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Volo's Guide to Monsters (Dungeons & Dragons) Hardcover – Illustrated, November 15, 2016

by Wizards RPG Team (Author)

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Immerse yourself in monster lore in this supplement for the world’s greatest roleplaying game

This is NOT just another Monster Manual! Volo’s Guide to Monsters provides something exciting for players and Dungeon Masters everywhere.
· A deep dive into the lore behind some of D&D’s most popular and iconic monsters
· Dozens of monsters new to the fifth edition to include in your epic adventures
· New playable races to allow you to build characters to fit nearly any type of story in your D&D game.

The esteemed loremaster Volothamp Geddarm is back and he’s written a fantastical dissertation, covering some of the most iconic monsters in the Forgotten Realms. Unfortunately, the Sage of Shadowdale himself, Elminster, doesn’t believe Volo gets some of the important details quite right. Don’t miss out as Volo and Elminster square off (academically speaking of course) to illuminate the uninitiated on creatures both common and obscure. Uncover the machinations of the mysterious Kraken Society, what is the origin of the bizarre froghemoth, or how to avoid participating in the ghastly reproductive cycle of the grotesque vargouille. Dungeon Masters and players will get some much-needed guidance as you plan your next venture, traipsing about some dusty old ruin in search of treasure, lore, and let’s not forget ... dangerous creatures whose horns, claws, fangs, heads, or even hides might comfortably adorn the walls of your trophy room. If you survive.

Research has never been so dangerous!

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Wizards of the Coast
Publication date

November 15, 2016
Reading age

14 years and up
Dimensions

8.5 x 0.6 x 10.9 inches
ISBN-10

0786966017
ISBN-13

978-0786966011
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From the Publisher


	Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes	Xanathar's Guide to Everything	Volo's Guide to Monsters
Get this to:	Craft inspired adventures with new and expanded monster lore, introduce new monsters to your campaign, and open new character race options	Explore a wealth of new rules options and create a wider world for your players to explore	Immerse your players in monster lore for a deeper roleplaying experience
Audience:	Dungeon Masters, experienced players	Dungeon Masters, experienced players	Dungeon Masters, experienced players
Contents:	Over 150 monsters with stats and illustrations / More options for character creation with new races / Expanded monster lore for Dungeon Masters to add depth to a campaign	Dozens of new spells / Over 25 new subclasses / New Racial Feats / Random encounter tables for quick combat setup / Rules for Downtime Revisited / Tools like improved traps, magic items, and more for Dungeon Masters to add to their adventures	7 new playable races plus 6 monstrous races / In-depth monster lore including new variants of existing monsters, encounter tables, lair details, history, and more / Dozens of monsters new to fifth edition D&D for players to conquer

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wizards of the Coast; Illustrated edition (November 15, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0786966017
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0786966011
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 14 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.85 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.6 x 10.9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Puzzle & Game Reference (Books)
- #8 in Dungeons & Dragons Game
- #110 in Reference (Books)

Customer Reviews:
10,067 ratings

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5 star		90%
4 star		8%
3 star		1%
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A. mazon Customer

My new favorite 5E book

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2016

Verified Purchase

Volo's Guide To Monsters is now, without a doubt, my new favorite 5E book. Part 1 contains a LOT of in-depth information about some of D&D's most notable adversaries: Beholders, Giants, Mind Flayers, and others. The second part contains new racial options for players; IIRC, some of these were presented in other books, but it is nice to have them collected in one place. The rest of the book has a bestiary of new creatures, great and small, as well as some "plug and play" NPCs.

For the DM, this book is a treasure trove; I tend to buy 5E books for inspiration, and don't really play pre-generated campaigns, and VGtM is helping me take the campaign I'm running in some exciting new directions (at least, for me). Also, I'm all about giving players more options, so the new player races are also extremely interesting to me. I don't know how much I'll use the pre-gen NPCs, but they're handy to have, just in case.

One of my favorite things about the book is the chief conceit of its design. Peppered throughout the book are comments of Volothamp Geddarm (the "Volo" of the title) and the archmage Elminster Aumar. These little side notes add a lot to the flavor of the book, and help the reader immerse him/herself in the world.

EDIT: Another thing I like about this book that I just discovered is that the index of the book has monsters sorted by challenge rating and sorted by location. So, if you're hunting for creatures in, say, the Underdark, it's extremely easy to find them in the book. Nice addition!

384 people found this helpful

Helpful

slugnet

A must-buy book for DM's. A treasure trove of inspiration with new races, monsters, and in-depth monster lore

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is a great addition to 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. The cutesy banter between Volo and Elminster is kept to a minimum, leaving some really great, meaty content. While I just received my print copy today, I've been using the online version through Roll20 for two weeks. My review is based on two weeks of experience with the content, plus sitting with the physical book today.

What exactly are you getting in this book?

- Nearly 90 pages of in depth monster lore, focusing on Beholders, Giants, Gnolls, Goblinoids, Hags, Kobolds, Mind Flayers, Orcs, and Yuan-ti. This is very in depth work, with multiple pages providing variants, tables, lairs (including maps), historical background, and even some of the psychology of the creatures that can really help you flesh out these types of creatures in your games.

- 7 new Player Character races, including Aasimar, Firbolg, Goliath, Kenku, Lizardfolk, Tabaxi, and Triton. These are a nice edition, and I especially like how the details for these new races includes tips on how to role-play as these slightly more unique creature types. Overall, these new races feel like they can breathe a lot of new life into campaigns for players who might be starting to get tired of the standard set from the Player's Handbook.

- 6 new Monstrous Player Character races, which feature groups that were represented in the first 90 pages. These are more limited/specialized builds that a DM would really need to weigh before including in a game, but absolutely could provide some fantastic adventures for the right group of players. The 6 Monstrous races represented are Bugbear, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Kobold, Orc, and Yuan-ti Pureblood.

- An expanded Bestiary.The next 99 pages of the book are dedicated to new monsters for your games. There are an excellent variety of new creatures, including some favorites that didn't make the original Monster Manual. Personally, I was glad to see a nice balance between creature types, and that these new creatures help round out some of the groups, such as Fey. It also is nice to see a book like this deepen the bench; this section of the book provides an especially large amount of new monsters of the type covered in the first 90 pages (Beholders, Giants, Gnolls, Goblinoids, Hags, Kobolds, Mind Flayers, Orcs, and Yuan-ti). A full 10 pages of this is also used to create new NPC stats, which is a great boon to be able to build encounters that stretch across a wider CR level in more civilized locations.

- The book wraps up with 4 pages of Appendixes which provide a quick reference no matter how you are looking for a creature: you can find them by CR level, by Creature Type, or by the typical environment that you would find the monster in.

All in all, the content is incredibly useful for any dungeon master who wants more content. The new monsters alone are worth the price of admission. The new character races are also an excellent new addition, although their uniqueness may make them more useful for some groups over others; that said, options are always nice to have. The first 90 pages of lore will be most useful to DM's who are planning on using the types of creatures listed in their campaigns. Especially if you are using those creature types, I highly recommend this as an addition to your collection, as the amount of material provided on these creatures is sure to spark your imagination and spin new adventures for your table.

212 people found this helpful

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Chris in ColoradoTop Contributor: Fantasy Books

Adds variation and richness to monsters for D&D.

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2017

Verified Purchase

I'm a DM who has been playing since the late 80's. So I'm always looking for products that make my life easier. Functionally, this book gives you more options for monsters. Now in my group I often just build my own from scratch. I'll build monsters and encounters to challenge my players and avoid the cookie-cutter templates. My group has experienced players and former DM's, so they'll recall original builds easily and they'll play their characters with more "knowledge" than their character might actually have.

Volo's guide has the monsters "out of the box," but then has sub-sections after each monster that show variations you can add in the game to make them different, more challenging, but also stay within the spirit of the monster's original design. For example in the beholder section, they have alternative eye socket powers. So previous knowledge from another game won't aid the players when they encounter your re-skinned creations.

If you have someone at your table who is a rules lawyer, and they take issue with things that aren't in the books (you're cheating!), this will help you create variations that you can point to and say "actually this can exist." It also just gives more ideas and culture for the monsters. This includes behavior, biological functions and culture which all really help build verisimilitude. So if your group likes a lot of realism and detail, Volo's guide has done the work.

The book is very detailed, and is written from the perspective of Volo, a traveling wizard from the Forgotten Realms setting who has a very high opinion of himself and is prone to conflation. Thankfully, there are annotations from Elminster (also from Forgotten Realms) that help either confirm, or in some cases, completely refute what Volo is saying. This makes it for a more amusing read.

This guide was necessary for D&D. Some of the monsters in the book are as old as the game (over forty years) and the community takes them for granted. It's nice to see a product that freshens up the old, brings some new and ultimately helps give a DM tools to create a more immersive experience.

40 people found this helpful

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Rotgut

Volo 's Guide

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2018

Verified Purchase

Well thought out and imaginative addition to the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. In keeping with the general trend in the latest iteration of the game, the stress is on storytelling rather than rules. Many of the new races available for characters are not too different in many respects to other core races (Goliaths have virtually identical stat adds to Half Orcs already described in the PHB for example) but their background and history gives roleplaying tips to make them different to play.

This volume is full of valuable resources, more powerful versions of standard Monster Manual critters ; Monster lairs (the Mind Flayer tunnel complex is extremely challenging), New races for PCs ; example NPCs; Detailed ecologies for some creature. All are useful and usable. It is a bit unwieldy in that some of the book is designed for DMS and some for players but , I suppose, that is close to the AD&D version of many moons ago, the Unearthed Arcana.

Great production values and top notch artwork feature throughout...the Fire Giant Dreadnought and Slithering Tracker pics are highlights for me. The cover artwork is slightly underwhelming, in contrast.

It's a shame no space could be found to credit the original creators of these creatures, I remember many of the best here (Kenku, Tabaxi, Nilbog etc) appearing in White Dwarf Magazine way back in the day , sent in by fan contributors. Still, in a way, their longevity and continued popularity, renewed in these up to date versions, are a testament to the writers who invented them,

20 people found this helpful

John

Excellent content, questionable production

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

Volo Guide To Monsters is full of interesting and worthwhile concepts, ideas and inspirations for both DM's and players, covering a large swathe of subjects and going into very welcome detail.

As a resource it's a very valuable one and one that I refer to often.

However, the production quality on the book itself leaves something to be desired. The binding is poor and care has to be taken to prevent pages becoming loose from the spine whilst some of the pages in my copy weren't even cut properly. This meant that I had to carefully cut pages away from one another myself, which is hardly ideal.

5 people found this helpful

MintyLambchop

Unacceptably poor quality.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

Imagine my utter embarrassment when my nephew opened this only to find the pages stuck together and damaged. I have no idea why anyone would think it is ok to send out DAMAGED goods to customers. Unfortunately, my nephew wanted to keep the book regardless or the damage, and as it was a gift I respected his wishes, so I could not return it.

3 people found this helpful

Jon S.

Wonderful options for any party or DM!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

An excellent addition to my gaming group's universe. The new player races are very welcome - this supplement provides detailed rules for 5 new origins and stats for a handful of traditional monster races people may like to roleplay. The in-depth exploration of key D&D monsters, their habits, society and homes, really adds the worlds you can build - It has been ideal for designing campaigns pitting the players against arch enemies, where they can be immersed in the lore of the orc warlord's clan, or delve into the devious web of puppets controlled by a hag, rather than slog through a series of randomly populated dungeons.

3 people found this helpful

Amoeba

Back Pages Glued Together

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2018

Verified Purchase

I'm thoroughly enjoying reading through this and it's really helping me to formulate characters and flesh out backgrounds of existing ones.
I would highly recommend getting this product if you are interested in Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition. Of course, I am new to the game, so I won't claim experience where I don't have it.

I was disappointed, however, when flipping through all the pages, to find that pages from "Kraken Priest" onwards were glued together at the corners and glued to the back of the book. I had to prise them apart to be able to read them and subsequently, there are pieces missing at the top of each of these pages. While this hasn't impaired my ability to read these pages, it has made my book look ragged.

I'm a person that cares for their books carefully, I don't like having my books in disrepair. This is reflected in my rating.

2 people found this helpful

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