Keith AmmannThe Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters (1)

The real value of this book lies not just in the information it provides but the fact that it augments the Monster Manual (MM) so beautifully. While the MM gives you stat blocks for the monsters, this book gets you into the monsters' heads - they're fighting tactics, their self preservation (or not), and how you might encounter them (or how they'll encounter you). The latter pieces are what DMs, historically, have had to come up with on their own.Of course, as the DM, you can do whatever you want. The objective of D&D play is to have fun. But if you're a DM (seasoned or not), I think this book is a MUST have, especially for combat purposes. As the person who controls how monsters behave in combat with PCs, DMs should consider this book required reading. Of note though is that this book is not a continuous narrative. While the MM is organized alphabetically by monster/creature name, the author divides the book into sections based on the type of monster/creature and the entries in those sections are not alphabetized. However, there is a nice index in the back of the book that is alphabetic, making it easy to find what you want. For example, if you don't use the index, you'll need to know that a Golem is in the Constructs section and Mind Flayers are in the Aberrations section.Overall, a fantastic book and highly recommended.

This book is phenomenal. I ordered it recently for a friend and decided to look at it a bit before I gave it to him, and I loved it so much that I ordered one for myself. The amount of content here is amazing. I don't know what's in the description here on Amazon, but this book contains a breakdown of every monster in D&D 5e, containing battle tactics, breakdown of moves in combat, ideal ability combos, and additional information sourced from logical conclusions upon reviewing the stat blocks and source text. It's crazy. 5 out of 5, 10 out of 10, 100 out of 100. Would recommend to anyone interested in D&D.

Bought this book for my boyfriend and I who both run our own dnd campaigns, and let me say first and foremost that this book is brilliant. It’s full of interesting theory, ideas, and concepts from base 5e monsters that expand deeply into the concepts of using them in a campaign effectively. We were stunned with how addicting it was to read and have been passing it back and fourth since it came. I can’t wait to read other books from this author!

This is a very useful book to make your encounters more interesting, logical and story based.Covering most of the basic D&D monsters, there is a treasure trove of ideas too take your encounters with monsters and BBEGs to the next level.Worth a read!

This book is a collection of the best of Keith Ammann's blog on how to better gamemaster combat by "monsters."I recommend this book for those starting their journeys as gamemasters who want to increase the joy of the game for their players.In the early days of role-playing, many gamemasters (GMs) would read through musty tomes of military history and books on strategy and tactics to create more imaginative battles for their players. Somewhere along the line, role-playing became mainstream, and some of the intense study that went into it as niche hobby went away.Enter Keith Ammann who revived some of the art in conducting melee encounters.Keith has literally hundreds of descriptions of potential monster tactics divided into 14 categories: humanoids, humans, monstrosities, dragons, giants, undead, aberrations, fiends, celestials, fey, elementals, constructs, oozes, and beasts. (The hardcover version weighs in at almost 550 pages.)In each case, Keith looks at the description of the monster and uses both basic characteristics as well as special abilities to divine out an interesting and suitable strategy. He looks at alignment (to determine goals and disposition), strength, agility, and constitution to determine base fighting style, and then, special abilities help determine the fine points of tactics.All in all, this is a fabulous book for the aspiring GM that wants to up his or her game and make the game more challenging and fun for the players.I'm not sure if Keith and I have met, but his philosophy is a good one. Actions by the monsters should have some level of predictability, and it should make sense in light of the monsters' goals and objectives.If you are a very experienced GM then you probably already have a well established way of bringing your creations to life.

Full disclosure I am only about half way through this book so this review is not a review of the entire book.With that being said I am enjoy this book a lot. It has a lot of great info about how to effectively run different monsters for you D&D games. As a DM I sometime forget about social dynamics and planning for the monsters my players encounter. This book gives you advice on how to run your monsters more realistically and how they might act in certain situations. Since I have been reading this book my encounters have become more fun and both I and my players are enjoying the battles even more.Its a great book for both beginners and seasoned DM's alike, it's also hard bound and packed full of useful information, so at $13.99 (USD as of the writing of this review) IT'S A FREAKING BARGIN! Hell the Digital version is more expensive than the hard back so you better grab it before Amazon realizes they have lost their minds.Well worth the time and money. 10 out of 10 would recommend.