[Ad D 1st Edition Monster Manual 2 Pdf Download
Virginie Fayad
A few months back I went through a number of the AD&D 2nd ed Monstrous Compendiums and talked about the advantages and disadvantages it had over the 1st ed Monster Manual. Also at the time, I mentioned the design choices made that also separated them from their 1st edition counterparts.
To begin with, I was and am a fan of 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. I know it was not everyone's favorite edition, to put it mildly, but there are some really great things about it. For starters, I applaud the design team for daring to try something new and different with the D&D game. Of course, most fans don't want new. They want the same thing, but even for the open-minded D&D 4 was a bridge too far. Secondly, D&D 4 was a masterwork of modular design. You could take out and move around sections of it as you needed. Yes, everything worked together, but many of the pieces could be swapped out for other pieces. This design notion extended to the layout of the books. Nowhere is this better seen than with the Monster Manuals.
To me it seemed that 4th edition took the design elements that had made the Monstrous Compendiums successful; namely one monster per page, and all sorts of information on the monster's habitat, environment, and variations. It is also one of the main reasons I still keep my 4th edition monster books. There is so much information here that I have been using them to inform details in my 5th edition game.
This was the third book published for D&D 4th edition, though that is a mere technicality since all books were published at the same time in June of 2008. I picked mine up as a boxed set at the midnight release.
Much like AD&D second edition, the monsters for D&D 4th edition are presented as one page per monster. More or less. Sometimes the monster runs two or four pages, but always a complete page. Where 3e had monsters built exactly like characters, 4e monsters have their own rules, much like how 1st and 2nd Ed built them.
Fourth Edition was most certainly a "miniatures" game or, as it was hoped, to have a lot of online support and content. That did not materialize in the way Wizards of the Coast wanted and strong sales of Paizo's rival "Pathfinder RPG" kept D&D sales low for the first in the history of RPGS. Make no mistake, D&D still sold well, it just wasn't out selling everything else.
The 4e Monster Manual is 288 pages with over 170 monster entries. Many entries have multiple monsters. For example, there are three different types of Aboleth, six types of kobolds, and seven types of orcs. Along with the stat blocks, we get an idea of the role each monster plays in combat, like Controller, Brutes, Skirmishers, or Leaders, and what tactics they can employ. All the monsters have Lore with appropriate DCs for learning more about them or what a particular die roll will bring up. The monsters also include plot hooks and ideas for using them in adventures.
Some interesting changes happened in 4e. For starters, some major demons, like our cover guy Orcus here, got their own entry outside of the demons category. He also had major henchmen listed with him.
This caused some interesting in-game fluff with books like Erin M. Evans' "Brimstone Angels" trying to explain this "in-universe" from the perspective of the Forgotten Realms. This lives on in 5e with succubi as now independent evil outsiders. Other changes were made to various monsters, Daemons/Yugoloths we moved over to the demons, including making them Chaotic Evil. This might have messed with ideas of the Blood War, but there is no reason why there needs to be continuity between editions, it is just nice.
One of the things that irritated some people was not the monsters it had, but the ones it did not have. It particular Demogorgon is nowhere to be found and many of the named devils are also not here.
This book was published about a year later in May of 2009. This book also has over 170 monster entries. Some are expanded, like Giants (and I love what they did for giants in this edition) and more demons. This book also gives the impression that many monsters were held back for a second book. Unlike previous books with the same name, Monster Manual 2, this one doesn't feel like added-on monsters. This feels more like the Vol 2 of the AD&D Monstrous Compendium. In addition to some that are expected, there are some new monsters too.
This book was released in June 2010, another year after the MM2. Lolth is our cover girl this time. It would have been interesting to see Graz'zt, but Lolth makes sense too. Eclavdra also shows up in Lolth's entry.
Page for page, this one has a lot more new monsters. Not just new to D&D 4, but new to D&D. These include the new Catastrophic Dragons which I had been looking forward to. There are a lot of new monsters and some additions to MM1 & MM2 ones, like new Fire Giants. That is one of the features of this edition, each variation of a monster needs a new stat-block. To be fair, D&D 3 and D&D 5 also did this a fair bit.
The layout is such, that like the AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendiums, the D&D 4th Edition Monster Manuals PDFs can be printed out with just the monsters you want and organized in a binder. The modularity of the design is so well planned out that it really makes me want to print out these PDFs and just make my own Monstrous Compendium style binder for it. Sure the page numbering will be wonky, but that would not matter, everything will be perfectly alphabetized. I could even re-integrate demons like Orcus and Lolth back to where they belong under demons.
I am not currently playing D&D 4th Edition, but I find these monster books still so incredibly useful even in my D&D 5th Edition and Basic/Expert edition games. They are also just great-looking books.
Aw, you left out the very best of all the 4e monster books, the Nentir Vale Monster Vault. 4e just kept getting better and better at monster design as time went by, and the Essentials and Vault books really show off how polished things had gotten.
I really loved the multiples options for a single type of monster to differentiate their roles in combat. It seems to me that the new Volo's Guide is doing something similar with the base humanoid monster types.
I did love the 4e stat blocks! All-in-one monster rules, no looking somewhere else for spells or reading a half page of description about a special ability. The economy of terminology in 4e was very good. The more natural language style of 5e is easier to read and feels more narrative at baseline, but 4e was better as a reference of clearly defined rules.
Anyway, are you going to look at the Demonomicon as well?
Games scholar Jaroslav Švelch saw the Monster Manual modelled after "medieval bestiaries, only with more precise figures": "Whereas medieval bestiaries attempted to situate unknown creatures within what was the known system of nature, games like Dungeons & Dragons created simulated natures of their own and populated them with creatures that followed their artificial laws and conditions."[1]
The first publication bearing the title Monster Manual was written by Gary Gygax and published in 1977 as a 108-page book.[2] It was the first hardcover book for any D&D game[3][4] and the first of the core manuals published for the new Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) version of the game.[2][5] The Monster Manual was a game supplement intended to detail the standard monsters used with AD&D.[2] The book compiles over 350 monsters, some new and others revised from older sources such as Monsters and Treasure, Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, The Strategic Review and Dragon magazine.[3] Each monster was listed in the book alphabetically with a full description and game statistics and many featured an illustration.[3]
The cover of the original printing was illustrated by David C. Sutherland III.[2] A softcover version of the Monster Manual was printed in the United Kingdom by Games Workshop in 1978.[2] When the book was reprinted in 1985 it featured new cover art by Jeff Easley.[2] The book remained relatively unchanged throughout its fifteen printings up to 1989. Minor changes during the print run included a cover art change to match a new logo and house style, and some minor corrections introduced in the 1978 printings.
The first edition Monster Manual included topless portrayals of some of its female monsters, such as the succubus, Type V demons, lamia, and sylph. The first edition was also the first appearance of the mimic.
Monster Manual was also reviewed by Don Turnbull who felt that "this manual deserves a place on every D&D enthusiast's bookshelf", and praised the explanatory text, stating that it "amplifies, where necessary, [the game statistics] and the result is the most comprehensive listing of D&D monsters you will find, presented in a clarity which is unfortunately all too rare in other sources."[3] Turnbull noted some minor printing errors and felt that some of the drawings were not as good as others, but felt that the book's quality "is as high as one can reasonably expect in such a complex matter".[3] Turnbull concluded by saying "I can do no more than heap high praise on the Monster Manual. If every DM and every player didn't buy it, I would be very surprised. It is without doubt the best thing that TSR have produced so far."[3] Lawrence Schick, author of Heroic Worlds, commented that "As nothing is easier to design than new monsters, it has spawned a host of imitations."[2] Games journalist David M. Ewalt commented that the "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual may have been a rush job, but its quality is undeniable.[...] The Monster Manual succeeded not just as a game supplement but by elevating the D&D rule book to fetish object. [...] The book became a beloved companion to a generation of gamers, something they came back to again and again."[9]
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