Help buying a monsterbook

[Kai Lord]

I highly recommend the Bestiary of Krynn from Sovereign Press. Not only is it by far the prettiest non-WOTC monster book (with full color art on glossy paper by such great current talents as Ron Spencer, Jason Engle, and Udon Studios) its just rife with nasty critters, such as:

Kani Dolls: Children's dolls that were enchanted to protect little children, but every so often the enchantment on one will go awry and they'll become possessed by a homicidal fiend.

Shadow Wights: Black wights that not only kill you with a Cha draining touch, but erase all memory of your existence, so that not even True Resurrection, Wish, or Miracle can bring you back from the dead.

Frost Dragons: Chaos touched white dragons of immense power whose breath attack has the same existence erasing effects as the touch of a Shadow Wight.

A swarm of carnivorous leeches. Yuck.

Lots of other fearsome beasties (new giants, dragons, undead, outsiders, animals, etc.). I have to say its my favorite non-WOTC monster book by far.

 

[Khayman]

Try the Monsternomicon and The Book of Fiends. The former, in particular, has a steampunk feel to it. The latter has lots of misery for your players.

In recent months, I've fallen back in love with the Fiend Folio. It might not be exactly what you're after, but it is a) fiendish and b) weird.

 

[Vlos]

Have many and out of all of them I like the Monstronomicon the most. It has a nice section (which I would love more authors to adopt) and that is "lore" for each monster. Which is based on common, uncommon and rare. Each section tells what a character would know. - Very cool.

 

[DragonLancer]

For a grimmer and darker game, I'd go with either the Tome of Horrors II or Liber Bestarius. Both have lots of weird, dark, and scary critters which fit very well into my dark/gritty game. I'd avoid the Monsternomicon though unless you are wanting to add steampunkish elements and about 20 new types of monstrous humanoids.

Aye, the Liber Bestarius is a good choice. Some of the monsters are a little weird... but the majority certainly fit my idea of dark fairy tales.

 

[Crothian]

I want to buy a monster book and i only have the MM. I like to run grim and gritty, dark and realistic campaigns. Do you have suggestions ?

What do you need from a monster book? As the above posts indicate there are quite a few out there. While many are good, they fill a particuliar nitch. Monsternomicon has steam punk in it and is very detailed. One the flip side ToH is crammed full of monsters with less detail. Both are good books, but they are not the same and will be benficial in different situations and campaigns.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Agreed. It is a great book...for the DM, not the players.

Very true! In the Oathbound game I play in, my GM used that book almost exclusively for some time. Having never looked between its covers (until recently, when my GM announced that she had used everything that she wanted from it), I found myself awed, shocked, revolted, and (at times) completely at a loss for words when confronted with a few of its nasties.

Now that I have read through it, I'm most definately adopting more than a few of the creatures within it.

I'll also second the recommendations for Liber Bestarius. Good stuff. Adopted the Zhival as the "master evil race lurking in the shadows" after Mind Flayers were removed from the Draft SRD, and a few other creatures fit my setting perfectly as well.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Grim, gritty, dark, scary are all adjectives that can be used to describe the way you present any monster in role as DM, so I wouldn't limit my monster book selections on that criteria.

If you are running a 3.5 game, I would reccomend the new Tome of Horrors 2. It has a great mix of new mosters.

I just found out that Monsternomicon ( now sold out ) will be reprinted sometime in 2005 with a 3.5 update ( no other details yet - BTW people - The IKCG has been sent to the printers! ).

If you don't mind 3.0 stats, the Penumbra Fatasy Bestiary is a hulk of a book sure to keep you in new monster options for a long time.

 

[Azizar]

I decided to buy......

After i read your advice and i looked into some books (i downloaded some pdf's from kazaa) i decided i want to buy the monsternomicon. But the MNNC sold out,so i have to wait until 2005 before the reprint hit the selves. TOH and the CC are not very inspiring. I can design a lot of creatures myself (ok, lets see. i'll take the head of a bear, put it on the body of a giant and, as a finishing touch, the creature gets flippers. And i call it the giant duckoteddy. str 24 con 19 dex 11 int 8 wis 10 cha 7.) but i really dig flavor. And the Monsternomicon has that flavor. As i was searching, i found another book that looks interresting: Grim Tales from Badaxe Games. It is very hard for me to get my hands on, but if i dom i will write a review for enworld. Thanks for the replies.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Monsternomicon if you can find it.

Now there is one coming out for the Accordlands setting that looks interesting.

 

[Nightfall]

Can't believe some one doesn't like ToH. I mean dude! Orcus, Infernus, and dozens of others. Oh well. No accounting for taste.