Fiend Folio

Games Workshop, with Don Turnbull editing the project, originally intended to produce and publish the Fiend Folio tome (ISBN 0-935696-21-0) in late 1979. The Fiend Folio was intended to be the second volume of the Monster Manual, and would be officially recognized by TSR as an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons product, with the monsters mostly taken from submissions to White Dwarf's "Fiend Factory" column.[1] At the time, Games Workshop was the holder of the license to publish D&D game products in the United Kingdom.[2] Although the manuscript was completed on time by editor Don Turnbull, a business dispute between Games Workshop and TSR Hobbies delayed publication of the book for nearly two years. The Fiend Folio was finally published in August 1981 by TSR itself, who used the product to launch its UK division.[3][4]

Much of the material for the 128-page hardcover Fiend Folio was drawn from early issues of White Dwarf. Also edited by Turnbull, the magazine's "Fiend Factory" column featured new AD&D monsters, many of them created by gamers who read the magazine.[1] The bulk of monsters in the Fiend Folio come from British contributors, all of whom are acknowledged in the index. The book used the same format as that of the Monster Manual, clearly and succinctly defining the each monster's specifications and abilities.[5] Some illustrations by Emmanuel were previously featured in the "Fiend Factory" column from issue 12: the Assassin Bug, Githyanki, Grell and Giant Bloodworm. Besides creatures from the column, jermlaine, drow, kuo-toa, and svirfneblin, all of which had previously appeared in TSR modules, were included.[6] Turnbull also included creatures that had been submitted to the magazine, but not published in the column.[5] Aside from monsters, the book included random encounter tables for dungeons, outdoors, and the Astral and Ethereal Planes; these encounter tables combined creatures from the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio, superseding the tables in the Dungeon Master's Guide.[5]

The githyanki, designed by Charles Stross within the pages of White Dwarf, was introduced to most D&D players in the Fiend Folio.[7] The githyanki was featured on the cover, which helped it gain traction among the D&D community. Not all creatures featured on covers have done as well; the firbolg appeared on the cover of 1983's Monster Manual II and had as of 2007 slipped back into obscurity.[8] It began to see a resurgence with the 5th edition of D&D in 2016, when they became a playable race.[9]

Monsters featured in the Folio were originally submitted by Stross, Ian Livingstone, and Tom Moldvay, among others. Interior illustrations were supplied by Chris Baker, Jeff Dee, Emmanuel (who also illustrated the cover), Albie Fiore, Alan Hunter, Russ Nicholson, Erol Otus, Jim Roslof, David C. Sutherland III, Bill Willingham, Polly Wilson, and Tony Yates.

The publication of "Fiend Factory" monsters had one unintended side-effect for Citadel Miniatures, who had the contract to produce gaming miniatures based on White Dwarf features. As a condition of including "Factory" monsters in the Folio, Games Workshop transferred the copyright on those monsters to TSR, who already had an exclusive contract with Grenadier Models. This forced Citadel to discontinue miniatures depicting "Factory" monsters that appeared in the Folio.[10]

In 1983, TSR used the Monster Manual II to introduce a new orange spine cover design for hardcover AD&D manuals. The Fiend Folio was the only AD&D hardcover that did not have its cover redesigned to match the new style; instead, TSR let the Folio go out of print. In 1985, as TSR was getting ready to begin work on the AD&D 2nd edition, Gary Gygax stated that he was planning to incorporate material from the Fiend Folio into a revised Monster Manual for the new edition.[11] However, Gygax resigned from TSR in October 1986,[12] before the second edition was produced.

In 1999, a paperback reprint of the first edition was released.[13]

The Fiend Folio Monstrous Compendium (ISBN 1-56076-428-7) was published by TSR, Inc. in April 1992, for use with the 2nd edition AD&D rules. It is the fourteenth volume of the Monstrous Compendium series, consisting of a cardboard cover, sixty four loose-leaf pages, and four divider pages. Also known as the Fiend Folio Appendix, it contains over sixty monsters created or updated by members of the RPGA, including revised versions of many monsters introduced in the original Fiend Folio.[14]

The third Fiend Folio (ISBN 0-7869-2780-1) was designed by Eric Cagle, Jesse Decker, James Jacobs, Erik Mona, Matt Sernett, Chris Thomasson, and James Wyatt, and was published in April 2003 for use with the 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. Cover art was by Brom and Henry Higginbotham, with interior art by Glen Angus, Darren Bader, Thomas Baxa, Matt Cavotta, Dennis Cramer, Larry Dixon, Jeff Easley, Scott Fischer, Lars Grant-West, Jeremy Jarvis, Todd Lockwood, Kevin McCann, Raven Mimura, Matthew Mitchell, Puddnhead, Wayne Reynolds, Richard Sardinha, Marc Sasso, Brian Snoddy, Arnie Swekel, Ben Templesmith, Anthony Waters, and Sam Wood. The 224-page hardcover manual includes only a few monsters from the original, but added many new creatures, with an emphasis on monsters with extraplanar origins.[15] The book contains over 150 monsters, with approximately half of them being all-new.[16]

The Fiend Folio was released before the 3rd edition rules were revised to the 3.5 edition; the book's designers tried to anticipate changes due to appear in the revised Monster Manual and implement them in the Fiend Folio.[15] The extraplanar and swarm subtypes, and the allocation of skill points and feats to work the same way as they did for player characters, were introduced in this book, and then featured in the revised Monster Manual.[15] The book also introduced three new fiend prestige classes for monsters: fiend of blasphemy, fiend of corruption, and fiend of possession. This edition also introduced grafts and symbionts as new elements to the game; grafts are like cybernetics and symbionts are living equipment.[15]

The Fiend Folio also introduced two demons more powerful than balors: klurichirs and myrmyxicus. It also introduced a devil more powerful than pit fiends: the paeliryon.

Many of the creatures from the 1st edition Fiend Folio were updated to the d20 rules by Necromancer Games in their ENnie award winning[17] Tome of Horrors.[18]