#Monstrous Compendium 8

[thecreaturecodex]

Sabreclaw

Image © TSR Inc.

[The sabreclaw first appeared in Sabre River, a Basic D&D module, and then was reprinted in the Creature Catalogue. And then in the Mystara Monstrous Compendium for AD&D, which is where this art appears. The sabreclaw is clearly an attempt to fill the design need of making minions challenging to high level characters, which is where their cumulative defenses came in. Since AC is much more scalable in 3.x and Pathfinder than it is in earlier or later editions, I gave it cumulative offenses as well. I did tone down its nastiest ability; originally, all members of a wing fully share hit points, so none of them die unless all of them die. Combine that with an immunity to 1st-3rd level spells in the original, and every fight with these is gonna be a bit of a slog. The transfer health ability is intended to capture some of that flavor without being nearly so hostile to the players]

Sabreclaw CR 3 LE Aberration This humanoid creature has greasy black fur over its body and leathery wings growing from its back. Its face is distorted, rugose and vaguely simian. Its left hand is prehensile, but its right is taken up with a single oversized claw.

Sabreclaws are unnatural creatures, created through fleshwarping to be soldiers without goals or desires of their own. Sabreclaws are found in squads, called wings, almost exclusively; a lone sabreclaw is likely to be the survivor of a destroyed wing, and is usually desperate, insane or both. Sabreclaws do not have a functional individual identity—they think of themselves as agents of their creator, and view other members of their wing the same way typical creatures think of their arms and legs as parts of themselves.

Sabreclaw wings fight en masse, dive-bombing a target and tearing them to pieces with their namesake claws. Their tactics are usually uncreative, but effective: gang up on a single target until it stops moving, move onto the next one. The more sabrewings are clustered together, the more effective combatants they become, and a sabrewing can even relay hit points to a wounded comrade to keep them in the fight longer. Whether a sabreclaw wing retreats to choose its battles, or goes out in a blaze of glory, depends more on the desires of their master than it does any tactical sense or personal choice for the sabrewings.

Unlike many fleshwarped monster, sabreclaws are created from non-sapient creatures, namely baboons. They are always made in batches—if a single sabreclaw awakens without a wing to call its own, it lashes out violently and uncontrollably. Fledgling fleshwarpers may view using animals to create fleshwarps as a lesser evil than transforming humanoids, but few creators are resolute enough to remain at that level of mad science. Indeed, sabreclaws are often used to gather “raw materials” by their masters. Sabreclaws are carnivorous, but require much less food and water than natural creatures of their size.

Sabreclaw CR 3 XP 800 LE Medium aberration Init +5 (+9 with hive mind); Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +8 (+12 with hive mind), true seeing

Defense AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+1 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural) hp 27 (5d8+5) Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +6 Immune poison; SR 14 Defensive Abilities cumulative defenses, evasion

Offense Speed 30 ft., fly 90 ft. (poor) Melee claw +6 (1d12+4) Special Attacks cumulative offenses, powerful charge (claw, 2d12+4)

Statistics Str 17, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 2 Base Atk +3; CMB +6; CMD 18 Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative, Mobility, Outflank (B), Precise Strike (B) Skills Fly +4, Perception +8 (+12 with hive mind), Stealth +7 Languages Common (cannot speak), telepathy 120 ft. (other sabreclaws only) SQ hive mind, transfer health

Ecology Environment any land Organization solitary, wing (2-20) or army (21-200) Treasure incidental

Special Abilities Cumulative Defenses (Su) A sabreclaw gains a +1 insight bonus to Armor Class and saving throws for every 2 sabreclaws in range of its telepathy, to a maximum of +5 for 10 sabreclaws. Cumulative Offenses (Su) A sabreclaw gains a +1 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls for every 2 sabreclaws in range of its telepathy, to a maximum of +5 for 10 sabreclaws. Hive Mind (Ex) As long as a sabreclaw is within telepathic range of one allied sabreclaw, it gains a +4 racial bonus on Initiative checks and Perception checks. If at least one sabreclaw is aware of combatants, all other allied sabrewings within the range of its telepathy are also aware of them. Transfer Health (Su) As an immediate action, a sabreclaw can lose 5 hit points in order to heal another sabreclaw within range of its telepathy 5 hit points. True Seeing (Su) A sabreclaw can see as if under the effects of a true seeing spell as a supernatural ability.

[oldschoolfrp]

The apparition glared at each, its coils twisting, its very appearance shifting and shimmering in the gusty winds of its creation. Both mages held it in check, watching the other intently, waiting for the eye blink, the lip twitch, the spasmodic jerk of a finger that would prove fatal.

"Mages' Battle" by Jeff Easley, from the 1988 AD&D Dragonlance Calendar, inspired by this passage in War of the Twins by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This also appeared in 1991 as a divider page in AD&D 2e Monstrous Compendium 8: Outer Planes Appendix, and in 1995 as collectible card #82 in Jeff Easley's "Heroes & Villains" series by FPG. It occasionally appears online as "The Battle of Raistlin and Fistandantilus."

[the-griffons-saddlebag]

💎 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Fang Keeper
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement) ___ A “fang keeper” is a dark silver necklace that’s adorned with one or more monstrous fangs. When found, the necklace has 1d4 fangs, which come from one or more creatures with a challenge rating of 1 or lower. Over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest, you can add one or more teeth to the chain or replace any teeth currently on it; the chain can have no more than 4 teeth on it at a time. While wearing the necklace, you gain the following benefits. 𝘽𝙞𝙩𝙚. Your teeth lengthen and sharpen slightly; your bite becomes a magic natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d8 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. If you bite a target in this way, you can immediately use your bonus action to clamp down even harder, dealing an extra 1d4 piercing damage to the target as part of the same attack. 𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙈𝙖𝙬. As a bonus action, you can choose a tooth on the necklace. If the tooth came from a creature that had the Bite action, it summons the spectral maw of that creature in front of you, which is instantaneous. Make a melee spell attack with the spectral maw; the spell attack bonus and damage depends on the challenge rating of the creature the tooth came from. If the attack hits, the tooth immediately rots after the attack, and it can’t be used again to summon the maw. On a miss, there’s a 50 percent chance that the tooth rots instead. | Challenge Rating | Spell Attack Bonus | Damage | — | 1 or lower | \+5 to hit | 1d10 + 2 piercing damage | | 2–5 | \+7 to hit | 2d10 + 3 piercing damage | | 6–9 | \+8 to hit | 3d10 + 4 piercing damage | | 10 or higher | \+9 to hit | 4d10 + 5 piercing damage | Once a tooth rots, that same creature’s maw can’t be summoned again. If another tooth on the necklace is from a creature whose maw has already been summoned in this way, it immediately rots. ___ ✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon's Saddlebag on Patreon for less than $10 a month!

[vixensdungeon]

I was reading through the AD&D 2nd Edition rulebooks and got the idea for a little project. The Kids These Days™ may not know this, but random encounters were a big thing back in the day! It wasn't just one plot significant fight each day, it was a gauntlet of dangers that would deplete your resources and force you to make tough choices. And that was the gameplay! Kissing elves was just a bit of spice on the side.

So what I'm going to do now is employ the twin tomes of Dungeon Master Guide and Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1 to cook up a random wilderness encounter table for the fabled sylvan realm of the Greendale, ruled by a wise and cute witch-queen.

Here's the end result as a 2d10 table, I will reveal the making of it afterwards:

(n/a)

1-4 megalocentipedes

1-8 wizards

1-6 polar bears

3-30 skeletons

10-100 sprites

2-8 giant boars

1-2 cave bears

10-100 sheep

4-16 wild dogs

2-20 wolves

20-200 cattle

2-20 ogres

Hornet

2-10 hobgoblins

30-300 barbarians

4-12 gnomes

1-20 treants

Young gold dragon

1-4 nymphs

First, I made a list of monsters that would live in my chosen climate and terrain (sub-arctic forest), including only diurnal ones. I divided them up by rarity, and then put them on a template provided in the DMG. Pretty simple!

[mask131]

Some info that might interest you, taken from an article about Medusa by Dimitris Karakostas - from the "Dictionary of Feminine Myths" (or "Female Myths" depending on how you translate) (I wanted to continue my "Myth of" series, but I realize not many people are interested in huge paragraphs so I'll focus on a bullet-list format from now on)

The first time Medusa gets an actual individuality is on Hesiod's Theogony, where she is described as "Medusa with the atrocious fate", one of the three Gorgons. It is the first time we have her proper name, and not just her called as a "Gorgon", and this denotes how unlike her sisters Stheno and Euryale who will forever stay flat and background characters, Medusa will be the only one with a lasting heritage and developed character (while the only mortal of the sisters, it is her who stayed immortal through the art).

In all the other Greek texts, she is usually just a monster or monstrous head whose presence is an ornament or accessory in the tales of other heroes. In The Odyssey (XI), Odysseus and his companions dread the arrival of Gorgo's head, a "dreadful monster" that Persephone sends after them to punish their trespassing - for they are living beings in the realm of the dead. Pindar, in his 12th Pythic, describes the sinister music/melody of the wild Gorgons, and the "chubby-cheeked" or "fair-cheeked" (depending on how you translate) of Medusa, but no mention of Perseus. In Euripides' tragedy Herakles, the Gorgon is described as "daughter of Night, with a hundred noisy vipers", but she is here a metaphorical/comparativ figure tied to a "music of delirium" and the ecstasy caused by a dance. Plato, in his Phaedre tragedy, uses the Gorgons (just like the Pegasuses, in plural) as part of a larger description of all sorts of strange monsters, all "unconceivable": they are beings that mankind's logic or reason cannot reach or even understand.

If we want an actual story for Medusa, not just her appearing as a little detail in stories, our first record is from the first half of the 5th century BCE. Pherecyde of Leros, wrote in the second book of his "Histories", the tale of Perseus defeating Medusa. Pherecyde of Leros was a great scholar of Antiquity who was known to have created an enormous compendium of many of the myths of Greece, a true encyclopedia - unfortunately, most of his work is lost today, we have only fragments preserved. Hopefully, Pherecyde's treatment of the story of Perseus and Medusa was preserved thanks to a scholia of Apollonios of Rhodes. But it should be noted that this story misses two elements that would prevail in later versions: A) there is no tale of a metamorphosis or transformation of Medusa, implying she always was an ugly monster B) There is no record of Perseus delivering or even encountering Andromeda.

These elements come with the second version we have of "Medusa's story": Apollodorus, inspired by Pherecyde's text, wrote his own record of the Medusa story. However the problem here is that we cannot exactly localize in time Apollodorus' story. Study of his writing proved that he was NOT Apollodorus of Athens, but rather a man who lived at a later date, and all we can say is that his "Bibliotheca" was written between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE. In his version of the story, Perseus does encounter Andromeda, and Medusa is said to have been once beautiful but turned into a monster by Athena - however, here it is said she was transformed as her punishment for her vanity, as she got into a fight with the goddess, claiming she was more beautiful than her.

The most "complete" version we have of the Medusa story is also non-Greek: it is the story told in the fourth book of Ovid's Metamorphosis, a Latin text written between years 2 and 8. Fascinatingly, as with earlier texts, Medusa is not a primary character or focus-character in this text: the story written by Ovid is the one of Perseus, of Andromeda and of Atlas. Medusa appears as a head, first as an object belonging to Perseus, both a trophy and adeadly weapon ; then as a mean of deliverance, setting free from their torments both Andromeda and Atlas. It isn't until the very end of the story that Perseus reveals the backstory of Medusa and the reason why she was transformed into the monster she is now: and this tale, which closes the hero's adventures, changes the reason of the metamorphosis, so that now Athena punished the beautiful Medusa for having sex with Poseidon inside the goddess' temple.

While it seems that Medusa was always just a detail or ornament in other people's story, a side-character in the legend of Perseus and Andromeda, there is another version defended by Karakostas, and first brought forward by Jean-Pierre Vernant: the legend of Perseus and Andromeda is actually the mythical "background", the setting invented to explain why the entire power and character of Medusa, a key element of Greek mythology, is focused in a disembodied head.

Karakostas notes that Medusa is actually "stronger" of a character than Perseus due to this fact: Medusa's powers and intensity, her supreme beauty or abominable ugliness, makes her autonomous, identifiable and memorable on her own. In reverse, Perseus' story is entirely defined by his relationshp to Medusa, how he kills her and what uses he has of her head - Medusa both opens and closes Perseus' story (at least by Ovid's account).

Medusa is the Other. She is Other towards men, because she is the dangerous and threatening female. Yet, she is other towards women, because art depicted her hairy or even bearded. She is other towards humanity, because she is an animal being (snake for hair, bird wings, tusks of a boar, sometimes she appeared as half-woman half-mare). She is also other towards living beings, because her gaze kills and she belongs to the underworld.

Dante, in his "Inferno", reused Homer's apparition of Medusa in the Underworld and highlight the meaning of such appearance: Medusa arrives when the one who visits the Underworld, the realm of the dead, starts being paralyed with fear. Dante, just like Ulysses, dreads Medusa when he arrived far enough/deep enough into Hell that he starts fearing he might never return to the "above", to the world of light. In a sense, Medusa embodies there the despair of living beings in front of an all-destroying, supremeky-ruling death.

It was Freud, through his text "Das Medusenhaupt" (The Head of Meduse) who brought the idea of Medusa as the "phallic mother". His psychanalytic reading of the legend led to an entire symbolism of the Gorgon as a sexual and erotic symbol throughout the 20th century, tied to how the women of the century redefined the norms of sensuality and the relationships between the two genders: the Gorgon bcame the castrating mother, or the castrating woman. Though the irony of it is that, in the texts of Antiquity, Medusa is not at all a motherly figure. Yes she does have children, she births Pegasus and Chrysaor, but it is almost by accident and in the most un-motherly way possible.

[rpgsandbox]

Memento Mori - A Roleplaying Game of Dreams and Corruption

Actual photo of the first edition of Memento Mori

Memento Mori is a folk-horror roleplaying game set in Europe in 1347.

The Black Death is exacting its toll on Europe, and it will quickly exterminate a third of the population. The characters are a group of Drifters, infected people who come in contact with dark creatures from folklore due to their condition. With every new horror they experience, the characters will become ever less human and increasingly similar to the creatures they are fighting.

Only the Dream burning within them can keep them alive. What will they sacrifice for it?

Actual photos from the Italian edition of Memento Mori

Memento Mori has an original game system created to highlight the process of corruption and transformation undergone by the characters.

The system uses two pools of six-sided dice distinguished by color. White dice represent the human skills of Drifters, while black dice represent the supernatural powers and monstrous features that they develop.

The Drifter Sheet

When rolling dice, the Players’ objective is to roll as many 5 and 6 as possible in order to overcome the difficulty set by the Narrator. The powers developed during the Drifters’ adventure come at a steep price, because the Players are forced to choose a part of their character to sacrifice whenever the corruption grants them a new ability.

Every element on the character sheet is subject to change in order to achieve their Dream and unlock new powers.

We will produce 3 books for Memento Mori, plus a book-shaped box containing official dice and tarots. You will only need the Memento Mori corebook to start playing.

MEMENTO MORI: [Corebook] 200+ pages in black and white, hard cover, A5 format. The corebook contains everything you need to play, the setting, and a short introductory adventure complete with four Drifters ready to play. All neatly binded, with a canvas-style hardcover with gold lettering, and a ribbon bookmark.

CODEX GIGAS: 200+ pages in black and white, hard cover, A5 format. This expansion is composed of Addendum (setting), Bestiarium (creatures), Herbarium (plants), and Lapidarium (minerals). Thanks to the supernatural myths, descriptions, treasures, and ingredients in this book, the Narrator can lead the group of Drifters beyond the boundaries of the known world.

EX VELUM: 150+ pages in black and white, hard cover, A5 format. In this compendium of esoteric knowledge from Beyond the Veil you will find everything that was previously kept secret from Drifters because too dangerous and too powerful. Rules to use Tarot cards, and menacing revelations, a Lost Bestiarium (secret creatures), Legends from the Ephemeral Land (prominent individuals), and a Grimorium (rituals and magical items).

ARCA FATI: Box shaped like an A5 hardcover book. This box holds the most precious materials from this edition of Memento Mori. The Tarot deck and the custom-made dice, as well as many other surprises that we may unlock as stretch goals during our campaign. NOTE: You will need the Ex Velum supplement to use Tarots in Memento Mori.

DEATHLESS EDITION: Slipcase with a detachable magnetic 3-panel Narrator Screen. This slipcase holds the 3 Memento Mori books, and the Arca Fati box. The front is a detachable 3-panel Narrator Screen that features summary tables for all the main game rules.

Backerkit campaign ends: Feb 8, 2024 at 10:59pm GMT.

Website: [Two Little Mice] [facebook]

[bloobluebloo]

Can you rank the phantom ganons by design?

ARIGHT

PHANTOM GANON (OCARINA OF TIME) His introduction in the Spirit Temple, where you're first duped into believing it's actually Ganondorf before he dons the mask is so sick for real. I always found it interesting that Ganondorf puts a mask on him and seals his mouth shut, while the Phantom looks like his younger self, to have very interesting implications as to what Ganondorf thinks of himself, not wanting to see or hear this ghost of his past. I always felt so sorry that out of all the monsters under his command, Ganondorf seals him away in the pocket between dimensions instead of letting him die or explode like everyone else. Why do you hate yourself so much Ganondorf do we need to talk? I'm biased he's the definitive Phantom Ganon for me so 10/10.

PHANTOM GANON (WIND WAKER/FOUR SWORD ADVENTURES/HYRULE WARRIORS) I find it interesting that Wind Waker Ganondorf creates a Phantom that is completely different, having a more monstrous and demonic appearance with the horns and the tattered cape. I wonder if this is supposed to be a reflection of his past self, a monster only meant to kill and destroy with similar capabilities to his past self. Is this nostalgia for the past or so much hatred for the past that he wishes to unleash it upon you? Also he is the phantom that reappears the most weirdly enough. Trondorf. 9/10

PHANTOM RIDERS (TWILIGHT PRINCESS) I honestly thought having these riders beside Ganondorf in Twilight Princess was really fucking cool. I think it's the only time Ganondorf fights alongside his phantoms. It kind of gives off the air of Twilight Princess Ganondorf himself being like a ghost of Hyrule's past, a consequence of their actions that continues to haunt Hyrule and its descendants, and will continue to do so. I like how the mask and horse are reminiscent of OoT's Phantom Ganon. 8/10.

PHANTOM GANON (TEARS OF THE KINGDOM) I love this Phantom Ganon. Hell, if TotK Ganondorf decided to throw hands with you while staying like this I would have been extremely okay with it because he is just so fucking creepy and cool in all the right ways. I love how huge he is, that he retains all the abilities Ganondorf himself has, the torn robe, the broken jewelry just holding on by wishes and dreams, the fact that he looks like he is stuck between Ganondorf's regular human form and demon king form, and that he also has a replica secret stone. (Is it a replica? it says in the compendium that Ganondorf created him from his own flesh and blood so-). I like that in TotK Ganondorf seems rather proud of his Phantom, he just loves how his Phantom terrorizes Hyrule while he chills in his gloom spa. 9.5/10. SO my official ranking? 1. OoT 2. TotK 3. WW/FSA/HW 4. TP

[paperanddice]

Belker are aggressive and hateful elementals of air and choking smoke. They appear demonic, roiling smoke in a large, clawed and winged form with glowing red eyes, and some theorize that they are a form of hybridization between demons and elementals (perhaps created by the Diabolist's intervention). There is no solid evidence of this theory however, as anti-demon spells and weapons have no additional effects against belkers, and they only tolerate other elementals. Specifically only air and some fire elementals, as earth and water seem to infuriate them as much as humanoids.

A belker attacks by allowing part of its vaporous body to flow into a creature's nose and mouth, filling its throat and lungs with rasping, clawing smoke. The pain of this immobilizes a foe, and those who cannot force the belker out of their lungs in time will have their insides shredded to a bloody mess.

Blindheim are a species of squat, 4 foot tall frog-like animals that primarily reside in the Underworld. They are hunters that make use of bright lights to confuse and blind prey. The blindheim's eyes always glow a dull red, but they can withdraw the thick membrane over their eyes to unleash a much brighter flash when hunting or confronted by a threat. While blindheims are rarely aggressive on their own, retreating when confronted by anything larger than them, they can be driven into violence under pressure. When their home is invaded they will seek to blind and shred the intruder, and many underground dwelling societies will capture them for different uses. Drow and derro will carry blindheim with them on raids, training them to unleash their blinding gaze on command. Even more cruel, some drow nobles will suspend bound blindheim as exotic light sources during major events as a show of wealth and taste.

Belkers originate from the 2nd edition D&D Monstrous Compendium Planescape Appendix III, and Blindheim originate from the Pathfinder 1e Bestiary 2. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as access to my premade adventures and other material I’m working on, consider backing me there!

Belker  Large 3rd level spoiler [elemental]  Initiative: +9 Smoke Claws +8 vs. AC - 16 damage. Lung Invasion +8 vs. PD - The target partially inhales the belker (save ends). While it has the belker inhaled, the target is stuck and weakened, and the belker automatically hits it with smoke claws attacks. The effect also ends if the belker moves or uses lung invasion again. Flight. Smoke Form: 1/battle, as a quick action, the belker can shift its body to pure smoke until the end of its next turn. While in this form, the belker gains resist damage 18+ to all damage except force. AC 18 PD 17 MD 13 HP 88

Blindheim  1st level troop [beast]  Initiative: +4 Bite and Claws +5 vs. AC - 5 damage. Natural Even Hit: The blindheim can pop free from the target. [Group Ability] C: Blinding Gaze +5 vs. PD (1d4 nearby enemies) - The target is hampered due to blindness (save ends). Sustain: The blindheim can repeat this attack as a standard action on its next turn without expending another use of its group ability. If it goes a turn without using this attack, it can no longer sustain the action. Group Ability: For every two blindheim in the battle (round up), one of them can use blinding gaze once during the battle. Swimmer and Wall Climber. AC 17 PD 16 MD 10 HP 26

[flailsnails]

A Spelljammer Buyer's Guide

"Spelljammer's confirmed! Great! But," you say, "what does that mean, exactly? What is Spelljammer?" Here is a list of the core TTRPG products in the Spelljammer line, so you can get in some reading ahead of the slipcased set dropping in August.

All of these boxed sets and books were written for 2nd Edition AD&D, so they come with the caveat that most of their rules are outdated, and a lot of the material hasn't aged well.

Where can you get these things? The DM's Guild is having a Spelljammer sale until May 30 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. The boxed sets look like they're priced at $6, and the saddlebound softcovers at $3 each, with the exception of the core set ($10) and the War Captain's Companion ($8). If you're looking to lay out quite a bit more money for an original print, you could check eBay or Amazon, or trot down to your Friendly Local Game Store. If you don't want to spend any money at all, I am sure you can find pirated copies on the Web with a little effort, but I'm sure I don't know where.

The list below is organized in original print order.

Without further ado, I Have Opinions!

Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space is the core box set. I consider it essential for the chapters on creating planets and star systems. It also outlines a wide variety of spelljamming engines, describes many ships, and introduces a few core monsters such as the arcane and the neogi. The character rules are obsolete and both the spells and the monsters are going to need revision.

SJA1: Wildspace is an introductory adventure. Groundling adventurers sign on to a ship to find and destroy a superweapon developed by the beholders. Twists and turns and swarms of beholders await. Fun, but not essential. Adaptation could be tricky because beholders are way more powerful these days.

SJR1: Lost Ships contains a chapter clarifying rules for adventures in space, including drifting, messing about with ropes, and tethering items to you. It also includes some new equipment and a few proficiencies. The bulk of the book is a few loosely-connected adventures which can be easily adapted. The new ships and monsters were reprinted in later products. I recommend picking this up for the expanded rules, equipment and adventures.

SJA2: Skull & Crossbows is a collection of a few adventures. You may find the quality is irregular. Not essential.

MC7: Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix (I) is the first of two monster books. This is where the giant space hamster is found. It also contains a lot of beholder-kin and more asteroids with giant jaws than I can shake a stick at. I would recommend this book, but it's not essential.

SJA3: Crystal Spheres details four new crystal spheres. The heir to the throne of Thesalys hires the PCs to foil the plot of the vampire T'Laan to snuff out Thesalys' sun. Metal.

SJR2: Realmspace details Toril's sister planets. The best part of this book is the Batship, illustrated on the cover, which can swing its hind parts forward to ram other ships. It's probably of interest to Realms campaigns, not so much to others.

MC9: Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix (II) is the second book of monsters. It reprints a few monsters from the books above, and adds a lot more. The business-oriented penguin creatures called dohwar appear here, together with the scro and their megaweapons, the witchlight marauders. The aperusa are pretty stereotypical Travellers, telling fortunes and picking pockets, so they haven't aged well. Like the first volume, generally very useful but not essential.

SJA4: Under the Dark Fist is the first real effort to write a Spelljammer setting without any prior settings getting involved. The Vodoni, a group of interstellar wolfmen, are getting set to expand their empire. Useful for the lore, but perhaps a bit derivative.

SJR4: Practical Planetology is a collection of planets and new monsters to live there. They're intended to be placed into a Spelljammer game as the DM desires. Pretty useful, pick it up if you can.

The Legend of Spelljammer is the second boxed set, and finally details the giant ship, the Spelljammer, which is teased in the core set with a few paragraphs and a large-scale map. Perhaps nothing they could have written would have lived up to the hype, but the actual content still feels like a let-down. Get it for the new maps, but consider rejecting its reality and substituting your own.

SJS1: Goblin's Return details the Unhuman War and establishes that it took place centuries ago, and ended when the elven Imperial Navy nearly wiped out the goblins. It reprints some monsters from MC9, above. Get it for the Unhuman War meta-plot lore, but your mileage may vary on the rest of it, although the adventure is essentially an espionage mission, which feels like a change of pace.

SJQ1: Heart of the Enemy follows on from SJS1, above, and is a whopping 96 pages long. The scro are preparing to unleash a second Unhuman War, and they have their own planet-destroying superweapon... yep. They only lack the key that turns it on, which the party has to race to find while trying to ferret out a spy in their midst. This one's up to you. I could do without it.

War Captain's Companion is the third box set. It includes new spelljamming rules, including a set of proficiencies that contradicts those that came before, 64 pages reprinting every spelljamming vessel from the products above and adding a few new ones, and a tactical combat game. I would get it for the ships.

SJR5: Rock of Bral is essential, in my opinion. It details a city in the stars, which can serve as a home base for the party and a site to play politics in, as Prince Andru is suspected of doing in his family to seize the throne. Some parts of it have not aged well, because it includes a neighborhood of Shou, from the Forgotten Realms, and they have a branch of Yakuza that vies with the other thieves' guilds in the city for dominance. But they can be omitted without harm to the overall book, I think.

CGR1: The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook is also essential for its advice on the day-to-day running of a spelljamming vessel and on developing a Spelljammer campaign. Its character rules are obsolete, and its set of proficiencies again contradicts what has come before.

SJR6: Greyspace is Greyhawk's turn in the spotlight. Greyspace is notable because it is geocentric; Oerth is stationary and everything orbits around it. Useful for a Greyhawk campaign, not so much besides.

SJR7: Krynnspace is the system book for Krynn and Ansalon. It is much like Realmspace and Greyspace.

SJR8: Space Lairs is cooking with propane, again. It has a large number of useful locations, each with a small adventure attached, which the DM can drop onto their map as they see fit. I strongly urge you to consider picking this up.

The Astromundi Cluster is the fourth and final box set for Spelljammer. It uses three booklets to detail an entire crystal sphere, in a level of detail not seen before. I was disappointed that the booklet Adventures in the Shattered Sphere did not reveal that the crystal sphere itself was broken, a thing long established as impossible but which would have been so awesome. I would pick this up, especially if you skipped Under the Dark Fist and/or Goblin's Return/Heart of the Enemy, because it has some great lore.

And that's it! Go forth and have fun!

[demi-shoggoth]

2021 Reading Log, pt. 8

36. Virus by Marilyn J. Roossinck. I know I had checked this book out before and theoretically read it, but it turns out I remembered almost nothing about its contents. Reading a book on a family vacation, in the room as the rest of your family, will do that. The book is half an introduction to virology and half a species guide to individual viruses of interest, with electron micrographs and diagrams showcasing viral architecture. Viruses are super weird, and they get weirder in non-animal hosts. Plant and fungal viruses are often only transmitted vertically, from parent to offspring. Some plant viruses come in multiple protein shells, and all of them have to be transmitted simultaneously in order for an infection to occur. Some viruses, like poxviruses, have multiple internal layers of structure protecting their DNA. Highly recommended book for anyone interested in microbiology.

37. Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The subtitle calls it a “natural and cultural history of mosses”, which is a fair description. The author is as interested in her subjective experiences, and those of others, as she is in straightforward biology, and each chapter weaves a bit of personal narrative in with the biology. This was jarring at first, as she describes a meditative vision in the first chapter as flowing from a more naturalistic passage, but I got used to the back and forth as the book progressed. Plus, I learned a lot about moss diversity.

38. The Occult Book by John Michael Greer. Meh. This is part of the “Sterling Chronologies”, which break down some topic of cultish interest into 100 chronological subdivisions, and illustrate and summarize them. The author is a certified occultist, a Druid specifically, but does a poor job of actually talking about beliefs or practices of magic, getting lost in the names and dates. I definitely learned some things (like about the existence of Long Lost Friend, a Pennsylvania Dutch grimoire), but was overall somewhat disappointed.

38a. Fossil Men by Kermit Pattison. I got about a third of the way through this book before stopping for reasons of mental health. It was triggering my anxiety. This is a book about the discovery of Ardipithecus, an important late Miocene primate that (depending on who you ask) may be the oldest identified human ancestor. The head researcher on “Ardi”, Tim White, is a deeply unpleasant person, and is deeply unpleasant in ways reminiscent of my major professor in grad school (not the only reason I’m on anti-anxiety medications, but perhaps the greatest). I was under the impression from the reviews that this was going to be a fairly objective look at the large, clashing personalities that dominate paleoanthropology, but this book clearly lionizes White as someone who doesn’t play nice, but gets results. By the time the author refers to White “not viewing science as an exercise in building consensus” as a positive characteristic, I knew that my philosophy and personality were not simpatico with that of the author. As an unintentional study of the intersection between evolutionary biology and toxic masculinity, it’s interesting, but 156 pages was enough time spent in a defense of a bad scientist and bad man, and I do not care to finish it.

39. The Secret Life of Sharks by A. Peter Klimley, PhD. This is an excellent antidote to Fossil Men, as the author comes off as genial and stresses the hard work and the missteps of doing science, as opposed to coming to conclusions first and defending them second. The book is a memoir of his first three decades doing shark science, from lemon sharks in Florida to hammerheads in the Gulf of California and finally white sharks in California. By now, Klimley’s work is seen as landmark stuff, and his hypothesis that white sharks are picky feeders attracted mostly to fatty meals is widely accepted. At the time of this writing, however, he wasn’t quite such a big fish (pun intended). A whole chapter, for instance, is devoted to how he defended a controversial claim from peer review.

40. Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Vol. 2 by TSR Inc. Read in anticipation of statting up a bunch of Dark Sun monsters for the Creature Codex. As 2nd Edition D&D monster books go, this has plusses and minuses. Plusses: the art is in full color and all done by one artist, Thomas Baxa, which gives it a pleasing uniformity. There’s a lot of imaginative monsters on display here, some of which appeared in later Dark Sun products in different editions, and some which were brand new to me. But since I don’t have a copy of the Complete Psionics Handbook at hand, I don’t know what a lot of the powers of the various monsters actually are—I’m just going on context clues and half-remembered 3rd edition psionics. In addition, there’s some padding at play here. Six pages are devoted to various subgroups of thri-kreen and tohr-kreen (mantis people, for those unfamiliar with the setting). They all have their own art, but are mechanically identical, differing only in their alignments and cultures. The statistics are literally copy and pasted from one page to the next.

[collectorscorner]

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[thecreaturecodex]

Ryujishin-Mushi

"Beetle Dragon" © Pauliina Linjama, accessed at her deviantArt here

[The earthquake beetle, or jishin-mushi, is a Japanese artistic entity that has undergone significant derangement in English sources. For one thing, the name; most English adaptations call it the jinshin-mushi, which means "humanity beetle", not "earthquake beetle". They can be enormous or small, have dragon-like heads or not, and are in general a wide breed, as befits a monster that existed originally more as a bit of iconography than any established narrative. There's even two of them in 90s D&D! This one was called the earthquake beetle in the basic D&D Creature Catalogue, and is colossal and dragon-headed, and the Kara-Tur Monstrous Compendium had a medium-sized, more beetle like jishin-mushi as well. The name I gave this, meaning "dragon earthquake beetle", is a neologism intended to cover if I ever loop around to covering the Kara-Tur version.]

Ryujishin-mushi CR 18 N Magical Beast This titanic monster has the carapace of a beetle, reddish orange above ten black furry legs ending in scything claws. Its neck is long, and ends in a head like that of a horned dragon.

The ryujishin-mushi, or earth dragon beetles, are enormous creatures with features of arthropods and dragons. They are of animal intelligence and are primarily motivated by their appetites. The bulk of their nutritional needs are supported by consuming metal ore and gemstones, but they occasionally come to the surface to gorge themselves on meat before returning to dig in the depths. Only the strongest armies and boldest adventurers have the ability to fight back against these raids—for everyone else, evacuation and rebuilding are their only hope.

A ryujishin-mushi’s body is so dense that its very movement causes the ground to shake. The tremors that come with its burrowing are often the only warning surface dwellers have before the creature is in their midst. Earth dragon beetles focus their attention on the largest and tastiest looking morsels at first, but will fight back if creatures are capable of actually wounding them. They can punch holes in armor and snap weapons in half with their adamant teeth and claws, and often do so. Ryujishin-mushi possess a powerful acidic breath weapon, but they rarely use it unless reduced to below half hit points; melted flesh and oxidized slag is much less appetizing to them.

The reason for the great size and draconic aspect of the ryujishin-mushi is debated by scholars, and none of the proposed explanations are much comfort. One school of thought holds that ryujishin-mushi are dragon-like as a form of Mullerian mimicry; appearing to be a more magically adept creature to intimidate other monstrous hunters of the Darklands. The other hypothesis is that these creatures are descendants of Festering Ulunat, the first of the Spawn of Rovagug. How ryujishin-mushi reproduce is a mystery, and whether they have sex and lay eggs in the deep like normal beasts, or have stranger and more esoteric ways of replication, may shed light on this mystery.

Ryujishin-mushi CR 18 XP 153,600 N Colossal magical beast Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +30, tremorsense 120 ft. Aura frightful presence (120 ft., Will DC 23)

Defense AC 29, touch 6, flat-footed 25 (-8 size, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +23 natural) hp 310 (20d10+200); fast healing 10 Fort +22, Ref +15, Will +16 DR 15/magic; Immune acid, fear; SR 29

Offense Speed 60 ft., burrow 40 ft. Melee bite +24 (4d6+12), 4 claws +24 (1d10+12/19-20) Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft. Special Attacks adamantine claws, breath weapon (3/day, 120 foot cone, 20d8 acid damage, Ref DC 30), trample (4d10+18, Ref DC 32), tremor step

Statistics Str 34, Dex 17, Con 31, Int 2, Wis 26, Cha 16 Base Atk +20; CMB +40 (+44 sunder); CMD 54 (56 vs. sunder, 70 vs. trip) Feats Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Dodge, Greater Sunder, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Staggering Critical, Stand Still Skills Climb +16, Perception +30

Ecology Environment any land and underground Organization solitary Treasure standard

Special Abilities Adamantine Claws (Ex) The natural weapons of a ryujishin-mushi are treated as adamantine for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction and hardness. Breath Weapon (Su) A ryujishin-mushi can use its breath weapon three times per day, but must wait 1d4 rounds between uses. Tremor Step (Ex) Whenever a ryujin-mushi moves at least half its speed in a turn, all creatures touching the ground in a 100 foot radius treat the area as difficult terrain and must succeed a DC 32 Reflex save or fall prone. The save DC is Strength based.

[oldschoolfrp]

Vaporighu, maelephant, bebilith -- denizens of the outer planes (Jeff Easley, MC8, Monstrous Compendium: Outer Planes Appendix, TSR, 1991)

[good-omens-meta-library]

Favorite Meta Thread Quotes Part 1 - and a small announcement

Once again I am in disbelief: I had asked whether a running list of favorite meta thread quotes would be of interest when celebrating the 200 follower mark, and then I did not get to it until now, and somehow the library is at 400 followers.

Wow. Just wow. Thank you so, so much for your interest! I am so grateful!!

But this makes the small announcement particularly unpleasant: due to life circumstances I will not be able to spend as much time online, including curating, and will not be able to post quite as frequently as before. In fact, posting frequency has already been down for a bit. This is not to say I’m going to stop posting - this blog is my guilty pleasure, after all. But it will not be as often as I wish it to be. I apologize, but it is what it is.

Moving on to the main topic - favorite quotes! These were collected Highly subjectively and Very sporadically, so this list is just a bit of frivolous fun. It is a mix of meta statements that felt outstanding to me in some way, and replies that were not really meta, just.. Special. 

In no particular order:

@liquidlyrium​ here: *slaps trunk* this angel can fit so much self-loathing in him!

@eh-fandomtrash​ here: As someone who spent several years waking up every weekday and spending at least an hour between 6 and 8 am in traffic I can say Crowley is evil.

@charlottemadison42​ here: Thwart me, angel. Thwart me so good. That’s right. 

@anotherhappydinosaur​ here: The absolute worst sin is believing that one’s evil is beyond God’s forgiveness.

… Believing that your evil cannot be forgiven is not believing in what God is.

Love must be freely chosen. It cannot be coerced. And so the only thing stopping someone from existing in that love is choosing to be separate from it.

Crowley didn’t fall because of questions or hanging out with the wrong people. God didn’t smite him and send him to the pits of the underworld because Crowley was unsure about the divine plan. He fell because HE believed he was unforgivable.

@kontrollcsoport​ here: Well, Aziraphale is a direct subordinant to the Archangel Gabriel, which means, he is on the second row in the Angels’ Choir.

In terms of the Planescape Monstrous Compendium, the most powerful angel (aasimon, as they call them) is the solar, the next is the Planetar - this is our friend. Planetar aasimons have a 19 str, which means (quickly, where’s my phb)  that he can carry 485 lbs. and press a maximum of 640 lbs. thats roughly 300 kg. So lifting 185 pounds is hardly a challenge for him.

(Note from the library: to fully appreciate the above quote, one needs to look up Planetar aasimons. Which I did. I present to you the DnD version of Aziraphale:

Source: The Forgotten Realms Wiki)

@ticketybooyah​ here: Crowley was damned by his choices so choice became his weapon

@acrownforaking​ here: Agnes Nutter writes: and thenn the foolifh principalitee will go abfolutelee ferral on maine

@guardian-of-soho​ here: To Crowley and only Crowley, he’s not a pawn, he’s irreplaceable.

@aethelflaedladyofmercia​ here: A: Not certain. Never done this before. Can you hear me? [Hello? Is this thing on? *taps universe*]

@crazyneutral​ here: To me at least, one part of why Crowley wants to save the world is because of how bad people are. He loves the human capacity for evil, he loves the complexity and contradiction that is essential to humanity because dammit, it’s just more *interesting*! Hell is as boring as Heaven and it is not enough for him.

@triciaastra​ here: #azi is so strong that he doesn't need his angel worth to lift mijolnir #he's just lift thor and swing him around

@racketghost​ here: Aziraphale gets a lot of flack for being a dumbass or naive but in my opinion that’s all a front. It’s show. Because he can’t stand who he is under the propriety, under the bow ties and the decorum: a bad angel.

So yeah, in his head it would be a frivolous miracle to save himself a beheading. Because he believes himself to be unworthy of saving.

@pisces-atd​ comment in response to this thread: also worth mentioning that god, in this situation, is about as chaotic as a 13 year old angsty fanfic writer

Hope you enjoyed this! (especially the Planetar. I cannot get over that image..)

[masterlegendario]

Recomendado para usar con el reglamento de Arabian Adventures . ¡Monta en una alfombra mágica hacia la tierra de las mil y una aventuras! Visite ciudades con torres, exuberantes oasis e islas misteriosas ubicadas en mares resplandecientes. Conoce a los sultanes y jeques. Ver genios y gigantes. ¡Descubre un tesoro de nuevos tesoros mágicos! Ya sea que tu personaje comience desde el escenario de juego FORGOTTEN REALMS compatible o comience el viaje en otro lugar, esta caja contiene todo lo que un aventurero audaz necesita para explorar el exótico mundo de la campaña AL-QADIM. Contenido: 2 guías con un total de 192 páginas 12 tarjetas de referencia a todo color 8 hojas de Monstrous Compendium 3 mapas de póster a todo color 1 superposición de mapa transparente para medir la distancia

[gnomegirlgabby-blog]

DND Gnome History

So as the theme of the night is DND Gnomes might as well talk about their history in DND! Thank you Wiki for this!

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, gnomes are one of the core races available for play as player characters.[1] Some speculate that they are closely related to dwarves; however, gnomes are more tolerant of other races and of magic, and are skilled with illusions.[1] Gnomes are small humanoids, standing 3–3.5 feet (91–107 cm) tall.

Dungeons & Dragons

The gnome first appeared in the original 1974 edition of Dungeons & Dragons,[2] and in its second supplement, Blackmoor (1975).[3]

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition

The gnome appeared as a player character race in the original Player's Handbook (1978).[4][5] The gnome also appeared in the original Monster Manual (1977).[6] A new gnomish subrace, the deep gnome (svirfneblin), was presented as a character race in the original Unearthed Arcana (1985).[7] Another gnome subrace, the tinker gnome (minoi), focused on building mechanical devices, was presented in Dragonlance Adventures. The humorous Solo Quest adventure Gnomes-100, Dragons-0 featured these gnomes in their resistance against the dragon army of Takhisis.[8]

Gnomes were originally introduced to Dungeons & Dragons as a new alternative to dwarves, elves, and halflings.[9][10] They were developed from mythology from a number of different sources, originally being a bearded, short race similar to halflings and dwarves. The gnome's niche in play was made magical, to separate it from the more warrior-like dwarf and the more rogue-like halfling.[11]

Dungeons & Dragons (Basic/BECMI)

The gnome appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set as a "monster". The gnome appeared as a player character class in Top Ballista (1989).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition

The gnome appeared as a character race in the second edition Player's Handbook (1989).[12] The gnome also appeared in the Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989).[13] Four gnomish races – forest, rock, tinker, and deep (svirfneblin) – were detailed as player character races in The Complete Book of Gnomes and Halflings (1993).[14]

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition

The gnome appeared as a character race in the third edition Player's Handbook (2000),[15] and in the 3.5 revised Player's Handbook.[16] Gnomes were detailed for the Forgotten Realms setting in Races of Faerûn (2003).[17] Gnomes were one of the races detailed in Races of Stone (2004).

Throughout D&D history, up to and including the third edition Player's Handbook, spellcaster gnomes were either illusionists or had illusionist as their favored class.[18][19] However, in Dungeons & Dragons v.3.5, gnomes' favored class has been changed to bard, as the favored class of "illusionist" was a subset of the wizard class. The wizard favored class was also already used by elves. In D&D v.3.5, gnomes are inventors and alchemists who love pranks and excel at engineering. The tinker gnomes of Dragonlance are mechanically skilled, though their devices are quite prone to backfiring. It has been suggested that gnomes be given the Eberron class artificer as a favored class, due to their technical aptitude.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition

Gnomes appeared in 4th edition as a player character race in Player's Handbook 2 (2009).[20] The gnome appeared in the Monster Manual (2008).

Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition

The gnome was included as a player race in the 5th edition Player's Handbook (2014).[21] Two subraces were introduced with it: the forest gnome and the rock gnome. The Player's Handbook connects the rock gnomes to the tinker gnomes of the Dragonlance setting.

The deep gnome (svirfneblin) is also referenced in the Player's Handbook, and is fully detailed in the 5th edition Monster Manual (2014).[21][22] The Elemental Evil Player's Companion (2015) presents the deep gnome as a player race.[23]

Subraces

Gnomes in Dungeons & Dragons have been further divided into various subraces:

Rock gnomes are the standard gnome subrace of Third Edition. They live in burrows beneath rolling, wooded hills.

Tinker gnomes are the common gnomes of the Dragonlance campaign setting. In that fictional universe, they dwell in the Mount Nevermind in the world of Krynn.

Svirfneblin, or deep gnomes, dwell in cities deep underground. They are more dangerous than the common rock gnome.

Forest gnomes are smaller than rock gnomes. They are a shy, secretive folk, living deep in wooded areas.[24] Friends to animals, forest gnomes have a racial ability that allows them to speak with small animals.

River Gnomes are graceful and quick. They live in homes dug into the side of riverbanks and speak with river dwelling animals in place of burrowing mammals. They are non-magical but gain +1 to initiative and are proficient swimmers.

Arcane Gnomes are city dwellers. They generally keep to a small community within a larger city. Arcane gnomes are focused on the pursuit of knowledge making their populace, in large part, over-eager inventors or wizards.[25]

Chaos gnomes are the most flamboyant gnomes. Brightly colored and rare, they are strongly inclined towards chaos, as their name suggests.[26]

Whisper gnomes lack the jovial outlook of other gnome races. Sly and suspicious, they are creatures of stealth.[26]

Ice gnomes dwell in the region of Frostfell in the Eberron campaign setting

Fire gnomes live on Bytopia, on the Outer Planes, where they help Flandal Steelskin, the Gnomish god of metal and crafting, in his work.

Sky gnomes appear in the Creature Crucible Top Ballista PC2 published in 1989. They are cunning engineers living in the flying city Serraine above the World of Mystara.

In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, gnomes are also known as the "Forgotten Folk".

Society

Gnome society had changed greatly over the different editions of Dungeons & Dragons. In the first edition, they were portrayed as intensely curious and intellectual, keeping in theme with their spell-casting niche, with an interest in gemstones.[18] They typically lived in hills, and acted as intermediaries between dwarves, elves, and halflings.

In the second edition, gnomes received further background. According to The Complete Book of Gnomes and Halflings,[27] gnomes have an intricate society based on their love of all kinds of arts, pranks, and their long lives. Their society is based on art; all gnomes must take up some form of art whether music, painting, cooking, building, or any other form that is considered creative by the time they come of age.

Gnomes are naturally friendly, highly social and fun loving people. They are respected by Elves for their communion with nature and knowledge of arcane magic, admired by Halflings for their humor, and sought out by Dwarves for their gemcutting skills.

Religion

Garl Glittergold was created by James M. Ward and first appeared in the "Nonhuman Deities" chapter of the original Deities and Demigods (1980) as the god of gnomes.[28]Roger E. Moore detailed several additional gnomish gods in his article "The Gods of the Gnomes" in Dragon #61 (May 1982), including: Baervan Wildwanderer, god of adventure and thieves; Urdlen ("The Crawler Below"), god of evil; Segojan Earthcaller, god of earth and nature; and Flandal Steelskin, god of metalworking;[29] these four newer gods also appeared in the original Unearthed Arcana (1985).[30]

All five of these deities were detailed for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition in the book Monster Mythology (1992) by Carl Sargent, including details about their priesthoods; this book also introduced additional gods including: Baravar Cloakshadow, god of illusions, protection, and deception; Gaerdal Ironhand, god of protection, vigilance, and combat; and Nebelun (The Meddler), god of inventions and good luck.[31] All of these gods also received a very detailed description for their roles in the Forgotten Realms in Demihuman Deities (1998).[32]

Further reading

Tresca, Michael J. (November 2010). The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games. McFarland. pp. 34–36, 140–141. ISBN 978-0786458950.

Bowman, Sarah Lynne (May 2010). The Functions of Role-Playing Games. McFarland. pp. 151, 165–166. ISBN 978-0786447107.

So I hope you enjoyed the in depth DND knowledge about gnomes! Link to the gnome article below!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)