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Monster books seem to be the most popular d20 supplement, at least from a publisher standpoint. Wizards of the Coast has several out. The first third-party d20 supplement was the Creature Collection, which actually beat Wizards' own Monster Manual out the door. And it seems designers believe every new campaign world needs its own collection of creatures.
Monsters of Norrath continues that trend. It's the official monster book of the EverQuest RPG, with creatures from the MMORPG done with tabletop statistics. It's OGL, not d20, but the difference in this case is insignificant. The monsters all have d20-standard statistics, varying only in the way their spells work. They use the EverQuest mana system instead of set spell slots.
Monsters of Norrath is an attractive book. All illustrations are in color, and they all look good. Continuing the visual motif from the PHB, the pages all have a grapevine border. "Tabs" along the page edges help separate the book into sections.
The tabs don't work well, though. There are no clear sections to the monsters, so the tabs are evenly spread through that section. They have individual monster names printed on them, even in the appendices. Past the introduction, the tabs are no more useful than the page numbers.
The introduction explains all the terms used. Special qualities, monster types and subtypes, sizes, etc., are all covered here, as well as monster-specific feats. There's also a page of designer comments, always a nice thing to find.
The monsters themselves present a good variety. Flipping through the book you'll find familiar creatures such as minotaurs, dragons, and orcs. There are also more unique creatures like the bejeweled elemental. The appendices include templates, animals and vermin, as well as the pets and warders that spellcasters get as companions at higher levels.
The organization needs work. For example, the entry for "Goo, Smoldering" is followed by "Gorge Hound," then "Minotaur, Gorge." That's not the only example of bad organization and an inconsistent naming scheme.
The monster stats aren't too well organized, either. Humanoids in particular are confusing to read. Turning to the section on gnolls, we find several types statted out before the description begins. But the description text has stat blocks for more types of gnolls, special members of the tribes such as shamans.
This happens with all the humanoid monsters. It makes sense if you look at it as a way to find stats for the basic monsters easily. But it'd be much easier to read if all the types were blocked together.
I also wish each monster started on a separate page. It's a hassle flipping one page back and forth to get the information on, say, a graniteback. The Creature Collection, also from Sword & Sorcery Studios, has this sort of layout. It's very handy. Why wasn't it carried over to Monsters of Norrath?
On the plus side, the challenge ratings are very well balanced, both in playability and in spread. But at first glance this doesn't appear to be the case. The first four monsters in the book (each with its own page) are CR 17+. It's no great feat to flip to a random page and find a CR 20+ monster. However, a careful count shows most of the monsters in the CR 3-16 range, with a decent number of lower CRs to provide opposition for beginning characters.
On the other hand, the distribution is skewed toward the high numbers. Since the EverQuest PHB includes rules for characters up to 30th level, it's only natural. For example, the dragons all have CRs in the 30s, with one CR 23 exception. And the book tops out with Cazik-Thule at CR 43.
I'm not clear on why "the Faceless One, Cazik-Thule, the God of Fear" is here. None of the other gods are. Shouldn't he be in the GM guide or a deities supplement?
Also, Cazik-Thule is listed as a Shadow Knight 30/Warrior 30, which should make him a CR 60 NPC. (Ignore for a moment the 50 hit dice and special abilities from the outsider type.) So why is he only CR 43?
Play balance for the CRs is very good, right where it should be. A typical party of four has a fight on their hands at an equal CR, but nothing fatal. An encounter one or two CRs higher than the party's average level is a challenge, and one or two lower is little more than a speed bump.
One thing I found was that, even at low levels, taking out the party spellcasters early in a fight makes the entire encounter much tougher. Even if your only spellcaster is a bard, the fighter classes need the backup. Clearly the monster CRs are designed to take PC magic into account.
The monsters aren't that interesting, though. Most of the non-humanoids are just damage dealers, ways to whittle PC hit points. An awful lot of them prefer fighting to any other interaction, which gets old after a while.
Some of the monsters are just silly, like the koalindl. It's a fish sacred to the god Rodcet Nife. Its CR jumps from 1/8 all the way to 20 in one round, if someone upsets the god by attacking a koalindl without making a successful Bluff check first. FISH-HULK SMASH!
Or the chetari, ratlike humanoids who can drain 3d6x10 hit points on a ranged touch because they eat dragon corpses. Yes, that's "times ten," not "plus ten."
There's also a hit dice oddity, cheerfully acknowledged in the designer notes. Rather than adding character levels to the monsters to get higher-power opposition, a number of the monsters are presented in the book at different hit dice levels. This means things like CR 19 kobolds with 30 hit dice.
This does give the GM a speed advantage, the reason given by the designers. Need a CR 8 orc? Grab the one in the book, rather than making one up from scratch. Want more customization? Add character levels. It's a bit schizophrenic on the face of it -- should you add character levels or not? -- but it works.
I do like the templates, especially the ghouls and skeletons. Convert any creature in minutes. Several of the d20 undead types should have been templates from the get-go -- zombies and skeletons come immediately to mind -- so these rules are quite welcome.
If you already have a d20 monster book, you don't need Monsters of Norrath unless you want the online creatures in your tabletop game. But if you like monster books, it drops right into any standard d20 game.
