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Monster Manuals - Too Many, Not Enough?
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<blockquote data-quote="squibbles" data-source="post: 8621851" data-attributes="member: 6937590"><p>I completely agree.</p><p></p><p>Most of the compelling creatures informed by longstanding archetypes are covered in any edition's first monster book. Monsters in subsequent or third-party books tend to be extremely specific, modifications on tropes that are already covered, or ridiculous D&Disms. They're swanmays, boalisks, or wolfweres, respectively, to the more straightforward dryads, basilisks, and werewolves. And those kinds of odd creatures are fine in the context of a specific adventure (e.g. the marble snake in Palace of the SIlver Princess is great), a specific campaign setting, or, sometimes, if you happen to be really feelin' boalisks, but, to me, they don't come off as vital or compelling.</p><p></p><p>I rarely find more than a handful of monsters that make me go "wow, cool!" when reading a new monster manual. And I don't think that's because no compelling creatures informed by longstanding archetypes still exist to be invented/adopted into D&D. Rather, I feel like most monster manuals just don't have enough... I dunno... cowbell. But, of course, that's just my opinion. Ymmv, and I'm not here to tell anyone that their collection of monster manuals is bad.</p><p></p><p>I'd be curious to hear more of your thoughts about this [USER=6670763]@Yora[/USER] having read your <a href="http://spriggans-den.com/fantasy-safari-index/" target="_blank">Fantasy Safari Series</a> from several years back with its count of repeated cliches in monster manuals, i.e.:</p><p></p><p></p><p>And to reiterate my point from above: all of those cliches are capital "A" Awesome (and variant mechanics to keep them interesting are all well and good). I just don't see the need for the fifth <em>named</em> skeleton with robes that has its own description, picture, and bespoke place in the multiverse.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="squibbles, post: 8621851, member: 6937590"] I completely agree. Most of the compelling creatures informed by longstanding archetypes are covered in any edition's first monster book. Monsters in subsequent or third-party books tend to be extremely specific, modifications on tropes that are already covered, or ridiculous D&Disms. They're swanmays, boalisks, or wolfweres, respectively, to the more straightforward dryads, basilisks, and werewolves. And those kinds of odd creatures are fine in the context of a specific adventure (e.g. the marble snake in Palace of the SIlver Princess is great), a specific campaign setting, or, sometimes, if you happen to be really feelin' boalisks, but, to me, they don't come off as vital or compelling. I rarely find more than a handful of monsters that make me go "wow, cool!" when reading a new monster manual. And I don't think that's because no compelling creatures informed by longstanding archetypes still exist to be invented/adopted into D&D. Rather, I feel like most monster manuals just don't have enough... I dunno... cowbell. But, of course, that's just my opinion. Ymmv, and I'm not here to tell anyone that their collection of monster manuals is bad. I'd be curious to hear more of your thoughts about this [USER=6670763]@Yora[/USER] having read your [URL='http://spriggans-den.com/fantasy-safari-index/']Fantasy Safari Series[/URL] from several years back with its count of repeated cliches in monster manuals, i.e.: And to reiterate my point from above: all of those cliches are capital "A" Awesome (and variant mechanics to keep them interesting are all well and good). I just don't see the need for the fifth [I]named[/I] skeleton with robes that has its own description, picture, and bespoke place in the multiverse. [/QUOTE]
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