Customer Reviews

Monster Manual II (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

*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.

The Monster Manual II may not be a can't-game-without-it book, but it's a treasure trove of amusing, in-joke monsters.

For instance, Pinky and the Brain fans will have no trouble understanding the motivations of the Moon Rat. And, while the collective of the Clockwork Horrors bares obvious resemblances to the Borg of Star Trek fame, it has a swarm-of-locusts twist that can make it an appealing addition to a story-line. The Corpse Gatherer, too, makes a nice rampaging disaster for the party to save the village/realm from. For a young party, having an Orcwort move into their home town will provide the same sort of challenge.

The art in MMII has all the benefits and drawbacks of a collectable card game. Some of it is quite good, some of it is quite funny, but the styles clash. Compare the comical the Bronze Serpent and Teratomorph to the nicely-rendered Catoblepas or Crimson Death to the photo-realistic Tempest. Any of these styles would have been fine, but all at once is no good.

If I have any other complaint about MMII, it's the organization or lack thereof. Firbolg and Fomorians are included, as well as several new kinds of giants, but the Firbolg and Fomorians are listed under F, not G (either for Giant or Giantkin). It's just difficult to guess whether a creature will be listed under a group name or by itself. For instance, when looking for a Dragon species from the Hells, would you start with Dragon, Devil, or Hellfire Worm? I'd have used categories more extensively.

The MMII provides several good new templates (Tauric, Titanic, Half-Golem, and Warbeast stand out), but the Monster of Legend template is nothing special. Any DM that couldn't think to glom on a few cool abilities to a base monster to make him into an end-of-dungeon big bad dude needs more help gaming than this book can give him.

Some of the content in MMII has appeared before in builder books (Legendary Animals and expanded Dire Animals). Also, some collections of old favorites are back (Myconids, Gem Dragons, Dinosaurs, expanded Demons and Devils). Whoever wrote the descriptions for the new demons has a happy felicity of expression. For instance, "An abyssal maw is a disgusting creature consisting mostly of teeth." I wonder if that's what is pictured on the cover?

There is a scattering of much-needed elemental creatures (Ash Rat, Breath Drinker, Immoth, Fire Bat, Galeb Duhr). If the Weirds were included for no other reason than to give us the section title, "Weird Society," that would have been reason enough, but these creatures give us additional insight into elemental plane ecology. The Tempest is fascinating as an Elemental of all four types at once. There must be many more multi-type Elementals waiting to be conceived. We also get a fair selection of creatures from the ethereal plane (Ethereal Doppelganger, Ethereal Slayer, Ethereal Scarab).

Another gem of humor is the Crimson Death, a creature that has blood as its avatar and its seal, and whom one must imagine comes like a thief in the night to drop, one by one, the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel. The description of the Bladelings makes one suspect that the plane from which they migrated might not be Gehenna after all, but rather one of the MMORGs, probably NWN or Ultima Online.

There is enough dark emotional residue running around the MMII to fill New York's Van Home pneumatic transit line (Nightmare Beast, Julajimus, Fihyr). This theme continues into the undead (Ragewind, Jahi, Meenlock). There are at least three creatures bent on creating cults around themselves (Rakarazyll, Jahi, Avolakia) and the Avolakia and Rakarazyll also fill out an infiltration/impersonation theme with the help of the lawful Ethereal Doppelganger. MMII also has a few stories come to frightful life (Julajimus, Mooncalf). One hesitates to inquire, though, how the Mooncalf got its name, since it resembles neither a calf, nor an absent-minded, foolish person.

As with any group this large, MMII has a few creatures that rate an "uninspired" at best. The Reason Stealer may have been created merely so there would be at least one creature that steals intelligence points. The charisma-munching Jahi, on the other hand, has great role-playing possibilities. Some of the new giants are a little rocky, and not in a good way. The Spellweaver, which is clearly meant to be mysterious, succeeds--there is no hint in the MMII at what this creature wants, nor at why it was included in the book.

Still, there's more that's fun than foul. At least random, unguarded treasure is likely to increase with all the new creatures who leave it lying about (Moonbeast, Darktentacles, Gravorg, Nightmare Beast). Though the name "Windghost" does it no justice, there is a porteugese man-o-war crossed with a hot-air balloon that is a marvelous invention. The Morkoth is a fine creature concept, too, for all that it looks like a reject from the casting of The Phantom Menace. The Desmodu look like such fun; they are to fruitbats what Wookies are to Ewoks, and then some. This Monster Manual II is a far better offering than the near-useless Deities and Demigods.

The Raggamoffyn, too, with its Tatterdemanimal subtype, is more laughs than a barrel full of dead monkeys. Hmm, Barrel Full of Dead Monkeys. I wonder if anyone has written up a monster description for that yet. Maybe I'll try that when I get back from tea with the General of the Yugaloths in the Crawling City of Gehenna . . .

The MMII contains alot of new monsters for 3E. With their emphasis on "tougher encounters," alot of the creatures have higher CR's. Unfortunately, it seems that the good folk at WotC don't realize that you can make an encounter tougher without using a tougher monster. One of my favorite methods of accomplishing this is by adding character classes to monsters. Kytons are dangerous- but a 4th-level kyton fighter who has his Weapon Specialization in chains and just slugged down a potion of haste is a beat-down waiting to happen, even for experienced parties.

Nonetheless, the MMII contains many monsters that simply should have been in the MM, such as the phoenix, death knight, and crimson death. They had to put some sort of limit on the original MM, so it's good to see that "missed monsters" from the older versions of the game will find a happy home in 3E. I particularly enjoyed seeing the Marrash back, one of the cooler monsters devised for 2E, and the malebranche, essential for any infernal excursion.

MMII also contains monsters collected from published adventures (i.e. mooncalf, twig blight, bladeling) and some of the neater creatures from the now-defunct Chainmail game (stone spike, felldrakes, the Naresh demons).

What I was most pleased with in the MMII is the handy tables at the front of the book, combining all the needed information that you have to flip around for when designing your own monsters. This alone will make it easier and faster for me to design my own critters.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to folks who want clarified monster design and to incorporate the Chainmail creatures. I myself would like to see the Chainmail setting published for 3E.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book.
Pluses:
- Nice cover, good presentation.
- They really tried to include a picture of every monster, and (for the most part) the pictures actually matched up with the monster's description, remedying a big failure of MM1. The art is mostly good, with some really nice pieces (Chain Golem and Gem Dragons spring to mind) and only a few stinkers (breathstealer)
- The ability descriptions are much improved over the first MM. In my mind, that's a reason to have it around alone. Example: the description of Swallow Whole makes it clear exactly when a monster can swallow a hapless PC, something multiple readings of the MM1 ability description failed to do for me.
- Descriptions are more complete. Every PC-able monster has ECL listed; all monsters with Grapple-related abilites have Grapple bonuses precalculated, etc.
- I like constructs, and there's lots of them in here.
- There are some NASTY critters in here - if you GM a high-level campaign, I'd say this book would be a must-have. Don't worry, there's plenty of low-CR critters too.

Minuses:
- Every second monster seemed to have Improved Grab and grapple-related abilites. I mean sure, it's a nice mechanic, but did they really need to give it to so many creatures?
- I guess I'm OK with the reprints of the Legendary Animals from Masters of the Wild, but did they have to reprint the Bogun?
- I would have liked some more inventive templates. The book has Big Critter (Gargantuan), Level Boss Critter (Monster of Legend), Centaur Critter (Tauric), and Multiheaded Critter (Chimeric) - all straightforward stuff most GMs could do for themselves. The Death Knight is about the only one I'd use.

A good book for its time, but DMs should take note that this book is dated. Monster description blocks are not 3.5 compliant. This means that the monster's Base Attack Bonus is not clearly listed, nor is the Grapple bonus (although most Swallow Whole descriptions define this variable). Also, Damage Reduction has changed significantly, so be prepared to make some on-the-fly adjustments. Otherwise I would say that this book is very usable at all levels.

The promise of new and interesting monsters to confound my players with had me anticipating this book for many months. Sadly it doesn't look as though it was worth the wait.

Now any serious D&D player knows that Rules are what make the game, not colourful books or pictures, Rules plain and simple. The MMII starts off on a good foot there, containing even more information than the original about abilities and feats and special qualities. However there are several changes with how monsters are assigned feats (not 1 + 1/4 HD, usually 1 + Int + 1/4 EHD), which doesn't mesh well with ANY monster stats from any of the other WotC books. 1 Strike Against.

The book contains a large number of monsters (both New and Old) as well as several Templates (such as the Death Knight or Titanic ). The monsters also cover a wide range of CRs from 1/4 to 28. Now that brings me to the 2nd Strike Against the book... CRs.

A CR is a great tool for a DM to judge when to use the monster versus his/her players. Unfortunately most of them seem to have been drawn out of a hat, being either VASTLY underrated or SERIOUSLY overrated. Also the CRs above 20 aren't suitable against Epic PCs, at most they are CR 21-23 when compared to the beasties in the Epic Level Handbook. With the CR system beyond repair, it is up to individual DMs to decide what is suitable to pit against their players.

There are a few saving graces such as the Gem Dragons (although I prefer the ones in the Psionic Web Enhancement), the Effigy (balanced at CR 17), and some of the new Demons, Devils, Celestials and Yugoloths.

I really enjoyed this manual. When 3rd edition rolled around and replaced AD&D, I was a little disappointed with the monster manual. Although they DID get rid of some really [weak] monsters from 2nd edition, they excluded some that i really would have liked the stats for - gem dragons, banshees, etc. (Personally, i think that these creatures should have been in the first MM, but...)
One thing i really like is that this manual gives you not just new creatures, but whole new races- creatures with detailed society information and many different subclasses of the particular creature. It's nice to have an entire society layed out for you, just waiting to find a place in your world.
I would say that for a DM just starting out, the MM is good enough. For someone who has been running games for a while, and especially those who have PC that are higher level, MM2 is a must. It will help get more variety into your games and throw something new at your players.

I was happily suprised to discover that the second monster manual contained monsters with a CR of 1/3 and up. In fact there's a number of monsters with CRs between 1 and 14 as well as high as 28. It's also great to see some monsters that I've been waiting for (Firbolgs, Twig Blights, Banshees, Automatons) as well as a few elemental based creatures (a personal favorite), some very gross and scary monsteres (Famine Spirit, Flesh Jelly), some very unique monsters (Stained Glass Golem, Raggamoffyn) and cool templates (Capture One, Death Knight, Monsters of Legend, , Half-Golem). Overall a great supplement with an awesome cover that will offer an abundance of new creatures to a DM with a group of any level.