Monster Manual IV

Overall score:

Every Dungeons and Dragons player has one great need: monsters to kill. Wizards of the Coast understands this and thus continues to provide its gamers with more and more monsters. This has lead to the continued publishing of Monster Manuals for D&D players to spend their cash on. More recently, Monster Manual IV has been published to entice gamers out of their basements and into gloom of their local game stores.

For the trek, Monster Manual IV will be rewarded with a quality hardback book with a 221 full-color pages. Numerous new monsters have been introduced each with a full-color illustration. Even better, players will find that the statistic block for each monster has been changed to make it friendlier to use during encounters. Along with the monster statistic block, description, and explanation of abilities, each monster is given a section on its ecology and another on its society to help round out the monster and help dungeon masters better incorporate the creatures into adventures. Many of the monsters also have sections that explain typical treasure carried, common fighting strategies, how to incorporate the monster as a player characters, alternate versions of the monsters, how to implement the creature into campaign worlds such as Faerun and Eberon, and sample encounters for instant play.

It is apparent that Monster Manual IV was designed to be used during play, not just as a resource book. This approach has made a very functional and fun book to use. It even includes maps so a monster can be picked up and used right away. There is just a lot that is delivered for players to use in this book.

Course once play begins, players may find that there is one problem with Monster Manual IV. As one of my friends put it "challenge ratings have changed." Monster Manual IV creatures do not follow the challenge rating system as outlined in the core D&D books. These creatures are tougher for the challenge ratings assigned to them.

To illustrate this, let us run some mock battles with a sample party. First we have Kian O'Kyton a first level human paladin. Then we have Varatai, a first level human cleric of Geshtai. Accompanying them is the dwarf Schtreivak, a first level ranger. And lastly there is Sondira, a first level elf sorcerer. Now these are all first level characters, and it is often argued that first level is the most challenging and deadly of all the levels to play at, but it will make my examples go quick.

First, the group will face a monster from the original Monster Manual. Since they are a level one party, they will face a challenge rating one creature: a ghoul. The scene is in an open graveyard at night. Sondira has cast a light spell as they party investigates the graveyard. They reach the hundred foot wide square field with a statue in the middle. Behind the statue the ghoul is hiding until the party gets within 15 feet, then it makes it's attack.

Starting combat the initiative order is: Sondira (12), Schtreivak (11+), Ghoul (11-), Ravatai(9), Kian O'Kyton (3). Sondira first sees the ghouls with her elven eyes and casts a magic missile, at the undead fiend causing 4 points of damage to it. Schtreivak then responds by shooting an arrow from his longbow. Schtreivak gets a 17 to hit, easily pegging the ghoul for another 7 points of damage. The Ghoul is still going, and being a mindless undead it charges the front party member: Kian O'Kyton . The ghoul gets a 23 on its attack, easily hitting Kian O'Kyton for 7 damage. Kian also needs to make a fortitude save (DC 12) to prevent being paralyzed. Rolling a 22, he has no problem. Since the Ghoul was so kind as to come up to her, Ravatai attacks with her spear. Getting a 4 on her attack roll, Ravatai's attack falls short. Kian O'Kyton then goes. Since the Ghoul hurt him fairly badly, he decides it must be smitten. Using his smite evil ability, Kian O'Kyton gets a 14 on his attack roll, just barely hitting the Ghoul. The ghoul takes10 damage from Kian O'Kyton's heavy flail, easily obliterating it.

Now the same party will face a Varag from Monster Manual IV. A Varag is mutated hobgoblin that is also a challenge rating one creature. The setting is the same, with the Varag hiding behind the statue in the graveyard this time. To make the comparison easier, the Varag will use the rolls the ghoul made in the previous example except with the Varag's modifiers. The example uses the same rolls for all characters where applicable for the first round.

So with the Varag having the Ghoul's initiative roll, the new initiative order is this: Varag (15),Sondira (12), Schtreivak (11), Ravatai (9), Kian O'Kyton . The Varag has much higher initiative bonus that the ghoul, so going first it spring attacks Kian O'Kyton with its scimitar. Using the same attack roll as the Ghoul, the Varag gets a 25 on the attack without the benefit of a charge bonus. This also threatens a critical hit, which is confirmed with an attack of 19. Kian O'Kyton takes 12 damage, just dropping him. The Varag completes it's spring attack by moving 40 feet to the side. Sondira then goes by casting her magic missile doing 4 damage to the Varag, which is less damaging to the Varag than it was to the Ghoul. Schtreivak then shoots his arrow at the Varag, but his 17 attack roll just misses the Varag. Ravatai is not going to attack since she does't have an opponent next to her this time. Instead she casts a cure light wounds spell on Kian O'Kyton healing him for 4, making him conscious with 3 hit points. On Kian O'Kyton's turn he stands up, and readies an action to smite the Varag when it comes closer.

On round two, the Varag has noticed the presence of spell casters. It decides to go after Sondira with her flashy spells. Taking a route that would draw an attack of opportunity from Schtreivak (if he had a melee weapon ready), the Varag spring attacks Sondira getting a 21 attack roll. Sondira takes 8 damage, dropping her to the ground. Kian O'Kyton used a move action to get up last round, so he cannot move to defend Sondira before she drops. The Varag then moves 20 feet away. Since Sondira is unconscious, the next combatant is Schtreivak who fires his bow again, this time hitting the Varag with a 21 on his roll. The Varag takes 7 damage but still has hit points to spare. Ravatai then acts, casting another cure light wounds to healing Sondira for 8, bringing her back to full. Kian O'Kyton charges the Varag using his smite evil attack. Kian O'Kyton only gets a 16 on his attack roll, just missing the Varag and wasting Kian O'Kyton's smite evil.

The next round the Varag finds itself next to Kian O'Kyton. Attacking Kian O'Kyton, the Varag gets a 14 on it attack roll, which just barely hits Kian O'Kyton since his armor class is down from the charge attack. Kian takes 4 damage just dropping him again. A now conscious Sondira goes next. Standing up she casts magic missile again, doing another 3 damage to the Varag. The Varage has taken a total of 14 damage, but is not down yet. Schtreivak then fires his bow again, getting a 15 on the attack roll and missing the Varag. Ravatai decides to charge the Varag with her spear, hoping to drive it off so she can heal Kian O'Kyton. Ravatai gets a 21 on her charge attack but only does 2 points of damage. Still this is enough to place the Varag at 0 hit points, prompting it to retreat at the start of the next round.

Hopefully, that example will show that monsters have gotten a lot tougher in Monster Manual IV. Yes, the party won in both encounters, but in the encounter with the Varag, the party had to use a lot more resources and faced some severe casualties. Also, the Varag is not the only monster in the book that is tough for its challenge rating. Nearly every new creature is built that way, having more hit dice, hit points, higher ability scores, bonus feats, and special abilities than creatures of the same challenge rating in previous Monster Manuals.

So Monster Manual IV is a book with high production values and usability makes the book a lot of fun, but that fun can be lethal for D&D characters.

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Written by 42 on April 09th, 2007