A collection of obscure monsters from AD&D 1st Edition's (in)famous Fiend Folio, updated for 5th Edition. The designers appeared to primarily draw on the original versions from that book, and ignored interpretations from later editions (the xill being a noticeable example); however, they also added some significant new twists of their own. All of the monsters could be the center of interesting encounters or even entire adventures.
My top picks would be:
- Dire corby: Bird-people that travel in loud packs that scour the Underdark; they're even known to invade dungeons and drive the local monsters out ahead of them.
- Eye of fear and flame: Powerful, possibly divinely spawned undead that force people to commit acts of evil.
- Forlarren: Satyrs twisted by devils into beings divided between heroic and villainous aspects.
- Killmoulis: Fey that are helpful allies but curse those that offend them.
- Mites: Fey that make everyone around them irritable (to include adventurers).
- Screaming devilkin: Fey that live to torment and spread panic, and can latch onto greater evils.
- Ygorl: The slaad lord of entropy, a great epic-level foe.
The sourcebook isn't perfect, however. There are some minor formatting issues near the end (which is kind of embarrassing to see in an official product). I admit to being a little disappointed in their updates to certain old favorites of mine, like the khargra and the norker. And they may have relied a little heavily on making creatures into fey (though that did provide some monsters with compelling origins). But overall, this is a great product worth picking up - and your purchase helps a good cause! (Originally posted on Goodreads)
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