pukunui
Legend
4 out of 5 rating for Volo’s Guide to Monsters
This was the first real supplement for 5e, and there have been a few more since (namely, Xanathar's Guide to Everything and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes), but this is still the best one by far. While it does have some low points, most of its content is fantastic, and its overall theme is much more cohesive than the two books that have come since.
As has become the norm for 5e, this book has a little something for everybody: DMs get new monsters and expanded lore for a variety of classic creatures. Players get new playable races.
Believe it or not, the book only has three chapters.
Chapter One: Monster Lore
This first chapter is the longest and provides some solid lore on beholders, giants, gnolls, goblinoids, hags, kobolds, mind flayers, orcs, and yuan-ti. There's some fabulous stuff in here, including lots of random tables covering all sorts of things, from personality traits to names to possible allies. There are also some extra mechanical goodies, like the variant eye rays for beholders and the extra racial traits and action options for yuan-ti.
Each monster type also gets a sample lair, complete with map. These are very cool.
As for the lore itself: some of it is fresh, some of it is recycled from previous editions, but it all reads well and comes as a welcome expansion to what (little) is in the Monster Manual.
Chapter Two: Character Races
This is where the content for your players is: rules for playing creatures like aasimar, lizardfolk, tabaxi (catfolk), and even some monsters (kobolds, orcs, goblinoids, etc).
It's also the most disappointing part of the book, because there's some pretty obvious power creep here. Many of the race options presented are overpowered compared to the races in the PHB. It's annoying how WotC continues to sell their half-baked ideas as some kind of "DM empowerment" thing. Some of us don't have time to do a lot of customizing and would like to be able to just use what's in the book we've paid good money for!
Chapter Three: Bestiary
This is the meat of the book: 80-odd pages of new monster stats! There are lots of interesting creatures in here, ranging from beholder variants to mind flayer experiments. Each type of giant gets a new variant as well. There are also new specialist stats for the various humanoid races: kobolds, hobgoblins, gnolls, orcs, etc. Lots of new fey creatures, including the quickling and the redcap.
At the end of the book are three appendices:
Appendix A: Assorted Beasts includes a handful of new animals, including the cow, dolphin, and stegosaurus.
Appendix B: Nonplayer Characters adds to the same appending from the Monster Manual, this time with a bunch of wizard specialists, a generic bard statblock, some warlocks, a war priest, and even a warlord with legendary actions!
Aside from the variable quality of the playable races, this book is a solid purchase.
This was the first real supplement for 5e, and there have been a few more since (namely, Xanathar's Guide to Everything and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes), but this is still the best one by far. While it does have some low points, most of its content is fantastic, and its overall theme is much more cohesive than the two books that have come since.
As has become the norm for 5e, this book has a little something for everybody: DMs get new monsters and expanded lore for a variety of classic creatures. Players get new playable races.
Believe it or not, the book only has three chapters.
Chapter One: Monster Lore
This first chapter is the longest and provides some solid lore on beholders, giants, gnolls, goblinoids, hags, kobolds, mind flayers, orcs, and yuan-ti. There's some fabulous stuff in here, including lots of random tables covering all sorts of things, from personality traits to names to possible allies. There are also some extra mechanical goodies, like the variant eye rays for beholders and the extra racial traits and action options for yuan-ti.
Each monster type also gets a sample lair, complete with map. These are very cool.
As for the lore itself: some of it is fresh, some of it is recycled from previous editions, but it all reads well and comes as a welcome expansion to what (little) is in the Monster Manual.
Chapter Two: Character Races
This is where the content for your players is: rules for playing creatures like aasimar, lizardfolk, tabaxi (catfolk), and even some monsters (kobolds, orcs, goblinoids, etc).
It's also the most disappointing part of the book, because there's some pretty obvious power creep here. Many of the race options presented are overpowered compared to the races in the PHB. It's annoying how WotC continues to sell their half-baked ideas as some kind of "DM empowerment" thing. Some of us don't have time to do a lot of customizing and would like to be able to just use what's in the book we've paid good money for!
Chapter Three: Bestiary
This is the meat of the book: 80-odd pages of new monster stats! There are lots of interesting creatures in here, ranging from beholder variants to mind flayer experiments. Each type of giant gets a new variant as well. There are also new specialist stats for the various humanoid races: kobolds, hobgoblins, gnolls, orcs, etc. Lots of new fey creatures, including the quickling and the redcap.
At the end of the book are three appendices:
Appendix A: Assorted Beasts includes a handful of new animals, including the cow, dolphin, and stegosaurus.
Appendix B: Nonplayer Characters adds to the same appending from the Monster Manual, this time with a bunch of wizard specialists, a generic bard statblock, some warlocks, a war priest, and even a warlord with legendary actions!
Aside from the variable quality of the playable races, this book is a solid purchase.
