July 07: Monster Manual V, Maps of Adventure

[megamania]

I guess this means no 4th edition at least through July 2007.

YAY! x2

 

[Imruphel]

(snip) For my money, it was MM II that was the real stinker. Don't get me started.

I have never understood why MMII didn't attract more hate. It's a terrible book. Bad concepts coupled with bad design and topped off with some really bad art.

I was surprised by how much I liked MMIV. I much prefer fewer monsters with more lore especially when that lore involved adventure hooks. Hopefully MMV will be much of the same... but without the stat blocks for classed humanoids.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I'll wait till these items appear in the WotC online catalog before I get excited. Amazon has a way of screwing up.

 

[Tetsubo]

Count your blessings. At least they're books. They could be one giant three-ring binder with packs of monster pages coming out periodically. *shudders at the memory*

I found my old Monster Binders recently. They aren't in great shape. I much prefer hard cover books...

 

[RichGreen]

I have never understood why MMII didn't attract more hate. It's a terrible book. Bad concepts coupled with bad design and topped off with some really bad art.

I was surprised by how much I liked MMIV. I much prefer fewer monsters with more lore especially when that lore involved adventure hooks. Hopefully MMV will be much of the same... but without the stat blocks for classed humanoids.

There are some cool new monsters in the MM II, including the kelvezu, avolakia, corollax, moon beast & mooncalf. Also, it brought back quite a few 1e & 2e classics: catoblepas, jermlaine, hook horror, galeb duhr, grell, ixitxachitl, neogi, needlefolk, morkoth, yak folk, yugoloths, spawn of kyuss and others. I do agree that the ocean strider is dreadful though and the yugoloth art is shocking.

I also like MMIV -- I've started a thread on which monsters are cool and there are quite a lot of good "plot monsters", the vitreous drinker in particular.

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3134187#post3134187

Cheers


Richard

 

[Agent Oracle]

Wizards will publish anything. It's incredible. Complete Mage when we already have Complete Arcane? Dragon Magic when we already have a Draconomicon? The Book of Nine Swords is another waste of trees. And the MM4? Do we really need those spawn of Tiamat? Wizards gotta get their paper, I suppose. :\

Hate to tell you: but complete mage is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from complete arcane.

It has more in common with PHB II than the original complete series. Lots of options available, new "reserve" feats. And book of the nine swords opened up another whole new option for melee-focused players. Can't say much for dragon magic though (haven't read either it or the dragonomicon.)

 

[Cam Banks]

I do agree that the ocean strider is dreadful though and the yugoloth art is shocking

Interestingly, the ocean strider has already seen use in a WOTC novel - The Alien Sea, by Lucien Soulban. It's a Dragonlance book, and so that means that the first appearance in fiction by this creature may just be a DL novel.

As for MM2, at some point during the conversions of the original modules in 3.5 (next up is Dragons of Winter) I am sure I will need to grab a number of creatures from that book. I'm really more impressed with the creatures in MM2 than in MM3 or MM4.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Shade]

I have never understood why MMII didn't attract more hate. It's a terrible book. Bad concepts coupled with bad design and topped off with some really bad art.

Can you give examples of bad concepts and bad design? I'll agree with some of the art, though.

Interestingly, the ocean strider has already seen use in a WOTC novel - The Alien Sea, by Lucien Soulban. It's a Dragonlance book, and so that means that the first appearance in fiction by this creature may just be a DL novel.

Cool. I like the ocean strider.

 

[qstor]

I cannot for the life of me figure out why they keep creating new monsters when lots of classic monsters I would love to pay money to have updated sit there untouched.

I thought there was some informal agreement that WOTC would let Necromancer Games convert most of them in the Tome of Horrors???

Mike

 

[Shade]

I thought there was some informal agreement that WOTC would let Necromancer Games convert most of them in the Tome of Horrors???

There was, for about a hundred or so of the several thousand unconverted monsters. WotC has since updated many of the same creatures in their own products, though.