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The third core book for Dungeons & Dragons, fourth edition is the Monster Manual. This book contains nearly 500 monsters to challenge characters at all levels.Many of the monsters contained herein are classics that will be familiar to to any previous player, while others are updated from third edition supplements.
Appearance
The book is 287 pages in length and is full of information. The cover depicts the demon prince Orcus charging the viewer. Each Monster Manual will follow this format in depicting the toughest creature in the book on the cover. The first chapter in this book begins with an explanation of all ofthe elements in a monster's statistic block, after which the writers launch into the monster descriptions. Each monster has several different types detailed, for example the goblin entry has statistics for the goblin cutter, goblin blackblade, goblin warrior, goblin sharpshooter, goblin hexer and goblin skullcleaver. Each entry also has a full color portrait of the monster in action, lending a feeling of dynamism to the book that was lacking in previous editions. Following the monster descriptions is a short section containing monster statistics for use as character races, then a list of monsters by level and role.
Setting
The small amount of setting information in this book is found in the Lore section of each monster entry, and all of it fits into the setting established in the Player's Handbook (PHB) and Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG). DMs can thus maximize the versatility of the monsters to fit a variety of settings.
Characters
Typically monster books are the province of DMs but the Monster Manual has some material that could be of interest for players as well. After all of the monster descriptions is a short section giving racial traits for 16 different creatures. These traits are geared towards allowing characters to be of these races. A few of the races, namely the shadar kai, minotaur, and gnoll, have also had expanded treatment in Dragon magazine superseding the statistics given in the Monster Manual.
System
The distribution of monsters along the 4e power scale of heroic, paragon and epic, are mostly heroic and paragon with some epic. This is a sensible way to proceed as it will take some time for characters to advance to epic levels and for DMs to need more monsters of that tier. Monsters follow the same general types that character classes do. Monsters are divided into six roles: artillery, brute, controller, lurker, skirmisher and soldier. Unfortunately, details on the tactics of each role are in the DMG. This is logical as the role of the monster in important in encounter design, but a brief recap of each in the Monster Manual would have been useful.
Each creature entry has a number of special abilities detailed within the stat block, and each ability is in its own coutershaded space, allowing for faster retrieval of information. Following the stat block is a paragraph on favored tactics including a guideline on how each monster will fight. A section on lore provides information the characters can learn with the relevant skill check. Rounding off the monster description is an encounter group which is a list of a group of monsters that can be quickly inserted into an adventure. Some of these encounter groups are well arranged thematically, for example the Elf entry, while others, like the Ettin entry, seem fairly contrived.
An interesting addition to the monster rules is the concept of the minion. These creatures are meant to be used in large numbers as they have low hit points, but they remain a threat by having regular attack values. Minions become a huge threat when tactical cohesion in the party breaks down, and can result in character death, as has been brought home in the games this reviewer has played in and run.
In Play
The Monster Manual is very useful in play as a reference tool. When running an adventure this reviewer has the pages marked for the monsters being encountered and uses the stat blocks there. All of the attack values are precalculated and hit points are fixed allowing the DM to quickly resolve combat actions. The index by level and role has proven useful as well in locating monsters to round out specific roles in encounters, one can simply consult the list rather than paging through the entire book.
A huge shock came from the first few session of playing this edition in the fact that monsters are now much more challenging. The players were used to fairly easy to kill goblins from previous editions. After our first encounter we quickly reassessed the threat levels of all of the monsters. This was a very positive step in this reviewer's opinion as it has made encounters much more challenging and has made each level exciting again.
Conclusion
This book is a well thought out catalog of monsters that will keep characters occupied at all levels of play. Wizards of the Coast has substantially increased the monsters’ threat level when compared with previous editions, to the betterment of the game. If Monster Manuals are as well done in the future, DMs will have a surfiet of mosnters to continually challenge players, along with a good selection of high powered challenges to form whole campaigns around.
