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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 2009584" data-attributes="member: 2013">The Monster Manual is the third of the three Core Rulebooks for the D&D/d20 System, published by Wizards of the Coast.Note: This review, along with the review on the PHB and DMG is considerably shorter than usual and focused on my opinions and reactions because of the tremendous amount of reviews they have already received and the assumption that everyone is quite familiar with them by now.Percent of OGC: 0%* (This deserves an asterisk because a great deal of the MM was released as Open Game Content in the System Reference Document though currently is under the Gentlemens' Agreement)First Impressions: Not quite the "wow" factor of the PHB or DMG, but still very good.  The format looks a little cluttered, as though they were trying to jam in a lot of material (they were, but they reduced the page count from the DMG and PHB).  Having the rules of "how to make a monster" right in the front of the book is great!  14 pages of explaining special abilities, how they work, and finally separating monsters into definitive types (as was started back in the days of the D&D Accessory AC9, the Creature Catalogue) was terrific, and helps quickly define a monster's role.Initial Annoyances: Many of the monsters "break the rules" outlined in the beginning of the book.  Don't give us rules and then turn right around and break them.  Sheesh.  Also, the "cluttered" format makes things very hard to read - especially on entries such as "Devil" where all the devil "stat blocks" are jammed together and hard to read.  Give us a separate entry for "Devil, Kyton" and "Devil, Barbazu" to make it easier on the eyes!The Good:  Where to start?  Um, pretty much gives you a huge selection of monsters for your campaign.  You could run forever with just this book based on range of CRs and creature types.  The collecting of Animals and Vermin into appendices at the end was an excellent move too, especially given the druid and ranger abilities of animal friendship.  This way, all the animals are in one place - and anyone who needs more detail on a particular animal can go to an encyclopedia.  Not too bad a move, that.  The introduction of templates to the system is LONG overdue and is probably the second-most exciting part of the book (behind the creature creation rules) for DMs.The Bad: Why vermin were collected into an Appendix is a little tricky to understand.  Also, notably missing from the book are some of the "Trap" monsters such as the various molds and slimes we all adored (or not) from previous editions.  Perhaps an appendix with "trap" monsters could have been done, too.  Also, as I mentioned before, this book breaks its own rules early and often.The Ugly: Too much compression.  The DMG and PHB were slightly longer and looked better-organized.  Another 32 pages (to get the page count up to 256) would have made a huge difference in making this an easier read, even if the amount of material contained inside remained the same.Presentation: The information is great, but as mentioned before, the layout is awful.  Most of the creatures have pictures which are for the most part good.  No complaints here.Conclusion: This is the third book that defines the d20 system, building on what is presented in the PHB and the DMG.  You really cannot avoid the DMG with this book - it leans heavily on a lot of the Special Attack descriptions in the DMG, so you really can't use this on its own - you need the DMG, too.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, BTW, as it is expected that the three books should build on each other and have synergy that way.  I have since seen better-laid-out monster collections, but nothing approaching the depth and scope here.  If you must get a monster book, get the MM first, despite the layout issues.  Other than that, there's not much to not recommend here.  Templates are a great idea, you get the entire litany of "standard" monsters and you get rules to make your own to boot.  Well done, though not quite on a par with the DMG and PHB.  Still gets a "Superb" but not as strong a superb as the other two.--The SigilOctober 18, 2002</blockquote>

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