Monster Manual (Introduction)

Alright, as I mentioned previously, Canada Post is on strike, which means I am not likely to get my Noble Knight Games parcel any time soon. Since that parcel includes the Monster Manual, Dragon #276, and Polyhedron #144 (they were sold out of the other October item, Into the Dragon's Lair), I'm just going to have to use a PDF copy instead. I feel neither guilt nor shame, since I have in fact purchased these, and I'm not to risk waiting when the strike could go on for a month or more.

So, enough of that; let's get to it, shall we? This is the third and final core rulebook for the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, the Monster Manual. The back cover promises us over 500 Fearsome Foes. Like the other core books, this one has a really awesome cover design that was actually made as a book and photographed for the rulebook covers. That is just so cool. This one features an eye inside an inverted pentagram, as you can see above. Spooky.

I'm going to try to get through the introduction in this post, although it's quite lengthy. We begin with an alphabetical listing of the monsters within. There are a lot of them indeed. Most of them look familiar from prior editions, but there are a few new ones here and there. The list takes a page and a half to get through, and then we are given a list of the monsters according to their type (and subtype). Apparently, types and subtypes are going to be significant in this edition. More codifying of everything possible, I suppose. Not always a good thing.

The book contains three appendices, one for normal animals (a type), and one for vermin (another type). The third appendix covers something new: Templates. These are ways to modify creatures to give them new abilities. The example given here is for a vampire. This sounds promising.

And the end of the book includes a list of the monster organized by their Challenge Ratings, to make it easier to pick out appropriate beasties to torment the PCs with.

Okay, now we are onto Reading the Entries. First of all, we have the 'Main Statistics Block'. That suggests there's more than one stat block per monster. Okay, then. First, there's the Name. Well, that's pretty important. Next we get the Size and Type. Sizes are listed by category: Fine (6" or less), Diminutive (6"-1'), Tiny (1-2 feet high or long), Small (2-4 feet), Medium (4-8 ft), Large (8-16 ft), Huge (16-32 ft), Gargantuan (32-64 ft), and Colossal (over 64 ft). Weights are also given, as are AC and attack modifiers. A Small creature (like a halfling or gnome!) gets a +1 AC and a +1 to all attack rolls due to their size. A Tiny creature gets a +2. However, a Large creature, such as an ogre, gets -1 to both. This balances out for creatures of the same size (two ogres fighting each other have the same chance to hit as two halflings), since the AC bonus counteracts the attack bonus.

Types are as follows: Aberrations (the weird stuff that doesn't really fit elsewhere), Animal, Beast (basically a bigger animal that doesn't exist in our own world), Construct (something that was built or animated by someone else), Dragons, Elementals, Fey (fairies such as dryads and nixies), Giants, Humanoids, Magical Beasts (like beasts, but with special abilities), Monstrous Humanoids (such as a medusa or minotaur), Oozes, Outsiders (demons and devils), Plant (treants, shambling mounts), Shapechangers (dopplegangers), Undead, and Vermin. There are also some Type modifiers, such as Cold, Fire, or Incorporeal, that give additional abilities common to all creatures of that type.

Hit Dice are next, and the stat block will include average hit points for creatures. Nice. And the Hit Dice are the creature's effective level for skills, natural healing, and anything else that is affected by level.

Initiative and Speed follow; Initiative will include an explanation of any modifiers that apply. Instead of the old typographical symbols (such as *, @, or /) used to designate different means of movement in the older editions, the new edition simply states if the creature flies, swims, or whatever. That's helpful.

Armor Class, like Initiative, will give the modifiers that are used to calculate the final number.

Attacks...so, all the creature's physical attacks are listed here, either natural weapons or manufactured ones like swords and crossbows. Natural weapons are divided into primary and secondary attacks; the main form of attack is the primary, and attacks normally; all other attacks are secondary, and they all include an automatic -5 to their attack bonus. The Multiattack feat (a new one for monsters) reduces that to a -2 penalty. Natural weapons threaten a critical hit always on a natural 20. For manufactured weapons, they're used just as for player characters.

Damage is next, and it is listed for each attack on the previous line. Natural weapons can be piercing, bludgeoning, or slashing depending on what they are. Primary attack damage includes the full modifier for Strength...yes, 3rd edition monsters have the same six ability scores as characters do. Yippee! Secondary attacks are at 1/2 the Str modifier. Special attacks such as poison or disease are also listed here.

Face/Reach is a new thing; this describes how much space the creature needs to fight effectively. This would obviously be important in a game that uses counters and/or miniatures to help visualize combat. Face is, for example, 5' by 5' for a Medium-sized creature; this is how much fighting space is required. The Reach follows a slash, and is the creature's natural reach (5' for Medium creatures).

Next we get the Special Abilities. These come in three types, which were already described back in the Dungeon Master's Guide: Extraordinary, Spell-Like, and Supernatural. Following this brief introduction, we get a lengthy list of all the special attacks that appear in this book. Ability Score Loss, Breath Weapon, Constrict, Energy Drain, Fear, Frightful Presence (apparently those are different things), Gaze, Improved Grab, Poison, Psionics...wait, what? There's psionics in this edition, but only for monsters? I haven't seen anything on that so far, not even a whisper. Anyway, more special abilities include Ray, Sonic Attack, Spells, Swallow Whole, and Trample. And all of these are defined with precision and accuracy.

Next come the Special Qualities. Like the attacks, these have the same three categories; they're usually sensory or defensive abilities, though. We have Blindsight, Damage Reduction, Fast Healing, Regeneration (again, different things), Resistance to Energy, Scent, Spell Resistance, and Turn Resistance.

So, as a quick check, Fast Healing is basically just getting back your hit points on a per round basis (if a creature has Fast Healing 5, it gets 5 hit points per round). However, if you lose hit points due to starvation, thirst, or suffocation, this doesn't help. Neither does it give you back lost limbs. For that, you need...Regeneration! This treats all damage as subdual damage, and Regeneration 5 means the creature gets back 5 subdual damage per round). However, certain forms of attack (such as fire or acid) deal normal damage that isn't regenerated. And yes, the creature grows back lost limbs or reattach them.

Okay, creatures get Saving Throws just like characters do. As I said earlier, they also get Ability Scores. However, some creatures don't have ratings in some scores (for example, undead have no Constitution score). This makes them immune to things like poison, ability damage, ability drains, and energy drains. So, there are upsides to unrated ability scores for some creatures.

Skills and Feats are listed next, and each Type of monster has its own base skill points plus a way to calculate bonus skill points. The creatures already come with a preset list of skills, though, so this is only if you want to modify the creature in some way. Feats are just like the ones in the Player's Handbook, although sometimes there will be specific modifications to the feat for the creature, which are listed in its description. There are also a few new, monster-specific feats listed: Flyby Attack, Multiattack, Multidexterity, and Multiweapon Fighting. The last two are for creatures with more than two hands, and work just like Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting for PCs.

So, that's the Main Stat Block for each creature. Then...there's a Secondary Statistics Block. The Main Stats are what you need for combat; this is the campaign information such as where the creature can be found. The Climate/Terrain was already mentioned in the DMG in the Worldbuilding chapter. There's Cold, Temperate, and Warm climates, as well as Aquatic, Desert, Forest, Hill, Marsh, Mountains, Plains, and Underground terrain.

Next is Organization, which is how many of the creature can normally be encountered. The numbers given are for combat-ready adults (typically males). Noncombatants are expressed as a percentage of the fighting population. This can include young or infirm members of the species, or slaves.

The Challenge Rating should probably be in the Main section, since it is combat relevant, but then it's used to calculate XP and to decide if it's too challenging of a monster for the party to fight.

Ah, Treasure. This tells you how much treasure the creature has in its lair or on its person. It references the Dungeon Master's Guide tables. The monster's listing will say Standard (roll on each treasure column for the appropriate Challenge Rating), a multiplier (Double, triple, even quadruple treasure!), None (sorry, it's got nothing for you), or a Nonstandard amount (a fractional amount, or a percentage, or maybe even double goods or items, in which case you roll twice). Some creatures will have a note that they "only" collect a particular type of treasure, such as coins or gems. In that case, that's the only column you roll on.

Alignment has been around since the earliest rendition of the rules, but here we get a slight twist: Now the creature's listed alignment comes with a qualifier: Always, Usually, or Often. Always means that it's always of the same alignment; this is usually for creatures from outer planes. Usually means the majority of creatures encountered will be of that alignment, but there will be exceptions, such as an evil halfling or a good aranea. Often means it's a plurality of that particular alignment (between 40 and 50% of them will be of that alignment).

Advancement is new to this edition. The creatures listed in this book are the weak ones, the baseline versions. Advancement shows how much tougher they can get in terms of extra HD. Well, now. And  there is also Improvement , which means that as the creature gains HD, it also gains better attack and save bonuses, as well as additional skills and feats! In fact, saving throws will advance just as they do in the Player's Handbook. Monsters that have character classes, however, don't use the Advancement section; they just gain levels like PCs.

Oh, and the Advancement section will also indicate whether a monster's size increases as it gains HD. Which means, the creature will gain Str, possibly Con or Dex, natural armor, and AC/Attack penalties (bigger creatures are easier to hit and don't hit smaller targets as well). So, this could make things very, very interesting. Imagine a minotaur with a bunch of extra hit dice. Scary.

The next page gives us a breakdown of just how creatures advance, based on their type. And the first thing I notice is that there are different hit dice for different types! No longer does every monster have 8-sided hit dice; some have d10; dragons and undead get d12! Awesome! And the different types advance in attack bonus as different character classes (most are as clerics, but some advance as wizards and some as fighters). The Good saving throws for each type are listed; these get the faster increases on the Player's Handbook table in chapter 3. And they get additional skill points, and most creatures get a new feat every four hit dice.

We even get an example of how to advance a monster on the last page of the Introduction, changing an otyugh from a standard 6 HD beast to a ginormous 15 HD behemoth. The hit points go from 33 to 112; its AC goes up from 17 to 19, it gets much better at attacking and does more damage, its saves and ability scores are modified, more skills and feats show up. Interestingly, the Challenge Rating does not change, but it is multiplied based on the ratio of the standard hit dice to the creature's new hit dice. So, in this case the XP bonus would be 2.5 times the standard amount, since 15 is 2.5 times higher than 6.

Creatures with character classes get to advance just as if they are multiclassing per the Player's Handbook. Their character level is equal to its Hit Dice plus its levels in any class. An ogre (4 HD) with a level of barbarian is a 5th-level character, and gets an additional d12 for its hit points (plus Con bonus, if any). Additional hit dice based on class don't affect the creature's size, though.

Finally, there is Descriptive Text which describes the monster, what it does, how it looks, and other important information. There are combat sections as well that describe the creature's special abilities and qualities, and whatever else is needed.

Alright, next time we get into the actual monsters, alphabetically. See you next time!