40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Many improvements over MM 1, September 23, 2002
This review is from: Monster Manual II (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement) (Hardcover)
As a DM, monster books are definately one of my favorites kinds. I own quite a few of the d20 ones: Monster Manual 1, Monsters of Faerun, Monsternomicon, and the latest, Monster Manual 2.
So let's get into it.
First the good:
1) The whole first section of the book before we even get to the monsters is great. The authors explain the creature abilities, special abilities, attack routines, and monster advancement in a much more clear and concise way than MM 1. You understand exactly how improved grab works, right? And swallow whole does bite damage how many times? These things and more are now explained quite nicely.
2) If you're a big psionics fan as I am, MM 2 offers something new. They have rules for how to use the Psionics Handbook to make the MM 2 creatures with psionic powers (such as the thri-kreen) truly "psionic". They have spell to power conversions, what combat modes they'd get, etc. Very cool.
3) Monsters as playable classes. If a monster could potentially take class levels, there's information for ECL and preferred class. If the creature is psionic, it even further breaks down the information into psionic/non-psionic ECL.
4) High CR monsters. There's a lot of baddies in this book that will challenge mid-high level parties. I was a bit worried there would be nothing for lower level groups, but there's plenty of low CR mobs too.
5) Cool templates. You will like these... promise.
6) Old favorites from 1E and 2E done up with 3E stats. Welcome back the Myconids!
Now the bad:
1) Too many damn constructs. Yes I know it's hard to make a monster that challenges a high-level group, but it doesn't have to be a construct! Really the constructs are fine. They are neat. I just feel they could have diversified a bit more.
2) Recycled monsters. About 20% of the monsters are re-writes from other WotC products. If you already own the books from which the original creature came, these are not new to you. Still, it's nice to have them all in one source. No more looking through web enhancements for the gem dragons, and MotW for legendary animals.
If it wasn't for those 2 faults, MM2 would have gotten 5 stars, as it is, it gets a solid 4. Worth owning.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
And here you thought you'd fought everything under the sun.., September 18, 2002
This review is from: Monster Manual II (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement) (Hardcover)
At long last, the second Monster Manual has appeared, to give DMs and players more opponents and allies for their D&D3 games. As stated in the pre-release material, it definitely focuses on the higher end of the CR scale...the highest CR is 28, if I recall correctly.
In this rather nice-looking book, you'll find many, many new and gently used monsters...all the way from the ash rat (a perpetually smokey rat who causes fires) to the phoenix (which, literally, cannot be killed if it has an action), and beyond. One entry I appreciated was the linnorms; in real life, a cryptozoological lizard from Scandinavia, but in D&D3, the most downright unpleasant types of dragons you'll run into...greedy, selfish, and downright meaner than the chromatics, though, thankfully, they don't age. Wizards has shown an interesting predilection for worms of late...first the Worm That Walks template from Epic-Level, and now the fiendwurm (the demonically-infused earthworm with a gate to Hell in its gut) and the psurlons, a race of intelligent earthworms.
Also included are some monsters who've appeared before. Most of the giants were in AD&D2, as was the banshee. In fact, it appears a great number of these are from the old out-of-print Dark Sun setting. There are a few monsters that have appeared in other 3e media...like the Legendary animals, first appearing in Masters of the wild, and the catoblepas, which just appeared in Dragon in September's issue (and is, itself, an update from earlier editions). The celestials (all two of them) appeared in Planescape, as did, undoubtedly, a number of the demons and devils as well.
Finally, to round out the specific creatures, they include new templates...such as the dreaded death knight (undead warrior), the tauric (two creatures together...like a centaur), the chimeric (a creature with additional goat and dragon heads), the spellstitched (magically-enhanced undead), the warbeast (a martially-trained animal), the creature of legend (so it's not a minotaur, but *the* Minotaur), and, finally, the half-golem.
On the whole, it's a very useful book. Lots of new creatures give the DM and the players added variety in their encounters. I especially like the kelvezu, an assassin demon. I wouldn't mind more ally-like creatures...more celestials would be welcome for cohorting and for GPA or GPB spells. However, my real concern is that a fair number of creatures have already appeared in print in 3e, and I'm vaguely unhappy about having to pay for them again. Of course, that's a minor concern, and it's still a book I'd recommend the DM purchase.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
By the Numbers..., March 18, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Monster Manual II (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement) (Hardcover)
*Monster Manual 2* has 224 pages, 262 creatures, and 9 templates.
Its CR values: mean ~8.5, mode 5, median 8, low 1/4, high 28.
CR values of *MM1 3E* for comparison: mean ~5.4, mode 3, median 5, low 1/10, high 26.
It retials for $29.95, which is an average of $0.13 per page.
Overall, this text rounds out the D&D ecosystem fairly well, and its CR values are closer to the *Fiend Folio* than to *MM1*. The introduction features advancement rules and ability explanations that are superior to those found in *MM1 3E*. Unlike the *Fiend Folio*, there is no obvious focus in this collection; however, it is definitely not a book for games that attempt to develop humanoid cultures and conflicts--indeed, there are no "humanoid" types in the text at all, besides one template (there are, of course, a dozen "monstrous humanoid" types, and several outsiders that are essentially extraplanar monstrous humanoids).
Other developments include a good smattering of terrain-based creatures--more desert and swamp inhabitants (fans of the old Dark Sun setting will be pleased to see the return of the "braxat," the "dune stalker," the "sun giant," the "nightmare beast," the "thri-kreen," and the "rampager.") Also, a higher percentage of Colossal creatures and of Aquatic ones than in *MM1*.
The templates are generally good--standouts include the "Death Knight," the "Half-Golem," and the "Tauric" creature (a centaur-thing made of various humanoid and animal bits--very nice). The "Spellstitched" template is decent, though it conjures images of fireball-tossing skeletors from *Diablo*.
Noteworthy creatures--
1) Constructs--lot of good ones here: the "automatons," the "chain golem," the "clockwork horrors," the "juggurnaut," the "nimblewright," the "rogue eidolon," and the "runic guardian" are all first-rate. The "raggamoffyns" are an especially nice touch. and the golems proper are superb.
2) Undead--the best undead in the game are in this text: the "banshee," the "bone naga," the "corpse gatherer," the "crimson death," the "deathbringer," the "effigy," the "famine spirit," the "gravecrawler," the "jahi," the "ragewind," and the "spawn of kyuss"--that's the whole list, and they're all first rate--some tough CR, too.
3) Dragons--4 items here, all very very cool: the "gem dragons," the "fell drakes," the "linnorms," and the uber-badass "hellfire wyrm." These entries are probably worth the cover price by themselves.
4) Outsiders--plenty to go around:
--the "bladelings," to fill out Acheron's poltics a bit more
--2 more Celestials, both of the "guardinal" type, low CR
--8 more Demons (4 Tanar'ri), some with low CR
--3 more Devils (all Ba'atezu)
--3 more yugoloths (higher CR generally than those in *MotP* or *FF*)
--tons of "elemental" types (yeah, technically not "outsiders," but, hell, they are, really)
--and others, such as: 2 basic planetouched types ("zenythri" and "chaond"), much needed; the "rukarazyll," a bizarre aberration-thing; a few ethereal-things; and the "vaporighu," a brute from Gehenna.
5) some decent oozes (the "flesh jelly" rules), fey, plants (myconids! but the "orcwort" is good too), and so on.
6) a bizarre ape-fetish here. We have the "blood ape" (CR 6), the "cloaked ape" (CR 2), the "gambol" (CR 5), the "julajimus" (CR 12), and the "legendary ape" (CR 7). Why all the friggin' monkey-things? Don't we already have the "ape" proper, the "dire ape," and the "girallon" in *MM1*?
Ultimately, this is an all-around useful text, provided one wants to develop a game that is less humanoid-laden.
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