Why is the Monster Manual not divided by Challenge Rating?

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

Slit518

Aug 20, 2015 19:16:49

I always wondered why the Monster Manual wasn't divided by Challenge Rating as opposed to Alphabetical.

 

Never do I go through the Monster Manual looking for some suitable opponents for the 5th level party and go, "Man, I am really feeling the party needs to fight an enemy that starts with the letter K!" (you can use the Mitch Hedberg voice here again)

 

I would look through the Monster Manual and go, "I need to find a monster that has a Challenge Rating around 5."

 

They could have each section of the Challenge Rating be alphabetical, so all the CR 1 would be in A-Z order, the CR 2 would be in A-Z order, CR 3, etc...

 

And for those of you like, "Alphabetical would make it easier to find a specific monster, such as an Ogre."  This statement is just silly, as you can go to the Index in the back, look at the list of alphabetical phrases, find ogre, and find the page it is on.

 

I know the DMG has a list of creatures by challenge rating, but that is just an uncessary step.

 

"Today's encounter brought to you by the letter K."  *laughs*  ~ Mitch Hedberg

#2

AaronOfBarbaria

Aug 20, 2015 19:28:37

The most common time at which a person is going to be flipping open the book and trying to find something in particular, it will be a situation where the name is known - when a DM is opening the book to the stats needed for an encounter while in play at the table.

 

So the book is sorted alphabetically because that is the most efficient way to find a creature under those particular, most common, circumstances.

 

Looking up things by CR is what you do when you are planning for a session, so you aren't in as much of a "time crunch" to get where you are going, so it is less inconvenient to have to reference a list of monsters sorted different than in the book in order to get what you are looking for.

 

Also, sorting by CR would make the grouping of related creatures more obnoxious than it already is - goblin and goblin boss would be pages apart, giants would show up in numerous places rather than grouped together, dragons, demons, devils, oozes, and so on down the book, would all be scattered throughout the book rather than placed alongside each other for not only the convenience of using them together, but the space saving of only printing any shared info once.

#3

Slit518

Aug 20, 2015 19:38:31

A DM could solve the page thing by tabs.

 

The only issue is the one you brought up, Goblin and Goblin Boss.  Baby Red Dragon, Junior Red Dragon, Adult Red Dragon, Ancient Red Dragon.  Those would become a tedium on their own.  But again, it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

#4

MechaPilot

Aug 20, 2015 19:42:52

Slit518 wrote:
#5

Slit518

Aug 20, 2015 19:46:29

MechaPilot wrote:
#6

MechaPilot

Aug 20, 2015 19:55:36

Slit518 wrote:
(Reply to #3)

AaronOfBarbaria

Slit518 wrote:
#8

arnwolf666

Aug 20, 2015 20:07:33

I am definitely in favor of supporting the alphabetization method of organizing the monster manual.

#9

Rya.Reisender

Aug 20, 2015 23:49:35

It's 2015 and still we can't have a fully digitalized list of all monsters with the ability to filter and sort by anything.

#10

Noon

Aug 21, 2015 1:37:56

AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
#11

Illithidbix

Aug 21, 2015 4:12:22

Because every monster manual since 1977 has been alphabetical.

Also a number of entries have different monsters with different CRs (hobgoblin entries etc)

#12

Azzy1974

Aug 21, 2015 6:01:03

Because that'd be weird.

(Reply to #9)

CCS

Rya.Reisender wrote:
(Reply to #10)

CCS

Noon wrote:
(Reply to #14)

The_White_Sorcerer

CCS wrote:
(Reply to #10)

AaronOfBarbaria

Noon wrote:
#17

Mistwell

Aug 21, 2015 11:34:11

Slit518 wrote:
#18

The_Jester

Aug 21, 2015 12:53:45

Say you're running an adventure. The adventure says you need to use a chimera. Or you really want to throw that monster at the PCs.

 

What part of the book do you look at?

 

Would there be more or less flipping?

#19

Slit518

Aug 21, 2015 15:27:37

The_Jester wrote:
#20

LordCorwin

Aug 21, 2015 17:41:32

For the same reason spells are ordered in the PHB alphabetically... Or the classes... Or the backgrounds... Or the feats... So you can easily find them when you want to look them up.

#21

Grazel

Aug 21, 2015 20:21:33

CCS wrote:
#22

The_Jester

Aug 21, 2015 20:36:36

Slit518 wrote:
(Reply to #22)

dave2008

The_Jester wrote:
(Reply to #23)

The_White_Sorcerer

dave2008 wrote: