Must. Have. More. MONSTERS!!!!

[Kid Charlemagne]

Call me shallow, but I find it really hard to get excited about monsters printed in black and white. I'm significantly more likely to use a monster if I have a nice vivid picture to show my players.

I think really well-done black and white can be very evocative - look at the Monsternomicon for a perfect example - but in general, B&W means "cheap."

(And bonus points to Wizards for putting most of their monster art up on the web. That means I can print stand-alone copies and show them without one of my players accidentally spotting "vulnerable to fire" in the stat block. Muttermumble.)

Quoted for truth. I use this a lot.

 

[Echohawk]

My personal favorites out of that book are the ones by Ron Spencer, such as the ursoi and the bloodrager.

Heh heh. I had my copy of the Bestiary open at the bloodrager page when I wrote that last post. That picture just wouldn't work in black and white; the rager's bloody jaw really makes it.

Kid Charlemagne, I totally agree that a good black and white work can be evocative, but like you point out, the odds are sadly lower. And even though the Monsternomicon 3.5 is a top-notch source of crtters, I still wish that it had been a colour production. I'd happily have paid a bit more for it in colour.

Come to think of it, hardcover vs. softcover also plays a role in my selection of monster books. I rarely use Monsters of Faerûn because I never notice the poor skinny little thing squeezed in between the Fiend Folio and the Draconomicon. Hmmmm... so basically I only like monster books that look really good. Wow, I *am* shallow .

 

[JVisgaitis]

Denizens of Avadnu 3.5 (Get it, you'll thank me, download the errata too).

I don't see Legends of Avadnu listed here. That is our PDF of Epic Level Monsters. You can get that through RPGNow or DriveThruRPG. It has the same production value as Denizens of Avadnu. Plus, we have a new monster product in the works which will probably be out early next year.

For those of you that don't have Denizens of Avadnu, its 50% off right now and is only $20.00 plus shipping. Best deal you'll ever find on a 224 page full-color hard-cover. That special is available through our Online Store. When they're gone, they're gone. This is a close out sale.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Dangerious Denizens, the Kalamar monster book!!! Mark will be so happy I remembered the name

doh!! didn't see it on the list but its there....

Yep - I wondered if you'd intentionally forget the name just to tease me.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

If you have that many new monsters entered into an Access database, you really don't need any more -- you can easily create your own.

Simply randomly select abilities from the major fields of monster stats, and combine them. Give it a name, and voila -- new monster. You'll have to do a little bit of tweaking to skills, attacks, and HD based on type, size, and abilities, but you can create all sorts of wacky and unpredictable monsters with the database you have!

 

[Crothian]

Yep - I wondered if you'd intentionally forget the name just to tease me.

I was tempted to actually just place it in my sig

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Denizens of Darkness 3.5 (Proof WW saw RL as a cash cow, or just skimmed the SRD)

Huh?

Almost none of the monsters in the book have any resemblance to SRD monsters (in fact, they're almost all from 1E and 2E Ravenloft sources).

If you're trying to bash their rules knowledge, you're bashing the Kargatane, not WW. And even so, I don't think there's any truly egregious problems in either versions of the book, unless you're John Cooper and bugged by monster skill points being a few points off. (Which, yeah, would be nice if it wasn't the case, but it's not a factor 99.9 percent of the time.)

 

[Voadam]

Monsters of the ID, 3.0 Malhavok psionic bestiary, 3.5 version got folded into hyperconsciousness.


And though you mentioned FFE's demons and devils, they also did an encyclopedia of angels which is not as bad. Half of Green Ronin's Avatar's Handbook is also good outsiders that can be summoned.

D20 Menace Manual it is d20 modern though and poor stats.

Ultimate Adversaries, it is star wars d20 though.

Deadlands d20 and related ilk have:

Horrors of the Wasted West
Horrors of the Wierd West
Horrors of the Wierd Wars

And then there is Lord (something or other)'s Stellar Bestiary.

 

[Voadam]

I mean actually trying to USE 6,000+ monsters over the course of a campaign is perfectly normal. Right?

I used over 10,000 hobgoblins in the last game, so I'd say sure. The party chose not to fight however, simply getting a pass to legally enter the city.

It's not using 6,000+, its having 6,000+ to choose from to get the right one for your game.

 

[Voadam]

I think it was gold rush games who put out Usagi Yojimbo Monsters dual statted to d20.