So, I got lucky, I received a Monster Manual because I participated in the All-Access pass sessions at GenCon. I haven't seen many reviews so I'll take a first crack.
First, I love the quality of the book. All 5e books look great and are fine quality hard cover books, worthy of the coin it costs. $50 is a lot but if you spend $50, you should get quality workmanship. The artwork is WOW! WOTC has got some unbelievable illustrators! The layout is clear and consistent with the way the Player Handbook was designed.
I want to say something about the price. The 1st edition Monster Manual I bought in 1978 retailed for $9.95 and contained 112 pages. This book contains 352 pages! That speaks for itself.
The content is really what matters. There is a 1 page table of contents which lists monsters alphabetically but only includes the major monster groupings like "demons", "devils", "dinosaurs" and "dragons". That is followed by an 8 page introduction which explains the stat blocks and also provides great assistance to a first time DM that wants to build their own adventures with monsters. There are some very valuable tables like "Experience Points by Challenge Rating". After the introduction there are hundreds of pages of monsters which is followed by 2 appendices. Appendix A includes miscellaneous creatures such as animals, vermin which include swarms and various mounts. Appendix B is about NPC's and a little bit about how to customize them. Finally, there's a great index which is sorted alphabetically.
Awesome. Can you tell me how the beasts in Appendix A are ordered? Are they just listed alphabetically, or have they grouped similar creatures together (like wolves and dire wolves)?
What's the deal with templates?
And thanks for the review.
Are we waiting for the DMG for rules on making new monsters/determining CR?
Awesome. Can you tell me how the beasts in Appendix A are ordered?
Thanks for posting this.
Is the text of the introduction similar to what is in the DM Basic PDF (pp. 2-7), or does it elaborate more ?
Likewise, is there anything there that seems to supersede anything in the "Building Combat Encounters" part of the DM Basic PDF (pp. 56-58) ?
Thanks.
Xeviat-DM wrote:
Neptune0923 wrote:
BoldItalic wrote:
What are some of the monsters with a higher CR then the Lich (CR 21 and looks very scary)?
Cerius wrote:
So I have a couple of questions:
1) Do the intelligent monsters come with racial information? AKA all the information I would need to build a Kobold Sorcerer as an NPC, or do I still need to reverse engineer this information from the stat blocks?
2) Does the NPC section come with Monster/NPC classes? This will probably be in the DMG instead of the MM but I might as well ask. It would be a great tool to deversify the monsters they are providing.
3) Does the starting chapter give us any information on how to build our own monsters?
4) Does the starting chapter give us information on how CR, HD, and Ability Modifiers interact in terms of scaling?
Now how many monsters are there?
The typical monster is there for one encounter, and swings a sword/bites you. Then you kill it. Pretty much end of story. So we need lots of monsters more than deep understanding of monsters. The ecology of the monster is nice, but all we usually need to know is that it doesn't like us, or likes us, for lunch.
Now the count may be complicated by sub-types and general classes, but any idea should help.
Xeviat-DM wrote:
DavidArgall wrote:
First, what does it say about Kobolds? And second, does the vampire have any sidebars about customization or a template?
Interestingly enough, according to http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ , adjusting for inflation, the 1st edition Monster Manual would have been priced at $36 today, which still makes today's MM worth it, given the apparent multitude of monsters and fine art. 
Neptune0923 wrote: