The Monster Manual is third "core book" in the D&D gameline. Technically you do not need this book to play the game, but it provides a large array of ideas for creatures to be used as antagonists (or allies) to the player characters.

This is the version 3.5 edition and many of the old favorites from previous editions are in here. Templates and some other key details have been re-worked in this edition, mainly to provide better indexing and "balance" of monster challenge rating for combat encounters.

The art in this book is generally not bad, though largely drawn directly from the previous edition.

My only complaints about this book is that it could do with a little more indexing (For instance the creature Leonal comes under the category Guardinal, but if you don't remember it's a Guardinal then there's no convenient way to find what page it's on.) and I would've liked more creatures to have Level Adjustments so they could be easily integrated as player characters if desired.

But otherwise it's a pretty solid book.

- Peter K. ( )

An audio review of this book is available in Nuketown Radio Active #13: http://www.nuketown.com/podcast/radioactive/13 ( )

The Monster Manual is the primary bestiary for the Dungeons & Dragons adventure game, and a must-have for dungeonmasters. In this, the 3.5 edition, monster templates have been taken out of the appendix and integrated into the main work. The monsters' stat blocks have been updated for clarity and compatibility with various game mechanics. Base attack bonus and grapple check modifiers are now listed seperately from the "attacks" line, and PC-playable creatures now show a Level Adjustment rating. With this edition, DMs should be able to find the desired monster quickly and adapt it easily to the adventure at hand. ( )