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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kanegrundar" data-source="post: 873307" data-attributes="member: 3913">I agree 100%.  The Monsternomicon is a great monster book.  It's full of imaginative ideas that really gives a good feel for the Iron Kingdoms setting.  It blows other books like both Creature Collections, Tome of Horrors, Monster Manual 2, and Liber Bestarius out of the water.  Here's how I rank my monster/race book collection:Monsternomicon- A simply awe-inspiring book.  It alone made me look into the Iron Kingdoms, and I'm glad I did.  Great setting, even if you're not really into the whole "Steampunk" genre.Savage Species- I really like this one a lot.  It has some great templates, plus the idea of monster classes has lead me to convert a lot of ECL monsters into classes.  Some may hate it, but I think it's a valuable resource.Bastards and Bloodlines- Say what you will about elf and unicorn crossings, but the races in this book are really interesting.  Sure, I'm re-writing a few backgrounds since I don't like the idea of beastiality in my games, but the races are too good not to use.Monster Manual- Simple and basic.  This book is chock full of good ol' standbys for my games.Fiend Folio- WotC's best monster collection to date.  While my games don't tend to get into the high levels, I know if they do the Fiend Folio will see a LOT of use.  Even then there are some cool new planetouched races and other lower-leveled critter therein as well.Ravenloft Denizens of Darkness: While I don't game in RL anymore (the idea of an entire setting based on fantasy horror isn't that appealing to me anymore), this book has some great sinister monsters that only take a little bit of revision to make work in any generic fantasy game.  Minions Fearsome Foes- There are some wierd monsters in this book, but they are imaginative and many have found a steady place in my games.  Plus, it is a very sound book as far as mechanics go, even if a couple of the ECL's are off.Mythic Races- I've loved this book since I picked it up.  Some of the monsters are used in my games, and other have really unimaginative names (Animan for animal-headed humanoids for instance), but they give some great depth to each race.  This is the book that made me realize how cool an undead PC race could be.Monsters of Faerun- Not bad.  Some old classics are in this one and some cool new Realms monsters as well.  Liber Beastarius- While this isn't the most original book and the idea of giving stats for a mid-level NPC and calling them a such and such "badass" a little immature (IMO), there are some great monsters to be found in this book.  Tome of Horrors- I was diappointed in this book.  Don't bet me wrong, I'm glad to have stats for most of these critters, but I was hoping for something more that a simple rehash of 1E stats.  I thought that they might update them to fit the 3E feel more rather than just convert them, and I would have liked more information about the creatures than just a basic (and I mean basic) summary of each monster.  They could have dropped some of the more useless monsters and given more meat to each entry.  Regardless, it still gets used in my games.Armies of the Abyss- I don't get my PC's into the infernal realms that much, but when I do this book has been invaluable.Legions of Hell- It's a little light on monsters compared to AotA, but the background on major demons is pretty good.  (Shax is a major evil god IMC.)  This is another book that hasn't seen too much time, however, due to the low to mid level of power of the current campaign.Monster Manual 2- I liked the creatures, but most were too different to see much use in my games.  There are a few that make it in, mostly planetouched and a couple other PC-suitable races, however.Races of Faerun- This is an ok book.  There are some neat new feats for the various races, but since I don't play in the Realms so much of the material has to be re-worked a bit for use IMC.  At least I have Avariel stats now!Creature Collection 2- This is a decent collection of monsters, some are pretty original, but they weren't too great in the naming.  (How many blood this and that creatures do we need in one book?)  It has a better feel that the first CC, but it's still a little random and varied.Monster- I used this book a lot before Savage Species came out.  I liked the idea of "devolving" ECL races into ECL 0 PC races, but some were still what I would consider to be ECL 1 or 2 however.  While I don't use much of the book, there are still some interesting new monsters that have seen the gaming table.Creature Collection 1- I like many of the monsters found in this book, but the mechanics are horrible.  I plan on picking up the revised edition since the Aasaathi have become a major force in my campaign.My 50 cents,Kane</blockquote>

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