Throughout my level 1 to 30 D&D 4th Edition campaign, I watched the best and worst monsters designed for 4e crash against the sharp rocks of 4e’s powerhouse PCs. I’ve had the pleasure of designing the elemental princes Yan-C-Bin and Olhydra and the opportunity to design the most powerful officially published D&D 4th edition monster of all time, the elemental prince Cryonax. I’ve been lucky enough to write a dozen or so articles and adventures for Wizards of the Coast focused on dragons, demons, and creatures of the outer planes. I’ve seen them collapse into bowls of useless jelly. Since the release of the 4th Edition of D&D, I’ve obsessed over Dungeons & Dragons monsters. With a fantastic design, writing that inspires the imagination, and mechanics that make monsters fun to run and fun to fight, the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Monster Manual may very well be the best monster book ever written. If this book doesn’t give us the right challenges to put in front of our PCs at all levels of play, the entire game can quickly fall apart. For us dungeon masters there is no book more important and more heavily used than the Monster Manual. Without good monsters, the best abilities in the Player’s Handbook are meaningless. While we’ve applied great attention to the new Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Player’s Handbook, it falls to the Monster Manual to fill in the other half of the D&D equation.

D&d monster manual