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General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
What's The Best Monster Book?
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<blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 6051019" data-attributes="member: 6680772"><p>Which is the best Monster book depends on what I'm playing and what I want out of it.</p><p></p><p>I love the Classic D&D/RC monster descriptions, and to a certain extent the 1e MM. Entries are short and pithy, without overly detailed statblocks or descriptions. Because when I'm playing Classic D&D, I'm playing a dungeon/wilderness exploration game, and I don't want a lot of fluff, or pages and pages of monsters. I want something I can find and note on the fly, and with plenty of wiggle-room to fluff as I want, as needed. The Classic D&D monster entries match well with a Wandering Monster style of play. Combat is fast and abstract, so I don't need or want a bunch of monster abilities.</p><p></p><p>But now 2e's forte is World Building, and the MC/MM single-page entries are great for that. Lots of ecological/sociological info, and the relatively dry fluff is a feature, not a bug. It allows the monsters to nicely fit into any kind of homebrew.</p><p></p><p>Now when I'm playing 4e, I'm looking forward to encounters with maps n' minis combat. Combat is more granular, and is going to take some time, so I want the monsters to have variety and different powers. And in particular I like the Monster Vault, for its great artwork and vivid tokens. One of the frustrating things when I first purchased the Core books was having all the different monsters, but no minis or tokens. So I fell totally in love with the MV, since it had all the goodies of the 4e MM, plus tons of great tokens.</p><p></p><p>I've never played 3e, but I daresay it's great for those folks who are not just world building, but world simulating, and want to see the bare bones of how these monsters are created, in the same vein as PCs.</p><p></p><p>But when I'm playing Red Box, the MV isn't what I want. Nor are the Red Box monsters what I want when I'm playing 4e. Each Monster book was lovingly designed to be the best book for the demands of the game it belonged to.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iosue, post: 6051019, member: 6680772"] Which is the best Monster book depends on what I'm playing and what I want out of it. I love the Classic D&D/RC monster descriptions, and to a certain extent the 1e MM. Entries are short and pithy, without overly detailed statblocks or descriptions. Because when I'm playing Classic D&D, I'm playing a dungeon/wilderness exploration game, and I don't want a lot of fluff, or pages and pages of monsters. I want something I can find and note on the fly, and with plenty of wiggle-room to fluff as I want, as needed. The Classic D&D monster entries match well with a Wandering Monster style of play. Combat is fast and abstract, so I don't need or want a bunch of monster abilities. But now 2e's forte is World Building, and the MC/MM single-page entries are great for that. Lots of ecological/sociological info, and the relatively dry fluff is a feature, not a bug. It allows the monsters to nicely fit into any kind of homebrew. Now when I'm playing 4e, I'm looking forward to encounters with maps n' minis combat. Combat is more granular, and is going to take some time, so I want the monsters to have variety and different powers. And in particular I like the Monster Vault, for its great artwork and vivid tokens. One of the frustrating things when I first purchased the Core books was having all the different monsters, but no minis or tokens. So I fell totally in love with the MV, since it had all the goodies of the 4e MM, plus tons of great tokens. I've never played 3e, but I daresay it's great for those folks who are not just world building, but world simulating, and want to see the bare bones of how these monsters are created, in the same vein as PCs. But when I'm playing Red Box, the MV isn't what I want. Nor are the Red Box monsters what I want when I'm playing 4e. Each Monster book was lovingly designed to be the best book for the demands of the game it belonged to. [/QUOTE]
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What's The Best Monster Book?
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