ToV and Generic Fantasy Monsters

When I was sorting through my books, I had the option to pull in the Expanded Monster Manuals, and this would force me to draw in the 2014 Monster Manual, and then I stopped.

Why include these?

My ToV Monster Vault has all the monsters I need, with better ToV support and the game's own take on these creatures. Also, why do I want to start pulling in Wizard's product identity monsters (beholders, mind flayers, displacer beasts, etc.)?

My OSR games do fine without any product identity monsters, and when they are there, if I want them, I prefer the basic mix of generic creatures to the official "Wizards blend." Once I start adding IP-specific monsters, my world becomes part of the D&D Multiverse, and I do not want that. I am fine without them, and this frees me up to discover new terrors and beasts instead of falling back on the old standbys.

I am a massive fan of the generic, OSR-style monster lists. I can put them in any world, and then use that as a "soup stock" for a base monster list while I develop my own.

Now, the ToV lists are different, and a bit more Migard-focused, but I have not experienced most of them before, and if I am playing ToV, then all my worlds are on the Labyrinth anyway. The ToV monsters fit there, and are universe-coherent. The special ToV dragons make sense, while variant D&D dragons would feel out of place.

So, for now, those non-ToV monster books are in storage, and I will play with what I got.

And the ToV Game Master's Guide includes 35 pages on how to create monsters! This is an incredible addition to the game, 10% of the book, and you can make monsters by starting at a CR and going from there. If I wanted all new monsters in an all-new world, I could have them. Do I want to make CR 4 "security robots" that are controllers? I got them in a few steps. Making my own creatures was one of the best parts of D&D 4E, and I heard they got rid of the rules in D&D 2024, which is a shame.

The players never knew what to expect, and I could toss together memorable NPC villains with the system, like a kobold baker who could throw wads of sticky dough to slow or entangle, or even blind characters or create dust clouds to interfere with missile fire with flour. That NPC was so hilarious; he stuck around, became a favorite enemy of my players, and eventually won the kobold cook over to work as a chef in town.

This is the process of crafting a campaign, figuring out which books you want to use, and brainstorming with the tools you have.