MM4 Table of Contents up

[d20Dwarf]

This looks interesting. I doubt that it will come close to my favorite monster tome, but it does sound like it's going to be extremely useful. As for the statted NPC's, well if they are just re-hashes of minis game units, then that's not of much use to me. It won't keep me from picking up the book for all the monsters in it that I don't have a minis card of though.

You know, if you guys wouldn't mix hobbies, this wouldn't be a problem.

Long live roleplaying!!!

 

[Kanegrundar]

You know, if you guys wouldn't mix hobbies, this wouldn't be a problem.

Long live roleplaying!!!

Heh. I counter with: if you old grognards would just enjoy buying toys again, then maybe we wouldn't see so much talk about rehashing!

 

[heirodule]

Cool, an official Maquahuitl.

Which monster wields it?

 

[Marchen]

It seems like a lot of the book is devoted to basic monsters with class levels; instant enemy NPCs. While I prefer this to a book full of non-interesting new monsters I would never use (The Whaduchazzlixx! It has 5 arms and can control rats!), since I would rather make up my own monster-NPCs, it's not a book that is a must buy for me.

Veyr good resource for DMs without a lot of planning time, I would say.

 

[atom crash]

(The Whaduchazzlixx! It has 5 arms and can control rats!)

Hey, that sounds cool. What book is that in?

 

[lukelightning]

No devils.

No surprise there. There is a heavy demon favoritism going around.

 

[lukelightning]

Cool, an official Maquahuitl.

Which monster wields it?

Maquahuitl sounds like some sort of cocktail (it's one of those obsidian-blade sword things, right?). I'm guessing some sort of jungle drow has it.

 

[atom crash]

As for BryonD's assertion that he'd rather spend 5 minutes making up a drow ninja (or whatever) rather than buy a book with such stats, my response is that I can understand that reasoning. The thing with me is that it takes me more than 5 minutes to stat out even fairly mid-level characters. Even if it did just take me 5 minutes, multiply that by all the stat blocks I would like to have, and the time adds up. I'd rather use such time working on background material, not stat blocks. I like having premade statblocks because making statblocks is the least interesting, least artistic part of the process for me.

Ditto for me. Even if I can do the statblock myself, I'd rather spend my time doing something else because I usually end up with one evening to prep for my weekly game.

Several months ago I was working on a group of drow my PCs were going to face in an upcoming session when I remembered a recent issue of Dungeon that featured a drow and a displacer beast on the cover. Cool, I thought, because my drow group included a ranger with a displacer beast. So I grabbed up that issue, flipped through it and found the statblock; I only needed to sub out one feat and I was done. Then I spent a good hour jotting down notes about what the drow were doing, why they were in town, how they might react to the party, etc.

I have to say, even if MMIV is largely a reprint of stats from the minis game, that's still something that's useful to me because I don't collect the minis and don't plan to start anytime soon (I absolutely loathe collectible games). It doesn't get an auto-pass on those grounds.

 

[Pants]

Ditto! That's why the Fiend Folio is my favorite 3E monster supplement, and why MMIII rarely gets opened.

Folks can keep forestkith goblins, skullcrusher ogres, hatehugger hobgoblins, and doodoochucker desmodus...I'll stick with the fiends, slaadi, elementals, and Far Realmsian horrors.

The Fiend Folio also has the terlen... dumbest monster ever.

Every monster book has good ones and bad ones, I at least find the MMIII more inspiring than the MMII.

I do like the idea of providing statted up humanoids for quick and easy use, though I think they would be better put into a book all their own, so that folks who buy a MM for the new monsters won't feel so... ripped off I guess (which is obviously happening here). Still, anything that cuts down on prep time is good for me.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I do like the idea of providing statted up humanoids for quick and easy use, though I think they would be better put into a book all their own, so that folks who buy a MM for the new monsters won't feel so... ripped off I guess (which is obviously happening here). Still, anything that cuts down on prep time is good for me.

Yeah, they should do an update of the old 1e Rogue's Gallery, which had a lot of pregen characters, as well as some well-known NPCs and statted up merchant caravans, liches, ki-rin, etc.