Monster Manual III
By Rich Burlew, Eric Cagle, Jesse Decker, Andrew J. Finch, Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel, Rich Redman, Matthew Sernett, Chris Thomasson, and P. Nathan Toomey
Wizards of the Coast item code 179210000
224 pages, $34.95
Monster Manual III is the latest in WotC's continuing series of monster books. This one features 162 different creatures of various types, with an emphasis placed on scattering the creatures more evenly throughout the Challenge Ratings.
The cover is once again the brainchild of Henry Higgenbotham, the designer responsible for the other books in the "Monster Manual" series (including the
Fiend Folio) and the rest of the core rulebooks. Once again, the book's cover is made to look like some type of arcane tome, only this time there's a demon skull of some type embedded on both the front and back cover, as well as some weird texturing effect that looks like gold-banded cables ripping through holes in the book's "skin" and a bunch of swirly rosebuds throughout. The spine is made to look as if it's being held together with canvas and rope. The end result doesn't really look all that much like an actual "magic tome" - I think perhaps the "fake magic book" well is starting to run dry. Personally, I kind of wish that they'd go back to featuring a painting of one or more monsters that appear within the book, like they used to do with
Monster Manual-type books in previous editions of D&D/AD&D.
The interior artwork consists of 132 full-color illustrations by 25 different artists. Most of these illustrations are really well done, and best of all nearly every monster described in the book is depicted. Even better, most of the illustrations match the written description of the monster in question, although there are a few exceptions, and a few out-and-out mistakes. The four-armed Arrow Demon on page 34 is shown with two bows drawn, but the way it's holding them, its one arm would get in the way of the other bow. (For a four-armed creature to fire two bows simultaneously, it would either have to use one bow with both of its right arms and another with both of its left arms, or, if it was holding each bow with one right hand and one left hand - as illustrated - it would have to hold the bows horizontally, not vertically.) The Geriviar on page 53, another four-armed creature, has a different problem: three of his hands have three fingers and a thumb, but the fourth has
four fingers and a thumb! (
That certainly wasn't mentioned in the creature's description!) Assuming that lhosks (think of them as "gorilla-driders") lay eggs in the manner of spiders, it makes no sense that the one illustrated on page 90 has a belly button! The vermin lord on page 184 is missing its scorpion tail. And finally, nycaloths now apparently have four arms instead of two (and while the description and the illustration actually
do match each other, I recall reading somewhere that was because the illustrator - James Zhang - was confused about the description stating that "all four limbs" have claws; he assumed it meant "all four arms" and painted it that way, and the WotC staff decided to change the stats rather than have him redo the illustration). Still, while these problems did bother me, I have to admit that overall the artwork in
Monster Manual III sticks much closer to the written descriptions (and previous incarnations, where applicable) than other books in the series have. I enjoyed the artwork much more in this book than in any other WotC 3.0/3.5 monster book to date.
Monster Manual III has a much more even distribution among CRs than other monster books in the past have had, and there's also a nice, fairly even distribution among creature types (although I admit I was a bit surprised not to have seen any "12-age-category" dragons represented; the dragons here are all of the "lesser" variety). With the Warforged, we get a new creature type (subtype, actually - the "living construct"), and the authors seemed to go out of their way to come up with new swarms based on creature types not yet represented (undead, constructs, fey, plants, elementals, etc.). Overall, I think the designers did a great job of coming up with a wide range of creatures for this book, and they also did a great job on coming up with some interesting new attack forms. I particularly like the brood keeper, a Huge beetlelike insect that can release a swarm of flying maggots from its back, and the skindancer, whose skin "remembers" the last type of attack that hit it and reconfigures itself to respond appropriately. I also like the mindshredder, who has three distinct stages in its development, with full stats for each stage. While there are some somewhat "goofy" concepts in here that make me wonder why anybody thought they would be a good idea (the lumi, for example, whose neckless head floats above its headless body, for example - say
what?), for the most part I think I like these monsters taken as a whole better than those (again, as a whole) in either
Monster Manual II or the
Fiend Folio.
However, I have to say that I was
really disappointed not only in the proofreading but also in the stat-checking. I'll start with the proofreading, as that will take significantly shorter to deal with. Christopher Lindsay is credited as the sole proofreader, and he manages to keep the level of mistakes down to lower than a lot of d20 companies, but this is WotC - you'd think they'd be "leading the pack" as it were. Sadly, that isn't the case, as I discovered as early as page 6 when I learned a creative new way to spell "dinosaur" ("dinousaur," for those who are interested). There were formatting errors (spells and magic items not being in italics), word substitutions ("but" instead of "put"), extraneous words ("hits with
at a bite or claw"), improper word usage ("
An changeling,"), improper pluralization ("demons and devil" instead of "demons and
devils," "knell beetles riders instead of "knell
beetle riders," "spell effect" instead of "spell
effects"), punctuation errors (lack of a period at the end of a sentence, a double period after "ft"), text formatting problems (in what must have been a copy-and-paste error, the same sentence has an extraneous carriage return in it, forcing the rest of the sentence on the next line and leaving a blank space on the line above), improper verb usage ("it attempt" instead of "it
attempts"), missing words ("demons that [insert "dwell" here] on plains of bones"), and simple typos ("strips" instead of "stripes"). There were also some areas where the game stats didn't jibe with the creature descriptions, such as the "generic" voidmind template description describing a "voidmind grimlock" (the sample templated creature), or the mivilorn description claiming they're from Acheron when the stats claim they're from Pandemonium. All in all, I can't really say I was impressed with the proofreading job in
Monster Manual III - I'll even go so far as to say it was the most disappointing job I've seen from WotC in any of their 3.5 products I've seen to date.
As for the stats, though, they're on another level of their own. I've reviewed some d20 monster books before that have had a ton of mistakes in the creature stats, but I never thought I'd read a WotC monster book with an equivalent number of stat problems. Nine different designers on this book, plus nine more credited with "additional design," a three-person "development team," three editors, two managing editors, and between the lot of them they couldn't get their stats done up better than they are as published? For shame, Wizards of the Coast! In any case, in the interests of assisting those who purchased
Monster Manual III and would like their monster stats to be correct, I recommend making the following changes:
- p. 9, Arcane Ooze: Grapple should be +25, not +24 (+11 BAB, +8 size, +6 Str). Slam attacks should be at +15 melee, not +14 (+11 BAB, -2 size, +6 Str). Slam damage should be 2d6+9 plus 2d6 acid, not 2d6+7 plus 2d6 acid (+6 Str bonus, 1.5 times 6 = +9). Climb skill ranks should be +14, not +13 (+6 Str, +8 racial bonus). Of course, if you drop the arcane ooze's Strength down from 22 to 21, all of the above problems are fixed, so maybe it would just be easier to fix that one discrepancy instead of all of the others.
- p. 11, Armand: Claw attacks should be at +10 melee, not +9 (+5 BAB, +1 size, +3 Dex due to Weapon Finesse, +1 Weapon Focus).
- p. 11, Armand Warden, 4th-Level Monk: Average hit points should be 74, not 76. Unarmed attacks should be +14 melee, not +13 (+8 BAB, +1 size, +4 Dex due to Weapon Finesse, +1 Weapon Focus). Thus, flurry of blows should be at +12/+12/+7 melee, not +11/+11/+6.
- p. 19, Lesser Bonedrinker: Initiative should be +4, not +3. Tentacle attacks should be at +6 melee, not +5 (+3 BAB, +1 size, +2 Str). Claw attacks should be at +1 melee, not +0. Grapple should be at +1, not +5 (+3 BAB, -4 size, +2 Str) - the Combat text specifically states that they're not as proficient at grappling, so they shouldn't get the +4 racial bonus that full-sized bonedrinkers get.
- p. 31, Infernal Conflagration Ooze: AC should be 22, not 21 (-2 size, +14 natural). Ditto with flat-footed AC.
- pp. 32-33, Deathshrieker: The stats say that incorporeal touch drains 1d8 Cha, but the text says it's 1d4 points of permanent Cha drain, 2d4 Cha on a critical. Which is it? The Treasure line reads "Solitary" - no doubt a copy-and-paste error from the Organization line.
- pp. 32-33, Advanced Deathshrieker: See "Deathshrieker" above - the same problems apply.
- p. 47, Dust Wight: It has 16 HD, yet the Advancement line reads "9-12 HD (Medium), 13-18 HD (Large), 19-24 HD (Huge)."
- p. 51, Feral Yowler: If using the Power Attack strategy as asterisked, bite attacks should be at +8 melee, not +11 (+7 BAB, +4 Str, -3 Power Attack), and the 2 claws should be at +3 melee, not +6.
- [Deleted, after an oversight I made was pointed out to me]
- p. 57, Eldritch Giant: HD should be 25d8+225, not 25d8+255 (it has a +9 Con bonus; this is probably just a typo).
- p. 57, Eldritch Giant Confessor: HD should be 25d8+275 plus 11d8+121, not 25d8+274 plus 11d8+122. (Sure, the end result's the same, but it makes it more difficult to see where it came from.) Average hit points should be 558, not 557 (admittedly, not much of a major problem). Dex should be 12, not 10 (or else Initiative and AC are both wrong). Bastard sword damage should be 3d8+17, not 3d8+16. Alignment simply reads "Neutral evil" - there's no qualifier (always? usually? often?). I presume that should be "Always neutral evil," just like the standard eldritch giant.
- p. 58, Sand Giant Champion: Sand Blaster Reflex save should be DC 24, not DC 25 (10 + [1/2 HD] + [ability mod], or in this case 10 + 7 + 7. Even if you included the Sand Giant Champion's 5 levels of fighter, you'd get 10 + 10 + 7 = DC 27, not DC 25.) Grapple should be +31, not +30 (+16 BAB, +4 size, +11 Str).
- p. 61, Glaistig Mindbender: Flat-footed AC should be 18, not 19 (+4 natural, +2 bracers of armor +2, +2 ring of protection +2).
- p. 65, Forestkith Goblin, 1st-Level Warrior: Masterwork net attacks should be at +5 ranged, not +4 (+1 BAB, +1 size, +2 Dex, +1 masterwork).
- p. 65, Forestkith Goblin, 1st-Level Barbarian: Ditto.
- p. 69, Hangman Golem: HD should be 18d10+30, not 18d8+30 - constructs have d10s for Hit Dice! This puts average hit points at 129, not 111.
- p. 70, Mud Golem: Slam damage should be 2d10+7, not 2d10+10 (you don't get the 1.5 times Strength when you have two slams).
- p. 71, Prismatic Golem: Incorporeal touch attacks should be at +25 melee, not +14 (+15 BAB, -1 size, +11 Dex due to incorporealness).
- p. 73, Shadesteel Golem: Flat-footed AC should be 30, not 33 (+20 natural).
- p. 74, Web Golem: Slam damage should be 2d10+5, not 2d10+7 (you don't get the 1.5 times Strength when you have two slams). Also, since spider climb is a continuous effect, shouldn't it have a Climb speed listed?
- p. 81, Dread Harpoon Spider: Since Improved Trip is still a bonus feat (as it is for the standard Harpoon Spider), this creature is one feat short. Assuming it takes Improved Toughness (which the standard Harpoon Spider has, but the Dread version does not), then its HD should be 9d8+54 plus 9 and its average hit points should be 103.
- p. 82, Harssaf: The Con-based Reflex save for Sand Pulse should be DC 16, not DC 15.
- p. 84, Ironclad Mauler: It doesn't mention it, but shouldn't constructs also be immune to this creature's sickening aura? They don't have Constitution scores, either.
- p. 92, Glitterfire: AC should be 13, not 14 (+3 deflection) - there's no Dex bonus! Touch AC should be 13, not 14, for the same reason.
- p. 97, Poison Dusk Lizardfolk, 1st-Level Ranger: Hit points should be 9, not 5 (it gets maximum hit points for its first character class Hit Die). Also, the "* with longstrider" note at the bottom of the stats is not needed.
- p. 97, Poison Dusk Lieutenant, 4th-Level Ranger: Initiative should be +3, not "4d8+12 (33 hp)" which is what it currently reads (accidentally copied over from the HD line). Claw attacks should be at +7 melee, not +6 (+4 BAB, +1 size, +2 Str). Longspear attacks should be at +7 melee, not +6. Masterwork longbow attacks should be at +9 ranged, not +8 (+4 BAB, +1 size, +3 Dex, +1 masterwork). Bola attacks should be at +8 ranged, not +7 (+4 BAB, +1 size, +3 Dex).
- p. 101, Mastodon: Slam damage should be 2d8+11, not 2d8+16 (it doesn't get the 1.5 times Strength since it has more than one attack).
- p. 107, Elite Demon War Mount: Breath weapon Reflex save should be DC 25, not DC 26. Ditto with the save for Charging Bite. Initiative should be +0, not +1. Bite damage should be 6d6+33/19-20 plus 2d4 acid, not 6d6+34/19-20 plus 2d4 acid (+12 Str mod, 12 times 1.5 = +18, 18 + 15 [from Power Attack] = 33).
- p. 110, Night Twist: Skills include "Survival +17 Survival +9 (+11 aboveground)" - besides the lack of a comma between the two entries, why are there two different Survival skill ranks listed?
- p. 114, Odopi: Claw damage should be 4d6+12, not 4d6+15 (+7 Str, +5 Power Attack) - it doesn't get the 1.5 times Strength bonus because it has more than one attack.
- p. 115, Elder Odopi: Grapple should be +45, not +41 (+22 BAB, +12 size, +11 Str). Claw damage should be 6d6+16, not 6d6+21 (+11 Str, +5 Power Attack).
- p. 117, Skullcrusher Ogre Sergeant, 3rd-Level Fighter: Initiative should be +1, not +0. In the Attack line, "lance (2d6+9/x3)" should be "lance +17 melee (2d6+9/x3)"
- p. 124, Plague Brush: Grapple should be +50, not +46 (+22 BAB, +16 size, +12 Str). Slam attacks should be at +26 melee, not +27 (+22 BAB, -8 size, +12 Str).
- p. 129, Quadraphon Bully, 5th-Level Barbarian: Bite attacks should be at +14 melee, not +15 (+11 BAB, -1 size, +7 Str, -3 Power Attack). Also, technically, that feat is called "Improved Natural Attack," not "Improved Natural Weapon" (this shows up in the standard Quadraphon's stats as well).
- p. 131, Fiendish Rage Drake: Initiative should be +7, not +8 (+3 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative). BAB should be +21, not +20 (it's a 21-HD dragon). With 21 HD, it should have 8 feats, not 7.
- p. 136, Naztharune Rakshasa: Flat-footed AC should be 24, not 19 (due to its Uncanny Dodge, it keeps its +5 Dex mod even when flat-footed).
- p. 139, Young Redcap: Sling attacks should be at +5 ranged, not +4 (+2 BAB, +1 size, +1 Str, +1 weapon enhancement).
- [Deleted after an error on my part was pointed out to me.]
- p. 143, Necrothane: AC should be 29, not 28 (+2 Dex, +7 natural, +9 +1 full plate, +1 Two-Weapon Defense feat). Touch AC should be 12, not 11.
- p. 146, Salt Mummy: AC should be 28, not 18 (-1 Dex, +19 natural) - or, if it is AC 18, that should be "(-1 Dex, +9 natural)" instead. Ditto with its flat-footed AC. Grapple should be +14, not +13 (+6 BAB, +8 Str).
- p. 149, Greater Seryulin: Initiative should be +5, not +4. Missing one feat; it should have 8 feats in all. Also, why does the Environment list it as "Underground" when according to the description "Aquatic" or "Coastal Waters" would be more apppropriate?
- p. 153, Shredstorm: The Speed rating and number of squares don't match up; either it should be "Fly 90 ft. (perfect) 18 squares)" or "Fly 60 ft. (perfect) (12 squares)" - unfortunately, there's no indicator as to which is correct. In any case, no matter how you look at it, 90 ft. does not equal 12 squares.
- p. 154, Shrieking Terror: Kiss melee touch attack should be at +15 melee, not +12 (+11 BAB, +4 Dex due to Weapon Finesse).
- p. 155, Ten-Headed Shrieking Terror: With Str 21 and Dex 16, Weapon Finesse is a useless feat for this creature. It should have been swapped out for a different feat.
- p. 157, Siege Crab: No touch or flat-footed AC values given; should be touch 14, flat-footed 37.
- p. 157, Greater Siege Crab: Claw attacks should be at +30 melee, not +38 (+24 BAB, -8 size, +14 Str). Also, shouldn't that shielded compartment measure 10 ft, by 20 ft. by 20 ft.?
- p. 159, Slaughterstone Behemoth: Initiative should be +0, not -1. Speed should either read "20 ft. (4 squares)" or "30 ft. (6 squares)" - again, I've no idea which is correct, only that 20 ft. does not equal 6 squares.
- p. 160, Slaughterstone Eviscerator: Initiative should be +0, not -1. Grapple should be +24, not +23 (+11 BAB, +4 size, +9 Str). Adamantium blade attacks should be at +21 melee, not +20 (+11 BAB, -1 size, +9 Str, +2 magic weapon enhancement). Adamantium blade damage should be 2d8+11, not 2d8+8 (+9 Str, +2 magic weapon enhancement).
- p. 166, Ssvaklor: Why can a Ssvaklor advance to 45 HD, but a Greater Ssvaklor only to 40 HD? One of those is messed up.
- [Deleted after an error on my part was pointed out to me.]
- p. 176, Trilloch: Grapple should be "-" instead of "+4" (incorporeal creatures can't grapple). Control Rage Will save should be DC 18, not 19 (10 + 4 + 4).
- pp. 177-181, Trolls (all): This isn't really an error per se, just a standardization issue, but for some reason all of the new types of trolls have their Dexterity modifiers listed last in their AC breakdowns. Weird.
- p. 181, War Troll: HD should be 12d8+108, not 12d8+84 (it has a +9 Con bonus). Thus, average hit points should be 162, not 138. Also, is there any reason why the war troll is a monstrous humanoid, when all other trolls (even the Medium-sized forest troll) are of the "giant" creature type?
- p. 183, Horrific Vasuthant: Flat-footed AC should be 18, not 16 (-2 size, +10 natural). Grapple should be +35, not +39 (+12 BAB, +8 size, +11 Str, +4 Improved Grapple).
- p. 184, Vermin Lord: Grapple should be +34, not +33 (Improved Grab description says it can use either its Strength or Dexterity for grapples, and using its higher Dexterity score results in +25 BAB, +4 size, +5 Dex).
- p. 197, Woodling Monitor Lizard: Shouldn't the bite damage drop down to 1d8+3 (from 1d8+4) now that the monitor lizard has a slam attack? Normal monitor lizards have only the bite attack, so they'd get the 1.5 times Strength deal, but the woodling monitor lizard probably shouldn't. Also, the Treasure and Alignment lines are missing; based off of the base creature, they should be "None" and "Always neutral," respectively.
- p. 197, Autumn, 9th-Level Woodling Human Druid: In the Attack line, the +1 scimitar attack should be at +9 melee, not +9/+4 (you only get multiple attacks during a Full Attack).
- p. 203, Nycaloth: Grapple should be +23, not +18 (+14 BAB, +4 size, +5 Str).
- p. 203, Nycaloth Commander: Flat-footed AC should be 31, not 24 (-2 size, +7 +2 breastplate, +16 natural).
- p. 205, Zezir: Flammable Spray Reflex save should be DC 20, not 18 (they forgot to take the creature's Ability Focus into account).
That comes out to be 58 creatures out of 162, or a whopping 36% of them that are somehow messed up. (Of course, that figure assumes that I haven't overlooked something myself in some of the creatures' stats when determining that something's in error - it happens - or that, conversely, I didn't miss something in an entry that I passed off as correct. In my defense, though, this is a list compiled by one guy - me - reading through
Monster Manual III one time; you would expect that Wizards of the Coast would be able to have caught most of these errors before publication, or am I the only one that would have expected multiple editing passes with one or more "rules guys" who could catch these kinds of errors by the leader in the RPG industry?) In any case, the monster stats in
Monster Manual III were very disappointing to me.
Finally, there were the things that just didn't make sense. While none of these are actually "wrong" stat-wise, I had a hard time believing that they would work like they do. For example:
- Why does the avalancher, with only one eye on a retractable eyestalk, gain all-around vision? It can still only look in one direction at a time. The only way I can get this to work in my head is to assume that it has a ring of rudimentary eyespots in a ring around its body, so it can actually look in all directions at once.
- If the night twist's Despair Song ability really affects all creatures with Intelligence scores of 6 or greater within 5 miles per HD, this means the average night twist affects all such creatures within 75 miles! I find this difficult to believe, to the point of absurdity. Even worse, the ancient night twist would affect all such creatures within 125 miles! Perhaps something along the lines of "50 ft./HD" would be more appropriate.
- How can the nycter Defender of the Cave, a bat-humanoid (yes, another one, as if the desmodu wasn't enough!) whose bat-wings grow from its upper limbs, carry a large wooden shield (as listed in its stats) and still expect to fly?
- The fact that phoelarches and phoeras always leave behind an egg after death (which becomes a brand-new phoera after 24 hours) means that the phoera population will always be rising and cannot normally ever decrease in numbers. Eventually, the world will be filled with these creatures. Somebody better start sterilizing them now, or start putting them into temporal stasis or petrifying as many of them as they can! [Edit: It was also pointed out to me that you could simply smash the eggs before they hatch. Yeah, I guess that would certainly work too!]
On the plus side, there were some really nice things about this book. They managed to keep just about all of the monsters stats confined to a whole page (or, failing that, two whole pages), so none of the material bled over onto part of a page and none of the monsters started anywhere other than at the top of a page. They managed to do this by creating more powerful versions of some of the monsters (quite a lot more than the "upgraded" monsters in the original
Monster Manual), and by eating up some blank space in many of the entries with details on where these creatures show up in the Forgotten Realms and/or Eberron campaigns. This was a nice touch, and certainly made the layout much more user-friendly.
It was also nice to see some revisions of creatures from earlier editions of the game, like the flind, kenku, and susurrus, and, to a lesser extent, the snowflake ooze (a renamed white pudding?). Plus, the new subspecies of common monsters like lizardfolk, ogres, trolls, and rakshasas were welcome additions.
Overall, though,
Monster Manual III certainly has its share of problems. However, I can honestly say that many of the errors on my rather lengthy list above involve stats that are off only by one or two points, which hopefully shouldn't have
that much of an effect on the creatures' playability. Still, I really hate to see such a shoddy level of effort put into the stats, especially since so many of the creatures are based on some really cool concepts. In fact, it's the inherent "coolness" of so many of the monsters in this book that keeps my review score up as high as I'm going to give it. After some back-and-forth on my part, I decided to give
Monster Manual III a rating of "3 (Average)." It's a pretty high 3, as 3s go, but I really can't in good conscience rate a monster book with this many stat problems "Good."
I think I'll email a link to this review to the folks at WotC - if it doesn't give them a wake-up call, at least I can start them well on the way toward their
Monster Manual III errata list.
