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Maurice Tousignant
Canada
Windsor
Ontario
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Quickly: Great book, very useful, still miss the old format.
Summary:
This is the 2nd Monster Manual released for 4th edition D&D. As was done in the past, this is a stand alone product that can be used with or without any other Monster Manuals. You will of course still need a Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. I just mean you don't need Monster Manual one.
There's a tiny bit of an intro in the front of the book and a glossary in the back, but the rest of the book is all monsters. The book is a mix of new monsters and new types of monsters from Monster Manual One. Included are a ton of classic D&D monsters and some totally brand new ones.
Each write up is a page or more in length (usually no more then 2) and includes the Stats for at least two types of each monster and often more. This is great for 4e as it usually includes a mix of types (soldiers, controllers, leaders, artillery etc). Most of the existing monster types that got new monsters (ex. golbins) include new types that were not in the first Monster Manual.
Besides the stats each entry gives a bit of info on the monster and includes the information characters can find out using the appropriate lore skill. These entries actually give the most info on the monsters themselves. Also included for almost all of the monster types is a tactics section giving you ideas on how to use them in combat. Interestingly these are based on the fluff and not necessarily on the best strategy. The last thing given for each monster type is one or more encounter groups. These give example combats that mix monsters from this book and Monster Manual one and give a typical representation of what a fight with one of these monsters would entail. Again it's interesting that many of these are fluff based and aren't always the best 'combos'.
The Good:
I wish I had had this book for our last session of 4e. There is a ton of great stuff in here. I was very happy to see new monsters of every level, especially low level. With the MMI it was pretty much Goblins at 2nd level and Orcs at 3rd, etc. This opens up whole new options like Spriggans at 2nd level and Myconids at 3rd. I was also very happy to see existing races get some new 'units'. Some new goblin types will really mix things up for my existing group who think they have learned all they can about the little buggers. The art is pretty top notch and there are pictures of nearly all monsters (every monster type has a picture, but you may not get a picture of say the Minion type of something). I was also impressed to see that you don't need the MM one really at all, though I personally will like combining the books to create more interesting encounters. One last note, I still love the way encounters are built in 4e. The fact that it's not a group of 5 pcs against one type of monster (aka 6 pcs vs 3 Xorns, or 6 pcs vs 1 giant), I love having a fight with Goblins, Wolves, Wargs, an Orc General and a Fire Bat, it's just so much more interesting and, to me, more heroic fantasy.
The Bad:
The one thing I miss from way back to 2nd edition is the binder format for monster manuals. I hate having to figure out what book a specific monster is in. Right now there are only two but this year Monster Manual 3 will be released and there will be 3 books to look through. One thing that would help a bit is a master index of all monsters, by level and by name listing which book and page. I personally would have preferred the old binder format with everything in one place alphabetical.
The Ugly:
This complaint goes back to 2nd edition as well. I've been disappointed by how little information is given for each monster types in these books. 3.x had way less monster info then 2nd and these 4e books have even less then the 3.x stuff. All the crunch is still there, and they fit a lot more monsters in each book but I actually miss the old ecology sections. I used to love reading the 2nd edition books, reading about how many kids an Ettercap has and what percentage of the race were hunters and what percentage were gatherers. Now all you get is a one paragraph write up that says very little, a tactics section that gives a bit of a hint at behavior and a lore section that is mostly tips for what players need to watch out for or expect.
Overall:
I definitely recommend this book for anyone planning on running 4e D&D. I would suggest using it with the monsters in the original Monster Manual to make more interesting fights. You don't actually need the first Monster Manual though, there's enough in here to get a party up to level 30 on it's own. The added variety of both books (and any future Monster Manuals) will make it more fun though. My only beefs about these books could be applied to any Monster Manual released in the last 15 or so years, I just used to like the old binder format with all the interesting details about each monster that really has no effect on gameplay.
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