Time to see who rules the roost in one of my alltime favorite monster books. Again, I'm omitting unique creatures because it's non-controversial that Lolth is one tough cookie.Slaad (7 to 15+7 HD)
Giant, Fog (14 HD)
Dragon, Oriental (5-13 HD)
Nycadaemon (12+36 HD)
Eye of Fear & Flame (12 HD)
Giant, Mountain (12 HD)
Mezzodaemon (10+40 HD)
Lamia Noble (10+1 HD)
Retreiver (10 HD)
Troll, Giant Two-Headed (10 HD)
Enveloper (3+ HD)
The Enveloper has no upper limit to its hit dice. A truly ancient Enveloper could easily be the most badass monster in your FF-powered gameworld. That would be even weirder than the Hundred Headed Hydra that stomps around the Holmes Basicverse. More than once I've argued for the ultimate awesomeness of a world where the Fiend Folio is the primary monster book. And looking at the scant list above I'm actually kinda leaning towards the idea that the FF better fits with the 3 Little Beige Books than the Monster Manual. What would a game world look like where the original daemons and the slaad were the primary extraplanar foes? A world where the Eye of Fear & Flame was the number one undead baddie? Where people feared fogbanks because they might contain the mightiest of giants? Sounds pretty effin' cool to me. Maybe it's time to put my money where my mouth is and use the FF (but not the MM) for the World of Cinder. Though I may have to keep Taylor's suggestion in the last post for dino-riding titans. That's too rad to ignore.
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More than once I've argued for the ultimate awesomeness of a world where the Fiend Folio is the primary monster book.
ReplyDeleteIt is, at the very least, as good a way as any. As you know, that's how I started in fantasy gaming ... with a copy of the Fiend Folio to call my very own (because the game shop had a used copy for cheap).
(And I actually got the Monster Manual _last_ out of the three AD&D monster books, since the DMG had the bare-bones stats in the back)
ReplyDeleteSo, as a companion piece to these, have you thought about doing a comparison of the low-level monsters in each of the books (3HD or less)? I'm going to have to break out my Fiend Folio and see what a group of starting adventurers would be fighting in a campaign where it's the primary monster book (as opposed to "running away from in terror", which is what these posts have been showing).
ReplyDeleteJeff, some ones reading your blog, i think... or at least is mind reading you!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.headinjurytheater.com/article73.htm
notice the classic cover!
At the other end of the scale, you could have flail snail-riding nilbogs and jermalaine on flumphs.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right. A Fiend Folio world would have both kinds of awesome: cool-awesome and WTF-awesome.
I pity your players. <evil grin>
The only real problem I ever remember with the Folio is that, thanks to a certain Saturday Night Live sketch, we couldn't use the Needleman at all, without half the group breaking out into song.
ReplyDeleteFiend & Folio has always been my favourite of the D&D Monster books. I've heard a lot of people say otherwise, but I really like the artwork! :)
ReplyDeleteFiend & Folio has always been my favourite of the D&D Monster books. I've heard a lot of people say otherwise, but I really like the artwork! :)
ReplyDeleteOH, HELL YES. Most of the TSR greats of the time, plus an infusion of that UK AWE-SOME in the form of folks like Russ Nicholson (who'd go on to illustrate the Golden Dragon gamebooks, and others).
I think it's Russ Nicholson's work in F&F that I like best. His artwork in the Fighting Fantasy books give them such a groovy dark-fantasy feel, and that's a welcome addition to D&D.
ReplyDeleteNBPhAj Your blog is great. Articles is interesting!
ReplyDeleteKet2r1 Wonderful blog.
ReplyDelete