3E is, I think, the story of high highs and low lows. If Monster Manual III was a high, Monster Manual IV (2006) is definitely a low. I mean, just look at that cover.
OK, so monster variants are now out of control. There are six pages on gnolls, including gnolls with wings, because, why not I guess. There are eight for new types of lizard folk. Blargh.
The real atrocity is the Spawn of Tiamat. 36 pages of the book is given over to them. Basically, they are the evil answer to the newly introduced Dragonborn (from the Races of the Dragon book). They are all weird mutations of the classic chromatic dragons, the product of Tiamat’s experiments for creating specialist soldiers for her war against Bahamut. The result is some Hong Kong knock-off draconians. To get a sense of how deeply stupid this is, just look at the Whitespawn Iceskidder, which might be terrifying if it wasn’t so damn comical. It feels like all this material should be in support of some big metastory supplement or campaign (like the Age of Worms adventure path that ran in Dungeon magazine around this time), but it seems like it was just a tie-in for the War of the Dragon Queen miniature set. I could be wrong, but if I am, don’t tell me. Ignorance is bliss.
Lone highlight: that giant demon dude who looks like a refugee from some crazy Simon Bisley comic.
