MM2 Rant

[Knight Otu]

Around November 11, my friend.

That date sounds familiar...

Hey, it's my birthday!

 

[Claude Raines]

What I'd prefer is for him to produce new PrC specific feats. Epic progressions are easy because anyone can just increase the amount of times PrC's uses class abilities. What I'd like are official new feats along the lines of the epic Arcane Archer's Improved Arrow of Death and the epic Assassin's Improved Death Attack.

I believe he has done that:

Epic Ancestral Daisho
Epic Counterspell
Epic Ki Frenzy
Epic Spell Secret
Epic Spellfire Wielder
Improved Element Focus
Improved Spellpool Access
Inscribe Epic Rune


Granted not every Epic PrC has new feats, but many do.

 

[Terwox]

The large amount of save or die type attacks for the higher CR creatures (and even some of the not so high CR's) was a big dissapointment. Personally I find it lazy writing and limits using the creatures as statted to a raise dead game only.

Am I alone in this?

You aren't alone, but I think you're forgetting that raise dead at high levels is a default part of the game, and if you change that, you should expect that you should have to change other things as well!

In a world where raise dead is prevalent though, save-or-die abilities are still annoying and just less fun (in my opinion) most of the time, though. But, those abilities the way the game is supposed to work -- they aren't being lazy, we're being lazy for only wanting to convert our game world, but not our monsters, to our style of play.

 

[Nightfall]

Wow. I really liked MM2. Sure, there are some "misses" in there, but there are an awful lot of hits too. In fact, I was inspired to develop complete adventures around some of the monsters in there for my D&D campaign, something that hasn't happened in a while.

I wouldn't mind a book that goes into more detail on creating monsters, althoug I still have the Dragon article that gave the procedure for it. But I don't think the MM(s) should be it. The Monster Manuals are manuals full of monsters. It's what they've always been, and what most people--including me--want from them.

As far as the gem dragons, well, any changes they made didn't bother me at all, because I've never liked the gem dragons anyway and refuse to use them. But hey, that's just me.

Besides, any book that brings Linnorm dragons into 3rd edition can't be all bad.

Right but I'm only inspired as to how such monsters would fit in an existing campaign world. Otherwise I'm not THAT impressed...well besides Death Knight and some other templates.

I still say we put Linnorms in Termana and let the Gem Dragons have a nice big chain of Islands in the Dragons Lands Ari.

 

[KenM]

Around November 11, my friend.

Great, both attack of clones and extended lord of rings: fellowship come out on DVD the 12. decisions......

BTW, Anyone notice that in MM2, the face/ reach entry for Thri-kreen is missing? I really like them and would love to now what it is. I am not going to go to the wizards boards, as they are ungodly slow.

 

[Grazzt]

BTW, Anyone notice that in MM2, the face/ reach entry for Thri-kreen is missing? I really like them and would love to now what it is. I am not going to go to the wizards boards, as they are ungodly slow.

SInce they are Medium-Size, it would be 5 ft. by 5 ft. /5 ft.

And if they use their Gythka (a polearm) it would increase to 5 ft. by 5 ft./10 ft.

Just guessing, but the missing entry would look like this:

"Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft. (10 ft. with gythka)"

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Remember, your kreen doesn't get reach if he or she uses both ends of the gythka.

 

[Grazzt]

Remember, your kreen doesn't get reach if he or she uses both ends of the gythka.

Yeppers- you are correct.

 

[Inez Hull]

A few comments...

I was very impressed with the artwork and the variety of monsters in the MM2.

My dissapointment stems from the fact that the save or die mechanic is used so heavily to beef up the high CR beasties. I believe 3E has enough scope for alternate methods to induce pants wetting fear in PC's.

Yes, I can and will modify those monsters that I like from the MM2, replacing save or die abilities with something else. However, I was hoping that buying a fully statted book of monsters would save me that. Unless I'm mistaken, campaigns which abjure raise dead are not uncommon and it would be nice to see WOTC acknowledging that in their products. I understand that they have to support the system as presented in the core rules, I just think that there are alternatives to save or die that are more fun and more playable and fit into a wider scope of settings.

 

[reiella]

Stat and Level Draining can go only so far.

There are some very interesting creatures however, the Gravorm I believe has to be one my favorites so far.

One other nice thing that I liked seeing was more typical combat tactics being given.

On the note of Save or Die, I think it is just part and parcel of the readily available resurrection magic, with epic magic you can Pre-emptively cast resurrect too.