Content
Opened the book can be embedded with a very short introduction, as monsters and creatures in an adventure. Numerous examples and suggestions are made, can be such as Adventure City also enriched by creatures and made more exciting. There is also in this introduction a guide to check the game stats of creatures called here Statblöcke and there is an overview of the to be found in the Special Rules creatures. All this will be summarized in a few pages and reads pleasant.
From there it goes into the full ones. Wizards of the Coast have gathered on the next 320 pages sorts of strange creatures, which they now present in detail and in alphabetical order. Each creature gets this one to be mapped to square with all its backgrounds, applications, special rules and Statblöcken to three pages. I would particularly like to mention those listed in certain creatures Special Rules for the home of the creature as the home of a unicorn also distinguishes control technology significantly from the tomb of a mummy. Compared to the previous version, the Monster Manual 4th Edition, has been significantly expanded just the background description. But also some of the creatures listed there in the new Monster Manual is no longer included, which is probably simply due to space limitations. But there are plenty of old friends to feel right at home.
Rounding out the book is by two appendices and an index. The first appendix contains brief descriptions and Statblöcke of creatures that did not make it into the actual source part. This includes firstly numerous normal animals such as bears and wolves, but also some monster-like creatures such as giant spiders are listed here with their values match. The second appendix contains profiles for using different non-player characters as a druid or a narrow-minded nobles, together with a short manual to change these values match. The index finally includes every creature listed in tape and should facilitate the recovery of a particular entry.
Format
Reading in the Monster Manual is really a joy. The whole band is in full color and really richly illustrated. Each creature gets at least an illustration, often supported by sketchy images of the creature in other poses. The images used in the rich quality of above average to exceptional. In the optical presentation the Monster Manual is thus after the Player Handbook in nothing.
The text is well organized, the fonts used clear and legible. The distinct characters as chapter divisions and the clear deposed extra boxes with additional or optional information structuring the content model.
Criticism
In addition to commending the very high especially when compared to the previous level of detail when presenting the creatures and the excellent optical treatment, there are also some criticisms.
In the nature of things a core set of rules, it is of course to present the most common creatures on the players can take during their adventures. Since Dungeons & Dragons is primarily designed to reflect generic fantasy worlds, no exciting new details are revealed also in the description of many well-known creatures like orcs, unicorns or Pegasi. An already familiar with the matter GM learns here so off the game little new values. But you really can be blamed for a core set of rules? It's just a pity that not got room for more unusual creatures available.
A second point of criticism concerns the allocation of the rules on the Monster Manual and the Dungeon Masters Guide. To be found in the Dungeon Masters Guide the necessary rules for calculating appropriate levels of challenge for the players and compiling Encountern; Also find here lists of places and environments where emerge the featured creatures normally. So not the creatures rules in question are all united in a band, and the addition of at least the location summaries would increase the purchase value for players of other systems clearly a source of inspiration.
Conclusion: Dungeons & Dragons 5: Monster Manual is a fantastic creature manual. There is extensive and to detail, rich illustrated with excellent quality and exemplary structured. It is even suitable as a reading book for fantasy friends beyond all RPGs. The Buy rating is limited ultimately only by the lack of detailed information contained only in the Dungeon Masters Guide and make the book therefore less versatile. For players of the fifth edition but an absolute must, and does not guarantee a bad buy.
