The Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition (5e) Monster Manual has a plethora of baddies to pit against your players.

D&D 5e Monster Manual Description:

The DnD 5e Monster Manual starts by telling you how to use it. Then it gives you a bunch of ideas of where monsters may be found. From dungeons to towns to underwater ideas are given for where and sometimes how to introduce different monsters. The next five pages explain stat blocks. What the information means and how to read it.

Legendary Creatures get special actions when it isn’t their turn. They may only use one at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. When fought in their lairs’ these creatures are even more powerful. This is because their power is such that even their environment responds to their demands. Their lairs may take one of their actions with a 20 initiative.

With over 300 stat blocks the majority of the book gives you monsters to add to your dungeons. Many monsters have a back story to help Dungeon Masters include them in an adventure. Appendix A is full of wild animals and beasts your PCs might encounter. While Appendix B has NPCs you can add to your campaign.

Quick Review of the D&D 5e Monster Manual:

The 5e Monster Manual looks great. The art is well done and the book is easy to read. The stat blocks are streamlined and even have average hit points and damage so you don’t have to roll them.

The monsters are definitely more deadly and more useable over a broader number of PC levels. Thanks to how the monsters scale in 5e they remain relevant longer. It may take more of them to be a threat but lower level monsters still can be used effectively against a party.

The legendary creatures are designed better than the solo boss monsters in 4e. Being able to take legendary actions or possibly lair actions helps them keep up with a group of PCs.

Not only are legendary monsters deadly, many of the other monsters have a deadlier edge too. This can help keep the fear of dying in PCs and make encounters more immersive.

The biggest criticism of the book is the lack of an index by Challenge Rating. Thankfully Wizards of the Coast has made this pdf available that fixes this problem.

So should you pick up the Monster Manual? It might depend on whether you choose to run your own adventures or but pre-made ones. If you run your own adventures then this is a must-buy. And though I think no one will regret adding this book to their shelf you can probably skip it if you plan to only run pre-made adventures.