D&D 4th Edition: Monster Manual

[gridlore]

The third book in the 4th Edition core rules. Let's take a look



The first Monster Manual was nothing more than a listing of critters, with stats, for characters to fight. Well, that's the intent of the book, right?

This version of the venerable MM goes farther. Each creature, when appropriate, comes with several variants. Take that old stand-by, the Orc.

We get:

Orc Drudge (Level 4 Minion, 44XP)
Orc Warrior (Level 9 Minion, 100XP)
Orc Raider (Level 3 Skirmisher, 150XP)
Orc Berserker (Level 4 Brute, 175XP)
Orc Eye of Gruumish (Level 5 Controller, 200XP)
Orc Bloodrager (Level 7 Elite Brute, 600XP)
Orc Cheiftain (Level 8 Elite Brute [Leader], 700XP)

So you can get all sorts of fun mixes. Each entry gets a listing of all relevant stats and powers, and their tactics. Each section also ends with sample encounters. Another example, a sample encounter from the Mind Flayer entry:

Level 18 Encounter (10,114XP)
1 Mind Flayer Mastermind (Level 18 Elite Controller)
1 Mind Flayer Infiltrator (Level 14 Lurker)
3 Grimlock Followers (Level 22 Minion)
2 War Trolls (Level 14 Soldiers)

As you can see, the authors build encounters from all over the book for their examples. A note about monster levels. The Dungeon Master's Guide says that when designing monsters, you should take the average party level, and not use monsters more than four levels below that (too easy) or seven levels above (too hard.) So a party of 7th level characters would be challenged by monsters from 3rd through 14th level. This is a very nice mechanic, and allows me to build interesting and varied encounters.

All the old favorites are here, but there are some glaring omissions. Metallic dragons are not covered. Expect that splatbook next year. Also lacking are normal animals. We get cave and dire bears, but not bears (which would be a threat to low-level parties.)

The art is very good, especially in the group shots of different monster subtypes.

I like this book. It is a very nice tool kit.

Comments

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

What annoys me is how they've done away with the 3rd edition philosophy that every monster be treated as a "complete" character in their own right. Hell, even animals had their skills and feats listed. In the new edition, you can't even tell what class the PC race "monsters" are supposed to be, and they sure as hell don't have as many abilities listed as they should have. This makes for very poor tinkerability, IMO.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

DMG p174 "Customizing Monsters" Gives you all sorts of fun templates, including Class ones, to slap on monsters. My favorite is the "Demagogue" for your sneering villains. It adds a few powers to better simulate a good master bad guy, including the ability to run like hell down his secret escape tunnel.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

Fine, but the "Halfling Thief" and "Dwarf Hammerer" _should_ be regular old NPCs, but we have to guess what class they're supposed to be, the abilities they have aren't found in the classes in the PHB, and if we were interested in making those abilities available to PCs, we'd have to guess what level they should be, since it doesn't say. And they also have a lot fewer abilities than they should, which is much more obvious with the higher level NPCs.