Is the Core Monster Pack still worth buying now that the SRD Bestiary exists?

[callahan09]

I understand (I think, I may be wrong) that when the Core Monster Pack was first released for Fantasy Grounds, there was no SRD document and so the large SRD Bestiary in Fantasy Grounds right now did not exist. At that time, I imagine buyin the Core Monster Pack would have been incredibly useful for most GM's running 5E in Fantasy Grounds.

From what I can tell, the SRD contains over 300 monsters. That's roughly the same amount as in the hardcover Monster Manual / Complete Core Monster Pack, I think. But I have done some manual comparison between the two monster lists and I see that not everything in the Monster Manual is in the SRD (I'm not actually sure if the vice versa is also true, or if all SRD monsters are replicated in the Monster Manual as well?). So how does it line up, exactly? Does the SRD pull monsters from published adventures, too, or something, but exclude monsters? What percent is the same between the Monster Manual and the SRD?

For the (I think very large) percentage of monsters that are in the SRD and the Monster Manual, is there any difference between using the SRD Bestiary version of the monster and using the Core Monster Pack version? Is there more information in the "Other" section, describing the creature, maybe? I think the Monster Manual contains some text about all the monsters (or at least most), but the SRD has none?

The one thing I KNOW is a benefit, is that you get hundreds of art handouts of detailed paintings of most of the monsters, and you get tokens of all the monsters for use in your VTT maps. That in and of itself is nice and probably a reason I might buy the Core Monster Pack. I just wanted to know how important it is... What kind of overlap there is between the SRD and it, etc. The benefits of owning the Core Pack when so many monsters are in the SRD.

Side now, in adventures like Hoard of the Dragon Queen, or Curse of Strahd, do they come with all the monsters in their own module, or do you need to use SRD or Core Pack monsters to run these adventures? I only have Lost Mine of Phendelver right now and I know it DOES come with all the monsters used in the adventure, but I know this was the Starter Set adventure and so it replicates everything from the Starter Set box including pregen characters and the monsters and stuff like that needed to run the adventure. I wasn't sure if it was different for the more traditional adventures for sale or not.

[JohnD]

Yes.

[callahan09]

Yes.

Would you mind please giving me a little bit of detail on why you think it's worth it? This will help me decide whether to buy it now while it's currently 20% off, or if I'll continue to just use the SRD until the next time it goes on sale (because unless the reasons are pretty good right now, I can live with the SRD for a few more months probably).

[Trenloe]

Side now, in adventures like Hoard of the Dragon Queen, or Curse of Strahd, do they come with all the monsters in their own module, or do you need to use SRD or Core Pack monsters to run these adventures? .
Yes, all current WotC 5E releases contain all of the creature stats for the critters that come with the adventure. You don't specifically need the MM to run the scenarios.

[Moon Wizard]

The main benefits of the official MM are: that it comes with all of the creatures in the core MM book (not just the SRD ones); it comes with custom tokens for each creature which has artwork in the MM book; and that it contains all the rulebook text outside of the MM statistics (I haven't compared the two, so not sure of the magnitude of the difference, if any).

Regards,
JPG

[callahan09]

The main benefits of the official MM are: that it comes with all of the creatures in the core MM book (not just the SRD ones); it comes with custom tokens for each creature which has artwork in the MM book; and that it contains all the rulebook text outside of the MM statistics (I haven't compared the two, so not sure of the magnitude of the difference, if any).

Regards,
JPG


Yes, all current WotC 5E releases contain all of the creature stats for the critters that come with the adventure. You don't specifically need the MM to run the scenarios.

Thank you both for your answers :) I do really like having the graphics to go with the monsters, so it's worth it to me just for the graphics, but since I just spent about $90 on the 3 items on sale last week (the base program, the core class pack, and Lost Mine of Phandelver), I might have to hold off on buying this until it goes on sale again at some point in the future. Hopefully the Ultimate License goes on sale soon :) I couldn't convince my brother and some of his friends to buy the regular program last week when it was on sale, so some day I'll need to get the Ultimate License so we can all play together haha. I think it'll be cheaper for me to get Ultimate than to expect everyone to get a license. Someday in the future though I suppose someone else from the group would need a license if someone besides me will ever GM :)

[Nylanfs]

Tell them to get the 4 for 3 pack in steam.

[Zacchaeus]

You are mostly answering your own questions. Whether it is worth it is really down to whether you want completion or not. I haven't counted them but there are a lot of monsters in the SRD and the MM contains a lot more. (A very quick survey says that the SRD contains 5 Aberrations whereas the MM has 18; but there are the same number of Celestials in both). The SRD does not contain all of the artwork as you have gathered, nor does it contain all of the tokens as you have also surmised. Furthermore none of the description text is there so there is nothing about the creatures ecology, description or anything else that appears in the 'Other' tab including Lairs. There is nothing in the SRD that isn't in the MM.

As stated above all adventure modules come with all the necessary creatures and you don't need the SRD or MM to be able to use them.

[Trenloe]

As a quick example, here is a screenshot of the main 3 FG Modules. The left most is the Basic Rules, the middle is the SRD and the Right is the MM (click on the image to open it up):

14087

[JohnD]

Would you mind please giving me a little bit of detail on why you think it's worth it? This will help me decide whether to buy it now while it's currently 20% off, or if I'll continue to just use the SRD until the next time it goes on sale (because unless the reasons are pretty good right now, I can live with the SRD for a few more months probably).
Sorry my on screen keyboard was acting up. Others have given more or less the answer I would have.

If you are going to make your own scenarios, you'll want the MM unless you have significant spare time to do data entry.

[Trenloe]

If you are going to make your own scenarios, you'll want the MM unless you have significant spare time to do data entry.
With the release of the SRD this is debatably no longer the case. As shown in my screenshot above, there are more monsters in the MM than the SRD, but you still get over 300 monsters in the SRD. You can still do a hell of a lot with the SRD beasties.

[callahan09]

Thank you to everyone for the answers. It seems that the most obvious differences between the SRD and the MM are going to be (1) graphics of each monster, (2) tokens to represent each monster, and (3) ecology & descriptions for each monster. The actual availability of monsters is a little bigger in MM but not significantly so, it seems. So if you just want monster stats and nothing else is important to you, the SRD is probably completely fine. If you want graphics, tokens, and/or descriptions of each monster, then the MM is a very worthy purchase. The descriptions aren't too relevant for me because I have the MM in hardback, so I can peruse that and read descriptions. But the convenience of having those descriptions in the VTT is worth at least something to me. What is really worth it is the graphics and tokens, because I like that sort of thing personally, so in the future, the MM is something I'll probably be wanting to pick up. I can see how it's one of those debatable questions though, it is for me personally, because it has things I want, but doesn't really have much that I *need*, so it's a cost-benefit scenario that I have to figure out if I want to spend the money on that vs something else. The tokens will probably be my primary motivator to buy it someday.

[damned]

Play with the SRD today. You will know when you are ready for the MM.

[Varsuuk]

Damned's advice is spot on.
When I started it was a couple was very shortly before srd. I bought Ultimate (toyed with 4 pack for same reason you had and more because 3 of the players would be me wife and son - in end went Ultimate so could try to snag old friends and perhaps get some to try no risk) - I never even considered regretting it

Mainly because of the tokens more than the art. Again, I too have the hard copies. But also because as a completist (formally more than now lol) I wanted it and I always figured that the module I was going to use from old 1e/2e days would lead me to a mob only in mm and then I'd have to input it.

But mainly though, it's the tokens and peach of mind.

PHB, that for me is nobrainer for the convenience and you got that. Until you write or translate your own all bought modules come Pret-a-DM ;). And there are plenty of good ones to keep you constantly engaged.

[LordEntrails]

One thing to note, though all the creatures in the MM have tokens, some (not many) of the tokens are just letters.

[Moon Wizard]

Yes, any monsters without artwork in the actual print book were given letter tokens, since no art existed to make tokens with.

Regards,
JPG