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In the end, it seems monsters and enemy NPCs work in ways very different from normal PCs. And no book displays this feeling any stronger than its 4th edition Monster's Manual. You can't trace how many levels it has or what feat choices it took. Even the most powerful has about 7. Of course, you can't level it up to scale the encounter to your group's level or even choose to give it different abilities (some monster templates are presented though) but it does make it a lot easier just to put one out of the book and into the battlefield. The whole system was incredibly powerful to the point of being overwhelming. In those times you would create a monster in a way very similar to a PC: You would choose your monster's race, give it a class and choose its feats and spells before you were done.
4th edition changed all of this. Monsters now are presented "as-is", no tweaking necessary. 4th edition is bound to be regarded as the love-child of collectible card games and online RPGs. In 3rd, for example, between feats, spells and abilities, a normal adult dragon would have around 30 different options during combat. In 4th. And most of them are pretty linear. If DM and players like this novel approach to dnd then the Monster's Manual follows suit and delivers a good, solid work for the busy DM. Bottom line, the question comes down to the Player's Handbook.
I've been playing dnd since 2nd edition came out and did a lot of DMing during 3rd edition. They have a lot less options, a lot less depth and no way to scale. It is basically a non-adaptable stat block. This, of course has its upsides. However they do look a lot user-friendlier, with a simpler, cleaner stat-block and easier to understand powers. If the whole cRPG / CCG look doesn't strike your fancy, I seriously think this book won't convert you.
Thats what it is a monster manual. Most people are distressing over the fluff that was left out of the book; I rather like this approach. I believe this title to be a sold buy. The stats are streamlined into easy to read and run stat blocks, and the encounter experience is labeled right with each monster. It gives me as a DM the ability to customize most of my monster selection to what I need. This title gives you everything to run monsters. Over-all this is a easy to use and master Monster Manual. It is nothing more or less; if you are looking for a fluff filled book with more about the back story then tactics and stats find one of the upcoming specialized monster handbooks (for instance Open Grave).
Just think what they could have done if they spent a whole page on each monster. No time is given describing the differences between the various types of monster, in fact in most cases the name seems to be entirely about what level the monster is and what special attacks it has--rather than any particular role in it's society or anything. You end up having to hunt around and end up missing a lot of stuff that gets buried in between big striped blocks of stats.There's not a lot written, but man is it tightly written. Once you get to the good stuff, it's really wonderful.
When they redo one though, it's ususally real eyecandy. Certainly the new Monster Manual gives lots of fun new twists on even the most boring of the classic monsters. Like a lot of the new edition, it's about reimagining the old in a fun new way. Unfortunately none of the monsters get that depth of coverage--just a few sentences. The difference between a drider fanglord and shadowspinner.
The night hag, or the deathknight for example, yanked right out of their original Monster Manual entries. No waste, very efficient and packed with new flavor and background information. That's it. Argh, the format.
This Monster Manual shakes things up a lot. Beats me.The art is good and pretty consistant, but a lot of it feels like redone versions of art from the old books--and some of it is copied straight out of the old books. Not cool. The lich, for example, or the foulspawn, or the new take on the lamia.I love the new ideas they're rolling out for fourth edition. It's one of the things I really miss from the old 2nd edition books. They really needed to devote more space fresh art and to talking about the monsters and less time statting up multiple versions of each one. The problem is the good stuff is buried in the monster entries (scattered between the two to three sentence introduction, and the lore bits that give backstory to characters depending on how well they roll).
Who needs six kinds of kobold. They get in a lot in those few sentences, but it's a shame they didn't expand on that. Now it's all statblocks.Each monster has several statblocks at different levels with different names. But the format. Certainly not me.
The tactics are clearly laid out. This product is purely a straightforward down to the point book of creatures with stats, nothing more. While the stat blocks are interesting in keeping the players on their toes the creatures themselves are more like video game automatons with push button type functions (much like the player characters). There is hardly any interesting tidbits about the monsters and their behaviors. No ecology or terrain types or lair fluff and barely any aquatic monsters which irked me. Not recommended for those who love interesting juicy monster books. Considering the thickness of this volume most of the space is consumed by stat blocks making this volume a snore to enjoy outside of DMing sessions.
A board game involving stats. Basically all I paid for is a bunch of pretty pictures. The other reviews are right. just numbers. The 4th edition is nothing but a waste. The monster manual has virtually no actual description of the monsters. extremely disappointed.
Maybe as an add on. This is no longer D&D, it's simply a board game. The 4th edition should have been released as a separate product from D&D. No ecology, no habits, no history. I was looking forward to this. If you don't have the time to play a real D&D game, you could play this board game version. It really is a shame.
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