Monster Manual IV thoughts?

[DragonLancer]

Its an ok book, not on par with the excellence that was MM3, but just ok. Too many humanoids, too many MM1 monsters with class levels (what, WotC ran out of ideas?), and I hate the new stat block with a passion unbridled.

I give it a 5/10. Could have been a lot better.

 

[Shemeska]

I haven't purchased it, at least not yet, but I spent a long time last week going through page by page with a copy in my FLGS.

Overall... I have mixed feelings on it.

Artwork - Very good by and large. WotC has had very snazzy art of late, and I appreciate this trend.

New stat block - I like the new format. I appreciate more ecology and flavor. But...

Writing in the book - I'm underwhelmed. Some monsters were good (Zern and Windrazors were rather nice), but many others seemed incredibly uninspired.

[Impending nitpick on a fiend] .... And while I like the two yugoloths presented in the book -their general concept is cool- but whoever wrote them seems to have neglected to do their homework on the race and seems to have been unaware of anything about them pre-3e. They don't all come from Gehenna, but MMIV suggests that anyways. And the MMIV says that Corruptors of Fate mate to produce other members of their kind. One problem: all lesser yugoloths mate to produce mezzoloths. So either you've put a single digit CR 'loth as a greater 'loth, or they're violating the entire racial heirarchy, or these guys work better as yugoloth constructs rather than proper yugoloths. And naming a nycaloth as "General Commander Render" just comes off in my mind as cheesy and goofy, same as naming another 'loth as 'Malice'. The concept behind the two new 'loths is rather nice, but it really suffers from an apparent lack of knowledge about their race in general when the writeup was made, and the names tossed in there come off poorly. Plus, dropping 20+ years of naming convention (ending their names in 'loth [or 'daemon in 1e]) was a bit inexplicable. I'd appreciate a comment on the decision behind that actually, if the author in question is on Enworld.

Monsters with class levels - Not a bad idea, but please, not in a MM. I can slap class levels on a basic monster in five minutes, or on the fly. I don't need something with a few more HD or three levels of warrior passed off as a new monster.

Overall The book has some good and it has some bad, but more than anything it comes off as a tad bland, generic, and uninspired. Yes, it's suffering incredibly by comparison to the writing of FC:I still fresh in my mind, but on its own it leaves me wanting nonetheless. I'll get the book if it's on serious discount, but I doubt I'll pay cover price since there's not enough offered by the book to my taste to justify the price.

 

[Shade]

What Shemmy said, plus:

The lack of any monsters from past editions saddens me. The gacholoth is more interesting than the new yugoloths included within, yet it has yet to see an update. I can hold out hope for a FCIII, I suppose. I still hope the quickling, hydroloth, dergholoth, noviere, shiere, diurge, utukku, abiorach, argenach, plumach, sheens, etc. will make an appearance in 3E.

The lack of any true dragons in the "Year of Dragons" is also disappointing.

The CRs seem skewed towards low levels, reducing its usefulness to me as well.

Taking Demiurge's lead, I'd rank the official monster books as follows, from best to worst:

Fiend Folio (far and beyond the others)
MM II
Monsters of Faerun
MM III (slight edge over IV)
MM IV

 

[Scribble]

I flipped through it the other day while waiting for the GF to finish jewlery shopping.

I thought it was pretty good. I like the inclusion of ecology and culture, and the maps.

The maps I thought were a great addition. An easy way to give wandering monsters a lair, "just in case."

I probably won't buy it though, as I don't buy monster books that much, and I've pretty much switched to PDFs...

 

[Sunderstone]

While other are complaining about 7 pages for lizardfolk, I'm enjoying a set of foes you can build a whole campaign, or at least a major adventure, around. I found the focus on groups of thematically-linked foes, including the statted out humanoids and spawn (though I agree the iceskate dragon is kinda dumb) makes this book much easier to use. I never get more than a few monsters out of a single monster book anyway (original MM excluded), but this way when I do the work to add a new theme to my game, I get a whole set of foes to use. And, of course, I have new orcs and ogres ready to go.

I agree.

I loved this book and it will see some pretty heavy use. Thumbs Up.

 

[Obrysii]

The new format killed it for me--I can't stand it. I prefure the classic monster format.

The NPCs only made it worse.

This book, along with many other recent releases, falls into the "Don't even consider" catagory.

 

[BryonD]

While other are complaining about 7 pages for lizardfolk, I'm enjoying a set of foes you can build a whole campaign, or at least a major adventure, around.

But wouldn't a book with a wide variety be much better? What if you want lizardfolk with higher levels?

I'm all for the concept. It is the whole "and here is the one CR we support for this idea" part that blows it for me.

 

[Remathilis]

Actually, I think a A&E styled "Book of unique monsters" woulda been cool. Much like the examples in MMIV. Take the classic/iconic monsters of D&D, slap templates, class levels, advanced HD, new spells and magical gear, etc and roll with it. Make statted encounters for levels 2-22 using all the different monsters (a couple low, med, high) and there we go. 1 part Savage Species, 1 part MM, 1 part A&E.

Don't think it would sell now, after the MMIV debacle though.

 

[demiurge1138]

Actually, I think a A&E styled "Book of unique monsters" woulda been cool. Much like the examples in MMIV. Take the classic/iconic monsters of D&D, slap templates, class levels, advanced HD, new spells and magical gear, etc and roll with it. Make statted encounters for levels 2-22 using all the different monsters (a couple low, med, high) and there we go. 1 part Savage Species, 1 part MM, 1 part A&E.

Don't think it would sell now, after the MMIV debacle though.

See, that's a really good idea. But I'm not sure we can call the MMIV a debacle quite yet. It's been out, what? One or two weeks? ENWorlder opinion seems decidedly mixed, and it's not as if we're a completely representative chunk of gamer-dom. Time will tell if the MMIV is a debacle or not.

If it is, let's hope WotC realizes why it failed, and doesn't give us MMV: The Map and Classed Monstering.

Demiurge out.

 

[JoeGKushner]

See, that's a really good idea. But I'm not sure we can call the MMIV a debacle quite yet.

3. Monster Manual IV
Kestrol, Gwendolyn F. M.

Our Price: $20.76
You Save: $14.19

Available from other merchants from $21.15

Eligible for FREE SHIPPING

That's from the top 100 books at Buy.com so obviously some one is selling the thing.