Fiend Folio: Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign: (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) [Hardcover]

Don Turnbull (Editor), Chris Baker (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1981

Excellent source of monsters for 1st Edition AD&D, April 2, 2000 By Henry Bent (Oberlin, OH USA) - See all my reviews This review is from: Fiend Folio: Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Games) (Hardcover) The Fiend Folio, if you can still find it, is an excellent source of monsters "malevolent and benign," but mostly malevolent. It introduces many creatures which are staples to 2nd edition AD&D, such as the githzerai and githyanki (from Planescape) and the Death Knight (from Krynn/Dragonlance). It has an excellent mix of extraplanar and standard monsters, so it will be suitable for any level campaign. However, I would recommend it especially highly if you were running a campaign that dealt with the Elemental planes, because this has very detailed information on Mephits and the Elemental Princes, as well as other incidental elemental creatures. All in all, it makes an excellent creature sourcebook for those of you still dedicated to 1st edition AD&D

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: TSR Hobbies, Inc.; 1ST edition (December 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935696210
• ISBN-13: 978-0935696219
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #235,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent source of monsters for 1st Edition AD&D, April 2, 2000

By 

Henry Bent (Oberlin, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fiend Folio: Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Games) (Hardcover)

The Fiend Folio, if you can still find it, is an excellent source of monsters "malevolent and benign," but mostly malevolent. It introduces many creatures which are staples to 2nd edition AD&D, such as the githzerai and githyanki (from Planescape) and the Death Knight (from Krynn/Dragonlance). It has an excellent mix of extraplanar and standard monsters, so it will be suitable for any level campaign. However, I would recommend it especially highly if you were running a campaign that dealt with the Elemental planes, because this has very detailed information on Mephits and the Elemental Princes, as well as other incidental elemental creatures. All in all, it makes an excellent creature sourcebook for those of you still dedicated to 1st edition AD&D.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An inferior UK cousin, March 12, 2002

By 

Kendrik Lau (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fiend Folio: Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign: (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) (Hardcover)

Fiend Folio is a second tome of monsters for the AD&D first edition game. It came after the original Monster Manual, but before Monster Manual II.

While the monsters in the Monster Manuals are primarily authored by Gary Gygax, the monsters in the Fiend Folio are created by players of the game itself in the United Kingdom. In truth, the book is a compilation of other people's creations, and some monsters (namely from the D series) from AD&D modules.

That said, Fiend Folio feature some monsters that survives to this day in the 3rd edition: the slaad, kenku, githyanki, githzerai, aarakocra, achaierai, bullywug, the ever popular death knight, mephits, gibberlings, grimlocks, penaggalan, to name a few.

Not to mention there aren't stinkers...there are a whole bunch of monsters of questionable worth, like the flumph, an unsually aligned (lawful good) thing that was once voted the most useless monster in AD&D, the gambado, the garbug (wasp bodies lobsters(!), forst men, tirapheg, umpleby, adherers, just to name a few.

There are also a few standouts like the Elemental Princes of Evil, and the nilbog (goblin spelt backward).

One big downer however, is the art. Although there are a few by old time favs like Jeff Dee and Erol Otus, but too many are by other artists whose style are too violently graphic and lack the fantasy feel of the first monster manual.

Overall, Fiend Folio is good, but not as good as Monster Manual.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Title Doesn't Lie, March 2, 2011

By 

Todd7 (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fiend Folio: Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign: (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) (Hardcover)

The Fiend Folio (1981) is a classic AD&D supplement that originated in Great Britain. It's filled with the classic black & white illustrations (very good artwork, I might add), but this time the monsters border on the bizarre and tend to gravitate more toward evil as a whole. For advanced campaigning, this is the perfect supplement to accent a complex mission. All of the relevant tables and treasure info is here, as well. So, if you're looking to spruce up your adventure with exotic creatures and add a little more darkness,then this book is for you. This is a Dungeon Master's dream!!!!