Its Overwhelming!!

[Buttercup]

I've got a pretty large collection of books, but there are some that I keep referring back to, over and over again.

For monsters, I like the core book, Monsternomicon, Advanced Bestiary and my new favorite, Beastbuilder. With these I can make up enough mosters to terrify and maim my players for a lifetime.

Other books that give me lots of ideas:

Stone to Steel
Unearthed Arcana
Toolbox
Arms & Armor
Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe
Second World Sourcebook
Freeport Campaign Setting

None of these are new, but all are still available. I keep using them for ideas and they never let me down. There are lots of others that have been useful to me at one time or another, but those are the main ones.

 

[SBMC]

The amount of material out there right now is beyond staggering, and trying to keep up with it, well would be a full time job. I have found some great material out there as well as material I wish I had never spotted. So being one who likes to look before he leaps, I was wondering what materials besides the basic core books and setting books, do other DM's out there feel that they use on a regular every game session basis. What books do you really really use?? Is it mostly additional monster compendiums, rule supplements, class specific books??

I myself have found that monster supplements are the main product that I like to add to my arsenal, and well I'm looking for suggestions for some new monster books to add to my collection. I'm looking for some well balanced monsters that make sense. My current arsenal includes creature collection I & II and tome of horrors I & II, which include several enjoyable monsters.

So does anyone have any recommendations for some more great monsters that I can use?

I stick wth WoTC for all monsters - using the Monster Manual mostly with a very occasional dabble into the otehr WoTC books (like MMIII)

As far as other data (classes, races, etc.) It is the core books + selected and preapproved core and PrC's form the other books. But the norm rule is if I don't own it ya can't use it...

 

[Diremede]

You need a new monster for your game?
No need for another book, you need look no further than the SRD, and copy the stats of a Troll (listed below) and tweek as necessary.

Change the type, make a new description, swap out regeneration for some other ability, like poison sting (bite), or DR, and you have a new monster. At CR 5 it makes a really tough low level BBEG, at high levels it makes a survivable mook.

I could make a monster book based on this idea alone.

Recycle, Reuse, Renew.....

.

I guess the big reason for not doing this would simply be that it would get old, and not all monsters need to be all brawn and hit points and smash smash smash. Some very deadly monsters can have very few hit points with some very nasty abilities. I guess what I'm looking for are fresh ideas, you can only reach into your personal well of imagination every so often, otherwise you begin to force things rather than create something creative, and monster supplements not only give you new monsters, but new ideas, and hence a rejuvinated imagination.

Thanks all for the posts, I'll definitely be looking into the various supplements mentioned here, some of which I had never heard of

 

[Corsair]

Good thing the trippy link was in the quote. Looks like a fun movie.

 

[philreed]

These are the monster books I find myself using the most:

Tome of Horrors: Lots of classic AD&D monsters. It is 3e but that doesn't mean that it isn't a valuable tool.

Tome of Horrors 2: New monsters but an excellent sequel to the first. This one is 3.5.

Denizens of Avadnu: Just a fantastic book. The haklaa is one of my favorites.

Advanced Bestiary: A fantastic resource for making your own monsters (lots of templates).

 

[Kanegrundar]

My favorite (the ones I get the most use out of) monster books are:

Monsternomicon V3.5
Minions 3.5
Dangerous Denizens: The Monsters of Tellene
Denizens of Avadnu
Book of Templates 3.5
Advanced Bestiary

I have a lot of other books, but these are the books that constantly in use in one form or another.

Kane

 

[Thotas]

I think the unfixed version of the link looks like great source material. Not the kind the OP was asking for, but I will be keeping my eyes out for that crazy-lookin' thing!

 

[Voadam]

The amount of material out there right now is beyond staggering, and trying to keep up with it, well would be a full time job. I have found some great material out there as well as material I wish I had never spotted. So being one who likes to look before he leaps, I was wondering what materials besides the basic core books and setting books, do other DM's out there feel that they use on a regular every game session basis. What books do you really really use?? Is it mostly additional monster compendiums, rule supplements, class specific books??

I myself have found that monster supplements are the main product that I like to add to my arsenal, and well I'm looking for suggestions for some new monster books to add to my collection. I'm looking for some well balanced monsters that make sense. My current arsenal includes creature collection I & II and tome of horrors I & II, which include several enjoyable monsters.

So does anyone have any recommendations for some more great monsters that I can use?

Well described monsters with great hooks and more story roles than just fighting, Penumbra fantasy bestiary, it is 3.0 but available in print and pdf and huge. Very well balanced and mechanically sound but 3.0

For high powered monsters I generally use MMII and the everquest RPG monster book Monsters of Norrath. Both are full color, MMII is 3.0 and MoN is a 3.0 variant (different magic classes for spell like abilities, poison and magic resistance work like energy resistances, etc.) but both offer a lot of high CR critters.

Complete Minions is a 3.5 pdf full color monster book with well described but alien monsters. I have used a bunch from here. There is 3.0 print version as well but I think it is not so easy to find anymore.

I have heard good things about but do not own Monsternomicon (good art, good descriptions) and Denizens of Avadnu (great art, full color hardcover).

I also use Denizens of Darkness the Ravenloft 3.0 monster book because of its great horror monster themes. At first it disappointed me as it provided little more than a conversion of stuff I had from 2e with not as much description stuff, but it has grown on me and I've used it fairly regularly because I like the monsters and themes. There is a 3.5 one called Denizens of Dread, but you should be aware there are some monster stat issues in both of them.

Manual of Monsters has generally good World of Warcraft art, is 3.5 and has some neat humanoid type races (trolls, panda men, nagas) and a bunch of neat undead templates.

Creature collection III continues the series with 3.5 monsters and has some neat angels and demons to add to that mythology as well as cool swarms.

Template books:

Book of templates, tons of cool templates, comes in pdf versions of the 3.0 book, the 3.0 deluxe book, and the 3.5 deluxe version in template and print versions. Used a bunch highly recommended.

Advanced bestiary, heard good things about it, 3.5 in print and pdf, lots of templates including a swarm template.

 

[Belen]

Thanks man, glad you have gotten use out of it. Out of curiousity, what have you used the most? Any favorites?

I don't mean to thread jack and I'm going to post a more formal announcement on this later, but to clear out our remaining stock of Denizens of Avadnu, we are selling it for 50% off till its gone. That's a 224 page full color hardcover at $20. Get yours here.

Tried to order, but there was no check out function and it kept trying to open the Paypal page.

 

[Desdichado]

I myself have found that monster supplements are the main product that I like to add to my arsenal, and well I'm looking for suggestions for some new monster books to add to my collection. I'm looking for some well balanced monsters that make sense. My current arsenal includes creature collection I & II and tome of horrors I & II, which include several enjoyable monsters.

Me too; I'm a monster book junkie. I have the Monster Manuals I, II and III, Fiend Folio, Creatures of Rokugan, Creatures of Freeport, the Monsternomicon, the Book of Fiends, both Creature Collections and Tomes of Horrors, Liber Besarius, Legacy of Dragons, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few others. Not to mention other books that have a lot of monsters in them but which aren't technically monster book.

Of the bunch, the Monsternomicon is by far my favorite, although the Book of Fiends as a more focused book is also one that I highly recommend.

Other books that I've found quite good (surprisingly so, actually) are the four Complete books by WotC, and the three environment books. Unearthed Arcana has tons of good options, and is also much better than I expected in many ways.

Another book that I use a ton in any d20 game; D&D or otherwise, is actually the d20 edition of Call of Cthulhu. In D&D, I mostly just use the big monster section, but in other games, I've used Sanity, Cthulhu style magic, and other elements of that book.