Monster Manual III: Buying?

[Voadam]

Probably will, but not until I can get it for about $5 used. Which probably means not for a few years at the earliest. I still haven't gotten the Fiend Folio or MMII (or even the 3.5 MM). I have a ton of monster books, and I prefer pdfs like Complete Minions or Legacy of Dragons, but I'm coming to appreciate the full color aspects of WotC's Monster books after my young (5 and 3) nephews got really excited about my collection.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I'd like to see a review first, honestly.

 

[twofalls]

Creature Overload

How many game monster books does a guy need? I ran AD&D with three monster books for years and years and didn't use everything in them. Now I have the 3.0 versions of MM, MM2, FF, ToH, Kalmar Creature Collection, both Sword and Sorcery creature collections (which simply aren't as bad as folks make them out to be), and FFG Monster Handbook with rules on customizing the heck out of all of the above. I won't live long enough to use all of them.

NO! No more creature books!

 

[demiurge1138]

I already got it. I like it, except a disturbing amount of the CRs are off by a few points.

Demiurge out.

 

[Krieg]

Do I need it? No.

Will I get it? Probably.

Depends on if I find it interesting after leafing through it.

 

[ElvishBard]

Nope, I have the regular monster manual, and MM 2. That gives me tons of monsters to work with, and I can just customize them with templates or lvl them up with classes if my players learn too much about the monsters from reading.

 

[Crothian]

No

MM2 and FF left me cold so I'm not looking to Wizards for my monster needs. Goodman Games, Inner Circle, Atlas, Mystic Eye, Soverign Press.... these are the people who write monsters that I'll use.

 

[Eremite]

I bought it last week and am really pleased with it.

I had very low expectations, principally because MMII was so poor (I thought FF was great, though), but am generally pleased with my purchase.

One thing that is really concerning me, though, with all of the post-MM monsters: unexplained power creep. It smacks of gratuitous choices made solely to provide a creature of a particular type at a certain CR. MMII has definitely been the worst offender thus far.

One more thing: Crabapple and Jarvis. I preface these remarks with a comment that I do not wish people ill in the course of their employment but the "art" that these two churn out is woeful. I realise that art is generally subjective... but I dare say that I'm making an objective judgement here!

I noticed a lot of new artists in MMIII: perhaps it's time that more of these were used instead of the two that I mentioned.

 

[Wombat]

Can't really imagine doing so.

I haven't used all the critters in the original MM -- then again, there are several in it I probably will never use, but that is beside the point.

I also have to first two Creature Collections and a few random. That seems like way more than enough for any needs I might have. Most "monsters" I use nowadays are classed NPCs.

Then again, something spectacular might show up in it that makes me change my mind

 

[Kanegrundar]

Already got it. I'm a sucker for a slick monster book. In fact most of my D20 Fantasy collection is monster books!

Kane