tome of horrors vs creature collection

[woodelf]

So, i'm gonna be running a D&D game soon. So far, i'm going to be using Arcana Unearthed, Book of Drawbacks and Distinctions, and Artificer's Handbook. Now, obviously, i can fall back on the D20SRD for monsters. But i'm seriously thinking about grabbing a monster book, just so i can be lazy, and because really none of the monsters in the D20SRD grab me--and i can pretty much fake humanoids without any monster book.

Now, the reason for the title of this thread: the used bookstore currently has copies of Tome of Horrors, Creature Collection, and Creature Collection II. If it were going to be your only source of monsters for a D&D game, which of these would you pick? Why?

Oh, also, does the Diamond Throne setting have much in the way of monsters or magic items? Would it be a viable choice, without a copy of MM? I'm not likely to use the setting per se--i'm thinking of grabbing the racial and cultural tropes from AU, grabbing my maps from Al Qadim, and winging it.

Or, i might just grab the new Goodman Games book of plant monsters, and make Evil Alien Plants(TM) the main baddies for the campaign, or just pull out some monster book i already have (Book of the Wyrm, Earthdawn, almost every volume of the Monstrous Compendium, Dark Conspiracy, Book of Ebon Bindings--whatever). So sell me on these, if you want me to buy one of them.

 

[Algolei]

Tome of Horrors. It's got almost all the old 1E classic monsters that didn't make it into the Monster Manual.

The Creature Collections are pretty good, but they contain monsters designed for a specific world with its specific pantheon of deities. Not that you can't easily modify anything in them to suit your own world, of course, but the Tome of Horrors critters just seem more...edible.

 

[Jaws]

Tome of Horrors would be my pick. I just got it myself on a super sale at my FLGS.

The Diamond Throne is very limited on magic items and monsters.

Legacy of the Dragons is a great monster book.


Peace and smiles

j.

 

[Wycen]

Tome of Horrors has more monsters than the CC. CC is probably less expensive unless you buy both CC1 & 2.

Tome of Horrors is more generic, as the CC has lots of stuff about the Scarred Lands buried in the descriptions. Plus the original printing of CC had a lot of problems regarding CR and stat blocks.

 

[Gez]

I like the CCs, but Tome of Horrors is definitely more interesting, more useful, more rule-legit (especially compared to CC 1 non-revised, the one with a white cover), etc.

Get the Tome of Horrors. If you have extra money, you can get CC2 as well, but ToH is a must-have.

 

[Nightfall]

Okay the Sage inputs his 2 cents:

Firstly CC 1 is kind of cruddy even by 3.0 standards. It barely follows any of the 3.0 concepts and there are some truly wonky things such as constructs having Con scores as well undead.

Thus I'd say get CC Revised. Even though it's 3.5, it's still compatible with 3.0 and d20 stuff.

CC 2 is a much better book compared to CC1, mechanics wise, (though there's some stuff I'd fix like Belsameth spider and a few skills for creatures like the Ratmen)

Tome of Horrors, quite frankly, is best for any old game. It's mechanically sound, some great ole and new, PLUS Scott Greene proves he deserves the title of "Monster Man."

However since you ARE running the Diamond Throne, recommend picking up Legacy of Dragons (in PDF if you're cheap.) It has some ideas of what you can use in Diamond Throne. That or the Diamond Throne DM's screen.

But Tome of Horrors, that will serve you very well.

 

[Geoff Watson]

CC is absolute crap. Don't bother getting it even if they're giving it away, or you're playing in the Scarred Land setting.

I haven't seen CC2 or ToH, but I'd choose ToH if there's a chance that CC2 is at all like CC.

Geoff.

 

[VorpalBunny]

Tome of Horrors - for all the reasons described above.

 

[Garnfellow]

Tome of Horrors, hands down. A better (wider, more interesting, more useful) selection of monsters with better rule implementations.

 

[Voadam]

Ccii

If you are looking for new, different monsters with good mechanics go for CCII first.

All three books are 3.0, not 3.5.

CCI was made before the format for monsters was finalized so it does not conform to even 3.0 monster rules in many cases.

Tome of horrors I'd really like to get, it is huge, comparatively the cheapest per monster book you can get, but the vast majority of its contents are conversions of older monsters.

If you are looking for new things to spark your imagination and to surprise PCs who played 1e or 2e D&D then go with CCII.

CCII they got their act together with the rules and have a dark sinister theme for the monsters throughout the book.

I just bought it and am waiting for it to arrive. I have CC revised which is CCI revised from 3.0 to 3.5 and I am looking for a cheap copy of TOH, but I've flipped through them all when they were in the stores here and read many reviews of them.