Monster Books you'd recommend.

[Kanegrundar]

But that was my point, TOH is stats and cut down, bare bones descriptions, so the value was in the stats and the number of creatures included. I expect most people who knew the originals to only use the TOH for the stats and rely on memory or the more fleshed out descriptions from older editions. In that scenario, printing out the stat block separately for a creature that inspired you from the old sourcebook is more useful than having the full 300+ page book to haul out in addition to the older edition one with the better flavor description.

I did the same thing for bladelings in the 3e MMII finding lots of great flavor from the two page description in the 2e planescape monster entry in my pdf of planes of law that was not in the two paragraphs or so of the 3e description. Although I appreciated having the 3e statblock.

I understood your point, but that's what I disliked about ToH. Not everyone can play on memory due to not ever knowing the original material. Based on ToH's popularity I would say that Necromancer did a good job (their stats were very well done), but comparing it to other monster books that give more information on the creatures, it's rather bland. All in all, it's a matter of what you look for in a monster book. If just stats with minimal background info does it for you, that's great. However, I like the approach taken with other monster books like Monsternomicon, Minions, and Denizens of Avadnu better. ToH is used regularly by me, but seeing as how I don't have any of my old D&D material, I have to rely on my (sometimes) faulty memory or make it all up myself for background. Not that that's hard or anything, since I don't always use things as how the authors intended, but a solid background or plot hooks may give me ideas I hadn't considered before.

Kane

 

[The_Universe]

I'll add votes for the Tome of Horrors (some silly monsters, but they're just packed in there! Lots to use!) if you want 3E or can convert on the fly.

But, the absolute best monster book out there has got to be Privateer Press's Monsternomicon (now updated to 3.5!). Get out there and buy it RIGHT NOW.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Actually I find pdf more useful as I run my e-mail campaign. Copy and paste rock.

Sure. But an e-mail campaign, by definition, is exempt from my comment that you quoted that most people don't want to be tethered to a computer. There's no way around it for an e-mail campaign.

I also found for the face to face games that printing out the six individual pages of specific monsters I want for that game is more convenient then hauling four monster books with me for those same six monsters.

Printing at work or printing at home? I don't know that printing out multiple pages for every game would win me a lot of favors at home, myself.

And for TOH specifically, many people already know all the monster descriptions from previous editions and just want the 3e stat blocks from the book, which can easily be copy and pasted from the pdf instead of carrying the book to a game.

Relying on sometimes 20 year old memories in lieu of more fleshed-out descriptions seems like an accomodation to the scope of ToH1, rather than the sort of smart business decision I'd expect from Necromancer.

Hopefully, if they decide to split it up and republish it for 3.5, they can add more description at the same time. I mean, I know what a cooshee is, but I don't expect everyone else would. (Unless they re-used the name, not just the animal, in "Races of the Wild." Don't have it, so no idea.)

 

[Storm Raven]

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? "

I like the books put out by Fantasy Flight Games, and if you can order them before noon tomorrow (June 1) you can get Elemental Lord, Giant Lore. and Twisted Lore for $5 a pop. Their Monster's Handbook is a nice resource for using monsters (and adding various options to monsters). Mythic Races also has some nice stuff, and is also on sale, but it is more of a "races" book than a "monster" book.

 

[Pants]

Book of Fiends by Green Ronin is pretty slick.

Hm... I have one, big qualm with this book. The incredibly weak Dukes and Unique lords of Hell. A 12 HD Duke of Hell? C'mon! Ridiculous.

The book would have truly benefited from being totally updated to 3.5, basically upping the fiends' power levels to reflect the more powerful 3.5 fiends.

 

[DMH]

I forgot 3, all from Goodman Games and specialized:

Creatures of the Endless Dark
Creatures of the Boundless Blue
Primeval Groves (read this first http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=123552 )

All are cool and I can't wait for Lurkers Among Us (urban organisms).

 

[Kanegrundar]

I actually forgot one of my favorite books (because I now longer have a print edition): Complete Minions. Say what you will about the artwork, the creatures are wild, alien, and interesting.

Kane