AD&D 2E Monstrous Manual feedback thread

[celestian]

OK, I found an error in the Red Dragon stats: The FG Monstrous Compendium has their hit dice as a base of 15, but it should be 13. Corresponding thaco is two higher than it should be as well. These Reds have been acting like they're as good as Silvers!

My MM shows base as 15.

[sasaki]

Haha! Whoa, that's weird. I'm not at home to look at my hard copy, but I've got a pdf of it that I was looking at:
red dragon stats.jpg
And both yours and mine show the same error in the next line of THACO: 7 (at 9 HD), which should be 7 (at 13 (or 15) HD). I would say that a 7 THACO goes with 13 HD to add up to 20 (though often HD and THACO add to 21 as well), but there are discrepancies in other dragons which I don't remember ever noticing:
type HD THACO
black 12 9
blue 14 8 (my copy)
14 7 (your copy)
brass 12 9
bronze 14 8
copper 13 9
gold 16 5
green 13 7
silver 15 5
white 11 9

Some other feedback about the dragon entries in the FG version not related to the above discrepancies; I definitely miss the table in each dragon entry that shows stats at different age categories. It's possible to reconstruct those from the information in the 'general' section, but it's missing the info about treasure type which is different for each dragon and changes with age.

[celestian]

Some other feedback about the dragon entries in the FG version not related to the above discrepancies; I definitely miss the table in each dragon entry that shows stats at different age categories. It's possible to reconstruct those from the information in the 'general' section, but it's missing the info about treasure type which is different for each dragon and changes with age.

You mean this? It's in the details section on each dragon.

[sasaki]

OK, here's an excerpt I found in the Draconomicon on page 64 where they reference base HD in relation to cross breeding dragons:

Hit Dice and THAC0
The offspring will have a base number of hit dice equal to the average of the parents' hit dice. Continuing with the example of the pink dragon: Reds have 13 hit dice base; whites have 11 hit dice base. The average is 12, thus the pink will have 12 hit dice.

When averaging hit dice, round to the nearest half of a hit die. Half a hit die corresponds to 3 additional hit points. Take a cross between a red and a blue (a purple dragon). Reds have 13 hit dice base, while blues have 14 hit dice base. The average is 13x hit dice, or 13 hit dice plus 3 hit points. All modifications for age are based on this result. Thus, a very old purple (+5 hit dice modifier) will have 18 hit dice plus 3 additional hit points, or a hit point range of 21 to 147.

Similarly, a chromatic cross will have a base THAC0 equal to the average of its parents' THAC0s. Round all fractions up.

All the THACOs they list in the Draconomicon for dragons 15 HD or above max out at 5, for whatever that's worth.

[sasaki]

Oh, jeeze! I totally missed that! I thought I had looked thoroughly through that section too. Thanks for pointing it out Celestian.

[RRFG]

Derro have Infravision 30 feet, not 3 feet as listed. (page 97)
-source Dragon Magazine #241 (page 42)

Which of course makes sense.

Screenshot 2022-11-29 223030.png