Moving through the 3.x Monster Manuals this month. Getting to the third named Monster Manual for 3.x and the first time we get a "3" in our Monster Manual. Yes AD&D had three monster books and AD&D2 had...well a lot, I was curious to see if we were hitting a point of diminishing returns on our books yet.
But in any case, the cover is rather cool.
Monster Manual III (3.5)
For this review, I am considering the PDF version of this book from DriveThruRPG. I did have the hardcover of this book but I downsized my 3.x collection a few years back.
PDF. Color cover and interior art. 244 pages.
This book is the first monster supplement for the new "updated" 3.5 version of the D&D rules. Honestly, I used 3.0 and 3.5 interchangeably, so for me, it was another monster book.
This one gives us roughly 170+ new monsters. We get some new demons, and more old favorites from the Yugoloths return (one of the reasons why I wanted this one). This book gives us the Warforged outside of their origin world of Eberron. There is a creature called a "Witchknife" that caught my attention as well as a "wood woad" but both of them disappointed me. I rather liked the new undead in the Bone Claw, Bone Drinker, Charnel Hounds, and Necronaut. The Eldritch Giant is also rather cool.
Some of these monsters I did not meet in this book first. Many I ended up getting in packages of mini from Wizards of the Coast before I even knew what they were. The Chraal and Blackscale Lizardfolk are two perfect examples. I thought the Chraal was a sort of demon at first. I did not play the minis game, so I rarely looked at the cards in detail.
For me, the monsters I liked made it worth the price to buy the book. But it was not enough to have me keep it when I downsized my 3.x collection.
The art is still all quite good and what I expect from WotC at this stage.