|
 Imagine this: four adventurers set out on their quest to retrieve the Grand MacGuffin for King Ipplebottom. They travel far across the breathtaking countryside, crossing mountains, rivers, and vast deserts. Reaching their destination, the Dreaded Dungeon of Darakor, the quartet delve into the ancient and menacing subterrane. Traps threaten them, locks impede them, and the cleric nearly falls into the Fiery Pit of Tyrona, but finally they reach their prize. Filled with pride at their victory, the party begins the arduous journey back. Weeks later, they finally return to the King and restore the relic to its rightful owner. But what's wrong with this picture?
Where were the monsters?
This is where the Monster Manual comes in. No matter how complex and intricate an adventure, unless you have the most combat-averse group, every good quest needs a monster or four. And on this count, the Manual delivers. Though there are sequels and similar additional supplements, the Monster Manual provides statistics, descriptions, and in many cases pictures of hundreds of the classic creatures in Dungeons and Dragons. This overview will provide you with an idea of the information you can find in the book. Chapter 1: Monsters A to Z -- Chapter 2: Animals -- Chapter 3: Vermin
These chapters contain the bulk of the information in the Monster Manual. Monsters A to Z lists hundreds of creatures of over a dozen different types, from magical beasts and dragons to oozes and undead. Detailed statistics are given for each creature, including hit dice and hit points, attack types, special attacks, other qualities, a physical description, and an overview of that creature's special habits, combat behaviors, and/or patterns. The second chapter lists this same data for normal animals like gorillas and snakes, which is vital for rangers, druids, and anyone who fights from horseback. The chapter on vermin gives material on giant and monstrous insects, perfect for any dungeon or summon. Chapter 4: Improving Monsters
Though there are hundreds of monsters presented in the book, at any given time most will be of an inappropriate challenge rating for your campaign. Chapter 4 gives various rules on how the monsters' stats were created in the first place, including underlying qualities common to creatures of each individual type (animal, construct, dragon, etc.). It also gives several means of enhancing those monsters to make them more difficult encounters. These changes can be explained in-game as that particular monster being a magically or ritually enhanced specimen (or one of many enhanced), a natural paragon of its kind, or one that has simply physically grown beyond the norm. Chapter 5: Making Monsters
Sometimes, the monsters in an adventure need a more personal touch. The Monster Manual's fifth chapter provides rules on creating whole creatures from the basic elements: choosing a creature type, number of hit dice, size, special qualities and abilities, attack forms, and more. A prospective monster engineer (i.e. DM) will need a bit of creativity to fabricate a monster to stand toe to toe with the others described in the book. Giving free reign to imagination is advised, as long as the final creature makes some kind of internal sense for your game world. Chapter 6: Monster Skills and Feats
Dungeons and Dragons' monsters are quite different from humanoid creatures, if not in terms of potential combat power than in number of appendages and movement types. Only one new skill is provided, applying to lycanthropes, but several new feats are introduced that mostly focus on enhancing the more monstrous qualities of non-humanoids, especially combat with multiple limbs and flight. Chapter 7: Glossary
The Glossary of the Monster Manual bestows illumination on certain terms used throughout the book and supplies info about special qualities for each creature type and subtype. It also defines dozens of creature qualities and their special uses in this book. Also, immediately following the Glossary is a full list of the monsters present in the Manual, sorted by Challenge Rating, for quickly finding an appropriately-powered creature for your adventure. Closing Comments
As touched on in the introduction, no Dungeons and Dragons game is truly complete without some monsters to fight (or avoid). While it is possible to play entire sessions or campaigns without combat or non-humanoid opponents, much of the flavor of D&D resides in these abnormal creatures. The Monster Manual, and its sequels, contains a huge number of monsters just waiting to attack your adventuring party. This is not a book a D&D gaming group should play without. The Wizard thinks:  |
