Monster Manual II and III: Both worth getting?

[glass]

They have a couple of interresting stuff in the monster manual II like the phoenix and the death knight.

I bought MM2 pretty much just to get the Death Knight template.

I was hugely disapointed to discover that it wasn't really a death knight at all, but some pale immitation. I had to wait for DLcs for the real deal.


glass.

 

[qstor]

I dunno what the other posters are talking about, MMIII is great IMO. I've used a bunch of monsters from it and plan to use many more (Skullcrusher Ogres, Lifeleech Otyughs, Chraal, Death Giant, Chilling Fog, Snowflake Ooze, War Troll, etc.).

Errata? Sorry, that's a pretty weak argument. The monsters work fine. If you really want to be anal about it and make sure every little comma is in place and t crossed, then there's already errata compilations that will let you do so with ease.

I like the MMIII a lot better than II as well. I think the 3.X creatures that are new are well tough out and not *wierd* IMHO like some of the other new 3.X monsters in the other WOTC monster books. I like the different trolls a lot and the different orges and goblins. Good variations on a traditional theme. Its good to see the Eberron PC races stated out for DM's that don't have the Eberron campaign book too and would like to add them into their home games.

I'd pick up the MMIII and skip on II. But then II does the the formorians, but not much else.

Mike

 

[Grazzt]

As a total monster junkie, I'd love to share my thoughts with you.

First of all, the fact that you are definitely getting the Fiend Folio brings a large smile to my face. I think it is by far the best of the 3E/3.5 monster books, and by a far cry.

Completely agree. Ive gotten a lot of use from this book. And it is definitely one of the best (maybe the best) WotC monster book.

I like the MM2 quite a bit. It has some classics from previous editions of the game, as well as some interesting new creatures, and some real good templates. It also has many high-level creatures, which usually isn't the norm. The conversion guide does a decent job of making them 3.5 compatible, but is by no means complete. Be wary...some of the CRs are quite off (mostly overstated).

I didnt care for MM2 much at all actually. I understand they were shooting for higher overall CRs and stuff, but a lot of the high level monsters just fell flat with me. Some of the nostalgia/conversions were good and I liked them. But overall, I just wasnt a fan of this book. It just strikes me that they randomly slapped together some of the monsters. Like "Oh, we need a CR 15 Fey here..." and someone whips up the stats without rhyme or reason.

I was very disappointed in the MM3. It is by far the worst-edited book WOTC has released in 3E. Check out the errata files (there are two already), and notice how much is in there. Then keep in mind that what they did include in the errata is just the tip of the iceberg. There are several threads here on ENWorld that gather much more of the errata from the book.

Besides poor editing, I wasn't really "wowed" by too many of the creatures within. The ragewalker is incredibly cool (a CR 14 badass fey that controls living spells), as is the death giant and the ssvaklor (essentially a yuan-ti dragon). But the book has way too many barely-different variations on goblins, ogres, trolls, and so forth. Plus, it has only four templates (five if you count the topiary guardians as templates), and one of them is a reprint from Eberron (living spell).

Agreed here too, mostly. The editing was pretty poor. But, I like this book (errors aside) more than I do MM2. It just seems (to me personally anyway) more useful. Im kinda glad they relegated the Eberron stuff to a "footnote" (ok, not really a footnote, but you guys know what I mean) as I dont care for that setting. But, overall, I like this book...its decent.

Ranking the "pure" monster books from WotC, best to worst, here's how I'd do it:

MM
FF (maybe above the MM, but the MM has the "staple" D&D monsters in it)
MM3
MM2

 

[Voadam]

I have MMII and not III. I run a 3.5 game for 15th level PCs and I'm planning on two creatures from MMII showing up in this weekend's game. The monsters had enough of a description and hook to be interesting and mesh well with the alterations I wanted to make to the module Demon God's Fane. Converting them to 3.5 was no problem with the conversion guide and it is great to have access to the wotc art gallery to print out big pictures of the monsters I want to use. Some of the high end CRs are very suspect though.

 

[John Morrow]

Wow that's amazing huh. Small world. I know about Yellow Submarine... it's where I get all my minis and paints. I go to the Shinjuku one and the ones in Akihabara and Ikebukuro. I don't buy books from them because they're insanely expensive. I get all my books from Amazon Japan.

I think they had a better exchange rate when I was there but they also used to have bargain bin specials at Yellow Submarine. You wouldn't find much D&D-type stuff in thsoe bins but I got some interesting game books for 100, 200, or 300 yen which is just too cheap to pass up. I'm talking about the Yellow Submarine that's an RPG shop on the second floor and a card shop on the third floor near the station. I seem to remember two or more Yellow Submarines in or near Shinjuku.

Some US game stores will also ship to Japan. That's how I got some stuff while I was living there.