Certainly a powerful tool for DMs to include richer stories and backgrounds for the enemies on the campaign.Īlthough MM3 presents us with a great variety of new monsters (300+ additions to any DM arsenal) a large array of this monsters have a Far Realm or Psionic theme, not really a surprise after the recent release of the Player’s Handbook 3. This edition of Monster Manual has included in its layout a substantial amount of fluff text (lore about the creatures) thus complementing the monster mechanics (stats) with history of its origin, description of behavior, and in some special cases, a few monsters even get a sidebar text expanding upon its lore.

Much have been said about the need of better solo monsters around the internet lately, not only old solos fights tend to last longer than they should, but also the “ until the end of your next turn” effects discussion, apparently the folks at WoTC are aware of this and decided to do something about it, developing more interesting and challenging solos, a great example can be found in the preview of Lolth, Demon Queen of Spiders, this solo basically transforms into another monster with different abilities when it reaches 0 hp, renewing the fight and giving more action and a sense of progression in to an otherwise long flat encounter. Above the powers section we have the “traits” tab, where we find all those special attributes monsters have that where so easily missed before, finally we get the set of “triggered” actions at the bottom of the block.

One of the most remarkable features in this new MM3 is a complete remake of the monsters stat blocks, in its new configuration the powers are arranged according to the type of action required to used them (Standard, Move, Minor, Free) making it so much more manageable for DMs to run monster powers amidst combat. Last week the new Monster Manual for 4th Edition D&D hit the stores, escorted by excellent previews and a lot of anticipation from gamers, today I’m going to give you a list of 9 things you will find inside this book that more than justify adding it to your D&D collection. To get or not to get? …is that really the question?

D&d new monster manual