D&D 5E What the Monster Manual is missing

[Halivar]

I love it! I really do. Monster stay blocks and presentation are the best I've ever seen. But there are a couple critical, crucial things missing that I really can't live without as a DM:

• Robust monster creation guidelines. It's got a few pages that give a couple tables for size and hit dice, but I would have liked more.
• Lists by CR. Or XP.
• Lists by terrain. This is really, really important for me.

By far and away though, that first one is killer for me. In 4e I hardly ever ran a stock monster, so I've gotten used to home brewing all my foes. I miss this one dearly.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I have been cranking out custom monsters with just what has been released in the pdfs. Pick a starting creature as a base template and tweak from there.

We didn't have ANY rules for monster creation with B/X but that didn't stop the flow of monsters one bit. One thing I'm hoping the slightly more relaxed rules of 5E will accomplish is the opening of the floodgates of creativity without reliance on oodles of exhaustive official support.

So just make up a monster. If you like it and its fun for your game then you did it right.

 

[bganon]

Hasn't monster customization usually been more in the DMG anyway? I don't have my books at hand but I don't recall Monster Manuals of the past being much more than lists of monsters. I certainly got the impression this time that the designers got a bit mired in the details of CR/XP/encounter design and have put that off until the DMG.

 

[Paraxis]

I love it! I really do. Monster stay blocks and presentation are the best I've ever seen. But there are a couple critical, crucial things missing that I really can't live without as a DM:

• Robust monster creation guidelines. It's got a few pages that give a couple tables for size and hit dice, but I would have liked more.
• Lists by CR. Or XP.
• Lists by terrain. This is really, really important for me.

By far and away though, that first one is killer for me. In 4e I hardly ever ran a stock monster, so I've gotten used to home brewing all my foes. I miss this one dearly.

Wow, the monster creation section was something I was looking forward to greatly now my expectations have been crushed.

And, no list by CR, what the heck! That is the first thing I turn to in other games when building encounters to get some good ideas, that is just crazy not to have included.

 

[Grainger]

It's great, but it's also missing a physical description of the monsters! A pretty big omission. At least, this is true for some, e.g. the Troll. While there's always (or nearly always) a picture of each monster, that's only one artist's interpretation, and for many monsters one individual may look very different from another. I could have done with a short description of what the monster actually looks like (in fact, personally I'd rather have that than fluff about where they think it should fit into your game-world).

As an old-school player coming back to D&D, there are lots of no-doubt familiar-to-most monsters I'm not familiar with, or that I knew, but have since forgotten the details of, and in places it feels like they assume you already know what a Blah Blah Blah is.

 

[Grazzt]

Wow, the monster creation section was something I was looking forward to greatly now my expectations have been crushed.

And, no list by CR, what the heck! That is the first thing I turn to in other games when building encounters to get some good ideas, that is just crazy not to have included.

Mearls (or somebody) said the monster creation rules will be in the DMG.

 

[Sailor Moon]

I'm really thinking about taking my copy back to the shop and getting my money back.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Ugh tired of people complaining about the lack of a Monster by CR list.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ocp8h0ltns6bzm/5e Challenge Index.pdf?dl=0

There you it now.

On Monster Creation. We have known for months that they would be in the DMG. They even said it was going to be in the DMG.

I'm really thinking about taking my copy back to the shop and getting my money back.

Why it's a great book. It's missing a CR index but that is solved by the link I just posted. So that problem is solved. If it's about Monster creation the above solves that as well.

 

[Tormyr]

Ugh tired of people complaining about the lack of a Monster by CR list.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ocp8h0ltns6bzm/5e Challenge Index.pdf?dl=0

There you it now.

On Monster Creation. We have known for months that they would be in the DMG. They even said it was going to be in the DMG.


Why it's a great book. It's missing a CR index but that is solved by the link I just posted. So that problem is solved. If it's about Monster creation the above solves that as well.

Some people want it their way or the highway.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...o-functionality-it-deserves-a-one-star-rating

 

[Zaukrie]

Some people, the majority of them, don't come here, so a missing CR list is a mistake, imo.