D&D General How do you prefer your monster books?

Which type of monster book you prefer



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I really like themed monster books with good lore.

I really liked the 2e van richtens guides for instance.

I also really like themed monster books like enworld’s terrain themed ones from 3.5 that covers a wide variety of creature types and power levels that are appropriate for a jungle, say, and then made interrelated lore for them. I got great use out of XRP’s terrain collections of OGL monster books.

So I went with the types option.

I like a lot of the 2e monstrous compendium appendices and though they are often explicitly setting themed, I think of a lot of them more as the theme behind the setting for my purposes. The Kara Tur MC appendix is more about East Asian themed monsters than Kara Tur for me. The Ravenloft one is more gothic horror themed than Ravenloft specific.
 

In theory I like biome- and theme-based books but often the problem is that only half the contents are usable or interesting and the rest are the editors stretching the concept to fill pages. 3e's Stormwrack, for example. Glory of the Giants did a good job of staying on-topic -- I liked the abundance of battle maps and adventure hooks.

My ideal monster book is something like the softcover Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Appendices I & II from 2e. Combination of new monsters, standard monsters that are adjusted to their setting, and unique NPCs and monsters.
 


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