A third-party collection of monsters for the Pathfinder RPG, clearly inspired by the AD&D 1st Edition Fiend Folio - its title is even taken from the Fiend Folio's subtitle. This is actually a conversion of another third-party product, designed for AD&D 1E, and that origin is reflected in the distinctly old-school writing style. Like the Fiend Folio, this book is full of strange and unusual monsters. There aren't any truly bad monsters in this book, although some feel less inspired (mainly the subtle variations on existing monsters) while others feel like a few random traits smashed together. (Also, for some reason, they included the wood giant from the Wizards-approved third-party Tome of Horrors.) One disappointing aspect of the book is that only half or so of the creatures are illustrated, but fortunately they all include the Pathfinder-standard text descriptions.

Some highlights from the book include:

• Arcanoplasm: An amorphous creature that absorbs and replicates spells.
• Blessed Ring: A ring of mushrooms that protects the good and devours the evil.
• Bone Sovereign: A skeletal creature that absorbs other skeletons to increase its power, and can command other undead.
• Brine Crust: An ooze-like creature composed of animated salt that can drain moisture from victims.
• Dark Woodsman: A wood-based humanoid that animates trees to fight in its other-planar wars.
• Goldencrest: An ooze infused with positive energy that targets undead.
• Ioun Golem: A construct that can compel others to gather ioun stones to reactivate it, after which it's basically a gem beholder.
• Haemovorid: A self-hating, bloodthirsty fusion of pixie and stirge.
• Inscriber: An undead creature that craves written knowledge and pulls it from writing around them; they can also steal or impart knowledge to others.
• Lostling: A spirit that died lost and alone in the wilderness, and tries to make others share its fate by getting them lost as well.
• Molt Naga: A naga that can teleport out of its shed skin, which fights on while the naga escapes.
• Rope Horror: Basically a rope golem, which can unwind itself to pass through small gaps.
• Skyshark: Part shark, part bat, all murder.
• Time Spider: A spider that builds its webs in four dimensions; adventurers may suddenly find themselves surrounded by its webs.
• Tulgorth: Plant-mold creatures that drain the life force from nearby plants, and can infect humanoids with spores to create more tulgorths.
• Vorpa: A giant wasp-scorpion hybrid. 'Nuff said. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

Malevolent & Benign joins the Book of Unremitting Horror and the AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual as one of my favorite monster books. there's a huge selection of original beasts, many of whom have a few useful or positive traits for clever adventurers to exploit. the huge assortment of magical plants found inside means you'll never run out of adventure ideas for a fantasy forest or jungle. An amazing and fun Pathfinder product.