Monsters Books?

[exoknight]

I have M&T for C&C. I know there are two other monster books out. If I was going to grab one which one would you recommend? I am mainly looking for interesting monsters that isn't your goblin reskinned, but mechanically different. From what I understand another monster book is being worked on? Tome of the Unclean. Is that coming out soon? Will it be hardcover?

I do own a lot of monsters book.
1E i have MM1
2E is have Monstrous Manual HC
3E MMI through V plus FF
Pathfinder Bestiary I-IV

I also own a boatload of 3PP monsters book. Too numerous to mentioned. I do own Tome of Horror Complete for S&W/PF which might make Classic Monsters redundant.

Also what guidelines do you use for easy conversion for OD&D/AD&D and 3.X?

[Treebore]

M&T of Airhde clearly has the most unique monsters for your money.

While Classic Monsters does repeat a lot of old monsters, they do have a new take on them, but I don't know if it will be enough to bypass your "serial numbers filed off" criteria.

Same largely goes for Tome of the Unclean, while not being a direct redo of the originals, I don't know if they make them different enough for you to feel they are "mechanically" different enough to justify getting.

[Celticgamer]

I will give a small hint...we have been talking that once many, and I mean several, of the Codices are out, there might a compendium of mythical beasts gathered from them all. That would mean hundreds upon hundreds of beings and monsters from all over those mythologies compiled in one massive book! It would be a great book if we do it. I would assume however that we would need to move beyond the European Codices first, letting the Germania, Slavorum and Classicus books first be released and THEN onto what follows next.

This could be, but not absolutely certain, either the Native American Codex, or the Japanese/Asian, and beyond before such a compendium is made. Once made, it will be quite a book, and HUGE! Then there is always room for add-ons as the later Codices are put out...

[gabriellyon]

I agree with Treebore that your best purchase for unique monsters would be M&T of Airhde. Though with your substantial collection not sure if you would ever get around to using another book. Conversion for me has been pretty simple for OD&D 20-AC for C&C AC and HD is the creatures BTH. Special Abilities are handled individually. I have the 2e Monster Manual and use that a lot as well but can pretty much find everything I want in the various M&T books (own them all now).

[Ronin77]

Japanese/Asian

Sold!!

[exoknight]

Made my decision and got both. My wife one day will kill me for buying too many RPGs. I think I have a shelf and 1/2 of just monster books. I am addict.

[Gundoggy]

I really like the monster books for hackmaster...lots of neat variations and new stuff.

[Treebore]

I really like the monster books for hackmaster...lots of neat variations and new stuff.

You talking the multi volume set of the original, which is what it sounds like to me, or the new editions HoB?

[Lord Dynel]

I have M&T for C&C. I know there are two other monster books out. If I was going to grab one which one would you recommend? I am mainly looking for interesting monsters that isn't your goblin reskinned, but mechanically different. From what I understand another monster book is being worked on? Tome of the Unclean. Is that coming out soon? Will it be hardcover?

I do own a lot of monsters book.
1E i have MM1
2E is have Monstrous Manual HC
3E MMI through V plus FF
Pathfinder Bestiary I-IV

I also own a boatload of 3PP monsters book. Too numerous to mentioned. I do own Tome of Horror Complete for S&W/PF which might make Classic Monsters redundant.

Also what guidelines do you use for easy conversion for OD&D/AD&D and 3.X?

Tome of Horrors Complete (especially for S&W is pretty nice) won't make Classic Monsters completely obsolete, so if you're looking for a monster book and have the extra cash, get it. If you want to wait, M&T of Airhde is pretty decent. Anyway, ToHC AC's have a d20-ish AC listed on their entries...just add 1 to the bracketed AC and you're good for C&C. For saves, just be reasonable - I give outer planar creatures, dragons, and powerful entities both saves (M & P). Ones that are or seem magical in origin (or more "brains" over "brawn," like the memory child) just Mental saves. Everything else, just Physical.

For AD&D, take the AC and subtract from 20. For D&D, subtract from 19. Deal with saves the same way I mentioned above. For movement...I think it's listed move multiplied by 2.5 and round to the nearest 10. I think. For magic resistance, divide the amount by 5 and it should be rolled like normal (C&C). Other than that, I think you'd be good.

[alcyone]

I own a lot of monster books too. They are neat to have and mostly I use them when I am running modules designed for other systems so I can see what the author intended in terms of the stats and behavior.

When I am making my own adventures, I use these books also, but I feel lazy when I do. When you look at what is actually in a monster's stat block in a game like C&C or S&W, you have to wonder how important any stat besides HD and AC really are. I like having thousands of monsters, but a world with thousands of monsters lacks definition (unless the definition is "world of a thousand monsters"). Dragon Age has a handful of foes your encounter regularly, but they reinforce the setting.

I've used monster generator books, and they can be interesting, but you often end up with chimeric mad scientist animal things that way. Actually, the more monsters your books have, the more of those you run across; they don't offer that much value, I find.

If you do run modules, they generally are written for people with just core books anyway, and describe any outliers. There are exceptions, like the AD&D adventure Eye of the Serpent which is just a mad tour through MMII.

The interesting part of the monsters are their picture, their special abilities, and their flavor text. The flavor text sometimes defines the creature as a unique being very well, but sometimes just puts a vague creature in a specific setting, which then makes it weird to use where you actually need it. The special abilities in C&C are very forgiving things to write, usually you choose and effect and a saving throw and then invent tactics to use it. Pictures of monsters, luckily, can be found lots of places, not just overpriced RPG books, and they might be a better use of your money. I find lots of good stuff in the impulse buy aisles near the registers at Barnes and Noble, monsters, spells, and ancient military stuff.

[exoknight]

I like monster who have different flavor when it comes to mechanics. Here a couple from 3.X/PF that I like. After having so many monster manuals I like creatures that surprise PCs who have seen everything.

Fungus Queen: CR 9 Inner Sea Bestiary
-Can create sporepods within 60ft of her current location. Can have up to 7 sporepods at a time. Can use these pods to spread out her tentacle attacks and can also use the sporepods to travel from pod to pod as move action. Interesting mechanic to increase the creatures mobility on the battlefield.

Bloodman: CR 5 Creature Collection II
-Weapon Immunities: Immune to non-magical piercing/slashing damage, takes normal from bludgeoning. Magical piercing/slashing damage only do their enchancement bonus. +1 longsword only does 1 point of damage, +2 only does 2 points of damage, etc.
-Duplicate: With a touch attack can deals 1d4+1 of damage which it gains as temporary hit points. Once those temporary hit points exceed 22 the bloodman can duplicate himself as a new 5HD creature

Maelephant: CR10 Fiend Folio
-Breath Weapon. Cloud of Vapor. DC 17 Fort Save or suffer from memory loss. Memory lose suppresses all of a creature's ranks in skills and its feats. Also prevents use of any class abilities including spellcasting. Has no knowledge of who its friends and enemies are. The condition can be cured by any effect that cures poison(neutralize poison, etc.).

Nilbog: CR 1 Tome of Horrors Complete
-Damage Reversal: When struck by any attack that would do damage it gains hit points instead. Nilbog can only be damaged by curative magic.
-Spatio-Temporal Reversal: Has an Aura of Confusion 20ft radius.

Blade Beast: CR 3 Creature Collection II
-Absorb Blade: Each time a sword or similar weapon strikes this creature the PC must make a Strength Check (DC 15) to avoid having the weapon absorb into the Blade Beast.
-Project Blade: A Blade Beast can project a blade absorbed into its body and use that blade as an attack.

Solesik: CR 8 Book of Fiends
-Garble Field: An Aura of Language Instability. Any speech requires a swift action, spells with verbal components require an extra action cast, and intelligence based skills are -4 penalty.
-Language Drain: The Solesik drains language from its victim with a successful bite attack. DC 15 will save or lose 1d2 languages.The Solesik gains 1 temporary level for each language it drains