Customer Reviews

Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerun (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Upon first looking through the book at home I was disappointed to say the least.

Firstly, I noticed the lack of exceptional art that was present in the first monster manual. The art isn't exactly bad, but wizards could have done a much better job. The whole presentation of the book seemed a bit rushed and the lack of a hardcover was especially discouraging.

Next, many of the creatures here are not "Creatures of Faerun" but come from other realms. Genasi and Tieflings were from Planescape, and while its nice to have them back in detail for 3rd edition I'd say the title of the book is a bit misleading. When I see "Creatures of Faerun" it would be nice to have the majority of creatures actually be from Forgotten Realms.

Lastly, the price. I understand that this book has more limited appeal and will make less money then the core books, but I don't think that means that wizards should raise the price. For being a softcover book half the size of the core monster manual this book is way too expensive. The book is even more expensive then the core monster manual which is a hardcover!!!!

I don't want people to think this book is worthless. It has its good points. The sheer number of templates in this book make it an awesome selection and the creatures inside (From faerun or not) are absolutely wonderful additions. I just had to point out the flaws for people who are as picky as myself. So if you don't mind paying extra for less, or you need a good monster to stump experienced players then by all means, buy this book!

An expansion on the Monster Manual (MM), the Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerun (MC) delivers on some unique and some old monsters that spice up your game.

From Shadow Dragons to outsiders (alternate-planar beings) that are semi-elemental, the MC is a good way to add monsters that will spice up any game. Each of them is done in the same format as in the MM and allows for a DM's own formatting. The book also discusses some of the aspects of the different regional characteristics of some of the alternate races, such as dwarves.

Some of the nice additions are Shadow Dragons, Genasi, Tieflings, Good Lichs, more Were forms, and more types of Beholder.

If you are looking for the best books for 3ed., get them in this order: Monster Manual, Creature Collection (from Sword & Sorcery, which is compatible with 3ed. D&D), and then this book.

If you are waiting for some of the things in this book, like the dragon descriptions and the Dwarves of Faerun entry, this book is excellent. If you are looking for some lower level undead, this is a good book. That being said, I have some issues with it: the book would have been a much more reasonable if it had had 150% the number of monsters (~150) and been 75% of the price ($16.5, this would have meant about 11 cents per monster).

It has 1/5th the number of monsters that the MM has, is a fairly flimsy paperback, yet it is 110% of the price ($22 as opposed to $20). This is outrageous for the way the book is written and for only 100 monsters. At a price/monster ratio (ignoring that one is hard-cover), the MM is roughly 4.4 cents per monster while this is 22 cents per monster.

The initial price was reasonable, the price of the sourcebooks is approaching ridiculous. Overall the book is good, the content is decent and it is worthwhile for a Faerun campaign, but if you are looking for something truly outstanding, skip it.

Let me begin by saying that I have never been a fan of the D&D 'canned' worlds... especially the I-wish-they-would-be Forgotten Realms.

The monsters on the other hand have always been intriguing and have added much flavor to my campaign.

This version of the latest set of Faerun monsters is no exception. The beasts of Malar, Neothilid (from the marvelous Mind Flayers book), Elemental and Non-human Plane-touched and a variety of Liches all happily add to my excitement.

There are a great many opportunities for the DM to go wild with this book and if they are running an FR campaign I am sure this will be essential to game play... the book is gorgeous to look at and will compliment any gaming table.

Unfortunately the supplement is NOT (like so many of the new products from WOTC) priced to sell. The requested price is ludicrous in light of the size of the document offered...

I recommend this as 4 stars to Realms users, but only 2 stars to anyone else. The critters are important for all Realms DMs to have access to. Vicious arch enemy races abound in this book. A few good ones could be ported out of the Realms to other worlds, but several of these beasties are pretty silly. You may feel you did not quite get the value you were looking for... Especially when you realize how much you just paid for a SOFT COVER reference book!!! And one with a shortage of monsters to boot... many less than the Monster Manual, but at a higher price. Happy hunting!

The Monster Compendium is a useful reference for extra beasties and baddies to include in any campaign, but it's best suited for use in the Forgotten Realms Setting.

Though it only provides a fraction of the monsters given in the Monster Manual, the Monster Compendium still provides a lot of info and even some extra realms-specific info on location and habits. The monsters are interesting, and the stories behind them are also quite intriguing. And some of the monsters are just downright awesome (Fang Dragon, anyone?)

However, to be honest, the small amount of monsters featured is a disappointment. Still, the book as a whole is a very good one, and a necessity for any 3e FR campaign.

I like the 3rd Edition System, and The Realms are my fav. setting.

I don't like the format of the new Monster Manuals, The dispersed entry locations on pages are clusmy to find like the hard bound. I like to flip and find by heading (geuss I'm old school).

I do like some of the new monsters (Well new to me... Like the Drow demon cross thing...)

I am a GM for a DnD 3E game that I play with my friends. We play more-or-less a Greyhawk game, with a few extrapolations added in. So, when this supplement hit the shelves, I was not sure that I would find anything that I could use. I mean, Ed Greenwood has done an awesome job developing his campaign over the years, and the support for the Forgotten Realms is top-notch, but I just can't fit it into my game. It is far more of a high-magic, wizards'-superbowl sort of setting than Greyhawk, and I like to keep my players humble at the beginning and middle of the campaign.

Nevertheless, I eventually did pick it up. And I'm not sorry. There're some great ideas developed in here, and they're done in such a way that they can easily be added into any setting. They've done a good job of keeping out the Realms-specific material from most of the monsters. The few monsters that require a smattering of Realmslore to understand have that information spelled out in an easy-to-get, easy-to-fit-in way; I can find all sorts of Greyhawk events that parallel the Realms events that created some of the monsters in the book.

All told, I rate this book 4 stars. I'm not sure that non-Realms players will find it worthwhile for the hefty price tag, but the production quality remains top-notch and the material presented is great.

I must be very careful to warn you of a single simple fact in case you missed it. This is not a hardcover book. It is a paperback. Also, it is less than half the length of the core book "Monster Manual". So why exactly, is this book currently more expensive than the "Monster Manual"? It's possible that Wizards is trying to pull one over on you. Don't be fooled.

That being said, we can discuss actual content, which is, for the most part, excellent. It is highly comparable to the "Monster Manual" (except for the aforementioned problems with it) in its format as well as its gorgeous artwork. I have fallen in love with challenge ratings, which are an incredibly useful tool which tells you in an instant if the monsters you're throwing at a party won't be too easy or too difficult for them. There is also enough information to make it easy to adapt any of the monsters to be a PC (although specific modifiers to abilities would be nice). Add to this the wild, high-fantasy flair that is Forgotten Realms, and you have a useful and fun tool.

This is a great book, and it is only because of its deceitful price that I don't give it a higher ranking. But hey, as long as you're spending money, there are worse ways to waste it!

I can't really say for sure, but this book seems to be woefully overpriced for the stuff they "present."

Other than standard FR fare (Gensai and such), and some new Dragons, the rest seems to be a mix of "Cool" to "What the heck were they thinking?"

Seems only the "Kitties" (Spectral Panther, Wemic, and Quaggoth) are worth to add, but the rest (Firenewt?? WTF??) are bland or don't add really nothing new to the field.

A suplliment that is best left on the store shelf...but, that's my opinion, I could be wrong...