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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
 Posted - 06 Feb 2012 : 04:06:56
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i know this is a little late, and someone has probably asked before, but i haven't seen any discussion of it and i'm more than a little curious about the logic behind omitting this useful piece of information (starting with MM 4) in favor of revealing what languages the monsters speak. 
edit: habitat info is presented (without climate?) in the Ecology section, which allows for more detail than making it a line in the stat block. my bad, my hat would be off to that change, except that the information is kinda buried this way, and it seems that the freedom to use complete sentences instead of "cold forests" results in less clarity sometimes.
and i stand by Languages being pretty useless.
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Edited by - xaeyruudh on 06 Feb 2012 04:32:32
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Eilserus
Master of Realmslore
USA
1446 Posts |
Posted - 06 Feb 2012 : 04:22:25
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| I hear you. I always liked the little mini lore snippet we would get. 2E monster manuals seemed to really have alot of good additional info. As the editions went on these were pruned, but I suppose it was required to fit in stat blocks and other stuff. :( Be nice to see this introduced back into the monster manuals. |
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xaeyruudh
Master of Realmslore
USA
1853 Posts |
Posted - 06 Feb 2012 : 04:37:55
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unfortunately, i ranted after only half an hour of reading the stat blocks. after another half hour, i found what i was looking for.
on a positive note, i'll say that i like the firm-ish "1 or 2 full pages per monster" format of MM 3 onward... as opposed to the "new monster heading whenever we run out of things to say about the previous monster" style of MM 1. might mean fewer monsters per book, but more info per monster is a good trade-off, as long as it's useful info. perfect example is the "here's something about this monster in Faerun" section, like you mentioned... sometimes very helpful. the drive to cram as many monsters as possible into one book results in insufficient info... and some stupid monsters when the bottom of the barrel is reached.
anyway, my rant is mostly doused. carry on. |
Edited by - xaeyruudh on 06 Feb 2012 04:39:09 |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 06 Feb 2012 : 04:56:50
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quote:
Originally posted by xaeyruudh
the drive to cram as many monsters as possible into one book results in insufficient info... and some stupid monsters when the bottom of the barrel is reached.
See First Edition originally for this one; how do you think the flumph got into print?  |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
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crazedventurers
Master of Realmslore
United Kingdom
1073 Posts |
Posted - 06 Feb 2012 : 09:35:07
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quote:
Originally posted by Jakk
See First Edition originally for this one; how do you think the flumph got into print?
Or the flailsnail 
Got to love the Flumph, all hail the mighty Flumph!
Cheers
Damian
who much prefers to have a small ecology piece with a monster, as the stats I can make up |
So saith Ed. I've never said he was sane, have I?
Gods, all this writing and he's running a constant fantasy version of Coronation Street in his head, too. .
shudder,
love to all,
THO
Candlekeep Forum 7 May 2005 |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3738 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2012 : 00:57:18
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| -Generally speaking, I liked the "Ecology" section of Monster Manuals limited to a paragraph or three, so that I could make up whatever I wanted about the monster in my world and not feel like I am going 'against' anything- My core books, I want them influencing setting stuff as little as possible. It also then allowed for the really awesome Ecology of X articles in DRAGON Magazine that were usually my favorite parts. |
(A Tri-Partite Arcanist Who Has Forgotten More Than Most Will Ever Know)
Elves of Faerūn
Vol I- The Elves of Faerūn
Vol. III- Spells of the Elves
Vol. VI- Mechanical Compendium |
Edited by - Lord Karsus on 23 Feb 2012 00:57:56 |
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who took habitats out of the monster manuals?
