Getting Monster Manual II added to the SRD

[I'm A Banana]

The SRD is actually at a pretty good place right now.

About the only thing I'd like to see added that isn't already is maybe some of the new SAGA rules, and maybe some of the DMG stuff like town demographics and the wealth by level tables.

Everything else, from monsters to warlocks, is derivative enough that any 3rd party publisher could put it out as OGC and be good.

We don't really need WotC making a lot more OGC. We could use publishers using d20 OGC from other publishers instead of just the SRD, that would be cool. Though it's unlikely since most are moving on from d20 into their own systems at the moment.

 

[RavinRay]

Well, if WotC won't open MM2 wholesale, here's specifically what I want to see as OGC:

• Banshee, and other creatures based on classic mythology.
• Dao and marid (Manual of the Planes). It seems only fair that all five classic genies should have equal open status.
• The xag-ya and xeg-yi energons (Manual of the Planes). If the four elementals typify their home planes, the energons should typify their energy planes.
• Gem dragons. What better way to solidify psionics' appeal than for them to be promoted as the exemplars of the mental arts, much as the chromatic and metallic dragons exemplify arcane magic?

 

[Thurbane]

A bought a copy last Friday, and I wholeheartedly agree!

 

[WereSteve]

I've seen Tome of Horrors creatures in Bastion press adventures (in addition to Necromancer Modules). I'm not sure if I've seen any in Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics modules.

The updated Citadel of Fire from Judges Guild/Goodman Games has a couple of monsters in it from Tome of Horrors:Revised. Don't have a copy handy to reference which ones tho ...

 

[Baby Samurai]

I also agree that after MM I, MM II is the best (FF is nice too). I've been DMing for about 18 years, and I still haven't exhausted the classic monsters from the original MM, the MC, or the 3.5 MM. So I doubt I would need the tripe-like monsters they've tried to pass off in the later MM's, with silly comic book names like bloodrinker and evil boy or what have you.

And as far as CR's in the MM II, the CR/EL/XP system is a travesty of a mockery of a sham anyway, so it matters not.

 

[Razz]

Monster Manual 2 is NOT a bad product. It has the potential to be a GREAT product, but WotC screwed up on a few things.

One of them was they released 3.5E and didn't give the "full treatment" of 3.5 conversions to the MM2 creatures. In other words, MM2 did not get a proper revisions as did MMI. Sure, it was "converted" to 3.5 via the update booklet, but it wasn't "revised".

MM2 has a great source of creatures from 2E that I was glad was carried over from older editions and it has some new creatures that are nice to have. Here's some I thought were awesome:

Asperi
Bladeling
Catoblepas
Celestials (Lupinal and Cervidal)
Clockwork Horror
Dinosaurs
Dire Animals
Elemental Weirds
Firbolg
Fomorian
Galeb Duhr
Gem Dragons (Amethyst, Emerald, Crystal, Sapphire, Topaz)
Genies (Dao, Marid)
Giants (Ocean, Forest, Mountain, Sun)
Immoth
Jermlaine
Leviathan
Linnorms (Gray, Dread, Coprse Tearer)
Loxo
Marash
Meenlock
Megapede
Phoenix
Myconid
Neogi
Ormyrr
Psurlon
Ragewind
Spell Weaver
Sylph
Tempest
Vaporighu
Yak Folk
Yugoloths (Arcanaloth, Marraenoloth, Yagnoloth)

It also had son very unique and interesting new creatures:

Bone Ooze
Deathbringer
Demons
Devils
Flesh Jelly
Hellfire Wyrm
Nimblewright
Ocean Strider

The templates were very cool, too, I'm sure EVERYONE has used a template from MM2

Half-Golem
Tauric
Titanic
Warbeast

So, I really don't understand what the hate is about MM2. It has some great stuff compared to MM3 and MM4.

Think of it as "creatures and templates they wanted to put into MMI but had no room"

 

[Phlebas]

Monster Manual 2 is NOT a bad product. It has the potential to be a GREAT product, but WotC screwed up on a few things.

One of them was they released 3.5E and didn't give the "full treatment" of 3.5 conversions to the MM2 creatures. In other words, MM2 did not get a proper revisions as did MMI. Sure, it was "converted" to 3.5 via the update booklet, but it wasn't "revised".
.................

It may be a minor point, but its a pain in the backside when prepping / DM'ing to have to continually check back to the errata to see what they missed / changed - it can make a big difference to an encounter. That may be the biggest reason to put MMII into the SRD (as 3,5) to make it up to all those stuck with the 3,0 version....

Personally I think most of the MM's are a little hit & miss with MMII no better or no worse than MMIII (or I etc)

 

[Thurbane]

I also think adding the creatures from MMII to the SRD/OGL would help heal some of the public relations wounds that some of their recent decisions have inflicted, but that's a discussion for another thread...

 

[RavinRay]

It also had son very unique and interesting new creatures:

Hellfire Wyrm

And the hellfire wyrm just might have to be re-written as the planar true dragon of Baator. Too drastic a re-write? No more drastic than the re-writes for the archfiends from Book of Vile Darkness to the Fiendish Codexes (like Pazuzu getting "promoted" as an obyrith).

 

[Grymar]

What would be great would be a product or site like d20srd where they combined the monsters from all of the OGC books, be they from Wizards or Necromancer or anywhere else. One massive monster site where you could choose from just hundreds upon hundreds of monsters at a time.

Would something like that be legal?