Monsters, Monsters, Monsters! Podcast

[Knight Otu]

Yep, that's exactly why I buy books of pre-made monsters...so I can spend the time making up my own.

While that's true, the specific example of frost giant vs fire giant is likely more of an on-the-fly thing. Considering the 3.X f* giants, they were basically mirrors, to use MtG terminology. Sure, the fire giant has an additional HD with all it entails and a better Strength by 2, and the frost giant a better natural armor bonus by +1, and there are some skill differences as well, but essentially you could take one set of stats, run a search&replace for fire to cold or vice versa, and have the other guy.
Now, it does depend on how the 4E fire giant looks as you correctly say, but I do think it relatively likely that the same procedure would create a viable frost giant. Perhaps that is an additional reason for one of them to sit the MMI out, to give them some time to develop a more distinct frost giant, or to avoid having near-mirrors in the MM.

 

[HelloChristian]

WotC is SPECIFICALLY excluding important monsters from the 1st MM because they want to place them in MM2, MM3, etc, to give those Monster Manuals more "core" impact.

Nice try, Hasbro. I'll still plan on buying only the PHB, MM 1 and DMG. You need to try harder than that to separate me from my cash.

Oh, wait, H1 is on the list, too. Gimme!

 

[Shroomy]

Eh, unless I happened to be running a campaign centered around frost giants, I'm not too broken up about this. Its not like this is anything new monsters from earlier editions that I considered important did not appear in the MMI (instead, they were spread out between MMII, FF, and other supplements).

 

[CleverNickName]

Wait...

There are going to be multiple Core monster books?
The owlbear is now "elite?"
Frost giants are not in MM1?

Oh man. I'm not liking the sound of this.

 

[danbuter1]

Eh, unless I happened to be running a campaign centered around frost giants, I'm not too broken up about this. Its not like this is anything new monsters from earlier editions that I considered important did not appear in the MMI (instead, they were spread out between MMII, FF, and other supplements).

That was just the example given. They said that there are number of monsters this is being done with.

Edit: And it pisses me off because I'm setting up a viking-style campaign world.

 

[Korgoth]

Listened to it. Some interesting tidbits. Monster management for the DM should be a hell of a lot easier, which I like. Monsters have certain reactions, like dragons can tailwhip automatically when someone tries to flank. (I'm pretty sure that's what he meant).

MY BIG GRIPE (because there had to be one)
WotC is SPECIFICALLY excluding important monsters from the 1st MM because they want to place them in MM2, MM3, etc, to give those Monster Manuals more "core" impact. They mentioned frost giants in particular, but said there were multiple creatures held back just for this purpose. That's the marketing department dictating stuff to the gaming department, which pisses me off a bit. While I know they want to sell extra MM's, holding off important monsters to save them for later books just to insure people buy those later books is crap. IMO.

I guess the only good part about it is that they were at least honest and didn't try to pass it off as "for your own good".

But yes, we've gotten pretty far away from the "Hi my name is Gary and I came up with this totally cool hobby"; we're more to the point now of "We have you by the sack and we know it."

The chance of me buying 4E core (by "core" I mean the first 3) out of curiosity/completeness is rapidly approaching 0%.

 

[FadedC]

Yep, that's exactly why I buy books of pre-made monsters...so I can spend the time making up my own.

How much time does it take to change fire resistance to frost resistance and be done with it?

 

[fuindordm]

That was just the example given. They said that there are number of monsters this is being done with.

Edit: And it pisses me off because I'm setting up a viking-style campaign world.

Then be sure to make your giants illusionists as well!

Oh wait, we'll have to wait for PH2... too bad. ;-)

 

[The Little Raven]

But yes, we've gotten pretty far away from the "Hi my name is Gary and I came up with this totally cool hobby"

Since he's the guy that once said if you're not playing D&D in a particular manner, then you're doing it wrong, that's nothing but a good thing in my eyes.

 

[Rechan]

Since he's the guy that once said if you're not playing D&D in a particular manner, then you're doing it wrong, that's nothing but a good thing in my eyes.

This.