Favorite/Least Favorite Monster Books

[JoeGKushner]

Well yesterday I was up at Games Plus and saw the new Soverign Stone monster book. Nice little hardcover but I wasn't impressed by the art and the fact that each creature took up two pages.

Still, my least favorite monster book has got to be Menagerie. Art value low, editing and layout bad and cost high.

Favorite would probably be the good old Monster Manual. Maybe one of the new books coming out will change my mind but...

How about everyone else?

 

[MulhorandSage]

I've only picked up the Monster Manual, the Creature Collections, Legions of Hell, and Monsters of Faerun. I wouldn't put any of those books in the same class of disappointment I suffered when i first picked up the Fiend Folio twenty years ago, or some of the later Monstrous Compendium Appendixes in 2nd edition.

Scott Bennie

 

[Teflon Billy]

I'm not a big fan of that first Creature Collection, but the second one is a huge improvement.

I didn't hate the Fiend Folio as much as Scott, after all, it gave us the Githyanki.

Actually wait; that's all it gave us

I'm no big fan of the 3E Monster Manual either...i's laid out so oddly that it's often truly difficult to use during a game.

The monster book I've got the most use out of in the last year is Green Ronin's Legions of Hell. That book didn't skimp on anything I care about

 

[Nightfall]

Well right now I'm very much into Tome of Horrors. But I do think CC2 is a great book. The most poor and/or the one I didn't care much for, Minions. It's got some good color art, but that's it.

 

[Alaric_Prympax]

So far I'd say GR's Legions of Hell but I'm looking forward to Necromancer Games Tome of Horrors too. I agree that the MM can be a bit difficult to work with in a game session.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Legions of Hell is your least favorite Alaric?

 

[CWD]

I didn't hate the Fiend Folio as much as Scott, after all, it gave us the Githyanki.

Actually wait; that's all it gave us

I'm no big fan of the 3E Monster Manual either...i's laid out so oddly that it's often truly difficult to use during a game.

The FF also gave us the death knight, iron cobra, and necrophidius. All cool monsters IMHO. Of course, it was also the home of the nilbog and flumph.

 

[Tsyr]

Absolute favorite MM: The 2E MM. Perfection incarnate for a monster book, IMHO.

Least favorite MM: Tied between Nightmares & Dreams (Worst art I've seen in a MM) or the 3E MM (For the horrid layout).

 

[Butholios]

Look at the Minotaur illo

Wow, you mean _besides_ the horrible art? Half the book looked like it was done by somebody who "learned to draw the Marvel way". The TonyD stuff was nice, but come on--the book on whole is laughably bad!

My favorite: the 3E MM. The layout doesn't bother me at all (I'd rather have more total monsters than one per page), the art's great, and the implentation of old standbyes is incredibly well done. Plus it's one of handful of monster books on the market that isn't full of basic errors.

Absolute favorite MM: The 2E MM. Perfection incarnate for a monster book, IMHO.

 

[bwgwl]

favorite: 3e MM.

least favorite: Monsters of Faerun. i run homebrew campaigns and i've only found maybe four or five monsters in that book that i'd want running around in my world.