Many diehard D&D fans will not like this edition, but from a DM point of view I feel this makes it a lot simpler for writing. The blocks are nice. The only thing I wish they would change was the perception and insight stats. Sometimes they're just not there, especially in the published adventures. Besides that, its got the same spattering of the originals, but I'm excited to see what the new ones will bring. ( )

The new Monster Manual can be summed up with the popular expression, "I'm an elf, dammit! Give me my treasure!"

Here's how it stacks up: the new edition has drastically revised the structure of the information on the various monsters in order to conform to the new shifts in combat. A typical entry will give you 1) specific combat stats and powers; 2) details on special attacks and/or defenses; 3) monster variant details; 4) tactics information ; and 5), a section called lore that I'll complain about a little bit further down. Also, each entry has a full color picture (some are good, some are bad).

On the plus side, everything is pretty much systematically presented and to WOTC's credit they give you all the information you need to run these monsters in combat. As with the character classes, tactical information has been included. This is a well thought out device and it meshes very well with the current form of the game.

The greatest problem is that the monsters have finally become nothing but balls of stats. D&D has always been a combat game, but it seems to me that the finer points of other kinds of role playing are being pushed aside at great expense, and for proof I point to the utter lack of ecological and background info in the new edition. Yes, there is a section in each description, "Lore," that gives standardized info that characters may or may not know (a check of some sort is rolled), but this is a far cry from the extras that one got in previous editions. There's an awful lot of ambiance missing, and it's ambiance that makes a game good.

Another issue is that not all of the classic monsters are presented. Sure, Orcus is there, but Demogorgon is not. Bugbears are awol, the metallic dragons are no where to be seen, and as for centaurs, well, I suspect foul play. Of course, this is probably not an oversight. I suspect that these monsters and others will be included in the next overpriced installment.

Like previous editions, sub-species and variants are grouped under family names, e.g., Under the entry for Abomination, you get the stats for Astral stalker, Atropal, Blood fiend, Phane, and Terrasque. Fine, but there's no indexing in the book, and the table of contents is limited to major entries. If you can't remember that the Terrasque is listed under Abomination in the A's, you're fucked. And there's a lot of this in the new MM. I suppose they would have tacked on an extra $10 to the price if they had included an index or an adequate toc, so maybe I should be grateful.

I'm torn. On the one hand, WOTC/Hasboro did a good job in giving the dm exactly what he needs to run combat with the various monsters. On the other, that's pretty much all they included, and a lot of color has been lost consequently. If you play the game, you're going to buy this no matter what. Even so, I like to get my money's worth and I don't think I got it with this. ( )