Rating: 
Summary: Must have for a NWN module admin
Review: I picked up this book from Amazon some time ago and I am constantly using it on my nwn module. I is full of a lot of great creatures and even more so, a lot of ideas for critters to throw into a campaign. I have used several of the critters and people just love them. If anything, this manual gives you a lot of really good ideas, its a must have.
Rating: 
Summary: good material bad art
Review: i pretty much summed up my review in my title. i was excited about getting this book, because with the old 1st edition ad&d i had 3 books of monster, all with great classic artwork in them. with 3rd edition 3 core rule books the art was great...but the art in this book is not really good, even though i think the book is useful, and i am still glad i bought it. it seems to me that there are two sets of books, the 3 core rule books, the forgotten realm campaign books, and the forgotten realm accesory books (lords of darkness, magic of faerun, silver marches and monster of faerun) and then there are the other books such as the monster manual ii, epic handbook, the manual of the planes and all of the character accesory books (songs and scilence for example)...of which the later group of books all seem to have had their artwork done rather cheapily in comparison.
Rating: 
Summary: Must have if you want to add variety to your games
Review: I really enjoyed this manual. When 3rd edition rolled around and replaced AD&D, I was a little disappointed with the monster manual. Although they DID get rid of some really [weak] monsters from 2nd edition, they excluded some that i really would have liked the stats for - gem dragons, banshees, etc. (Personally, i think that these creatures should have been in the first MM, but...)
One thing i really like is that this manual gives you not just new creatures, but whole new races- creatures with detailed society information and many different subclasses of the particular creature. It's nice to have an entire society layed out for you, just waiting to find a place in your world.
I would say that for a DM just starting out, the MM is good enough. For someone who has been running games for a while, and especially those who have PC that are higher level, MM2 is a must. It will help get more variety into your games and throw something new at your players.
Rating:
Summary: Great supplement! Monster value ;-)
Review: I was happily suprised to discover that the second monster manual contained monsters with a CR of 1/3 and up. In fact there's a number of monsters with CRs between 1 and 14 as well as high as 28. It's also great to see some monsters that I've been waiting for (Firbolgs, Twig Blights, Banshees, Automatons) as well as a few elemental based creatures (a personal favorite), some very gross and scary monsteres (Famine Spirit, Flesh Jelly), some very unique monsters (Stained Glass Golem, Raggamoffyn) and cool templates (Capture One, Death Knight, Monsters of Legend, , Half-Golem). Overall a great supplement with an awesome cover that will offer an abundance of new creatures to a DM with a group of any level.
Rating:
Summary: Good, could have been great
Review: I was pleasantly surprised by this book.
Pluses:
- Nice cover, good presentation.
- They really tried to include a picture of every monster, and (for the most part) the pictures actually matched up with the monster's description, remedying a big failure of MM1. The art is mostly good, with some really nice pieces (Chain Golem and Gem Dragons spring to mind) and only a few stinkers (breathstealer)
- The ability descriptions are much improved over the first MM. In my mind, that's a reason to have it around alone. Example: the description of Swallow Whole makes it clear exactly when a monster can swallow a hapless PC, something multiple readings of the MM1 ability description failed to do for me.
- Descriptions are more complete. Every PC-able monster has ECL listed; all monsters with Grapple-related abilites have Grapple bonuses precalculated, etc.
- I like constructs, and there's lots of them in here.
- There are some NASTY critters in here - if you GM a high-level campaign, I'd say this book would be a must-have. Don't worry, there's plenty of low-CR critters too.Minuses:
- Every second monster seemed to have Improved Grab and grapple-related abilites. I mean sure, it's a nice mechanic, but did they really need to give it to so many creatures?
- I guess I'm OK with the reprints of the Legendary Animals from Masters of the Wild, but did they have to reprint the Bogun?
- I would have liked some more inventive templates. The book has Big Critter (Gargantuan), Level Boss Critter (Monster of Legend), Centaur Critter (Tauric), and Multiheaded Critter (Chimeric) - all straightforward stuff most GMs could do for themselves. The Death Knight is about the only one I'd use.
Rating:
Summary: Passable content, excellent templates
Review: If you already own the Monster Manual or some other book of that type, you can live without the Monster Manual II. There are some neat monsters in it, but none that you just can't live without. The best thing about this book is the templates. They all seem pretty usable and most of them are pretty neat. My favorites are the Death Knight, Half-Golem, Tauric, and Monster of Legend. Using these templates, you can expand your roster of monsters exponentially.
Rating: 
Summary: Tentacles AHOY!!
Review: Practicly every creature in this book has tentacles, and those that don't can easily be linked to other monsters. It seems that the fundamental design for these beasts was to take a standard monster, add tentacles, give it a name, and draw a [feeble] picture of it. When will creativity and innovation return to the RPG world of monsters? I would reccommend a cool book like the Fiend Folio instead of this <hee hee> Monstrosity.
Rating:
Summary: Tentacles AHOY!!
Review: Practicly every creature in this book has tentacles, and those that don't can easily be linked to other monsters. It seems that the fundamental design for these beasts was to take a standard monster, add tentacles, give it a name, and draw a [feeble] picture of it. When will creativity and innovation return to the RPG world of monsters? I would reccommend a cool book like the Fiend Folio instead of this Monstrosity.
Rating:
Summary: A solid buy
Review: The MMII contains alot of new monsters for 3E. With their emphasis on "tougher encounters," alot of the creatures have higher CR's. Unfortunately, it seems that the good folk at WotC don't realize that you can make an encounter tougher without using a tougher monster. One of my favorite methods of accomplishing this is by adding character classes to monsters. Kytons are dangerous- but a 4th-level kyton fighter who has his Weapon Specialization in chains and just slugged down a potion of haste is a beat-down waiting to happen, even for experienced parties.Nonetheless, the MMII contains many monsters that simply should have been in the MM, such as the phoenix, death knight, and crimson death. They had to put some sort of limit on the original MM, so it's good to see that "missed monsters" from the older versions of the game will find a happy home in 3E. I particularly enjoyed seeing the Marrash back, one of the cooler monsters devised for 2E, and the malebranche, essential for any infernal excursion. MMII also contains monsters collected from published adventures (i.e. mooncalf, twig blight, bladeling) and some of the neater creatures from the now-defunct Chainmail game (stone spike, felldrakes, the Naresh demons). What I was most pleased with in the MMII is the handy tables at the front of the book, combining all the needed information that you have to flip around for when designing your own monsters. This alone will make it easier and faster for me to design my own critters. Overall, I'd recommend this book to folks who want clarified monster design and to incorporate the Chainmail creatures. I myself would like to see the Chainmail setting published for 3E.
Rating:
Summary: Another D&D masterpiece!
Review: The Monster Manual II is a quality book that matches the excellence of the other core rulebooks in the 3rd Edition D&D game (unlike the disappointing and overpriced softcover supplements). The monsters are inventive and give one plenty of ideas for adventures based around their unique abilities ... and have some fine details that just lend 'atmosphere' too, like the detail of the yugoloths leaving a faint trail of ash wherever they walk :) . Many of the monsters are tough, providing great opponents for more experienced characters. And although some of the art is truly poor, many of the pieces are magnificent also, at least in my opinion. There are few monsters in this book that you won't want to use in your game.
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