Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/03/monstrous-mondays-ad-2nd-ed-monstrous_14.html
What I think was one of the first big battles of the Edition Wars was the one concerning demons and devils. Namely, where the hell were they for AD&D 2nd Edition? They have not appeared in any of the Monstrous Compendiums so far and the official word was they were no longer needed. Which everyone knew was a smokescreen for TSR caving into concerned, busy-body mothers and the religious right. The discussions on Usenet had a LOT of opinions on why they were gone and then what to make of them when they finally came back.
Thankfully this did not last and by the start of 1991, we got demons and devils back, albeit in the names Tanar'ri and Baatezu. Ok, the names were changed but they were back. In truth, I never minded the name change and it opened up the lower planes to have more than one type of demon or fiend. Something we are still benefiting from today.
MC14 Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix
PDF 64 pages (70 with dividers and covers), Color cover art, black & white interior art, $4.99.
While not full of fiend per se, the Fiend Folio has always had a place in the games of many 1st Ed AD&D players. It was the second "Monster Manual" and it collected a number of creatures from various modules and the White Dwarf Fiend Factor column. It was also either really loved or really hated, depending on who you asked. Maybe that is the reason it did not get published until much later (1992) and was the 14th MC to be published.
This MC contains 65 monsters, Aballin to Zygraat, and is a fairly good representation of the monsters listed in the original Fiend Folio. Some new (the aforementioned Aballin) but a few notable ones had appeared in other volumes already. Drow appeared in the main Monstrous Compendium. Death Knights were moved to Dragonlance (a loosing their demonic heritage in the process) and Styx Devils had been published in the MC8. The "oriental" Dragons are not here, but Gem Dragons are. There is no flumph here though. We don't see those again until Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Two.
Also there are no explanatory notes here that many of the others also had. I guess at this point you are expected to know how to read the stat blocks. Not a complaint at all, merely an observation.
It is a mostly generic compilation of monsters and I mean that is a positive way. These monsters can be used anywhere. For example, I pulled out the Penanggalan and put it in my Ravenloft collection.
AD&D 2nd Ed may not have started out with fiends (of any sort) but they ended with not just a few, but a whole new outlook on them that changed how D&D would use them for the next 30 years.
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