So I was walking through a bookstore last week and saw the Monster Manual 2. I knew there wasn’t a whole lot to see (it’s a monster manual, and therefore remarkably similar to the first one), but I still wanted to get a look at the new player races, if any could be found at all. I was a little disappointed to find only three, but one of the three pleased me greatly. Can you guess which one?
- Duergar. HELL YEAH. The dark dwarves are back, and they all seem to have inherited the old Durzagon ability to fire venomous quills from their beards. Simply awesome.
- Kenku. This popular old-school munchkin race is back with bonuses to DEX and CHA. Your munchkins are delighted, I’m sure.
- Bullywug. What’s a Bullywug? Oh! It’s a tough frog-person. D&D now has an option for players looking to fulfil some sort of Battletoads fantasy.
I looked through some of the earlier bits of the book and ran across Dagon. Can’t recall if I noticed anything about including Deep Ones in an encounter, but I’m certain that DMs who desire to do so will have no problem working it in themselves. Most delightful is his teleport move speed and his ability to pull players closer for savage nastiness.
I’ll close this quickie with a few links to others that have written more extensively about the Monster Manual 2:
– Monster Mash 2 @ The Spirits of Eden
– Harsh words about the new incarnation of the Rust Monster @ Geek Related
— this comment by Apotheon on that topic… it’s so spot-on it hurts.
– A considerably more positive look at the new Rust Monster @ Points of Light
- A little humor from Geek’s Dream Girl
