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Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebook: Monster Manual, WTCA92180000, standard
£24.70£37.00 (-33%)
• Fill your Dungeons & Dragons games with pesky goblins and mighty dragons for players to battle or beguile, outwit or outrun • Over 150 ready-to-play D&D monsters • Over 400 stat blocks—with all the info a Dungeon Master needs to run encounters • Detailed descriptions and beautiful illustrations • 1 of 3 D&D Core Rulebooks for 5th edition—the Player’s Handbook (rules for playing the game), the Dungeon Master’s Guide (how to run the game), and Monster Manual (creatures to encounter in your game).The Monster Manual presents a horde of classic Dungeons & Dragons creatures, including dragons, giants, mind flayers, and beholders—a monstrous feast for Dungeon Masters ready to challenge their players and populate their adventures. The monsters contained herein are culled from the D&D game’s illustrious history, with easy-to-use game statistics and thrilling stories to feed your imagination.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast, 5th Revised edition (16 Sept. 2014) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 320 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0786966750 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0786965618 |
| Reading age | 13 years and up |
| Dimensions | 21.89 x 2.31 x 28.24 cm |
by Joy
Book came in really good condition, Very excited to play with it.
by Victoria E. N.
It’s a book with information about D&D monsters in. If that’s what you’re expecting then yay! If it’s not then not sure what you’re looking at it for tbh!
by Rotgut
Great roleplaying supplement and also a great read. Immense piece of work, authors and artists to be congratulated.
I have never felt the need to replace my 1979 Gary Gygax authored Advanced D&D Monster Manual, with the infamous David Sutherland “Flying Red Cow” cover illustration and so it is this venerable tome that I compared this new book to. How does it compare ? Well, the first thing to say is that this is very close to an updated version of Gygax’s original….about 75%of the creatures here (pure guess) were in the 1979 book,and the vast majority of the rest appeared in the Fiend Folio or Monster Manual 2, the AD&D follow ups to the MM. The illustrations in the Gygax version are all (well, apart from the cover|) excellent, here the production values are higher and the pictures are in colour, at the very least the 5th edition version matches the original in this important area. The updated stats for the monsters, the main point of the book, of course, are, as user friendly as the original, most entries are a page or less and a range of levels from very low to very high.
One area, where, I am afraid to admit,. this new Monster Manual does improve on Gary Gygax’s is the texts on many of the creatures include short histories and ecologies which are absolutely perfect for inspiration for adventures, As one example the entries for ” Centaur” both show great illustrations, have broadly similar game stats and, of course, are recognisably the same legendary figure from Greek myth. The new description though also has two adventure seeds within it, the centaur migration lasting generations coming into conflict with human cities built in their way and the old or lame centaur been left behind and having to be helped . Any DM worth their salt should be able to knock off an adventure…or even a campaign of adventures based on these hints. Lots of the descriptions include nuggets like these and as the point of game books like this is to spark players’ imaginations this is a massively useful aspect of this work.
Every D&D player will have their own ideas of how these monsters should be portrayed, not all will agree with every interpretation here but the introduction sensibly points out players can amend or ignore any of the information given here .Having said that, some of the decisions…Pixies not being Chaotic ? Tarrasques not been evil ? seem a bit odd. Monsters omitted also seem unfortunate..although some (eg Phase Spider) appear in the appendix , giving slightly shorter descriptions of creatures. No Titan though (replaced by the Empyrean) and no room for the Vargoyle, one of my faves. Some monsters included could also have perhaps have been consigned to history…do we REALLY need the Modrons?Or the Flumph?!
My favourite enrty is the Kenku, brilliantly designed , again so that even an encounter with one will be an adventure in itself. Lead writer Chris Perkins has penned numerous adventures and it really shows.
Not absolutely all monsters are a triumph, the Genies seem uninspired, for example, but the majority…Demons, Devils, Golems, etc etc are inspired.
A shame a list of the original creators of the monsters couldn’t be included somewhere in this lengthy tome…I recall many of these (Hook Horror, Giths. Kenku etc|) were designed by the fan community and it would have been nice for this to be acknowledged.
The front cover illo , is, perhaps, not as striking as some of the interior pictures (how awesome would the Barlgura or the Hobgobiln or Werewolf illustration look on the front of the book?) but the Beholder is THE definitive D&D critter and surely beats a flying cow !
by Cassie
DISCLAIMER – revised version of the monster manual is coming next year, unless you really want the resource in this present one, I’d probably suggest waiting for that.
Book is great for getting a good understanding of various common monsters to take inspiration from and implement into games, even if it markets itself as for both players and DMs, iirc all the monsters that would actually matter to players are in the PHB, please dont read this as a player and spoil yourself on how monsters your DM may use work, there’s better places to look into certain lore if it interests you.
by Polly Derbyshire
As a non gamer, I don’t really get it but it keeps my hubby quiet. Just wish he’d stop asking me to play the games !
by WorthABuy?
Great book for DM looking for inspiration or just someone with an interest into the DnD world!! May be a good read for players also but it may ruin some of the excitement or surprises your DM throw at you.
Arrived quickly and on great condition no issues at all, binding is good on the book read it all and no problems.
by ScottPaul ScottPaul
I missed many of the gaming manuals throughout the 80s (and therefore saved some money) but with the arrival of this amazing edition, containing as it does almost all the “classic” creatures/beings familiar to most keen gamers, plus a fair number of newer entries that most may never have come across, for its price, is probably the most conscientiously filled and booted monster guide out there. Though many people looking at this cool tome are likely well versed in the many rules and stats of the beings in the D&D and Pathfinder world-and the gamebook world for that reason, this also acts pretty well as a cool introduction for the novice. It is very easy to read the book from beginning to end and it barely takes ten pages on the general rules before launching into a beautifully illustrated and well detailed history of a stunning range of monsters in a decidely helpful alphabetically succint system. Just before the bestiary begins, the first eight pages soak you easily in with a brief and welcoming introduction to the world of D&D, how this book works, the definition of ‘monster’ and the different types-i.e aberrations, beasts, undead, constructs and so on, with examples of each group. There’s also brief breakdowns of all the other numerous stats-speed/skills/senses/languages/special traits/alignments. Sometimes this is just too much, and I often prefer the simpler Fighting Fantasy/Hero Quest game approach that all these stats multitudes that seem to interrupt play more than anything else as you mull over the meanings instead of just straight into an encounter, and in truth, seem to make something that’s supposed to be hugely enjoyable far more complicated than it needs to be. And in truth, seems more designed for bleeding computer games than the grand old unbeatable idea of long gone yonder-tabletop gaming with miniatures, boards and scenery.
But it’s the monster chapters themselves that sell this book-and boy are they great. Almost all of them hit the extreme heights, with only seemingly truly redundant to the beautiful world of gaming, which sadly means that some other great beings are absent, and glaring omissions from this grand publication are the Phoenix, Kelpie, Fairies and the dreadfully ignored but quite brilliant Fimirs. I also realise that some others clearly can’t be included if they were created by Games Workshop co-founders and creators of the Fighting Fantasy explosion of the 80s-Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. A pity as a fair number of their own beings-Rhino Men, Garks, Ice Ghosts, Scurrellors, Sentinels and Chamelonites are worthy of it-and also of having models based on them. A pity this, but on the strong side, the rich yet speedy round-up of each being’s history (detailing how many were created) is far better than the basic and often smoothed over (ah, so you don’t know either!) kobbled together bits and bobs summaries of the charming if hardly extensive ‘Out Of The Pit’-the Fighting Fantasy monster accompaniment, of which this is a far more invigorating and prevailing version, not least because of the meticulous and outstanding full-colour illustrations of EVERY being named-from Kenkus to Hezrous and Nothics to Satyrs.
At only a few times do certain drawings flag-mainly ones that contradict annoyingly with the beings I’m used to through the Gamebooks, so the Goblins and Hobgoblins in here (with red skin no less-they’re not devils!) lose for me, as do the Kobolds and Troglodytes for being way too akin to the Lizard Men in likeness, just lacking. The Jackalweres are just wimpy attempts at werecreatures, yet kept seperate! The inclusion of something like a Werebadger or Wereape would be far better! And Orcs with grey skin?! What? And why Orcs are not referred to as Goblinoids I’ll never know, when the hairy ape/bear humanoids the Bugbears are is a mystery that should really be cleared up. The Harpy’s description is all well and good, but is a little too much like the Siren’s in places, though the picture is lovely. And the illustation of the “Pixie” is blatantly a Fairy or a Nymph (if they have wings. A Pixie-the ones I know-cannot fly. Oh well.
But in wins in spades with its thorough genius-such as intriguingly dangerous looking beings like Xorn’s being neutral, and how a Genie isn’t a Genie at all but an umbrealla term for four different types, what Elementals actually are and how they work, and best of all-the different types of undead and how they came into being. There’s also a wry little piece at the start in the early introductory pages further reminding the reader that this is still THEIR world after all-and they can switch alignments and environments how they see fit!
As my favourite (though I love most) FF Gamebook was always ‘Demons Of The Deep’-an adventure set beneath the waves where you can breathe underwater, I was always miffed there would be no more like this, so to find several marine beings-Merfolk, Merrows, Kuo-Toa and the horrific but pretty Sahuagins, and to know there’s models of other marine beasts is brilliant. My biggest gripe is that for all the scintillating and showy reels of the many death-dealing ways a large number of D&D monsters can attack and kill you and how many are invulnerable to usual weapons and an awful lot of spells, there is barely ANY reference to how they CAN be fought off/harmed/killed or escaped from when usual attacks fail. This is most unfair-even Out Of The Pit tried to include this, though they had nothing like the awesome number of almost impossible-to-face-and-live beings in the pages of this book. This makes me think we’ve got to do the work ourselves, and fair enough I guess, as it’s our world after all. But this would still be much appreciated, not least cos the creature’s different histories mostly offer not even a hint to what might may be done against them.
There’s a seperate A-Z for animals-mostly bigger versions of ones you find in this world-deer, bears, wolves, gorillas and so on, with a couple of weird inclusions that should really be in the Monster A-Z-i.e the lawful Blink Dog and Chaotic Death Dog. After this is another Appendix for the many types of human being/Elf/Dwarf people you can meet in the game-cultists, scouts, beserkers, pirates, guards, mages and so on. Most helpful is the Monster Index at the end which can take you straight to the monster you want rather than flipping impatiently, yet lovingly through the luscious monster prints. Also cute are the small sketches of certain beings spread about such pages-many witty such as the hulking Minotaur standing behind a human perusing a map or scroll and having no idea its behind him ready to pancake him, while a Rug of Smothering envelops a warrior, and a Giant Squid looks like it’s just had a Tardis dropped on its head!
At between £17.50 and £20, this painstakingly generally great manual is utterly indispensible and £10 less that the price Orc’s Nest, War Boar and other gameshops place on it, though it’s still lovely to see they carry it. The cover art is also brilliant but don’t believe that beauty is only in the big Eye of that Beholder.