Rating: 
Summary: More that's fun than foul
Review: The Monster Manual II may not be a can't-game-without-it book, but it's a treasure trove of amusing, in-joke monsters.For instance, Pinky and the Brain fans will have no trouble understanding the motivations of the Moon Rat. And, while the collective of the Clockwork Horrors bares obvious resemblances to the Borg of Star Trek fame, it has a swarm-of-locusts twist that can make it an appealing addition to a story-line. The Corpse Gatherer, too, makes a nice rampaging disaster for the party to save the village/realm from. For a young party, having an Orcwort move into their home town will provide the same sort of challenge. The art in MMII has all the benefits and drawbacks of a collectable card game. Some of it is quite good, some of it is quite funny, but the styles clash. Compare the comical the Bronze Serpent and Teratomorph to the nicely-rendered Catoblepas or Crimson Death to the photo-realistic Tempest. Any of these styles would have been fine, but all at once is no good. If I have any other complaint about MMII, it's the organization or lack thereof. Firbolg and Fomorians are included, as well as several new kinds of giants, but the Firbolg and Fomorians are listed under F, not G (either for Giant or Giantkin). It's just difficult to guess whether a creature will be listed under a group name or by itself. For instance, when looking for a Dragon species from the Hells, would you start with Dragon, Devil, or Hellfire Worm? I'd have used categories more extensively. The MMII provides several good new templates (Tauric, Titanic, Half-Golem, and Warbeast stand out), but the Monster of Legend template is nothing special. Any DM that couldn't think to glom on a few cool abilities to a base monster to make him into an end-of-dungeon big bad dude needs more help gaming than this book can give him. Some of the content in MMII has appeared before in builder books (Legendary Animals and expanded Dire Animals). Also, some collections of old favorites are back (Myconids, Gem Dragons, Dinosaurs, expanded Demons and Devils). Whoever wrote the descriptions for the new demons has a happy felicity of expression. For instance, "An abyssal maw is a disgusting creature consisting mostly of teeth." I wonder if that's what is pictured on the cover? There is a scattering of much-needed elemental creatures (Ash Rat, Breath Drinker, Immoth, Fire Bat, Galeb Duhr). If the Weirds were included for no other reason than to give us the section title, "Weird Society," that would have been reason enough, but these creatures give us additional insight into elemental plane ecology. The Tempest is fascinating as an Elemental of all four types at once. There must be many more multi-type Elementals waiting to be conceived. We also get a fair selection of creatures from the ethereal plane (Ethereal Doppelganger, Ethereal Slayer, Ethereal Scarab). Another gem of humor is the Crimson Death, a creature that has blood as its avatar and its seal, and whom one must imagine comes like a thief in the night to drop, one by one, the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel. The description of the Bladelings makes one suspect that the plane from which they migrated might not be Gehenna after all, but rather one of the MMORGs, probably NWN or Ultima Online. There is enough dark emotional residue running around the MMII to fill New York's Van Home pneumatic transit line (Nightmare Beast, Julajimus, Fihyr). This theme continues into the undead (Ragewind, Jahi, Meenlock). There are at least three creatures bent on creating cults around themselves (Rakarazyll, Jahi, Avolakia) and the Avolakia and Rakarazyll also fill out an infiltration/impersonation theme with the help of the lawful Ethereal Doppelganger. MMII also has a few stories come to frightful life (Julajimus, Mooncalf). One hesitates to inquire, though, how the Mooncalf got its name, since it resembles neither a calf, nor an absent-minded, foolish person. As with any group this large, MMII has a few creatures that rate an "uninspired" at best. The Reason Stealer may have been created merely so there would be at least one creature that steals intelligence points. The charisma-munching Jahi, on the other hand, has great role-playing possibilities. Some of the new giants are a little rocky, and not in a good way. The Spellweaver, which is clearly meant to be mysterious, succeeds--there is no hint in the MMII at what this creature wants, nor at why it was included in the book. Still, there's more that's fun than foul. At least random, unguarded treasure is likely to increase with all the new creatures who leave it lying about (Moonbeast, Darktentacles, Gravorg, Nightmare Beast). Though the name "Windghost" does it no justice, there is a porteugese man-o-war crossed with a hot-air balloon that is a marvelous invention. The Morkoth is a fine creature concept, too, for all that it looks like a reject from the casting of The Phantom Menace. The Desmodu look like such fun; they are to fruitbats what Wookies are to Ewoks, and then some. This Monster Manual II is a far better offering than the near-useless Deities and Demigods. The Raggamoffyn, too, with its Tatterdemanimal subtype, is more laughs than a barrel full of dead monkeys. Hmm, Barrel Full of Dead Monkeys. I wonder if anyone has written up a monster description for that yet. Maybe I'll try that when I get back from tea with the General of the Yugaloths in the Crawling City of Gehenna . . .
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as the first Monster Manual
Review: The promise of new and interesting monsters to confound my players with had me anticipating this book for many months. Sadly it doesn't look as though it was worth the wait. Now any serious D&D player knows that Rules are what make the game, not colourful books or pictures, Rules plain and simple. The MMII starts off on a good foot there, containing even more information than the original about abilities and feats and special qualities. However there are several changes with how monsters are assigned feats (not 1 + 1/4 HD, usually 1 + Int + 1/4 EHD), which doesn't mesh well with ANY monster stats from any of the other WotC books. 1 Strike Against. The book contains a large number of monsters (both New and Old) as well as several Templates (such as the Death Knight or Titanic ). The monsters also cover a wide range of CRs from 1/4 to 28. Now that brings me to the 2nd Strike Against the book... CRs. A CR is a great tool for a DM to judge when to use the monster versus his/her players. Unfortunately most of them seem to have been drawn out of a hat, being either VASTLY underrated or SERIOUSLY overrated. Also the CRs above 20 aren't suitable against Epic PCs, at most they are CR 21-23 when compared to the beasties in the Epic Level Handbook. With the CR system beyond repair, it is up to individual DMs to decide what is suitable to pit against their players. There are a few saving graces such as the Gem Dragons (although I prefer the ones in the Psionic Web Enhancement), the Effigy (balanced at CR 17), and some of the new Demons, Devils, Celestials and Yugoloths.
Rating:
Summary: An average quality book
Review: This book deserves three stars tops, anything more than that is too generous. Roughly about 1/3 of this book consists of 1st and 2nd edition monster conversions, some really good ones like the Hook Horror, the Grell and the Jermalaine... and some not very good at all (like the Loxo and the Raggamoffyn). Some of the new monsters are likewise very interesting and well done (the Automatons spring to mind) But, some of the new monsters are also junk (take the moon rat for example... a parody of Pinky and the Brain perhaps) Still, there is enough good stuff here to make the book worth having. My other problem is that the artwork is really hit and miss... more miss than hit. The picture of the Jermalaine is particularly bad as is several others. There are a dozen or so templates that are mostly good too but nothing someone couldn't do on their own with time. I'm still glad I bought this book but I can't help thinking it could have been so much more.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: This manual is pretty good, though it is not the best thing I've seen come from WOTC. The monsters were interesting (especially the Legendary Monster Template). Overall, it has been very useful to my campaign. It could be useful to you too, especially if you run higher level (10+) characters.
Rating:
Summary: A nice companion to the MM
Review: This provides many creatures that I remebered from second edition and felt were unfairly left out of the monster manual, of intrest is that for this edition they changed the layout of the monsters stats slightly and added in stats for the creatures AC when flat footed and for the ranged touch attack (serious players will note this as a time saver).
Also nice were the templates that could be applied to many creatures to vary the challenge.
Still missing is a good explantion on setting CRs and some of the crs are alittle off
Rating: 
Summary: A Monster Manual Must-Have
Review: Whether your looking to pit your high-level PCs again some real challenges, or if your just looking for a new variety of beasts
apart from the 1st Monster Manual, this book is a must have. The artwork is great, and some of the new monsters are truly evil.
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