Thanks so much my RPG gods for giving us a nice smattering of monster stats so early 
in addition to the starter set we have many 5th ed monsters in the following
Legacy of the Crystal Shard http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/sundering2
Murder in Baldur's Gate http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/45370000
This can easily keep my two groups busy till the players handbook launch
You guys rock!
This is interesting. Does anyone know how current these rules are? Are these the same stats we're going to see in the Monster Manual (for critters that aren't adventure-specific)? Since its using "level" instead of "challenge," I'm assuming not. In which case I don't suppose this gives us any more insight than monsters from the playtest.
october and august 2013 are the pdf detail dates so I am sure there will be some changes in the monster manual but they work fine for now till there is current materials out.
It's better than nothing, but these playtest monsters are significantly weaker than the final rules versions. Compare the goblin from Legacy of the Crystal Shard with the goblin from Lost Mine of Phandelver, and the Phandelver goblin has double the hit dice, and does a couple more points of damage each round.
But I am happy the Start Set had a good amount of monsters and a nice adventure I can use until the rest of the Basic monsters release in August (August 8th?). Hopefully the monsters in Basic plus the Starter set monsters, plus any they happen to show in previews of the Monster Manual, will be enough until the Monster Manual comes out in September.
They are old and obsolete. They haven't been rebalanced with the new math, nor the new design.
That said, there is no reason you can't keep using them. I'd recommend giving most monsters some extra HD (and the hit points to go with them).
I just give them max hp per hd that seems to work out well enough