The Cunningly Disguised MMIV Preview

[Jdvn1]

I love it. In fact, I wish they would re-release the origianl MM in the same format.

Maybe we'll see that with the Special Edition MM!

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I really like the new format. As another poster said, the Ecology and Society info is reminiscent of the 2e Monstrous Compendiums.

I'd rather have 112 interesting creatures taking up two pages each, than twice that many with only stat blocks. The MMII was a pretty dull read. MMIII was better and it looks like MMIV will be better still. Let's hope there aren't too many spawns of Tiamat though. I'd also like to see the "in the Realms/Eberron" sidebars retained where relevant.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Gold Roger]

I like the format, but I'm annoyed by the dragon spawn.

There are ever more types of dragonspawn, supposedly there are 5 of every type for the chromatic colors. With the new format every dragonspawn takes up at least two pages. Add to that that they are mostly only usefull to those who use tiamat prominently in their campaigns they waste a lot of pages (and mini slots).

I just hope the rest of MM4 is worth it.

 

[Ryltar]

I agree, Gold Roger.

The new format - from the statblock doing away with all the superfluous information, to the knowledge sidebars and ecology-style writeups - is great. More space for a single creature is also a good thing - it also saves us the effort of having to read through all the boring "It'd have been cut because it sucks, but we managed to squeeze it in because we had no space issues" monsters.

However, what's the point in having a book that's largely populated by dragonspawn? The half-dragon template et al. have been more than sufficient for this kind of thing.

Secondly: the art isn't exactly to my liking.

Third: the flavor text paragraph describing the monster is getting sillier by every book. It doesn't evoke an image, it's just a text describing the important abilities of the dragonspawn arcaniss. I know, that as a player, I couldn't imagine the creature when described such as this. (This has been a trend in recent books, also affecting spell descriptions.)

Fourth and last complaint: Ugh. What kind of name is that? As if WotC didn't have enough pluralization issues ...

 

[Garnfellow]

I am torn by the new format, and apparently in disagreement with many posters here.

• I love the new statblock format, and I find it much more logical and vastly superior to use in a game. I also like that it mirrors the NPC statblock format, making cutting and pasting that much easier.
• I like the Knowledge check results table, a la the Monsternomicon. I’m not sure I would want every monster to have one, though.
• I absolutely hate the expanded ecology and society sections. H-A-T-E! I know I am a distinct minority here, but I would much rather have a brief, generic sketch of these aspects so I can then easily customize the monster to fit whatever campaign setting I’m using. A spell-wielding dragonic humanoid could fit into a lot of different settings. But what if I’m not using Tiamat? If I wanted to use this creature, say, in a Barsoom like world, most of that extra flavor text is simply wasted. And for that matter, most of that flavor text feels like filler to me -- I’m having some flashbacks to the worst of the 2nd edition monster entries. (“Giant Red Pseudo-Gimlets have two separate digestive tracts, one for digesting the leafy green material swallowed by its giraffe head, the other for processing the fleshy matter gulped down by its carnviorous cougar head. Giant Red Pseudo-Gimlets dearly love the tender young leaves of birch, alder, and maple trees, but are somewhat allergic to oak leaves. Sages speculate that this may be the result of an ancient druidic curse.”) There are a couple of cool ideas buried in the redspawn description, but I’m just not seeing 20 strong paragraphs worth of flavor text.
• The description paragraph also seems pretty weak and a little presumptuous as to what the setup for the encounter will be as well as what the observing PCs will know.

 

[Cam Banks]

If it IS true that Tiamat and Takhisis are different then that is truly the dumbest thing ever.

Takhisis is a LE greater deity, Tiamat is a LE lesser deity.

Also, Krynn doesn't use the Great Wheel cosmology, much as the Realms don't. There's only one evil outer plane, and it's the Abyss.

Dragonlance also had dragonspawn before MMIV did, but of course they're different. Krynnish dragonspawn are draconic abominations created from humanoids to serve one of the five Dragon Overlords of the Age of Mortals. They're akin to half-dragons, which Dragonlance doesn't have.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Knight Otu]

Fourth and last complaint: Ugh. What kind of name is that? As if WotC didn't have enough pluralization issues ...

I strongly prefer the second name given - Burning Ones of Tiamat. And I strongly hope that we don't get an Xspawn Godslayer, Xspawn Arcaniss, Xspawn Ambusher, Xspawn Raider, and what other Xspawns there are for every chromatic dragon type.

We pretty much know of

Blackspawn Raider

Bluespawn Ambusher
Bluespawn Godslayer
Bluespawn Thunderlizard

Greenspawn Ambusher
Greenspawn Razorfiend

Redspawn Arcaniss
Redspawn Firebelcher (there likely won't be Bluespawn Firebelcher, but maybe Bluespawn Lightningspitters)

I suppose there may be some overlap (the two greenspawns might be the same), but I hope there are no more than 3 types of Xspawn for each color.

 

[Cam Banks]

I strongly prefer the second name given - Burning Ones of Tiamat.

Ditto. Who came up with the word "arcaniss"?

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I don't like them having built in treasure. Without it I could easily throw some items on them. Now, if I want them to have different items I have to recalculate their stats without the items and then give them the new items, adding a step I would rather do without. I like to pick and choose magic items often, though, so I might be in the minority. It just doesn't seem right that every one of these the PCs run across should have the same set of items, though.

Amen.

 

[satori01]

Actually the argument going on paralel to the "real topic of discussion" is a perfect example of why too much flavor text can be a bad thing.

Someone's throw away lines, (added to fill a layout requirement so the book can reach it's page count quota), will be painstakingly debate when someone else's throw away lines contradict the former.

Hurray flavor text.

I to am not so happy about what seems to be a Dragonspawn book.
What is the thinking behind this? Is there some sort of uber product out there waiting to be released, or is all of this dragonspawn info just because this is WOTC year of the dragon?

All it is really doing is making me want to play Dragonlance.