Customer Reviews

Monster Manual IV (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) (v. 4)

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

 

 

I bought this book like a good lil consumer the day it came out. Not to say there aren't good things about it, but it leaves me wanting more and frankly wishing I had waited to purchase it.

The Good: Knowledge check tables. This is pretty much the most common use of knowledge skills in games I've played in or ran, and something like this was sorely lacking in previous Monster Manuals. Excellent addition.
New Monsters. What new monsters there are are pretty nice. There's a share of generic gobbledigook, to be sure, but things like the Deathdrinker Demon and Justice Archon are just (my apologies in advance) friggin' rad.

The Bad: Enemies with class levels. There are listings for monsters we already know. Why you may ask? Well now they have multiple versions with a variety of class levels. A lot of which don't make sense. Drow ninja? Ok the ninja class SORTA fits drow, but not the standard D&D campaign flavor. Githyanki blackguard? But githyanki don't revere any deities...puzzler.

The Ugly: The new stat block. I'm sorry, I've TRIED to use this thing, but after 6 years with the old organization old habits die hard. Not to mention many key pieces of information are missing or poorly placed, including environment and Level Adjustment. I mean sure, the justice archon is awesome, but what if my paladin wants it as a cohort? Thanks for nothing WotC! Also the general format is in disarray. It's often hard to tell just what monster you're LOOKING at, because the names are in smaller type and not eye-grabbing. The one-page per monster format from the MMIII (and of course all previous editions) has been woefully eschewed as well.

I guess in the end we can't have our cake and eat it too, or so WotC seems to be telling us. You can have cool monsters, an easy to read format, and knowedge check info. Pick two. If they ever venture a MMV, I want the knowledge checks from MMIV, the one page per creature style of MMIII, and the sense of necessity of the original MM. Who's with me?

The latest in the Monster Manual series, the fourth (or fifth, if you count the Fiend Folio) is a departure from the classic listings of the previous books. The book includes a number of new monsters, as one would expect.

For each monster, the book includes a number of additional features. Sample encounters and lairs provide a quickly inserted monster feature, and each monster also includes a block of Lore, so that GMs can provide PCs relevant info without spoiling too much. The monster stats are provided in the New encounter-based layout, rather than the format used in the previous books.

Unfortunately, the additional material means there are far less monsters in this tome as compared to the other ones. To make matters worse, a number of familiar monsters - mostly humanoid races - are revisited, providing several advanced versions to such favorites as Drow, Githyanki, Orcs and Gnolls. This drops the effective monster count even further.

Any experienced GM can either create such advanced monsters themselves, or have a library of useful references to help (such as Dungeon magazine). The sample lairs are likewise only really useful for one encounter (per gaming group), and then you're in reruns. Do we REALLY need more sample drow encounters and foes?

The new stat blocks are also cumbersome, and I prefer the original ones. Granted, the new ones are designed to ease encounters. But there is something to be said for consistency, and I would rather see the encounter-based stat blocks for encounters only, and the original stat blocks for the monster listings.

The lore blocks are a nice touch. It would be nice if WotC provided stat blocks for all previous Monster Manual critters. However, the difficulties for the stat blocks are based upon the monster's CR, not their relative rarity. So a PC would have more knowledge of the Clockwork Mender (a new CR 1/2 monster that's from Mechanus) than a common troll or ogre.

As far as the monsters themselves go, we have a horde of new dragonspawn from Tiamat. These are interesting, but only really useful in a dragon-based campaign. There are a few new clockwork creatures, demons, and yugoloths, and some interesting new creatures such as the Zern. And of course there are the Skiurid - evil dark squirrels.

While the sample encounters and advanced (classed) humanoids are a nice body of work, they do not belong in a Monster Manual. I would much rather have this material in a new Book of Lairs series (hint hint), or have Dungeon magazine provide it in their pages as Side Treks. Otherwise its a waste of pages.

First let me say, I fell for it; I went out and bought MM4 without really looking at it. It's my own fault and I'll be sure to take my time with anything else coming out. This, for me, is a pretty big downer. There's a few decent critters in here but the majority of it, I probably won't use. Second, I looked and comparedthe numbers from this book to the others, here's a rundown: Pages refer to the actual monster text, no appendix, glossary, or 'how to use this book' pages.

MM1 - 205 monster text pages which includes 394 monsters, this includes the subtypes such as individual giants, dragons, golems, etc.. but each deserves their own entry. Keep in mind this is also all the normal beasts of the wild like bears, whales, big cats, snakes, spiders, etc; as well as the dire versions of many animals and subtypes of lycanthropes (werewolf, bear, boar, rat, etc - which should have their own entry).

MM2 - 200 pages with 136 monsters, including subtypes (giants, dragons, trolls, etc - again deserving of the entries)

MM3 - 197 pages with approximately 142 monsters, not including subtypes

Fiend Folio - 187 pages with 112 monsters

heck even MC: Monsters of Faerun softback has 85 pages with 151 monsters (approx 140 without subtypes)

Rundown for MM4: 192 pages, 110 'monsters' of which only 51 are head entries, meaning the other 59 are subtypes of the head monster.
There are 35 pages devoted to 'Spawn of Tiamat' which includes approx 14 monsters that are dragon-related. (that's almost a 1/5 of the book)
6 pages of Avatars of Elemental Evil?!
45 pages are for subtype/class of previous monsters such as ogres, orcs, gnolls, yugotoths, etc. (Did we really need these? Didn't we learn how to level up and specialize monsters in previous books?!)
11 pages contain 'sample lairs' of which 9 of those take up 1/3 of a page or are full pages.

That's 97 pages right there, people. Over half the monster text of the book!

As for the entries themselves - the new stat block arrangement is changed and is quite messy as all the previous books are done in the same pattern. This one jumps off on its own and looks horrible and not fun to use on the fly. Missing from the stat block is the "Climate/Terrain", you now have to read into the ecology sub-topic to find that out. Included in the monster descriptions are 'sample encounters' and 'typical treasure' for each monsters - this sucks, it's a big waste of space and is nothing but filler. I don't mind the ecology part and the 'knowledge vs' checks could be useful for player knowledge but take up a lot of space too. There's also a filler section for each monster on how these fit into Faerun and Eberron, if you can't do that on your own, leave the game.

Overall, there are a few cool new monsters but in general, this book eats it. Unless you really really have to have that Spawn of Tiamat or can't sub-class your orcs and gnolls, you're just as well to skip this book and save yourself the $35. WotC really jumped the shark on this one, folks.

I love monster manuals - but this has got to be the worst I've ever seen. WotC has managed to put together a book that should be titled "what should never be done to a monster manual."

The Good:
Monster knowledge DC checks. Though these blocks should take up a smaller-sized section, the information is a welcome addition to the entry.

The Mediocre:
Sample treasures. Truly, there should be a list in the appendix that you can roll on for prebuilt treasure hoards, split out by treasure gathering motives (hoarder, displayer, art critic, etc.) This would make the sample treasures less seem less structured than they are.

Sample Adventure. These really should be done as a web supplement because they are of limited use - they will perhaps be used once, if at all, then discarded.

The Bad:
Reduced page count. With the exception of Monsters of Faerun, this book is the smallest of the monster manuals at 160 pages. All other monster manuals are 220-325 pages of goodness.

D&D miniature figures as monsters. Turning leveled figures from the D&D miniature line into "monsters" is NOT what a monster manual is about. It's okay to have a leveled sample for a monster, but with the number of leveled samples, this should have been regulated to a "Rogue's Gallery"-like product, not a monster manual.

100 "new monsters" my foot. Try more like 25 new monsters. About 3/4 of the book is monsters we're already familiar with, but with prestige classes or character levels. Even the "spawn of tiamit" is little more than a template applied to each of the dragon types - that's one monster with seven entries in my book.

Horrible Stat Block. Yes, you can get used to the new format, but why bother to change it? There are several things left out of the new stat block that make changing, advancing or otherwise altering the monster difficult. I get the sense this is done purposely - fixating the monsters so they can't be changed.

Expanded Garbage. The new entries have a lot of "junk in their trunk". The amount of fluff material in the entries expands a single monster to cover a minimum of two pages, where many could have easily fit on a single page and left the creative hows and whys to DMs - as previous monster manuals have done successfully.

My advice? Skip this book and go buy the Tome of Horrors monster book series.

I have only a couple of points to make, so I will be brief.

I really like the new layout of this MM. The information is easy to find and use. While I tend to design my own Monstrous NPCs, I've found that the inclusion of pre-designed monsters with class levels to be a minor blessing when the PCs go off the beaten path of an adventure.

The inclusion of suggested encounters is also a nice hand to DMs that might be feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of monsters at their disposal. The maps included in some of the entries are also quite welcome.

My big gripe is that the book is a bit on the thin side for its price. However, you are paying for quality, not quantity. The monsters are well thought out and each fulfills their role in an encounter very well. Whereas past books gave us more monsters, I often found that I had no desire to use about half of what was presented. While this book includes fewer "OMG! He's gonna kill the whole party!" sort of monsters, it does have monsters with a lot of traction.

This MM suits my needs quite well, and I'd suggest it to any DM that is looking for a MM which is well laid out and filled with tools to enhance your game. Who knows? By reading this MM and learning the lessons it teaches, you may even be able to design a better game for your players.

I recently got the Monster Manual IV and have some time to look over it. While there are a few new creatures that I like (Windblades, clockwork Mender and Avatars of Elemental Evil), overall I am quite disappointed in the book.

The first thing I noticed was the new "easy-to-use statistic format". What? I don't like it. Taking out the "Environment" from the stats make you have to search the text to determine whether a creature is appropriate for an area. Likewise, "Typical Treasure" under its own header? Why? Also, with text separated with so many headings just takes up too much space and inconveniently spreads out the information. There is nothing easy about that.

Sample Encounters and Lairs just seem like filler. Monster Manuals used to be 200+ pages of crunchy goodness. Now, half of the MMIV is nothing but fluff. I like fluff, but I like my MM with crunch. In my opinion, MMIII did it right; stats, description, brief background and ecology, combat and use in other campaigns.

The worst thing about MMIV are the drow, orc, gnolls, githyanki, etc. Different versions of creatures represented in other books, given classes and different names. What? Any competent DM could do this. This just seems like much more fluff to fill pages.

This book does not live up to expectations. I am a HUGE fan of all my previously purchased D&D books, but this one does not come close to previous content quality. Here are the reasons:
1. Monsters do not seem to be very usable - MMIII was much better
2. The new concepts of typical treasure is cool but have some examples - roll up some
3. The new stat block is not as friendly as in MMIII
4. The flow of the book feels very broken

Well, that is enough - I was excited for this book after the hit that is MMIII - but I was met with dissapointment.

The 4th monster manual showcases Wizards' new 'encounter format' for monsters, and reflects a new philosophy on what a monster manual should contain. While some of the changes are helpful, the majority just pad what is otherwise a very thin and lackluster book. Here's the breakdown:

The good: Lore sections, so you know how difficult it is for your players to know something about the monsters. More robust ecology and society sections. A few gems like the joystealer, justice archon, and spawn of tiamat. As with all Wizards products, excellent artwork throughout.

The bad: It's 221 pages long, but only 145 of those actually contain new monsters. The rest are canned lairs (pretty, but otherwise useless) or rehashes of existing monsters with class levels (already done for you in the Dungeon Master's Guide). And even the new monsters are padded with large block quotes (distracting, not at all useful), large headlines and paragraphs for what should be single lines of text (the alignment and treasure entries) and descriptions on how the monsters fit with the Forgotten Realms and Eberron settings (which should be left to the respective setting books).

The new presentation for the actual monster statistics isn't my cup of tea, but that could just be a lack of familiarity - while the new layout is more compact (the only part of the book concerned with saving space) and breaking down statistics by use in the combat round seems like a good idea, the layout works better in published adventure stat blocks than as a stand-alone manual. Monster descriptions (what they actually look like) gets broken up into two sections, often on different pages, and listing things like damage reduction and resistances separate from special abilities makes it difficult to tell what makes a monster cool and different at a glance. Plus when you do figure out what the monsters do, they're often rather unimpressive, or of dubious balance.

The 2nd edition Monstrous Manual fit statistics, habitat, society, and ecology information, plus an illustration, all on a page or two. That was 14 years ago. In the Monster Manual IV the same information takes three or four pages. There are better ways to spend your money.

I've found two pretty decent uses for Monster Manual IV: 1) If you want to use the Spawn of Tiamat in your game, this book is essential. 2) If you want to assign class levels or subtypes to common monsters from the first Monster Manual, but are short on time, then this book has them ready for you. A major chunk of this book is devoted to these two things. The rest contains a decent number of new monsters that may or may not fit into your game.

The new format of this Monster Manual gives every monster at least two pages. Some of the extra information provided by this format does come in handy, but a lot of it is devoted to discussing how each beast fits into the Forgotten Realms and Eberron campaign settings. If you don't use either or both of those settings, that's a lot of extra paper you're paying for. As a point of comparison; if the two page per monster technique was applied to the first Monster Manual, that book would weigh in at around 640 pages (it currently has 320). I think that's a telling sign of just how much padding this book contains. If you removed all of its superfluous information, Monster Manual IV could easily be reduced to 112 pages. Make it a softcover, and you've got a handy $10.95 book on your hands. As a $34.95 hardcover; however, Monster Manual IV just isn't worth the investment.

Alot of the things said so far is over what isn't in the book. I don't see how that helps the people who are buying this, so I'll review what is in the book.

First, the new statistics block. I really don't care one way or another about it, it's different. Frankly I could roll either way.

Second, the original monsters. All the monsters are very nice, from the facestealer to the zern. I've been using the Spawn of Tiamat section extensively in my campaigns, so this helps quite a bit. Everything seems to be well designed and balanced.

Third, the "upped level" monsters. Personally I always have a hard time adding gear to my NPC's, so I always use any and all aids to give me ideas. Well, this book satisfied that immensely. It not only provided the gear but the background info on it, what stuff would already be used, etc. The actual classes added were enlightening, I never thought I'd see an orc with bard levels, but here I was wrong. And boy does it look good.

Fourth, the amount of space devoted to each monster. I liked this, the more a monster is described the more easily I am able to use it in adventures, so this really helped me. Some people may find it annoying, but since I can't quite picture the interactions of these creatures to the world, it's a helpful plus.

The only thing I really didn't like about this book? It was too short.