Monster Manual: How Much Cut?

[Haffrung Helleyes]

If you havent heard. every monster gets one or 2 pages in the MM. that way no monster entry starts in the middle of a page. instead they feature more versions of the same monster. like the orcs get 2 pages but they have stats for 5 different kinds of orcs.

That sounds like a really great layout!

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

Ruin_Explorer, I can get behind your list except for the Chaos Beast. I just love that monster.

Ken

 

[Jack99]

If there are animals in MM1, dire animals should be able to be done as a template.

 

[Protagonist]

Aranea

Chuul
Couatl
Darkmantle
Gray Render
Howler
Kraken
Mohrg
Phantom Fungus
Winter Wolf

these are actually some of my favourite MM monsters. And some I use quite frequently.
LOVE the fungus. And the howler makes for awesome narration and has good mechanics.

 

[Jhaelen]

Maybe they'll cut dinosaurs, vermim, lycanthropes, animals and dire animals, or just simplificate them a lot.
I wouldn't care neither way.
Animals and vermim always felt to me as the boring necessary part of MM.

Well, you said it yourself: You just need a basic set of 'normal' critters, otherwise it becomes pretty difficult to present a believable world.
I disagree about the 'boring' part, though. If every kind of animal has one or two particular tricks they don't have to be boring.

In my 3E campaign (dire) animals and lycanthropes are the most used monsters. I don't think they're boring either: An encounter with mastodons is completely different from an encounter with wolves is completely different from an encounter with giant spiders is completely different from an encounter with a smilodon.
Each of them uses different battle tactics which is about as much variety as I need. Regarding lycanthropes I've houseruled them to closely resemble the WoD changing breeds. Therefore there's lots of variety between them and a rich cultural background for each of them.

The only group of critters I (almost) never use are dinosaurs. There's simply never been any place for them in my campaigns so far...

What I wouldn't miss in the first 4E MM: the majority of outsiders, especially devils and demons. My campaigns have typically reached at least midpoint before these guys play any role at all. I'd also be happy if they cut down on the number of different undead.

What I'd like to see are more and especially more varied fey and well-developed, distinct humanoids.

 

[Grymar]

I sincerely hope they go for the "core" monsters and cut the fat. MM1 is full of things you're not likely to need stats for, really. As my MM1 is hiding, I'll use the SRD for examples (which means I may name some not really in the MM1 so shhh):

Should go (can come back in later MMs or stay away):

Achaierai
<snip>
Yrthak

NEED to keep

Animals (most)
Vermin (most)
Swarms (some)

Need to gain

Pre-gen stats for human and demihuman bandits, pirates, etc.

That is a perfect assessment of how to trim the fat on the MM. Keep animals, vermin, and swarms, but get rid of the "once every seven campaigns" monsters. Those can be in the other MMs.

 

[Sitara]

Heyyy, don't cut the winter wolf!

 

[vagabundo]

Make animals less boring... I want Giant snakes..

 

[delericho]

Animals and vermim always felt to me as the boring necessary part of MM.

The problem with a boring necessary part is that you can't really cut it - it being necessary and all.

Besides, the handful of pages taken up with stats for mundane animals are hardly a problem - the plethora of low-level humanoids is more of an issue. We really don't need kobolds and goblins and orcs and hobgoblins and bugbears and ogres and bullywugs and lizardfolk and dragonborn and gnolls and troglodytes and kuo-toa. Likewise, we really don't need one hundred and twenty different dragons, when the differences between so many of the types are so minor.

Basically, I think WotC would be well advised to spend some time working out just what monsters we do need, for the range of levels, creature types, roles, and whatever else, and then build us a set of monsters to cover what we actually need to run the game, without putting undue emphasis on tradition or which monsters have always been there.

Oh, and I think (almost) all the aquatic monsters will be getting cut.

 

[S'mon]

I really really want runnable out-of-the-box dragon stats. No more 'build your own dragon' toolkits, please. My favourite approach to dragons was BECMI D&D with its Small, Large and Huge variations for each type, properly statted up.

Edit: As far as types go, I could get by with just Red, but White & Black are handy too, Green to a lesser extent. Don't really need Blues, Golds, or any others.