I find it highly dubious that many of these Classed Monster entries have the same name as the Collectible D&D Minatures. I will cry foul if all WOTC does is republish the stats on the Minature's card.
Eric, Colonel Hardisson, I know it is a bit presumptive of me to tell you what you do or do not need....but if the Drow Arcane Guard is the same as the minature card...trust me you do not need it.
I truly hope WOTC did not just republish the DDM stat blocks, if they did it is a sad, lazy, uninspired, and I would even go so far as to say disengenious move on the companies part. We know that if they want to , WOTC can make intresting Humanoid opponents, just see Red Hand of Doom. To try to sell stat blocks that are less intresting than stat blocks you can get for free from a NPC generator is just sad. Make baby Bahumut cry, sad.
That said, I reserve actual judgment until I see the product. Lair maps, magic items, discussion on player mounts, and adding creatures to Summon spell list is a pretty good thing imho, but it will of course come down to execution.
I actually think the concept of a Monster Manual is a dated one. A random selection of monsters serves MM1, it is the "starter" monster set, but after that I think I perfer themed monster books.
It gives the monsters more context, and I think makes for a more memorable read. I tend to remember monsters from Frostburn, Libris Mortis, and XPH than I do from FF, MM2, or the excellent MM3. I'm quite sure the reason is not the quality of the monsters, but their presentation, in a standard MM format a great monster can simply be overlooked because your brain is so fatigued from switching gears.
