Rating:  Summary: Almost spectacular Review: The contents on this book are awesome. The monsters are great and I'm happy using them on my own adventures as Monsters, NPCs and even as PCs. It's a great book, but it does have one flaw: It's paperback. The art is incredible, full color illustrations and shocking images of what the PCs face during the adventure. This book should be hardcover.
Rating:  Summary: Another Great Forgotten Realms Reference Review: The Monster Compendium is a useful reference for extra beasties and baddies to include in any campaign, but it's best suited for use in the Forgotten Realms Setting.Though it only provides a fraction of the monsters given in the Monster Manual, the Monster Compendium still provides a lot of info and even some extra realms-specific info on location and habits. The monsters are interesting, and the stories behind them are also quite intriguing. And some of the monsters are just downright awesome (Fang Dragon, anyone?) However, to be honest, the small amount of monsters featured is a disappointment. Still, the book as a whole is a very good one, and a necessity for any 3e FR campaign.
Rating:  Summary: Good beasties... but some issues too Review: This addition to the Monster Manual will help you in your quest to fill your new 3E Realms campaigns with some foes. It has some of the pluses of the core Monster Manual in that it contains great artwork, a strong cast of monsters, good detail on monster use and placement, as well as a summary of how to read each monster entry and use them as PC's if you choose. The negatives are there as well though: the layout is a little confusing (like the MM) with entries starting half on one page and carrying over and pictures not on the same page as the start of theentry, and finally there are some monsters inside that are NOT Realms exclusive (something I thought would be the whole point of the book). Besides those points it is a good addition to your monster library and will help you when constructing your adventures in the Realms.
Rating:  Summary: Excellent Review: This book is excelent for anyone who needs a good monster. It contains things not mentioned in the first MM, such as more templates,such as Cursts, a new undead template which kicks butt. Some monsters are very fun to pit your PC's against, such as Alhoons(a.k.a., Ithilliches, Illithid Liches). It also provides FR connections such as history. However, even though I don't like Forgotten Realms it is an excelletn book worth it's very steep price...
Rating:  Summary: A Wonderful Book! Review: This is a great addition to any DM's stock horde. So many monsters (New, old and revised). Monsters that are found on Faerun...and maybe the outer planes (That could be brought to Faerun via a vengeful wizard/sorcerer). The artwork is fantastic, the descriptions are well written and there is the option to play monsters as characters. I recommend this book to anyone looking forward to the Forgotten Realms, or anyone wanting new intriguing challanges.
Rating:  Summary: All your 2nd edition favorites, except one... Review: This is a great expansion book. It brings back a lot of the 2nd edition monsters that DMs loved, like aarorka, crawling hands, revenants, several new golem types, and several new dragon types. This book is a must-have if you want to add a little spice to your campaign. NOTE : This book would have earned 5 stars, except that it is missing one creature : The PHOENIX! How can you have dungeons and dragons without the phoenixes? It wasn't in the monster manual, so i figured it must be in the supplement!
Rating:  Summary: All your 2nd edition favorites, except one... Review: This is a great expansion book. It brings back a lot of the 2nd edition monsters that DMs loved, like aarorka, crawling hands, revenants, several new golem types, and several new dragon types. This book is a must-have if you want to add a little spice to your campaign. NOTE : This book would have earned 5 stars, except that it is missing one creature : The PHOENIX! How can you have dungeons and dragons without the phoenixes? It wasn't in the monster manual, so i figured it must be in the supplement!
Rating:  Summary: Borrow, don't buy Review: This is one of those books that is neat to look at, but just not worth adding to your library. If you've exhausted the Monster Manual and desperately need new creatures to fight, then you might want to look at this. It does contain a relatively good range of creatures, in terms of difficulty and interesting aspects, including even more dragons (can't ever have too many of those, can we?). It's also well illustrated, as is the norm for such things. However, this book just isn't worth paying for. It isn't even hardcover, but it costs as much as the Monster Manual, which also has about 5 times the monsters. So, if you think you'll need it, borrow it from someone else or find it at a bookstore and library. Look up what you want, jot down a few stats, and you're all set. Just don't pay for it.
Rating:  Summary: an odious mish mash Review: This may be a worthwhile buy if you need new monsters to spice up your campaign, info on some of the creatures described therein is what made me buy it in the first after all, but the price for less than 100 softbound pages is sheer robbery. What I absolutely dislike in that book, though, is that it does not in the slightest live up to its title. Out of the 75 or so creatures detailed inside, there are many (at least 20)that were part of AD&D long before T$R began publishing Ed Greenwood's campaign as an alternate game setting to the classical Greyhawk campaign. If that book dealt only with pure FR cratures, I would never have thought of buying it. The other distasteful thing (a consequence of the previous) is that there is no unity in the book, it looks like a haphazard gathering of things, for all tastes and all power levels, some from FaeRûn, some with no more links to that setting thant having been approved and used by Greenwood when he found them in published products. I myself got it because some of the non-faerûnian creatures in it were useful for the future of my new campaign, but I'd rather have found them in a better made more orderly compendium, and left the forgotten realms material alone.
Rating:  Summary: Good book but the price kills it's value. Review: This really is a good book. Lots of new monsters to add flavour to a campaign. Anything that adds to the campaign is a good thing. But for this product the cost is very high. Roleplaying books have always been expenisve. But this one pushes it too far. I walked away from D&D over 10 years ago. The only thing that has got me excited again was when I picked up the players guide and saw the content and price. I bought it and the DM's guide and I am certainly going to buy more. I am VERY excited about the new look and the new direction the game is taking. But this one book leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. If you don't have it buy the Monster manual instead.
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