Books : Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition

Rating: - Creativity
Let me begin by saying that I have not yet played 4E, but I greatly look forward to it. I have thoroughly scaled through all the books and, overall, have liked what I see. I have been playing D&D for about 3 and a half years. I began playing AD&D, which I loved, to playing 3.5 on occasion, which I liked.

The new rules may seem guided towards a boardgame setting, but I think the real issue here is creativity. Imagination people. These books are, and always have been, meant as GUIDES. They offer you stats and rules that help the DM create and manage campaign. The thing about a guide is that it's there to aid a game, not run it. That's up to the DM.

Yes, angels don't have alignments. So says the book. Everything that is needed is there. Stats, special abilities, etc. A good DM recognizes this and says "angels are good." period. Just because the book doesn't state this doesn't mean the DM can't simply override it. Yes, there are some aspects missing such as the good dragons. They may not be needed as foes, but a it's always fun to grant a high level party the use of a dragon, in which case stats are needed. I feel that this, along with the highly recommended use of miniatures, is WotC's way of marketing other products, such as future books and miniatures. Unfortunately, there is nothiing to be done about this.

As far as the lack of roleplaying, again that's up to the DM. Nothing in these books takes away from the roleplaying aspect. Just because there isn't a detailed instruction set on how to run a non-combat encounter, such as the dragon tea party, doesn't mean that it can't be done. Perhaps the 4E books should be referred to as the "combat" aspect of the game. Any DM with some imagination and creativity can come up with the rest.

The monster manual looks to do exactly what it is supposed to: Offer stats, special abilities, and a brief description of monsters. Everything else is up to the DM.

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Rating: - Finally
I've already put my two cents in on the set.

But here's my specific take on the monster manual.

For a start, all the monsters that are in there have a reason and make sense to be there. Anyone that says this is a knock off really doesn't know what they are talking about.

Metallic Dragons? Come on. Really when is the last time you had your pcs go up against them?

Celestials? Yeah they are angels now. They aren't dancing around the issue anymore. Call it what it is and they do.

As for them being unaligned, let's see. Why would a god rely on unpredictable demons and devils? Why would a god not make something say... loyal to his or her cause? Guess what fits the bill.

The monsters themselves are actually well designed and appropriately leveled for a change. No more wonky cr system which failed to work even one tenth of the time, now you simply take the monster of the appropriate level figure it into the xp budget and go from there.

I love the monster roles. It's a great way for a new and old dm alike to quickly determine if they need a monster in an encounter. You don't have to sit there and really think "do I need this" without having to go through the entire monster's statline anymore. This makes it incredibly easy on the dm.

I notice how some haters here, are like "this destroys roleplaying" and it is the freakin monster manual. Just what exactly would players have a use for this? None. Not if they are role players and not simply powergaming idiots.

The minions. Oh thank god for the minions. In the past if you wanted pcs to be slowed down by monsters you threw lower cr monsters at them.. which quite frankly often times would not hold a prayer to hit the party anyway so their presence was irrelevant. Now you simply add minions in. Minions for those of you just now joining the party are monsters that can hurt the party, tie up resources and actions and -can kill the party- if they ignore them. Their job is there to not simply die, but to tie up resources and actions. A well played out encounter with minions is truly a challenging and worthy fight of the heroic pcs. You add minions into an encounter to make it more challenging. I would not say minions are on their own a true encounter unless you want your pcs to slaughter a small army.

The dragons were done a good justice here unlike the last game where they either sucked or were entirely too good for their own benefit (like never being used at all)

They also tend to give you in this multiple examples of a monster (usually different levels or role types) so that you can use the monster again at a later time and the experience with it will be different.

Orcs by the way now are something to be feared. FINALLY in past editions if an orc showed up even a level 1 wizard could laugh them off the table. Now.. nasty... how's a level NINE encounter sound?

Even the lowly kobold is finally worth mentioning.

If you are a Dm you are probably going to buy the monster manual, and it is definitely worth investing in this time around.

Putting monsters into a game, was never so easy or this fun. I also find it humorous that the haters that think this destroys role playing, hate how monsters have flavor text describing things about them.. which encourage roleplaying...

As for it feeling like a mini game most people missed the memo but D&D started as a mini game. D&D has -always- played better as a mini game. The reason they have the little emblems is not just for mini game purposes but also for a quick reference to know if an attack is ranged or not. The game does not do anything to hurt role playing, it actually encourages it especially compared to the last edition.

I have to say as a 10 year veteran that really the monsters feel more dynamic and alive now than they have been since I started playing.

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Rating: - Terrible
If you like WoW, go play WoW. Don't waste 100$ and another 100$ on the all important miniatures and on these craptastic books just so you can play world of warcraft on paper!

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Rating: - D&D for Dummies
This edition of Dungeons and Dragons has been "simplified" to where it's basically nothing more than a slightly expanded version of the D&D Miniatures game.

The new rules are focused ONLY on running boardgame-style combat with miniature figures. After running three of four test sessions my players became VERY bored and insisted on going back and playing "real D&D."

If you want to play this kind of tabletop miniatures combat, you'd be better of just getting the D&D miniatures game. Or the game "Heroscape."

But if you REALLY want to play 4E, I suggest that you wait a month or two. The books will cost a lot less when they're on clearance.

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Rating: - wow the haters are out in full
I've already reviewed the core rules book set and it recieved my and my players mark of approval. The game plays great. So now I've decided to look at each book individually and judge them. I was surprised to log onto amazon and see that this edition of the MM has garnered only a two star rating. The only reason i can see for this is the fact that so many people are rating the book badly because they haven't even attempted to play with the new 4th edition rules. People tend to hate change as they did when 3rd edition came out. In other words despite my skepticism when the edition was announced i played it and loved the new ruleset. Is it 3.5? nope and it shouldn't be its a new edition afterall. 3.5 is still there for everyone to play and Paizo publishing will still put out new stuff for it for awhile at least. That being said, what do i think of the Monster Manual for the newest edition? It works great. Its not as bare bones as most of the reviewers on here will lead you to believe. However, it doesn't feature the extensive writeups of the previous edition. Although most of those said writeups had a few paragraphs of background info then abilities and tactics for the monsters made up the rest. This is a new format and you can still get just as much info out of it and it is easier to read. Now does it go into complete depth on every entry about the species origin and societies? It has DC for knowledge checks to learn the important details of each species so I would say yes sorta. Its a Monsters manual not a book on species afterall. It has enough info to use the monsters effectively in your game and roleplay them effectively. Each entry also has several different types as well as encounter groups you can drop into your campaign. In other words the Monster Manual does just what its supposed to do. It gives the dm monsters to use in their campaigns and makes it easier for them to do so. So I ask, Why all the hate for 4th edition. Sheesh, give it a shot guys don't blast it without playing it.

My only real complaint is the section on using monster races as characters. Not enough rules or info here to make them viable races. Some of their monster powers are overpowered compared to other racial abilities and there are no racial feats listed so its really a haphazard attempt to add more pc races. However, with a little tweaking they are still usable.