Close
Close
Advanced Search

Monster Manual V (3.5)Click to magnify
Quick Preview
/gs_flipbook/flip.php?xml=/demo_xml/54391.xml&w=500&h=330
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.drivethrurpg.com/pdf_previews/54391-sample.pdf

Monster Manual V (3.5)

ADD TO WISHLIST >
The Darkest Dungeons of Your World Just Got a Little Darker.
 
This supplement for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game presents more than a hundred monstrous foes to challenge even the toughest player characters, including draconic masterminds, demonic horrors, vengeful fey that haunt ancient ruins, and mind flayers driven mad from their journey beyond the planes. This book also provides powerful, ready-to-play varieties of popular monsters such as the hobgoblin, the kuo-toa, and the vampire, saving Dungeon Masters precious time at the game table.
 
In addition to scores of new monsters, this tome features sample encounters, easy-to-follow tactics, and guidance for integrating these new creatures into any D&D campaign setting.
 
For use with these Dungeons & Dragons core books: Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual. 
 
*****
 
Product History

Monster Manual V (2007), primarily by David Noonan, faces the classic challenge of monster collections that come about late in a game's lifestyle: They need to present monsters that are either exciting or unique enough to justify the purchase. This one succeeds. The vast preponderance of monsters are either extremely flavorful, come with a unique and fun hook, or both. Many of the monsters here can carry an entire adventure on their own, and it's not unusual to find developed adventure hooks or mini-adventures written with the monster description.

Take the tirbana, for instance: This race of uniquely insectoid monsters are given a full seven pages, including four monster variations, sample encounters, lore, ecology, a sample lair, a map, and strategies and tactics. That could be overkill for a less interesting race, but tirbanas turn out to be a fun low-level threat that can depopulate entire villages and take the focus of several consecutive gaming sessions. It's a welcome counterpoint to more traditional monster entires, such as the straightforward vinespawn; however, even simple monsters like vinespawn are given ecology and sample encounters to make encounter-building a snap.

One Inspiration after Another. One of the nice side effects of "Sample Encounters" section and detailed backgrounds is that reading monster entries in the MMV is inspirational; it's almost impossible to browse entries and not have one good adventure idea after another. The "Mind Flayers of Thoon" give guidelines for an entire campaign at low, medium, and high levels; mockery bugs (descended from the ankheg) are intelligent insects that can magically impersonate the humanoids they consume. Rylkar are filthy, corrupted rat-colonies that strip their hunting grounds of resources before infesting new territory, and "Dragons of the Great Game" are ancient dragons who quite literally play chess with the world.
 
In monster after monster, unusual and intriguing plot hooks are presented. I'm reminded of the best of 2nd edition Planescape bestiaries, not for the odd cant but for the large number of adventures that can be built from a given monster. The contributors to this book did a fine job in seeking flavorful beasts to include.

Naming Conventions. While neither good nor bad, the naming conventions that define many 4E monsters are starting show up in this book. There are fewer uniquely named monsters such as "spirrax" (city-devouring aberrations that scour the planes for raw materials), "thyrm hound" (massive wolves made from icy stone), and "ushemoi" (a mutable race that grows more powerful when exposed to different stimuli). More often, accompanying them are monsters with two-part descriptive names such as the "deadborn vulture" (unsurprisingly, an undead bird), "ethereal defiler" (a plane-shifting reptilian monstrosity), and "greenspawn zealot" (battle captains of the spawn of Tiamat). This style of nomenclature isn't particularly distracting, but it's odd to see "hobgoblin warsoul," for example, followed immediately by the unique and mysterious "Illurien of the Myriad Glimpses." 

Spectacular Art. The art in these Monster Manuals just keeps getting better. Wiht art directed by Karen Powell, the Monster Manual V stands out for evocative art that in most cases makes you eager to face the monster in an adventure. It's a trusim that a good monster (i.e., rules-wise) can be ruined by goofy art, but there are no poor illustrations here. Considering that this book first came at a time when most hardcore gamers already had many Monster Manuals, the artwork acts as a significant reason to own this monster collection as well.

Overall? This is a good book to own regardless of the D&D edition you're playing. Players are unlikely to have seen many of these monsters, and there are too many good ideas in here to pass on the book.

About the Creators. David Noonan has worked on d20 Past, d20 Future, and on over 35 different products for 3e and 3.5e D&D. He is currently a lead writer at En Masse Entertainment.

About the Product Historian

History and commentary of this product was written by Kevin Kulp, game designer and admin of the independent D&D fansite ENWorld. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to kevin.kulp@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (1)
Discussions (8)
Customer avatar
Johnny C January 15, 2024 10:04 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This needs to be a POD product!
Customer avatar
Zigor Z October 01, 2023 6:40 pm UTC
POD please!
Customer avatar
Ryan F August 28, 2022 9:44 am UTC
PURCHASER
Can the creator update the metadata on the PDF file? Namely the title. On my eReader the title is displayed as "MMV_01.indd"
Customer avatar
Johnathan D May 22, 2022 2:44 am UTC
POD please.
Customer avatar
brian M March 01, 2022 1:48 am UTC
We need this item to be Print on Demand. Ebay and Amazon prices are insulting.
Reply
Customer avatar
Jim F December 04, 2022 5:17 am UTC
Agreed!
Customer avatar
Johnny C December 14, 2021 5:27 am UTC
PURCHASER
please make this a POD product!
Customer avatar
Linda W August 05, 2021 9:42 pm UTC
I've seen 3.5 books go as high as 900$+ depending on the book. Its insane. I'd take any kind of POD option here any day. I just want to play the game I love without cutting my throat in the process.
Customer avatar
Chris B March 29, 2021 10:43 pm UTC
Third party sellers are trying to get upwards on $200 for this book on sites like eBay. Can you PLEASE make this available to buy in a physical format? I would be happy even if it's just a softcover. PLEASE!
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Gold seller
Artist(s)
Pages
226
ISBN
978-0786941155
Publisher Stock #
956817200
File Size:
16.3 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
October 31, 2013
This title was added to our catalog on September 17, 2013.