New and classic monsters for 4th edition games

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Product Description

Hundreds of old and new monsters for your 4th edition D&D(R) game!

This core rulebook presents hundreds of monsters for your D&D campaign. Classic monsters such as centaurs and frost giants make their first 4th edition appearance here. In addition, this book includes scores of new monsters to challenge characters of heroic, paragon, and epic levels.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11549 in Books
• Brand: Wizards of the Coast
• Published on: 2009-05-19
• Released on: 2009-05-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780786951017
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

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Customer Reviews

Good stuff
This book continues to build on the 4th edition core mechanics by providing tons more creatures for DM's to choose from when building encounters.

As mentioned by a previous reviewer, there are lots of variations on existing monsters and fewer brand new monsters. I personally think that is the better way to go. D&D has a lot of good core monsters, no need to include all sorts of bizarre, weird, and silly new creatures. What is much more useful is to creature variations of existing monsters at different encounter levels, and this book just does that.

The encounter groups listed at the end of each monster race entry include both Monster Manual 2 and original Monster Manual creatures, a nice touch.

Lots of humanoid races are included such as Duergar, Bullywugs, Myconids, Centaurs, and other classics from previous editions. They also expanded on some of the existing core races from both the Player's Handbook and Player's Handbook 2: Eladrin, Devas, Humans, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, and Goliaths.

This book focuses almost exclusively on monster mechanics and it delivers exactly that. However I ding it one star for a combination of little things.

1) There is a great table in the back breaking down monsters by level, listing their type (Skirmisher, Brute, etc.) and the page number. Scattered throughout the book are pre-built encounter groups and they vary in level from the monsters they contain. It would have been trivial to gather up all those encounter groups into a table in the back of the book like they did for the individual monsters, but they didn't. (They didn't do this in the original Monster Manual, which I didn't like either.)

2) There is no good mechanism for adjusting monsters up or down in level based on the adventuring party's level. There are only so many monsters in the book so I think it would add more to the playability to have a way of altering existing monsters based on the target encounter level. I am hoping this will come out in the Dungeon Master's Guide 2 but I'll have to wait and see. (Again, the original Monster Manual didn't have this either.)

Overall a great reference for DM's.

Excellent volume
Like others have mentioned, I like the fact that there are a lot more low-level monsters to round out the epic tier campaign... especially staples from past editions (giant ants, bullywugs, etc.). I also like the tact they've taken in providing numerous builds and variances for common monsters and races. It makes it easier to create tier-appropriate encounters on the spur of the moment (and to create preplanned adventures without having to resort to creating your own appropriate variances... at least not as many).

More Monsters, Updated Monsters for 4th Edition
One of the problems when a company decides to update a game system and overhaul all the rules is that all the previous release becomes void, and a gamer wanting to stay with the most recent version finds themselves having to re-buy the books they already own. Another is when there isn't much new in the updated books, causing much wailing and gnashing of teeth (or flaming on Internet bulletin boards.)

The recent change from Dungeons & Dragons from version 3.5 to 4.0 has been one of those major overhauls that is either greeted with joy or pain. The new Monster Manual 2 threads between those two extremes well enough that most players buying the book won't feel abused and find plenty to use within its covers. Old monsters are updated, some new ones are introduced. This is a supplement to the first Monster Manual, so it includes non-human races introduced in the Player's Manual 2 and updates old one from previous editions--Centaurs, Half-Elves, Half Orcs, and more. Some of the more interesting creatures are the metallic dragons and the mechanical Warforged. The index in the back makes it easy to find monsters by level, and the encounter groups sprinkled throughout the book make it easy for a DM to create adventures on the go. Recommended for players and groups that have made the shift to 4th Edition.