What should the next "Monster Type" book from WotC be?

[stevelabny]

Gotta be Magical Beasts.
Theres too many "staple" monsters that fall into that category to skip it.

Giants and Fey would be the next two. I don't care about the order, although I do agree that the Fey need the book more than any other monster type.

I'll pass on the constucts and outsiders for now. Constucts can get a chapter in a Magic book somewhere, and outsiders have already had a lot of stuff done for them

 

[Pramas]

They should do the Book of Uninspired Variants. It could feature things like Disco Orcs, Trolls in Black, Colorblind Beholders, Dire Pigeons, Mack Dragons, and Drunken Bugbears. Or maybe Drunken could just be a template...

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

They should do the Book of Uninspired Variants. ..

Thay have already covered this topic - ad nauseum

 

[Brakkart]

I've already got the Slayer's Guides to Giants and to Demons, as well as Van Richtens Guide to the Shadow Fey, so it was a toss up between Elementals and Constructs for me. Went with Constructs cos I'm much more likely to use them both in my current campaign and the next one I'm working on.

 

[Darkness]

Toss up between Fey and Outsiders.

That's my position as well. I'll vote for fey because outsiders at least have quite a bit of support while fey largely don't.

 

[skinnydwarf]

And has one been announced?

Oozes! Does it get more D&D than a hallway filling ooze monster? I think not. Ok, maybe beholders, but that's been done. Think how cool it would be- get into the mind of the ooze! Learn about its thought processes!

Slither...eat...slither....ooo, a tasty morsel encased in metal...slither...

Ok, so maybe it would be pretty boring. Maybe you could combine oozes with fungii and plant monsters. Call it "Mindless Denizens of the Deep."

 

[jodyjohnson]

I have a hard time getting excited about Fey. They seem to tend towards good and mischief which puts them in the category of victims or annoyances -- neither of which I like in herioc fantasy.

If a low-magic world had nothing but humanoids and fey (maybe toss in giants too) they would seem to fit better. But when there are drow, pit fiends, vampire lords, beholders, and dragons stirring up trouble, fey just seem like a red-headed stepchild for encounters.

One of the hooks for the creature books seems to be targetting them towards a certain style of game. Dragons > classic heroic fantasy; Undead > gothic horror. Lords of Madness is strongly Lovecraftian horror.

Fey ?? Romantic fantasy with poor cobblers, and sleepy old men?

My choice was Constructs and I would guess that it might be geared toward steampunk/magitech style campaigns.

 

[Pants]

My vote? Elementals.

Elementals - For being fairly interesting and largely unrepresented in 3e. It could update the Paraelementals to 3.5, update the Quasielementals, include deity writeups on the Archomentals (good and evil), include info on Djinns and Elemental-like creatures (Efreet, Dao, Marid). Hell, it could even feature the Quasi and Paraelemental planes as 'Planar Variants.'

Giants - Pretty big fantasy staple creature here with a lot of old 'classics' still not updated (Ogrillons, I'm looking at you!). Lotta room to cover here.

Fey - Not my favorite creatures, but they could use some support.

Aberrations 2 - The Return! - Another aberrations book focusing on the Psurlons, Ethergaunts, Cloakers, Avolakia, Naga, and Destrachan. Won't happen though...

Outsiders - I think a few books focusing on the good, evil, and neutral creatures would be good, but, as has been said, they've already gotten a lot of support elsewhere. Besides, if a fiend book is ever done, it won't make me happy unless it includes ALL the Yugoloths PROPERLY updated to 3.5, the Molydeus, the Nabassu, and an Epic conversion of the Baernoloth. Sadly, I don't see much of that happening...

Plants could be interesting, but they're as disparate as Aberrations are. Same with Magical Beasts... though that could be an interesting book too!

Constructs, Animals, and Oozes would be my last choices for this style book. Mostly because not much can be said about their culturals, societies or lifestyles (Gelatinous Cubes enjoy slithering down 10 foot wide Corridors, picking up trash, and eating unwary adventurers... ummmm, next Ooze?). These creatures could be handled well with some short, 96 page softcover books. Anything bigger would be a waste of space IMO.

 

[Catavarie]

Personally, I'd love to see a book on Centaurs, give me the full background on their history, legends, mythology, religon, everything. And even options for being a playalbe race would be cool too. Now its possible that they have this and I just haven't seen it. If it is out please let me know so i can find it.

 

[A'koss]

I have a hard time getting excited about Fey. They seem to tend towards good and mischief which puts them in the category of victims or annoyances -- neither of which I like in herioc fantasy.

Agreed.

As a DM I almost never use them for anything other than occasional fluff window dressing. As a player, Fey tend to bring out genocidal urges in my characters. All I need are their raw stats so I know how big a fly-swatter to bring along...

A'koss!