Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/07/monstrous-mondays-d-4e-monster-vaults.html

When 2010 rolled around it was becoming obvious that 4e was not going to sell as well as previous versions of D&D. It still sold well, but it was not hitting the number that WotC and Hasbro wanted. Since the old adage was "Core Books sell better" the 4e team reintroduced the D&D 4th edition game with the 4e Essentials line. While no a new edition really, it was designed to make the 4e game a bit easier to play and run and make it more like old editions of the game.

It was not quite successful but it did re-interest me in the game after playing 4e for a bit and then drifting off to Pathfinder.

One of the "interesting" changes in 4e Essentials was the shift of the "Monster Manual" to the "Monster Vault."

They were called these since the first Essentials Monster book was a boxed set with the digest-sized book and monster tokens for all the creatures in the book. Nice touch for a mini-focused game.

Dungeons & Dragons Essentials: Monster Vault (4e)

PDF (and softcover). 320 pages, full color. No PoD option on DriveThruRPG at this time. $8.99 for PDF.

Released in the later part of 2010 this book was part of the Essentials transition line to help "save" D&D 4e.

The monster book of the D&D 4e Essentials line covered a number of monsters already present in the D&D 4e Monster Manuals. I'll get to that part in a bit.

The product came in a box, much like the Essentials DM's kit. Along with the digest-sized book, there were a bunch of tokens for all the creatures, a fold-out map of a dungeon/wilderness area (for the "Cairn of the Winter King" included adventure), and even some NPC/PC tokens. The tokens also featured rings to make a monster go up a size. So a large creature could be upgraded to huge for example. The PDF of this book includes the maps and tokens to print out.

The book format largely followed that of the previous monster books but presented in the Essentials style. Of course, you could use 4e and Essentials material interchangeably and the monster books are the best example of this. An effort was made not just to repeat monsters and stat blocks from the previous books. For example, the Monster Manual has an Orc entry and features the Orc Drudge (L4), Orc Warrior (L9), Orc Raider (L3), Orc Berserker (L4), Orc Eye of Gruumsh (L5), Orc Bloodrager (L7) and Orc Chieftan (L8). The Monster Vault has Battletest Orc (L3), Orc Savage (L4), Orc Archer (L4), Orc Reaver (L5), Orc Rampager (L6), Orc Pummeler (L6) and Orc Storm Shaman (L6). The art in the book is replicated on the tokens. Each token is also used as an "icon" in each entry.

There are 64 major monster entries, including Animals, here with anywhere from 1 or 2 to as many as 8 sub entries under each. Orcs have 7, demons have 7 and even displacer beasts have 3. This gives us just over 300 monsters.

I don't personally feel that the Monster Vault was designed to replace the Monster Manuals. After all the "named" demons like Orcus, Demogorgon and Lolth never appear in the Essentials Monster books. Though there is naturally some overlap, but it is nowhere near what you saw in the Monster Manuals for 3.0 to 3.5 or even the Monstrous Compendiums of 2e to the Monstrous Manual. I felt they were designed to be more complimentary.

The Essentials Line

Back when it was new in 2010 I spent some time talking about the D&D Essentials line and how it was what 4e should have been from the start.

I feel there is still a good game in here. I might need to delve a bit deeper and even get an Essentials game going sometime. There is still a lot of fun to be had here I think.

The core monster product for the D&D 4th Edition Essentials line, the Monster Vault is a boxed set that includes the Monster Vault book; an adventure, Cairn of the Winter King, and accompanying battle map; and a bunch of high-quality monster tokens for the creatures in the book (which you can use in place of miniatures).

The book: Starts off with an overview of the general rules for running monsters in 4E, then goes into the monsters proper. The selection of monsters is solid, covering both general fantasy creatures (dragons, orcs, vampires, etc.) and iconic D&D favorites (beholders, githyanki, rust monsters, etc.). Each is given a lot of monster lore (a significant improvement on earlier monster books from the 4E era), and the lore often provides interesting insights into D&D 4E's default setting. Each monster entry also includes a number of variants, allowing for more diverse enemy groups or for different types of challenges (or both). As for the monster statblocks themselves, they do an efficient job of laying out all of their options, often with evocative power names - though occasionally they can be dry reads for anyone not interested in tactical minutiae. I also found certain power descriptions (especially area attacks) lacking. (Natural language sometimes beats efficiency.)

Cairn of the Winter King: This adventure has a very cool premise (no pun intended), and starts out great. Unfortunately, once our heroes get to the actual dungeon, much of it feels generic, like it was randomly generated. There's some interesting ice-themed elements that help certain rooms (such as a room with frozen traps), but overall it's kind of a letdown after such a promising intro.

The Monster Vault is a must-have for 4E Dungeon Masters. I would recommend it for other edition DMs as well - not for the 4E rules, but for the lore and monster variants. It's not perfect, but it's definitely the most interesting general read from the 4E Essentials line. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

For those wondering what you can get in buying this product:

1.) Monster Vault Adventre 2.) Monster Vault Map 3.)Monster Vault 4.) ...and yes, the Monster Vault Token in pdf and jpg format.

I can say, this is your money's worth. Updated Monsters (not all monsters found on the 3 manuals though) but they fixed the messy math. Overall, this is a good product.

Very, very, very good!!! Estou muito satisfeito com o produto aqui apresentado.