Monster Manual IV - Good, Bad, or Indiferent?

[Felon]

"What's with all this quality? Uggh! When I buy a monster manual, I want quantity. Hundreds and hundreds of monsters (of which I'll use maybe a dozen). And every monster ought to be utterly new unique, which basically means its name is a random assortment of syllables that have never been arranged in that order before. Don't give me an ogre scout or yu-anti marshal, give me a kremlaka, or vortupuluk, or how about nemnondu? Exact same abilties, just a different name and altered appearance."

/sarcasm

Sorry for the shameless straw man, but I'm hearing the same complaints over and over, and they just seem to be non-sequitor-heavy. We were getting repackaged monsters over and over before, they were just slightly more cagey about it.

MMIV's a wonderful book IMO.

 

[BryonD]

"What's with all this quality? Uggh!

Yep, 'cause not a single complaint against the quality of the book has been offered.

If only.

/sarcasm

 

[satori01]

I do not intend to buy it at all. Not interested.

Have you examained the book at all or are you just stating your feelings on it sight unsee. I'm not trying to be snarky, but the whole point of this thread was to determine the opinion of those that have the book, not of the general hype and feelings on MM IV. Again not trying to be harsh, but hopefully you and others who do not have the book, or have not examained the book thoroughly are not voting in the poll.

I have never looked at, bought, or really even considered buying the Book of Exalted Deeds, from the combos posted, and the author listed, I do not think it is my cup of tea. Likewise knowing that I would never take a poll re: BOED or post in a thread asking for opinions on the book. Simply put, I know nothing really about it, and care to know nothing about it, I hope people keep that in mind w/ MMIV.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Yep, 'cause not a single complaint against the quality of the book has been offered.

If only.

/sarcasm

Okay den.

The quality of monsters in the book is also horrible, with way too many stupid Tiamat spawn wasting space.

Quantity and quality - both are lacking.

The Auld Grump

 

[Felon]

Can't say I was loving all those Tiamat spawn, but in general the monsters presented in the MMIV are handled quite nicely, with each entry presenting an idea mine for how to use the critter. The quality of detail provided here is quite commendable, and a sharp upgrade from previous MM's.

 

[Maliki]

I looked at it, and I wasn't impressed. Even if I was still playing 3E, I would not want this book.

Way too much space was devoted to monsters with classes, (that I could do myself) and spawn of Tiamat. I really didn't see anything in the selection of monsters that even caught my attention.

Unlike some others the sample lairs seemed interesting, but not enough to save the book, IMHO.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Ignoring the Spawn (gods know I would like to...) the classed monsters are the biggest sticking point - especially for people who have any prgram that can be used to add class levels to critters. E-Tools, PCGen, and I am quite sure that there are others. I use classed monsters, especially humanoids, quite a bit - I do not need a book of pregenerated classed critters, since doing it myself allows me to tailor the encounters to the scenario.

As a whole this book seemed to be too much about mixing things - let us mix dragons with other critters, let us mix monsters and class levels, let us mix monster entries with adventure locations.

Does anyone have any numbers on how well MMIII did for WotC, money wise? MMIII failing to bring in enough money is the only reason that I can think of for them changing the format so drastically in MMIV.

Oh, and for the record, I am not one of the people complaining about the new stat block. I have come to rather like it. My complaints are purely with the contents of the book, not the presentation.

The Auld Grump

 

[Obrysii]

The new stat format makes it a no-buy for me alone.

The classed NPCs only worsen it.

 

[evil_killer_rat]

Monster Manual IV

I thought that it was okay. Like some previous people have said, i didn't really care for the new stat line. The Npcs provided are actually useful. The encounters however were just too much. They could have saved space by just doing the encounters the old way (solitary, band: 3-8,hunting party: 9-15 ect. ect.). The good thing about the new stat lines were that they gave every monster that was even remotely playable a favored class, sometimes having the Level adjustment isn't enough to make a good monstrous character, but maybe that's just me, who is addicted to not having the generic races as player characters. I did however, like the Tiamat spawn, contrary to what everyone else says, but then, i also like big lizards on two feet. Overall i think that it was fairly good, but with room for improvement.

 

[Felon]

The new stat format makes it a no-buy for me alone.

That's another complaint I can't grock. Everything's arranged logically. Initial encounter stuff first, defensive block next, followed by offensive stats. It's not arbitrary like the previous array, it just takes getting used to.