arcanians, Banderhobbs, Beholders, Cambions, most Demons and Devils, Dragons, Forsaken, Foulspawn, Frost Giants, Gremlins, Hags, Krakens, Minotaurs, Nagpas, Nymphs, Tulgar, and Weavers.)

In humanity's defense, we can compete quite respectably with Cloakers on the intellectual front. And we're, like, way smarter than Catoblepasses. Go us!

 

[Knowme]

Yes. The entirety of the D&D universe is, I think, built on this being true.

My players always wonder why every monster is carrying a bottle of ketchup.

 

[MrMyth]

I've just gotta ask, were Mimics always this smart? Int of 19 and 26? Seriously, forget hanging around in a musty old dungeon, I'd hire one as my accountant. I mean is ambushing people really that ingrained in them, are adventurers really that delicious? These guys should be running the show, not "lurking within the shadows to devour the remains of victims that [other] monsters cannot consume." The lvl 16 Impersonator Mimic has more going for it than the Doppleganger ever dreamed.

Keep in mind, raw intelligence has no real connection to how human a creature's motivations may or may not be.

The Mimic's intelligence I could certainly see as a sort of perfect understanding of shapes and mannerisms - thus allowing it to perfectly copy forms, figure out how best to lure food into traps, what sort of shapes would be the most enticing, etc. But all of these genius calculations are still entirely in service to its nature - a creature that wants food, and doesn't really care about anything beyond that.

If you could hear its thoughts, it might be an endless series of numerical observations about its environment and the creatures it observes, but there wouldn't be any emotional connections attached to those observations, or any desires other than, of course, lurking and eating.