Encounter a horde of monsters armed and ready to battle your boldest heroes or fight alongside them. The fully illustrated pages of this book are overrun with all the creatures, statistics, spells, and strategies you need to challenge the heroic characters of any Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.Over 200 creeps, critters, and creatures keep players on their toes. From aboleths to zombies, the revised "Monster Manual" holds a diverse cast of enemies and allies essential for any Dungeons & Dragons campaign. There are hundreds of monsters ready for action, including many new creatures never seen before. The revised "Monster Manual" now contains an adjusted layout that makes monster statistics easier to understand and use. It has 31 new illustrations and a new index, and contains expanded information on monster classes and playing monsters as heroes, along with information on how to take full advantage of the tie-in D&D miniatures line planned for the fall of 2003 from Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

    Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master uses the experiences of thousands of GMs to help us focus on how we prepare our games, how we run our games, and how we think about our games. It includes practical steps for focusing our preparation activities on those things that will bring the biggest impact to our game. Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master builds off of the concepts of the well-received GM's guidebook Lazy Dungeon Master, updating that book with five years of new experiences, new approaches, and new observations of the way people prepare and run RPGs. This new book is a completely self-contained work, which does not require anyone to have previously read The Lazy Dungeon Master. Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master offers a new focused approach for preparing and running our roleplaying games. The book includes an eight-step guide for lightweight game preparation and is focused on how we prepare for our games, how we run our games, and how we think about our games. Prepare what benefits your game.

    There's no need to guess the rules. You'll learn spells, monsters, travel, magic lists and combat rules.

    

    In the 'D & D' game, players create characters that band together to explore dungeons, slay monsters, and find treasure. The 4th Edition 'D & D' rules offer the best possible play experience by presenting exciting character options, an elegant and robust rules system, and handy storytelling tools for the Dungeon Master.The 'Player's Handbook' presents the official 'Dungeons & Dragons' Roleplaying Game' rules as well as everything a player needs to create 'D & D' characters worthy of song and legend: new character races, base classes, paragon paths, epic destinies, powers, more magic items, weapons, armor, and much more.

    It is a seminal RPG (role-playing game) and the inspiration for video games like World of Warcraft and Zelda, fantasy art, and countless other facets of "geek culture." This officially licensed illustrated history provides an unprecedented look at the visual evolution of the game, showing its continued influence on the worlds of pop culture and fantasy. It features more than 700 pieces of artwork--from each edition of the game's core books, supplements, and modules; decades of Dragon and Dungeon magazines; classic advertisements and merchandise; and never-before-seen sketches, large-format canvases, rare photographs, one-of-a-kind drafts, and more from the now-famous designers and artists associated with the game. The superstar author team gained unparalleled access to the archives of Wizards of the Coast and the personal collections of top collectors, as well as the designers and illustrators who created the distinctive characters, concepts, and visuals that have defined fantasy art and gameplay for generations. This is the most comprehensive collection of D&D imagery ever assembled, making this the ultimate collectible for the game's millions of fans around the world.

    This book is stocked with everything needed to design any fortified structure imaginable, including: Over 150 new magic items . More than two dozen magical augmentations for stronghold walls. Rules for magic portals, mobile strongholds, and trap creation. Five complete strongholds, including maps, ready for immediate use. Players and Dungeon Masters who want to create customized strongholds will find all the construction materials they need within these pages. To use this accessory, a player or Dungeon Master also needs the "Player's Handbook."

    It gives you the basics on running a great game, info for more advanced dungeon mastering, guidelines for creating adventures, and tips for building a campaign. It shows you how to: Handle all the expressions of DMing: moderator, narrator, a cast of thousands (the nonplayer characters or NPCs), player, social director, and creator Use published adventures and existing campaign worlds or create adventures and campaign worlds of your own Conjure up exciting combat encounters Handle the three types of encounters: challenge, roleplaying, and combat Create your own adventure: The Dungeon Adventure, The Wilderness Adventure. The Event-Based adventure (including how to use flowcharts and timelines), The Randomly Generated Adventure, and the High-Level adventure Create memorable master villains, with nine archetypes ranging from agent provocateur to zealot To get you off to a fast start, Dungeon Master For Dummies includes:A sample dungeon for practice Ten ready-to-use encounters and ten challenging traps A list of simple adventure premises Mapping tips, including common scales, symbols, and conventions, complete with tables Authors Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker wrote the hugely popular Dungeons and Dragons For Dummies. Bill has been a game designer since 1986 and leads the D&D creative team at Wizards of the Coast. Richard is a game developer and the author of the fantasy bestseller Condemnation. They give you the scoop on:Using a DM binder to keep records such as an adventure log, PCs' character sheets, NPC logs/character sheets, treasure logs, and more Knowing player styles (role players and power games) and common subgroups: hack'n'slasher, wargamer, thinker, impulsive adventurer, explorer, character actor, and watcher Recognizing your style: action movie director, storyteller, worldbuilder, puzzlemaker, or connector Using miniatures, maps, and other game aids Using 21st century technology, such as a Web site or blog, to enhance your game The book includes a sample adventure, The Necromancer's Apprentice, that's the perfect way to foray into DMing. It includes everything you need for a great adventure--except your players. What are you waiting for? There are chambers to be explored, dragons to be slain, maidens to be rescued, gangs of gnoll warriors to be annihilated, worgs to be wiped out, treasures to be discovered, worlds to be conquered....

    There is a rundown of new gods in the D&D pantheon, in addition to new feats, spells, prestige classes, and magic items. In addition, this title adds new and revised base classes to a player's character choices, and clerics in particular are provided with many new and updated spell domains and spells.This title also contains a wealth of material for non-cleric characters, so the tips and data provided will assist all class types, including those classes not typically associated with garnering divine power.

    Whether sinister or seductive, ferocious or foul, the creatures lurking within these pages will challenge the most experienced characters of any campaign. This supplement for the D&D game unleashes a horde of monsters to confront characters at all levels of play, including several with Challenge Ratings of 21 or higher. Inside are old favorites such as the death knight and the gem dragons, as well as all-new creatures such as the bronze serpent, the effigy, and the fiendwurm. Along with updated and expanded monster creation rules, "Monster Manual II" provides an inexhaustible source of ways to keep even the toughest heroes fighting and running for their lives. To use this supplement, a Dungeon Master also needs the "Player's Handbook" and the "Dungeon Master""'s Guide." A player needs only the "Player's Handbook."

    The well-stocked pages of this book hold an impressive inventory of merchandise to get you into and out of all manner of trouble, including:A caravanload of equipment, trade goods, alchemical items, poisons, mounts, and vehicles. Over 230 magic weapons and armors, such as the flameshroud axe, lance of the unending charge, and vampire hunter armor. Over 125 magic items, including new artifacts, such as elixir armor, rings of the hive mind, the ghost rod, and the bag of endless caltrops. Rules for vehicle combat on land, sea, and air. Within these pages, players and Dungeon Masters will find what they need to outfit their characters for nearly every contingency.To use this accessory, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide. A player needs only the Player's Handbook.

    Even if you’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, you probably know someone who has: The game has had a profound influence on our culture. Released in 1974—decades before the Internet and social media—Dungeons & Dragons is one of the original ultimate nerd subcultures, and is still revered by more than thirty million fans. Now, the authoritative history and magic of the game is revealed by an award-winning journalist and life-long dungeon master.From its origins on the battlefields of ancient Europe, through the hysteria that linked it to satanic rituals and teen suicides, and to its apotheosis as father of the modern video game industry, Of Dice and Men recounts the development of a game played by some of the most fascinating people in the world. Chronicling the surprising history of D&D’s origins (one largely unknown even to hardcore players) while examining the game’s profound impact, Ewalt weaves laser-sharp subculture analysis with his own present-day gaming experiences. An enticing blend of history, journalism, narrative, and memoir, Of Dice and Men sheds light on America’s most popular (and widely misunderstood) form of collaborative entertainment.

    Player's Option Rulebooks present an alternative approach to AD&D characters. Custom-craft your next PC, selecting the profession, skills, and abilities you want! Characters can even have additional ability scores such as Stamina, Muscle, Balance, and others. New proficiencies, talents, and updated psionics round out the Player's Option character. Be ready for anything with Skills & Powers!

    This mental manipulation is not magical, nor is it the stuff of superstitious gossip. It is the art of psionics.This supplement for the D&D game provides psionic character classes and prestige classes, psionic skills and feats, a psionic combat system, and a plethora of psionic powers, items, and monsters -- everything you need to include psionics in your campaign.To use this supplement, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual. A player needs only the Player's Handbook.

    The psionicist is a completely new character class for AD&D games, both for player characters and NPCs. Explore inner space! Now you can really put mind over matter with The Complete Psionics Handbook.