Monster Manual 3: I love Amazon!

[NayrVentess]

Thanks to the lovely guys and gals at Amazon.co.uk, I have recieved my Monster Manual 3 today. The wierd thing is, I think they're distributing all their copies early, as the 'buy' button on the website isn't a 'pre-order' button, even though it doesn't come out for another 6 days.

I was wondering what anyone thought of the new stats block? It has been showcase in many excerpts from the new MM on wizards website. When I first saw it in Ampersand (I think) I thought 'hmmm, looks a bit crap.' But I admit now that it actually looks as though it will help a lot, everything is placed somewhere that makes more sense and seems easier to access; although I haven't used the MM3 in game yet, I will be doing next week! ((That's right Joe-Dude, I'm pitting you against Lolth!!!))

Speaking of Lolth, there seems to be some new/4th ed mods of some cool creatures. Lolth is there obviously, level 35 solo lurker/brute (she has two forms) Imix, the fire primordial level 32 solo controller, + a level 34 solo soldier in the form of Ogremoch, another primordial. (God Hunters much Rain?) There is also new ogres, giants, monster stats for new PHB3 races such as the shardmind and wilden, a level 10 and 25 solo krakens which look very cool to use against seafaring PC'.... oh, and frogs.... all in all it looks pretty good to me. smile  

[Rain Yupa]

KRAKENS YES!!! I was so hoping for them! You've made me a happy DM, Nayr! crying  

[joe-dude667]

Lvl 10 Kraken?! If only MM3 came out a few weeks earlier! =P  

[SporkMaster5000]

My FLGS tends to have the books for sale earlier than the release date, but i thought that was something to do with wizards trying to encourage brick and mortar stores.

I like the new stat block. having auras listed along with the resto f the stats instead of randomly above HP and defenses is a good thing, listing abilities by the actions required to use them is a very logical thing that shouldn't have taken this long to do, and I really hope the compendium updates old stat blocks to fit the new format once MM3 is added.

As for monsters: kraken's awesome, I think they were mentioned in some D&D insider or news post on the site, the lv25 one's an astral kraken, right? I really want to know how they did with the Mimics. the impersonator mimic they previewed looks snazzy, but what about the good old fake treasure box mimics? how'd they spice those up?  

[Rain Yupa]

Hopefully, the treasure chest mimic is at high enough level where I don't have to worry about people in my games Ackbar'ing it up every time they see a chest sweatdrop  

[SporkMaster5000]

Rain Yupa

Hopefully, the treasure chest mimic is at high enough level where I don't have to worry about people in my games Ackbar'ing it up every time they see a chest sweatdrop

if they do, just have an innocuous NPC show up in a dungeon as a prisoner or something. While they're flipping out over the treasure chest, NPC turns out to be a mimic and gets a surprise round. They'll either cut the s**t, or revert to the OD&D state of paranoia over everything, because the world is out to kill them.  

[NayrVentess]

@Joe - I know right?!

@Spork - Yeah an Astral Kraken is indeed the level 25 one. You're right about the new stat blocks, very good, but why did it take them two years to figure it out?

The impersonator mimic, level 16, can be conviniently accompanied by level 16 minions, which it can absorb once per round as free action to gain an action point - pretty cool, although you guys may already know that if you've read the preview like Spork.

@Rain - The Object Mimic, which can impersonate treasure chests is level 8, lurker.

They make the new Object Mimic become a treasure chest thusly:

Minor Actions
Shapeshift (polymorph) At-Will (1/round)
Effect: The mimic assumes one of the following forms. It can't change its size. It remains in the chosen form until it uses this power again.
Ooze Form: The mimic becomes an ooze. When it squeezes while it is in this form, it moves at full speed rather than half speed, it doesn't take the -5 penalty to attack rolls, and it doesn't grant combat advantage for squeezing.
Object Form: While in this form, the mimic has resit 10 to all damage, is immobilized, and cannot attack. In addition, a creature must succeed on a DC24 perceptiopn check to notice that the mimic is a living creature.

That power is pretty much the same as the Impersonator Mimics Shapeshift, the mechanics of it anyway. The Object Mimic has attack powers such as Slam, Crushing Tendrils which is a Melee 3 attack which can grab the target, the target takes a -5 to escape and it can sustain the grab as a standard to deal 15 damage. It also has a Melee 2 attack, Ravening Maw which can slow the target. A cool thing about it is that it deals +2d6 damage to surprised targets. It has darkvision and tremorsense too. And resist 5 acid.  

[SporkMaster5000]

NayrVentess

@Rain - The Object Mimic, which can impersonate treasure chests is level 8, lurker.

They make the new Object Mimic become a treasure chest thusly:

Minor Actions
Shapeshift (polymorph) At-Will (1/round)
Effect: The mimic assumes one of the following forms. It can't change its size. It remains in the chosen form until it uses this power again.
Ooze Form: The mimic becomes an ooze. When it squeezes while it is in this form, it moves at full speed rather than half speed, it doesn't take the -5 penalty to attack rolls, and it doesn't grant combat advantage for squeezing.
Object Form: While in this form, the mimic has resit 10 to all damage, is immobilized, and cannot attack. In addition, a creature must succeed on a DC24 perceptiopn check to notice that the mimic is a living creature.

That power is pretty much the same as the Impersonator Mimics Shapeshift, the mechanics of it anyway. The Object Mimic has attack powers such as Slam, Crushing Tendrils which is a Melee 3 attack which can grab the target, the target takes a -5 to escape and it can sustain the grab as a standard to deal 15 damage. It also has a Melee 2 attack, Ravening Maw which can slow the target. A cool thing about it is that it deals +2d6 damage to surprised targets. It has darkvision and tremorsense too. And resist 5 acid.

Somewhere in here is an adventure, low paragon or high heroic, where they get to a town and it turns out to be a mimic nest with either the whole town, or some great manor in the town is inhabited so that nearly everything and everyone is a mimic, and the players are gonna end up having to kill the whole fricking building.  

[SporkMaster5000]

I bought this yesterday at my FLGS, and flipping through it a few things stood out. However, I was reading through each entry this morning and the picture and name of the Banderhobbs don't do them justice. Who knew turning the boogey man into a giant frog would make him even more creepy.  

[NayrVentess]

SporkMaster5000

I bought this yesterday at my FLGS, and flipping through it a few things stood out. However, I was reading through each entry this morning and the picture and name of the Banderhobbs don't do them justice. Who knew turning the boogey man into a giant frog would make him even more creepy.

I know! They're feckin' awesome IMHO smile  

[Rain Yupa]

Ding.

That is all.

EDIT: Corruption Devils! gonk  

[SporkMaster5000]

Rain Yupa

EDIT: Corruption Devils! gonk

If I ever run into one in a campaign, I will be hard pressed not to imagine it using the crushinator's voice.  

[Psychofish]

I can't seem to find a PDF. Then again, now that I have work, I might have the money to just buy it, but I'd need to actually get to a store.  

[SporkMaster5000]

Psychofish

I can't seem to find a PDF. Then again, now that I have work, I might have the money to just buy it, but I'd need to actually get to a store.

I haven't seen any uploaded to the usual suspects yet. There's a rar on 4chan, but it's actually the WoW rpg player's guide. lol, troll. rolleyes  

[Psychofish]

Yeah, that one and a couple 3.5 MM3's that weren't marked as 4e or 3.5 are all I've found anywhere.

Then again, my usual sources are piratebay, 4chan, and googling it.