Monster Manuals (additional ones, that is)

[Ascension]

How useful are the MM II-V? Do they focus on a particular level of play? Do they focus on any particular type of monsters? What makes them unique?

On a more specific level, do any of them have a better variety of mountain-based encounters than the basic one? I ask because while considering the possibility of someday running a campaign in mountainous terrain I realized that there really aren't that many core monsters that live aboveground in the mountains. I'd go to a setting or terrain-based sourcebook, but there isn't any "Mountainscape" at the moment, and most of the stuff that seems similar focuses on caverns within the mountains.

I'm really more concerned with the answers to the more general questions than the more specific question, though. I've seen several "What book should I buy?" threads in the past, but none of them have dealt with or even mentioned the additional MMs. That's what makes me curious. Are they really not worth buying?

[RTGoodman]

I don't have access to my books at the moment, but I can still answer a few questions.

Monster Manual II has a lot of cool stuff, but I've never really found use for a lot of it. Also, it's 3.0, so you'd have to update stuff, though that's not too tough.

Monster Manual III is one of my favorite books for D&D 3.5. It has a ton of cool monsters (not sure about mountain-specific ones, though), and there's a fairly good spread of CRs, types, and abilities. Also, it has the Eberron-specific races, so if you don't have the campaign setting but want to incorporate them, MM3's the way.

I don't know about MM4 or MM5 much, but I know 4 focuses a lot on "templated" or advanced versions of normal monsters, wastes a lot of space on sample lairs and such, and devotes a lot of time to Spawn of Tiamat. I know some people like it, but overall I've heard it's not that great. MM5 is about the same, though the Thoon Mindflayers, from what I saw in the store, are really cool.

If you're really looking for mountain-related monsters and stuff, you should definitely check out Races of Stone if you haven't already. It has the Goliath race (one of my personal favorites) as well as a handful of monsters (I think). And if not, it's a least a good read.

[Ascension]

Races of Stone is the reason I want to run a mountain campaign. I hope to get the PCs embroiled in the ongoing goliath-giant conflict. Obviously that gives me one major source of enemies, but I don't want it to be all giant all the time. Races of Stone only has six monsters in it, and all but one of them is usually found... underground. I'm not entirely opposed to caves and tunnels, but I'd like the PCs to see some non-giant action aboveground, y'know?

I'll probably pick up III, though. I'd like to have the rules for warforged handy, but I don't want to pick up any of the Ebberon stuff (No offense, I just really, really, really don't like the setting. Not completely sure why. I think it has something to do with the trains.).

If I was just going to template stuff, I can do that myself... so I probably won't get the higher numbers unless they're just giving 'em away after 4.0 comes out.

Thanks a lot for the advice.

[Swooper]

Apply inverse Star Trek law on MM's - The odd numbers are good, the even ones not so much. I is core, and has lots of cool basic monsters. II is, as rtg said, 3.0 so not many people like it. It has a couple of cool monsters though, but not all that many. III is nice. IV spends too much time on templated/class leveled monsters, and is generally regarded as not worth the money. YMMV, though. V is excellent - despite doing some templated monsters like IV (not nearly as much), it seems much better done. The ones they do seem really thought out (like the Thoon mind flayers and the Great Game Dragons), while IV seems to use them for filler material.

[brian c]

re MMV: The Xorvintal dragons are great. You don't even have to worry about the whole "game" aspect of it, just using the template is an awesome way to have simpler dragons by replacing all the spellcasting (which can be a pain to keep track of as a DM) with very nifty special abilities. Xorvintal dragons are more like "classic" fantasy dragons and will do well in any D&D adaptation game (by which I mean using D&D to play in Middle Earth or any other non-D&D setting)

[Ascension]

Ahh, nice. I was thinking about running this as a low-magic campaign. Some non-magical (and potentially mountain dwelling) dragons would be fun to throw in, possibly fun enough to invest in a book for (especially if 4th ed. comes out before I actually get this campaign going, which is likely). At the very least I'll take a look at V.

[AslanCross]

I do agree that V is good. It does have a couple of the monsters-with-class-levels thing that MM4 overdid, but Xorvintaal and the Mind Flayers of Thoon can be good overarching campaign ideas or simply very interesting sidequest material. I also like the monstrous hobgoblins who actually had unique abilities and didn't just have class levels.

V also has interesting unique monsters: The two unique vampires, Illurien and Dalmosh.

III is likewise good. It has a whole bunch of unique and flavorful monsters.

[Ssiauhll]

What about monster books from other sources. There is a whole rich source of D20 material. Which of those do you consider to have material that is really good. Which is conditionally good (setting specific, style of play, etc.). and which should be ignored?

[CthulhuM]

I don't know exactly how you envision your mountains for this campaign, but if you plan to have anything happening above the snow line, you should probably check out Frostburn. A lot of the monsters there are very much suited to a high-altitude setting (in fact, it even has rules for altitude sickness).

[InkEyes]

I have MM I-III and the FF and I find them all to be quite fun. Wizards has 3.5 updates to their books right on the site so I've never had a problem with the MMII and FF being 3.0. I was put off MMs when the fourth one was released, but I've heard very good things about creatures in the fifth one.

[ShadowSiege]

Fiend Folio and MMII are alright. MM3 is good, a wide variety of monsters in it as well as the Eberron races if you don't want to pick up the ECS book. MM4 failed to grab at me, too much space wasted on the spawn of Tiamat. Monster Manual 5 is excellent, introducing the Xorvintaal dragons, Mind Flayers of Thoon, and monsters with some new mechanics.

[Person_Man]

IMO, the best monsters are in the MMI or found in the environmental books (Frostburn, Stormwrack, etc) where they are supported by plenty of fluff, mini-campaigns, etc.