Fiend Folio

Game: Fiend Folio
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 31st, May 2003
Reviewer’s Rating: 5/10   [ Perfectly acceptable ]
Total Score: 19
Average Score: 6.33

The Fiend Folio is so-called because it has lots of extraplanar creatures in it, although there are plenty of Material Plane creatures too, and that some extraplanar creatures happen to be fiends, although there are plenty that are not.

In summary, the Fiend Folio gets its name because there are some fiends in it. At least we can be sure that it’s not an attempt to ride on the success of the original Fiend Folio: Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign or avoid calling the book Monster Manual 3. Ahem.

If you did happen to want a Monster Manual 3 then you’d be in luck. The Fiend Folio begins with an alphabetical list of monsters and concludes with an index of monsters (surely they mean fiends!) listed by Challenge Rating.

The start of the book also lists monsters (fiends, they meant) by type and sub-type, explains creature skills and feats. There’s half a page of boxed comment to explain about the Planes of Existence. There are different Planes and creatures (some of which might be fiends) native to these Planes are extraplanar by nature.

The vast bulk of the book (224 pages in length) is given over to nicely illustrated pictures of monsters (some of which are fiends) and their stats. This is all nice and reassuringly familiar if you like the Monster Manual format and wanted more of the same.

If you want as many fiends, demons, devils and powerful extraplanar creatures as possible for your game then the Fiend Folio will really help. If you have the Tome of Horrors from Necromancer Games already then you’ll find the Fiend Folio isn’t such the boost it could be since a good chunk of the entries in the Folio have been taken straight out of the Tome.

The monsters (fiends) in the book come in clear categories of inspiration. Someone went away, looked at a bunch of mundane animals and gave them monstrous qualities; the book begins with a dangerous-looking ostrich.

Someone else went away, looked at a bunch of Dungeons and Dragon monsters and gave them a fiendish flair; the second entry in the Folio isn’t some mundane ghoul, it’s an Abyssal Ghoul! I suspect another author went off and re-visited myths and legends for inspiration which is why we’ve Bacchae and Caryatid Columns early on.

I’m not sure whether I’d put all the new Fey in this category or not, there’s enough of them to form their own group. Fortunately, someone else had the insight to go to the master of extraplanar horror (Lovecraft, by the way) for inspiration and that is why we have Dark Ones, Yugoloths and other crawling homages.

Okay. If was looking for originality in the Fiend Folio then I was always likely to be terribly disappointed.

To be fair on the book, if I was looking for fiends then I’m not bad off. The blurb quotes the Challenge Rating as from 1/8th to 25. That’s true. The 1/8 CR creatures are presented as symbionts, creatures (some of which are fiendish) that can be attached or inserted into the body in exchange for some stomach-churning advantage.

If you want you could splat them with your war hammer instead of letting them mess with your biology and that’s why they have side noted combat stats.

The break down of challenge ratings is a fairly good spread but it’s the high-level monsters (fiends, sorry) that define the book for me – and I think that’s a real success, I’d want a fair spread of CRs but I’d expect powerful creatures (fiends!) from this particular book.

There are about 65 fiends (some of which are monsters) with a CR of 10 or more and there are 5 with a CR of 20 or more. The Crawling Head is a Huge Undead (from the Lovecraft camp) and therefore doesn’t count as extraplanar and has CR 20.

The Myrmyxicus demon is extraplanar and has CR 21. The Thunder Worm isn’t extraplanar and also has CR 21. A Paeliryon devil has CR 22 and is extraplanar but the mightiest of the mighty are the CR 25 Klurirchir demons.

If you’re up at the CR 20 level then you might well be using the Epic Level Handbook and so the Epic Level conversion notes (switching feats around, mainly) are welcome.

As it happens it’s the re-occurring side note advisors that help keep the book on the level for me. The Blood Golem, for example, has a note to help integrate it with the Book of Vile Darkness and the Brain Golem has a similar footnote if you’re using the Psionics Handbook. Other asides point out how the creature (er, the fiend) fits into Forgotten Realms or Oriental Adventures.

Okay. Fair enough. These trailing notes do act as insidious adverts for the products in question but that can’t be avoided and the help provided by them (plus the nod of official-said-so) is well worth it. Attention to detail will win me over every time.

The Fiend Folio scores hits in the attention to detail section in other places too. I’ve already talked about Challenge Ratings but it’s worth noting that those fiends (or monsters) which could be used as a player character race, ala Savage Species, has a Level Adjustment as well. This makes me wish there was an index by Level Adjustment but at least the LA is there.

Just in case it’s not crystal clear I’m giving the Folio a soggy zero in originality … but this isn’t all bad. I think the book has some of the truest myth-to-game conversions out there; this is especially true with the Fossergrim, Kelpie, Selkie and Spriggan fey. If you want fiends or fey then this is a book to consider.

There should be some mention of the prestige classes at the back of the book; Fiend of Blasphemy, Fiend of Corruption and Fiend of Possession. The catch is that the PC or NPC needs to be a Fiend in order to qualify.

There’s absolutely no wow factor to the Fiend Folio but it does very little wrong either. The illustrations range from average to great, there aren’t any glaring typos, the book is easy to use and it is packed full of monsters.

Fiend Folio sets itself an unambitious target and achieves spectacular successes in achieving it. It just goes to show that there are different types of average.