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Message: <blockquote data-quote="satori01" data-source="post: 2971219" data-attributes="member: 7859">My opinion was very similiar to Demi's  better than MMII worse than MM III and FF.  Some of the monsters were creative and many of the monsters had abillities that complmented each other well.General Complaints:Format: it has taken WOTC three books now before we have a 'New' Stat Block format that does not have structural errors in it.  Yeah Wizards of the Coast, best send Amazon, Buy.com, and Overstock.com a Xmas card because I will not be your test subject for full retail.The 'New' stat block is fine, as I have said before I want to see the HD calculation, listing the Con bonus to HP is useful for on the fly calculations for buffs and curses.  Wizards decided to skip having prefigured Power Attack in the monster entries, which after Hordes of the Abyss I am ok with.  The 'New' entry style is really nothing more than the 2e expanded entry style, and frankly, I think it is a bit much.  In the first case, so much extra and often wasted verbiage makes the book tiring to read.  I skipped the last monsters of the book, I was to fatigued to go on.  Secondly whole paragraphs can be excised quite easily.  Having a stat block line that says LA +4 is a lot more efficient than having a paragraph of 32 words amount to the same.  Likewise do we need complex Ecology entries when it amounts to "the monster is a carnivore and likes to eat people"Ecologies should have some in game effect, like how a monster changes the terrain to make a lair, different larval stages etc.Monsters: there are too many of the same type of monsters in this book.  There are a lot of Spiders, Wasp like things,  and Fey.  Now for the most part they are designed well, but I could not help thinking "another spider, another Web entry".  Clearly the Mantra of this book was add more Fey, add more Insects, add creatures that eat magic.NPC Stats:  Dungeon does it better for less cost and more gain.Dungeon NPC stats have used the 'New' format for like a year now.  Dungeon authors use very creative templates and class combos, all books used to make the creatures are listed WITH THE PAGE NUMBER OF THE BOOK USED WHERE THE MATIERAL CAN BE FOUND, and you get usuable stats and a context to use them.The lizard man tribe in MMIV felt thematicaly identical to the lizard man tribe in Age of Worms,  and that had plenty of NPC stats.  Do I really need an ecology for a Drow Arcane Guard?  The Drow/Githyanki stats where for throw away monsters, no real thought, no real intresting classes, so do I flavor text for flavorless things?Things I like:The monsters were well designed for the most part, many with intresting complimentry abilities.  I liked the Spawn of Tiamat, I actually did.  Will I use the back story probably not, I will just make them servants of Chromatic Dragons, but many of the monsters where neat.  I would definetely use them in conjunction with Draconians,  especially the Spawn that work as mounts.I like that information is provided for Summoning spells and new monsters.  I like the treasure section.  I love the Lore check section, that is brillant and would love to see retro fits onto the old Monster books, anything that rewards players for lore skills is great.Overall I think it is a decent book, the nuts and bolts are well designed, the monsters are solid, not awe inspiring, but solid.</blockquote>

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