Sell me a Monster Book

[Nightfall]

I thought CC2 was 3.5? Doh.

Afraid not no. Maybe some day around the corner they'll revise CC2...but not right now.

 

[demiurge1138]

There are a few beasts and shapechangers in the Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary, but most of it's pretty easy math (skills, feats, not too many DR creatures, IIRC). The biggest problem is that the authors give iterative attacks to creatures with high BAB and natural weapons. Just ignore those, and it should work out pretty well.

Demiurge out.

 

[John Crichton]

John,

While I am a fan of S&SS stuff, and I do love the CC books, I do think Tome of Horrors is FAR more appropriate to your campaign. Fiend Folio is probably better for when they do get into higher levels. There are some monsters they could fight, but most of it is probably better off using that like around 8th-10th level for the most part. Also if you don't already, get MM2. That will help you out as well. Draconomicon is always helpful as Wyrms in the North do play a large role there. CC Revised, I'd use for the Hag Templates mostly, along with a few strange wilderness monsters. But realistically, Tome of Horrors overall is my vote.

Thanks, man. Sounds like another vote for Da Tome.

I do have the Draconomicon and it is awesome. I can't wait to have them face dragons (good and evil)!! I'm also using my old The North boxed set from 2e to help out with the area.

First of all, if you're running a game in the Silver Marches, BUY SILVER MARCHES FIRST. It is a very good setting book, although I would have paid extra for a hardcover version. I've been a little spoiled by Underdark and Unapproachable East in that respect. But Silver Marches is loaded with adventure seeds, some good monsters, some of the better PrCs I've seen lately, and other good stuff.

Done and done. The only FR specific book that I don't own is Unapproachable East. I agree completely on Silver Marches - it is a wonderful idea mine. I scrapped what I originally had in mind when I read through it the first time.

If you've got cash left over after that, pick up FF. It may not be as useful out of the box for you with such a low-level party, but it's a much better book in the long run than the other three (yeah, I own all of 'em). A lot of people loved the Tome of Horrors; I just found it a nightmare to slog through. It's main strength and weakness is the sheer number of creatures in it. For every good one (and there were some very cool ones) there were probably ten cheesy monsters that will never be used in my game.

Hmm, interesting. I will probably pick up FF sometime next year as the characters advance in level. I am a completionist so eventually I'll pick up all the WotC books that I am missing (which aren't many). Which monsters in ToH did you like, BTW?

 

[John Crichton]

There are a few beasts and shapechangers in the Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary, but most of it's pretty easy math (skills, feats, not too many DR creatures, IIRC). The biggest problem is that the authors give iterative attacks to creatures with high BAB and natural weapons. Just ignore those, and it should work out pretty well.

Ah, cool beans.

Would you recommend the PFB over the ToH?

 

[demiurge1138]

Would you recommend the PFB over the ToH?

Not really, no. Like ToH, the problem with a book with a lot of monsters is that for every really good one, there are a bunch of "eh" ones. I personally liked ToH more, and would recommend it more, but the PFB is still a useful book.

Demiurge out.

 

[Mystery Man]

The twice be damned double post.

I shall now click the submit button but once!!

 

[Mystery Man]

Ah, I probably should have mentioned that I do have Silver Marches, Lords of Darkness & Underdark. There are some good critters in there but some are just waaaaay too tough for the low level, 3 member party.

Running a Maur (from Underdark) encounter tonight, should be interesting.

I would have to agree with the FF being a higher level encounter book. For all intents and purposes you have all you need right now, 'specially with the MoF book. For those low level encounters Gibberlings you can't ever go wrong with....

I'd throw my lot in with the Tome as well, although there really isn't anything in there that jumps out as any better or worse than anything else. Maybe the Quickling if you really wanted to make things interesting.

 

[Voadam]

I'll second the Penumbra Bestiary, although its a biased second as I authored eight creatures in there.

The Bestiary had a big focus on developing backgrounds for the monsters and providing immediate adventure hooks for every entry. It also has very comprehensive indexes by CR, terrain, monster type, etc. and a good guide system identifying the typical challenge role each monster is suited for whether it is combat, magic, trickster, etc. This makes grabbing an appropriate monster on the fly pretty easy.

Some other ones I like include Minions Complete, which is Bastions pdf monster book with both 3.0 and 3.5 versions of a wide variety of different creatures. Also check my sig for a shorter, cheaper pdf of monsters which I also contributed to, Gaming Frontiers: Monsters (I'm a big fan of pdf monster collections where you can print out the pages you need for a specific encounter and leave the rest on your hard drive).

 

[Pants]

I'll recommend the ToH and the FF as well.
The ToH has so many monsters in it, that you're bound to find something useful. However, it seems to me that many of the monsters in the book are made for a Dungeon environment. Yet, most can still be used in other situations.

I'll happily recommend the Fiend Folio as it does have a couple of monsters than are somewhat Realms specific. It is more of a monster book for mid-levels though, so you want to keep that in mind.

 

[Gez]

From that list, I recommend the Tome of Horrors. It has the greatest diversity of creatures, so you're fated to find creatures you will have use for, whatever is your campaign's style.

For wilderness encounters, it contains lots of fey, some interesting animals, magical beasts, plants, and a few elemental spirit type of creatures (like the fire nymph).

In urban environment (especially the seediest parts of a city), you can make use of several humanoids, some outsiders (like the enigmatic midnight peddler), and some of the animals (like rats and vermin).

The goofiest monsters are for dungeon environments, so since dungeons are the least important part of your campaign, you were not likely to bother with them to begin with.

The book is also useful for characters with summoning or calling spells; for it contains interesting outsiders and elementals.