What is the best monster manual I can buy?

1E Monster Manual 1 spends a ridiculous number of pages on dinos, but generally assumes that you know which one you're talking about and is sparse in non-mechanical text. I think there were some more in Monster Manual 2, maybe.

I don't know where they got shuffled off to in 2E, but given the nature of the Monster Manual-ish thing at the time they're probably somewhere.

It's so good!

This.

Did a PDF of this ever emerge?

>2e Monstrous Compendium
This thing looks super cool, and it's also pretty much 90% fluff with tiny stat blocks. This makes it ripe for an adaptation.

I'm scrolling through the books right now and I have just one question. Where can I find out what level a monster is equivalent to based on how much exp it grants?

>they printed a fucking entire Monstrous Compendium without page numbers

google.com

>Where can I find out what level a monster is equivalent to based on how much exp it grants?
Not how 2e works.

Tome of Horrors S&W Edition.

Eh. Some of the concepts are neat, but it's a far cry from being the best. Also, the art leaves something to be desired, in my opinion.

How does 2e rank monsters, by hit dice? Is everything kind of just jazzy?

Everything kind of just jazzy. Also there's a lot of running away by at least one side of every fight.

1E DMG guidelines on experience for monsters. Applicable enough.

I think Scrapped Princess does a better job with the art in Veins of the Earth. It's still scribbley but there's more form and color holding things together.

Jesus christ, it's so obvious now.
Unless you committed to memory many different monsters and a basic estimate of how deadly they were, you would never be able to know whether the players would be challenged, bored, or unceremoniously eaten. This is a concept I was not aware of until now.

Every time a new edition comes along and streamlines a part of the game, people who play the previous edition see something they had to learn now taken for granted. I would imagine the concept of ECL was alien and downright insulting to some DMs.

The people that truly want each new D&D product to fail are D&D players. WotC is trying to sell a product that will invariably be hated by its core audience. D&D is fucked.

>90% fluff
I hope you don't count "X number of Y are n percent likely to be Z" as fluff.

You have all 20+ volumes as well as all 8- and 16-page addenda from modules as well as individual sheets from other TSR® publications?

From knowledge of this

Reminds me of thealexandrian.net/wordpress/2050/roleplaying-games/revisiting-encounter-design

As an example, the goblin spider from Kara-Tur™ and Dark Sun® at 6 HD is worth 975 xp. However, we see from the chart that its true "level" is 8+1 to 9. It gets a bump from 270 xp to 420 from requiring +1 weapons to hit, another bump from its 20% magic resistance, and a final bump for its grasp ability (which counts as either "blood drain" or unlisted special attack mode).

At that rate, you could just look at the hit dice.

Look at the damn xp value, Bozo

You guys are awesome. Thanks for helping me learn how to read 2e stat blocks. It's amazing how much has changed.

Here's something else: That "number appearing" field is meant to be for wilderness encounters. That's why you get shit like 30-300 barbarians, or 20-200 mermen. You're meant to make up your own numbers for in-dungeon encounters.

It straight up maps to hit dice.

But not 1:1, because you have modifiers for special abilities.

Don't forget the hardly-known fact of what the number in parentheses after the NO. APPEARING (or maybe TREASURE) in less than 1% of monster entries means — % IN LAIR value from 1E AD&D.

Remember that this chart / system is meant to be used to adjust the xp values of monsters prior to the encounter. A monster with High Intelligence (13+) will get a bump in value, a monster wielding a magical item will get a bump, a monster with better armor than normal (0 or less) will get a bump, and more. All sorts of things can change the apparent "level" of a monster based on the normal variances in individual examples.

I'm personally a fan of Teratic Tome. Bit niche but very flavorful, interesting monsters.

I... don't recall... saying it was injective? If we're going there I'll say it's a surjective map from the domain of possible xp values; but injective, surjective, or whatever, it *is* a map.

Also the xp values in the Monstrous Compendium / Monstrous Manual (and more) are often wrong since the chart was updated as True AD&D™ was perfected. The psionics categories are new, as well as the split values for things like magic resistance and breath weapon. The chart is everything. The correct version (as above) is included in the later Monstrous Annual volumes but is formatted to look poopy. Proper formatting is best in life, as it was in original printing 2E PHB.

HM5E - Hacklopedia of beasts.
Hands down the best tome of monsters out there.

Uh hur uh hur hur hur

N-no?
I just want one huge daunting tome.