When my good friends Tom and Lyndsay announced that they had procured the 5e Monster Manual for me at GenCon, I was elated. Not being at the Con was hard on me and knowing they worked their collective charisma to snag one on my behalf made me feel all kinds of warm and squishy. I was so super pleased with the 5e PHB and - while I'm not as fond of the MM - I do think it's a pretty great book. WotC did a bang up job of collecting classic, D&D-defining monsters... but it was missing one thing: a challenge score index. So, I figured, you know what? Why don't we MAKE ONE.
And then I figured, you know what? I'm friends with Brian Patterson of d20monkey.com, one of the friggin' greatest artists working in RPGs today. So, you know what I did? I got him on board to help with the art and layout for The Illuminerdy Press' first publication: The 5e Monster Manual: Monsters by Challenge Rating index.**
Check it out. Download for free it in all its full-color glory or, if you prefer something a little more printer friendly, check out the B&W version here.