Monster Books you'd recommend.

[John Q. Mayhem]

Monsternomicon and Legacy of the Dragons are, as mentioned, very good. Monsternomicon is out in 3.5 now, I believe.

It's not d20, but the Old World Bestiary is unhealthily good. Extremely flavorful.

 

[Teflon Billy]

• Monsternomicon
• Denizens of Avadnu
• Tome of Horrors I
• The Book of Fiends

I've got alot of Mileage from those...Particularly Book of Fiends and Denizens of Avadnu.

 

[DMH]

Do you buy pdfs? If so there are a lot of cool monster books that are in just that format:

Complete Minions (Bastion Press)- interesting, different, but not too different creatures

Book of Templates (Deluxe Edition) (Silverthorne)- 3.0, but for 12 bucks, you get 260 pages of templates. The non-euclidian and half-humanoid (actually 4 templates in 1) plus the suggestions on stacking templates are worth the price alone IMO.

(Side note on Advanced Bestiary from Green Ronin vs BOT(DE)- AB has a better explaination on how to apply templates and BOT has better rules on using and stacking templates. I like the latter more, but both are supremely useful in customizing creatures).

Template Troves I & II (Silverthorne)- specialized pdfs of templates. The first one has a bit too much Norse mythology in it for me, but does not just have Norse based templates. The second one, on oozes and aberrations, goes nicely with Lords of Madness.

Brixbrix's Fieldguide to the Creatures of Ados (Tangent Games)- This one is organized by creature type, then alphabetically. Some of the high points are new rules for undead plants, 2 dragons, 10 drakes, new animals, more than one page is devoted to each creature, and each has hooks and a short adventure. I bought it on a lark and am very happy with it.

The Iconic Bestiary: Classics of Fantasy (Lion's Den / Ronin Arts)- Creatures that fill the same niches as closed content monsters in the MM. Even if you don't want a new version of illithid, umber hulk, carrion crawler, beholder and displacer beast, the slaad replacement is more chaotic than frogs and the yuan-ti replacement has an interesting caste twist (the former servants now rule).

 

[Infernal Teddy]

I own the MMI, Monsters of Faerun, CCI & II, Monsters of Norrath, that monster book for Warcarft and Legacy of the Dragons, and I've paged through most of the others mentioned here. But to be honest, in my regular D&D sessions, I never needed anything but the MMI, and for Arcana Unearthed Legacyof the Dragons.

Everything else was too much work to fit it in to my own setting - not enough room for all that hyperevolution...

 

[DragonLancer]

Tome of Horrors I and II (Necromancer Games).
Creature Collection I, II, and III (Sword and Sorcery).
The Book of Fiends (Green Ronin).
Dangerous Denizens (Kenzer).
Monsternomicon (Privateer).
Monsters of Faerun (WotC).
Monster Manual II and III (WotC).
Fiend Folio (WotC).
Bestiary of Krynn (Sov Stone).

Draconomicon (WotC).
Libris Mortis (WotC).
Lords of Madness (WotC).

 

[Klaus]

I'd like to recommed Fiery Dragon's Counter Collection: Undead.

Sure, it only has 8 brand new undead. But it has counters for hundreds of undead, including some very similar to creatures found in three of the books you ordered.

 

[Samuel Leming]

I would recommend:

• Denizens of Avadnu(Inner Circle) - I can't recommend this more highly. It really is that good. Go get it. Out of over 140 creatures, only one of them(the skarren/klingon thing) is crap. You'll want this book.
• Legends of Avadnu(Inner Circle) - Like the above, only the critters are bigger and meaner.
• Tome of Horrors(Necromancer Games) - It has true flumph.
• Book of Templates Deluxe Edition(Silverthorne Games) - Because most of these templates are good.
• Advanced Bestiary(Green Ronin) - More good templates. With what you already have and the above you would have access to tens of thousands of critters. For example: the dread lich half kobold/half flumph.

I would also recommend that you build a good database of your creatures and the location of their information. With so many it can be hard to remember where to locate their text.

Sam

 

[Aus_Snow]

Denizens of Avadnu, and Legends of Avadnu too. Both are truly exceptional.

Book of Fiends is great in all kinds of ways.

Tome of Horrors is indispensable.

I own others that are also very good, but the above titles are the ones that spring to mind immediately.

 

[Voadam]

I've ordered the following Monster Books:

Lords of Madness : The Book of Aberrations
Libris Mortis : The Book of the Undead
Fiend Folio
Monster Manual II
Monster Manual III

Any other books that a monsterphile like myself might be interested in?

I've heard of the Creature Collections, but don't know a whole lot about them. Also, I understand that their is going to be a Giant Monsterbook by Mongoose(?) coming out.

If you have the time burning a hole in your "pocket", so to speak, "What monster books would you suggest and why? "

Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary, 3.0 but in depth info on the monsters. Geared towards lower levels mostly and many that are designed for more than just combat encounters, each one comes with multiple plot hooks included as well.

Monsters of Norrath, 3.0 and everquest rpg but full color and lots of High CR critters. available as a pdf as well as print.

Book of Fiends, 3.5 and lots of cool fiends with tons of backstory, although the CRs and power levels are designed for lower level adventuring.

Book of Templates, tons of cool templates, a pdf product.

Complete Minions a 3.5 full color monster book pdf with monsters that are different and alien looking.

Tome of Horrors 3.0 monster stats for tons of old edition monsters.

Bestiary of Loerem, 3.0 but lots of fantasy creatures without spell powers.

 

[JustKim]

I'd recommend Dangerous Denizens (Kingdoms of Kalamar), Denizens of Avadnu and Creature Collection III, but those have all already been plugged repeatedly so I suppose it's more of a vote.

Fantasy Flight Games' "Lore" series are also slim monster books devoted to creature types. There are a few included in the sale going on right now and all are worth picking up.

Monsternomicon is useful for its extra information but doesn't boast a large number of easily adapted creatures.

Monsters of Norrath isn't really compatible with core D&D, the power levels are different and the monsters are sure to have feats/skills/abilities you won't have any clue on unless you buy the other books because it is a different system. Coupled with the fact that many pages are filled with the Everquest knockoffs of traditional D&D monsters (And numerous variations of those monsters to account for all the recolors in the game- get ready for six different flavors of gnoll), I really would not recommend it.