| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Fellfire |
Posted - 17 Sep 2016 : 14:19:11
Is anybody buying site unseen? I sure would like a sample before I pre-order. |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| moonbeast |
Posted - 02 Dec 2016 : 13:05:31
Yep. They could have just named it Fiend Folio, Banal Bestiary, etc. |
| Seravin |
Posted - 30 Nov 2016 : 12:51:15
Hmm to that point there are a lot of names that could have been used that aren't Monster Manual...like Monstrous Compendium or Fiend Folio, to name 2 prior used titles.
|
| KanzenAU |
Posted - 29 Nov 2016 : 04:00:30
It is definitely unfortunate that this book has very little FR lore in it. I had expected a bit more from a "Volo's Guide".
However, the core team has been pretty upfront with their intentions with the book. They've straight up said that the main reason for calling it a Volo's Guide was because they needed a title that screamed both D&D and monsters, that wasn't "Monster Manual 2", as apparently adding numbers onto titles scares away new players, who get intimidated and confused by which books they need. I don't think it was ever their intention for this to be an FR book, despite the title and selling us on the inclusion of Elminster and Volo. It's a core D&D monster book, and I think a fairly good one. It's unfortunate they decided to call it a "Volo's Guide", as that gets us FR fans excited, but we're definitely not their main market.
I'm still waiting for them to invest more in fleshing out the Realms, as I really do believe there's a lot of value to be had in creating fans through good lore. However, I temper my wishes with the knowledge that they've stated one of their primary design intentions with this edition of D&D as a whole is to avoid 'bloat'. That mostly refers to rules, hence less splat books, but I fear it also refers to lore-bloat, as this too is intimidating to newcomers to the hobby, and new wallets. So I'm keeping my hopes fairly low in that regard. Hopefully, one day, we'll at the least get a singular, detailed campaign guide...
In the meantime, this is a fun monster book that I can use in my Realms campaigns, even if it doesn't have juicy Realms-specific lore. |
| Gyor |
Posted - 29 Nov 2016 : 03:42:30
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
quote:
Originally posted by farinal
My copy arrived this weekend. The book is gorgeous artwise. Quality is top. The lore is very nice and also the volo/elminster commentary is entertaining and immersive. The choice of monsters are good and all of them are really useful/interesting. The book really gets your DM juices flow. I love hags and I was planning to use a coven in my game so it is perfect for me they included detailed hags in the book.
The monsters by location tables are also quite useful. I think along with the monster manual this book is the best 5E product.
Yeah, the one thing I wish they had gone into with hags was their reproductive capabilities and introducing OTHER methods of them reproducing. We have the obvious canon lore that hags in Rashemen can create hagspawn by mating with human males. So, not every child is created by consuming another woman's child. I also envision hags as procreating with giants / ogres / trolls, etc...
For the most part they ignored FR lore. So no mention of Hagspawn, no mention of the Sarrukh Creator race in the Yaun Ti section, Aasimar are tied to Mount Celestia (which in FR many and possibly most don't have a Mount Celestia connection) and now have Angellic Guides (okay that part is really cool), Tabaxi don't speak Tabaxi, Zehir isn't mentioned in the Yuan Ti Gods section, but Dendar is (since when does anyone, never mind the Yuan Ti worship Dendar the Night Serpent), the origin story for Yuan Ti has nothing to do with FR, the Tabaxi worship the Cat Lord from the original MM 2 which I guess is a new addition to FR (would have been a great way to reintroduce Sharess instead, but whatever), several Gods are mentioned that have never appeared in an FR product, and I don't know if this counts as adding them, or if its not intended for FR.
Like has Diancrastra the Giantess Goddess been added to the FR pantheon? I don't know, its not clear.
This book should never have been marketed as an FR book.
I do like alot of the mechanics and a fair amount of the lore still manages to be usefully, but as I said its not always completely clear what's intended to apply to FR and what isn't.
Plus are most of the PC race mechanics are great with a couple of exceptions (Kobolds and Orcs get stat penalties but are otherwise cool), and the Kenku gets zero combat abilities, seriously wtf? The Kenku's language mechanics make them problematic as spellcasters. They really screwed up with the Kenku, its like 75% ribbon abilities, the only good thing about them is you get two bonus skills and descent stats for a rogue or monk (your nearly useless as anything else).
Best to worst races with some class suggestions. The Aasimar are the coolest (All of them, there is no classes Aasimar don't rock), followed by the Yuan Ti Pureblood (Wizards, Paladins, Warlocks, Sorcerors, Rogues, and maybe Rangers if you pick a poisonious animal companion), Triton (Paladins, Sorcerors, Warlocks, Fighters), Lizardfolk (Paladins, Monks, Fighters, Clerics, Rangers, Barbarians), Bugbears (Fighters, Barbarians, Paladins, Rangers, Rogues, Monks), Tabaxi (I'd suggest Ranger, Rogue, Monk, Barbarian, Fighter, Sorceror or Warlock, Dex based Paladins), Kobolds (Rangers, Rogues, Monks, Fighters, Warlocks, Sorcerors), Firbolgs (Clerics, Druids, Rangers, Fighters, oddly Warlocks and Rogues), Goliaths (Fighters, Strength based Rangers, and Barbarians), Goblins (Rogues, Rangers, Fighters), Hobgoblins (Wizards, Monks, Arcane Trickster Rogues, Fighters), Orcs (Avenger Paladins, Fighters, Barbarians), Kenku (Rogues, Monks and Crafter NPCs, they useless for anything else as I don't even know if they can cast spells that require a verbal compenant).
The Monster lore section was cool, but mostly generic D&D based.
And the Beastiary is good, I specially like the Kraken Priest, Dinosaurs, various fey, Flinds, Devourer, Flail Snail, Froghemoth, Elder Brain, Mindwitness, Hags, Bodoks, Firenewts, Deep Rothe.
|
| Markustay |
Posted - 28 Nov 2016 : 23:14:04
In my purely homebrew lore (and setting), I have it where the Hags ARE the female giants.
Hags can change size one category once per 24 hrs. thats how I expalin it. they prefer to stay human-sized most of the time because tis just easier for them to hide that way. Hags are also 'universal breeders' - they were originally designed (by 'the gods') to be able to breed with just about anything (because back in those days, just about everything walking around worked for 'the gods'). This would include ALL types of giantkin, as well as other mortals and outsiders. This is why we almost never see female giants.
Each crossbreed generates a different kind of Offspring - for example, human/Hag creates Ogres. Maybe Hags and something reptilian created the first trolls. Over time, these offshoots began to 'breed true' (which I suppose means the giants were yet-another 'Creator Race'). It all ties in nicely with the Grendel folklore as well.
And hags were originally all 'outsiders' (as was everyone else around in the beginning). Once 'death' came into the world(s), we began to see mortal variants of all the elder races appear (including the giants). Outsider hags are just the progenitors of today's modern 'earthly' hags. And through apotheosis, one can become the other.
And as I said, PURE homebrew, because it doesn't really work with FR canon, or even D&D in general. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 28 Nov 2016 : 23:01:39
quote:
Originally posted by farinal
My copy arrived this weekend. The book is gorgeous artwise. Quality is top. The lore is very nice and also the volo/elminster commentary is entertaining and immersive. The choice of monsters are good and all of them are really useful/interesting. The book really gets your DM juices flow. I love hags and I was planning to use a coven in my game so it is perfect for me they included detailed hags in the book.
The monsters by location tables are also quite useful. I think along with the monster manual this book is the best 5E product.
Yeah, the one thing I wish they had gone into with hags was their reproductive capabilities and introducing OTHER methods of them reproducing. We have the obvious canon lore that hags in Rashemen can create hagspawn by mating with human males. So, not every child is created by consuming another woman's child. I also envision hags as procreating with giants / ogres / trolls, etc... |
| Gyor |
Posted - 28 Nov 2016 : 21:50:58
I think the Lizardfolk art is recycled too from the MM. |
| Gyor |
Posted - 28 Nov 2016 : 21:49:18
quote:
Originally posted by farinal
My copy arrived this weekend. The book is gorgeous artwise. Quality is top. The lore is very nice and also the volo/elminster commentary is entertaining and immersive. The choice of monsters are good and all of them are really useful/interesting. The book really gets your DM juices flow. I love hags and I was planning to use a coven in my game so it is perfect for me they included detailed hags in the book.
The monsters by location tables are also quite useful. I think along with the monster manual this book is the best 5E product.
Did you buy a different volo's guide to monsters then I did?
Because Elminister and Volo were reduced to posted notes with minor quips on them.
Seriously anything Forgotten Realms based was a completely after thought in the book.
This was the most misleading book title and marketing campaign since the Sundering series (which didn't really detail the Sundering much at all, it really should have been called something like the Shadovar War Series).
This book should just have been called Guide to Monsters, and not bother with the pretense of calling it a Volo's guide.
Honestly for generic D&D book its very good, but the marketing campaign is so misleading that I have no interest in spending anymore money on future D&D until they put out a FRCG with all the gods in it and a full detailed map of Faerun in it. |
| The Sage |
Posted - 28 Nov 2016 : 14:13:11
'Tis a curious tome.
I'm happy with its content, overall, but it's a little lite on purely Realms-specific lore. It's largely generic, in fact... though this opinion only comes from the slight skimming I've given is book. Maybe there's deeper Realms content that I've yet to discover... |
| farinal |
Posted - 28 Nov 2016 : 07:28:17
My copy arrived this weekend. The book is gorgeous artwise. Quality is top. The lore is very nice and also the volo/elminster commentary is entertaining and immersive. The choice of monsters are good and all of them are really useful/interesting. The book really gets your DM juices flow. I love hags and I was planning to use a coven in my game so it is perfect for me they included detailed hags in the book.
The monsters by location tables are also quite useful. I think along with the monster manual this book is the best 5E product. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 24 Nov 2016 : 16:32:15
You're almost making me want to buy this, Sleyvas...  |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 24 Nov 2016 : 14:10:40
Well, I got mine at a reduced price on Amazon, still pretty high... but I find it really interesting that its got many things that I myself was looking to develop, so it saves me some time. I was thinking about creating some poisonous frog people like Grippli... they now have Grung (they're small, instead of medium, but whatever). I was looking for the girallon. Froghemoth. Firenewts (were they maybe in the elemental evil adventure path?). More dinosaurs. Choldrith/Chitines. I had found Wood Woads in DM's Guild, but I'm glad to see an official version. HMMMM, Vegepygmies... I forgot about them, but damned if I'm not glad to see them. I see T'lincalli. Neogi (no plans yet for them, but always liked them). MORE HAGS!! (even though I created my own version of the Bheur Hag for DM's Guild). Everything I listed above, I was planning on using 90% of it. |
| chibi_grazzt |
Posted - 24 Nov 2016 : 05:48:46
quote:
Originally posted by Fellfire
quote:
Originally posted by farinal
I found some previews from the book online! Enjoy!
http://imgur.com/a/z9SuU
Boy, it really annoys me to see recycled Illithiad art in there.
I have both, am I missing something because I don't see recycled art |
| Faraer |
Posted - 23 Nov 2016 : 01:26:15
Two things I wonder about this book: Who is it by? Are its contents Realmslore? The impression I get is: only marginally. |
| ZeshinX |
Posted - 22 Nov 2016 : 19:03:12
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
I think - considering their current customer base - that a regular Monster Manual would have served better. Calling it 'Volos' and trying to appease the Grognards just agitated them more, and will annoy the gamers who were only looking for the stats.
Give up on the Grognards, WotC - you just can't make us happy. We thrive on angst. 
I have no particular distaste for the ecology approach they do with the approx. first 2/3 of this. It's interesting, and certainly valuable to those who might need/want a little inspiration in their critters.
I was happy to give it a look and give WotC another chance to make something worth buying. It is, but only just (not at that insane suggested price though...hell no, get it on Amazon for about half that).
Ultimately, I found the ecology section would be best served as recurring web feature akin to Unearthed Arcana. I most certainly won't pay for another tome like this. A proper monster manual, certainly, but not this.
D&D is a game before it's a brand, WotC. Try again. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 22 Nov 2016 : 18:38:12
I think - considering their current customer base - that a regular Monster Manual would have served better. Calling it 'Volos' and trying to appease the Grognards just agitated them more, and will annoy the gamers who were only looking for the stats.
Give up on the Grognards, WotC - you just can't make us happy. We thrive on angst. |
| ZeshinX |
Posted - 22 Nov 2016 : 14:32:41
Well just got this. It's nifty, I'd say a solid 6/10. I would have preferred a more traditional monster manual. I won't buy another one like this. |
| Irennan |
Posted - 18 Nov 2016 : 23:15:29
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
In Game of Thrones, no one lives.
In the Forgotten Realms, no-one ever dies.
VERY comic-bookish, IMO.
"Come, play in the Forgotten Realms! Where the only characters who don't matter are YOURS!"
Thats should be their new ad campaign. 
After all the random "kill, kill, kill" of end 3e and 4e, I don't mind it a bit honestly. |
| Irennan |
Posted - 18 Nov 2016 : 23:06:39
quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
Ed has told me that he did a web piece explaining how Volo survived the Spellplague etc, but WotC never put it up on the website.
-- George Krashos
He put at least part of it in Death Masks. Mystra made him a chosen. She did that as a contingency (since she had foreseen the Spellplague) and hid parts of her essence in the most unsuspectable people, Volo among them. |
| shades of eternity |
Posted - 18 Nov 2016 : 22:50:34
ha I remember that spell from 2nd edition.
that's absolutely hilarious if true. :D |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 18 Nov 2016 : 10:17:12
Pretty sure it's been mentioned that Volo spent some time either magically imprisoned and/or in an unaging form like a statue, for his own protection. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 18 Nov 2016 : 08:20:16
In Game of Thrones, no one lives.
In the Forgotten Realms, no-one ever dies.
VERY comic-bookish, IMO.
"Come, play in the Forgotten Realms! Where the only characters who don't matter are YOURS!"
Thats should be their new ad campaign. |
| moonbeast |
Posted - 18 Nov 2016 : 07:25:04
quote:
Originally posted by Gelcur
Silly question, do they explain how Volo survived so many years?
Maybe Volo had been eating magical rutabagas, which prolonged his lifespan immensely.
|
| George Krashos |
Posted - 18 Nov 2016 : 06:16:50
Ed has told me that he did a web piece explaining how Volo survived the Spellplague etc, but WotC never put it up on the website.
-- George Krashos |
| Gelcur |
Posted - 18 Nov 2016 : 05:28:00
And here I hoped we were going to get an excerpt from Volo's Complete Guide to the Behaviour of Nymphs.
Silly question, do they explain how Volo survived so many years? |
| Eilserus |
Posted - 16 Nov 2016 : 00:23:24
quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
Just got this and all it does for me is reinforce that FR is the 5E equivalent of Greyhawk in 3E - a placeholder to drop stuff in and give just a touch of flavour/context. Fine as a monster book. Poor as a Realms product. I feel like a band member on the Titanic.
-- George Krashos
I hear that. I'm thinking of getting this, but I've more or less written off WotC and to wait for Ed to hit up the DM Guild with some goodness we've all wanted for years now. |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 15 Nov 2016 : 10:48:40
Im already converted to the fansigner (fan-designer) movement. Ill be using your maps for my regional setting guides (as long as you dont mind). |
| Markustay |
Posted - 15 Nov 2016 : 08:43:20
Because FR IS D&D now.
And by slapping 'Volo' on it they hope to get the last few remaining setting fans left to buy it. Maybe if they just stopped and thought about WHY they have fewer fans with each product release they'd have been able to steer-clear of that iceberg.
On the flipside, I - and by extension, 'we' - can have all the fun with the setting we want now. I'm happily doing maps again, knowing damn well they'll never be anything to contradict them (like how 4e and the Spellplague made all my maps 'null & void'). Anything THEY say or do is irrelevant. In death, they've set it free.
As setting fans, we have everything we'll ever need. You only need the D&D products if you plan to play D&D. I don't think they're even doing novels anymore, are they? Its like doing novels in the SW universe - completely pointless now. Everything's apocryphal. |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 15 Nov 2016 : 07:19:26
buts its all so generic and bland. generic and bland is good right? its the new interesting.
That was all sarcasm by the way. i dont even know why it is tied to FR, it has almost nothing to do with it. |
| George Krashos |
Posted - 15 Nov 2016 : 06:10:15
Just got this and all it does for me is reinforce that FR is the 5E equivalent of Greyhawk in 3E - a placeholder to drop stuff in and give just a touch of flavour/context. Fine as a monster book. Poor as a Realms product. I feel like a band member on the Titanic.
-- George Krashos |
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