Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual: An Alphabetical Compendium of all the Monsters Found in AD&D, Including Attacks, Damage, Special Abilities, and Descriptions [Hardcover]

Gary Gygax (Author), David C. Sutherland III (Illustrator), Tom Wham (Illustrator), D.A. Trampier (Illustrator), Jean Wells (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1979

Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual: An Alphabetical Compendium of all the Monsters Found in AD&D, Including Attacks, Damage, Special Abilities, and Descriptions

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: TSR; 4th edition (February 1, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935696008
• ISBN-13: 978-0935696004
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The brilliant component that made D&D happen, March 23, 2005

By 

Matt Hetling "Matt" (Bethel, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual: An Alphabetical Compendium of all the Monsters Found in AD&D, Including Attacks, Damage, Special Abilities, and Descriptions (Hardcover)

More than the Dungeon Master's Guide, more than the Player's Handbook, this book is what made D&D the gaming force that it was for over a decade.

A complete listing of monsters for use in the game, the book ensured that every DM could craft an adventure that had new and exciting monsters to be vanquished, and the special powers peculiar to some creatures suggested story lines that were ripe for the picking.

This also set up for the first time a way to rate the strengths of various mythological creatures against each other. Can a Troll kill an Orc? Can a Dragon defeat a Water Elemental? How many Goblins does it take to make a fair fight against a Pegasus? Gygax carefully considered these questions and gave us a version of familiar fantasy figures that was grounded in concrete numbers.

The drawings are admittedly horrible, with many of them looking like study hall doodlings instead of the legitimate artwork that came to characterize later editions.

But the value of this book can't be overrated by a would-be fantasy gamer. The encyclopedic format opened the world of fantasy gaming to a world that was vast enough to include a universe of varied creatures, but cohesive enough to be thought of as a single reality.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The original and best, February 14, 2011

By 

Joker (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual: An Alphabetical Compendium of all the Monsters Found in AD&D, Including Attacks, Damage, Special Abilities, and Descriptions (Hardcover)

This first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual was published in 1977. What a classic. It contains 350 monsters spread over 108 pages and has everything you need to know about all the monsters you'll encounter throughout the world of Greyhawk. Written by Gary Gygax, it also contains many great illustrations of monsters throughout. All the vital statistics on the monsters are included.

This book is a must-have for anybody who played Dungeons & Dragons in the good old days of pencils, paper, and your imagination. If you still play the pencil and paper D & D like I do, then get this book. NOW.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AHH Nostalgia!, October 5, 2004

By 

Patrick Curtin "Bookaholic" (Cape Cod MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual: An Alphabetical Compendium of all the Monsters Found in AD&D, Including Attacks, Damage, Special Abilities, and Descriptions (Hardcover)

Just surfing and had to say I love this book. I still have the dog-eared copy I bought in 1979 safely tucked away, 7th grade scribbles and all. I saved my paltry allowance for a month to buy this baby. This is one of those books that always has a place in your heart. Not really useful anymore though for the new gamer, go pick up the updated one (MM 3.5 edition version), but for us vets, back in the day it was all about this bad boy.