Actually, I love the AD&D 2nd edition Monstrous Manual because it was, believe it or not, the first role playing book I ever bought. I have a lot of fond memories of being twelve years old and, on a long car journey, sitting and reading the thing from cover to cover and having my tiny brain almost explode from imagination overload. I'm hoping to recreate some of that here, as well as generate some publicity for those oft-overlooked but pretty cool monsters that inhabit the volume's nooks and crannies - as well as make fun of some silly pictures. (Does anybody remember the Roper picture? I think I could have done better. Actually I think a blind elephant on one of those animal therapy sessions could have done better. But there you go.)
Anyway, without further ado, we're going to plunge right into the nitty-gritty and start off our journey with that stalwart of many an AD&D campaign, the mighty...
...Aarakocra!!!!!!
Okay, so it isn't that mighty. Nor is it a stalwart of many an AD&D campaign. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen it make an appearance in a game, or even draw passing mention. One of the idiosyncracies of having an A-Z monster guide is that there's a good possibility you're going to start off with an anticlimax, I suppose. Why didn't they put the Tarrasque at page 1 and start with a bang?
I'm being a bit mean to the Aarakocra, actually. I have thought about using them, perhaps as often as twice in my life. They're one of the myriad of rarely used low-level mook monsters which I like to call the orc-alternatives; the gang of charlies who come off the substitute bench when slaying orcs and goblins has gotten boring. Crabmen, Mongrelmen, Troglodytes, Tasloi, Miconids....that nefarious ilk. But the interesting thing that sets the Aarakocra apart is the ability to fly, which makes them a good challenge even up to level 6 if they're used in large numbers and grouped with their old pals the air elementals. I can envisage a group of player characters trying to climb up a snow-capped mountain, simultaneously trying to avoid being blown off into the abyss while dodging javelin-dives from angry bird-men.
Technically the Aarakocra's alignment is Neutral Good, which I suppose means the PCs are more likely to use them as allies than enemies, and they're useful for that too; it's always good to have guides who can fly, and luckily the Aarakocra, although reasonably intelligent, can "[be convinced] to serve as a guide or a scout in exchange for a shiny jewel or coin." Presumably this is because of their bird-like origins. It also makes them about the cheapest buys in the entire book - there aren't many creatures in it that can be palmed off with a single coin. ("There, bird-man, go buy yourself something nice. Don't spend it all at once.")
They're also notable for being, I think, one of the only two D&D monsters who can raise a snigger from a 12 year old for having a silly name. (AaraCOCKra... *chortle*.)
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Re: [Let's Read]AD&D 2e Monstrous Manual
Aaracockra were cool in my mind because they were the first entry in the complete book of humanoids, and could fly without being overpowered. This meant that when it came to building PC's in the days of massive numbers of splatbooks mid 2nd ed, they had a good deal of ooh shiny factor, without the worry of instantly being disallowed by the GM for being broken.
Aaracockra were cool in my mind because they were the first entry in the complete book of humanoids, and could fly without being overpowered. This meant that when it came to building PC's in the days of massive numbers of splatbooks mid 2nd ed, they had a good deal of ooh shiny factor, without the worry of instantly being disallowed by the GM for being broken.
Ah, the Complete Book of Humanoids. Never was there a larger collection of "Things to Unbalance Your Game."
I always thought they were neat, but I cant say we ever used them.
A storyline about how they fight some winged evil race for dominance of the mountain peaks would be cool. Each tribe would have a dragon as their "god"
...as well as make fun of some silly pictures. (Does anybody remember the Roper picture? I think I could have done better. Actually I think a blind elephant on one of those animal therapy sessions could have done better. But there you go.)
Yeah, I like most of the art in the Monstrous Manual. DiTerlizzi completely changed the way I looked at and used hobgoblins, for instance. But just about everything by Jeff Butler is painful to look at.
I loved to use the aaracockra as part of my ancient triumvirate. In ancient times, before the rise of men and when elves still cavorted in the fairie realms (yes, I had the "feywild" long before 4th edition ), the world was ruled and fought over by three races: the aaracockra, the thri-kreen, and the lizard folk. The ancient ruins of all three races can still be found if you know where to look, and each houses both magic and dangers the world hasn't seen since those far ancient days. The current, degenerate forms of all three races shun such places, and call them cursed, so adventurers looking to plunder these primordial cities shouldn't look for help from the descendants of their builders.
- Brian
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Yeah, I like most of the art in the Monstrous Manual. DiTerlizzi completely changed the way I looked at and used hobgoblins, for instance. But just about everything by Jeff Butler is painful to look at.
Sometimes you get a wonderful, evocative, eerie, delicate, beautiful DiTerlizzi piece on the opposite page to a Jeff Butler scrawl, and it really makes you wonder what they were thinking. In fact I've found myself getting put off using the monsters that Jeff Butler illustrated for, just because the pictures ruin completely whatever image or atmosphere is conjured up in the text.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brianm
I loved to use the aaracockra as part of my ancient triumvirate. In ancient times, before the rise of men and when elves still cavorted in the fairie realms (yes, I had the "feywild" long before 4th edition ), the world was ruled and fought over by three races: the aaracockra, the thri-kreen, and the lizard folk. The ancient ruins of all three races can still be found if you know where to look, and each houses both magic and dangers the world hasn't seen since those far ancient days. The current, degenerate forms of all three races shun such places, and call them cursed, so adventurers looking to plunder these primordial cities shouldn't look for help from the descendants of their builders.
That's a great idea. I'm actually running a jungle-exploration game on a PBP site at the moment, which is all about exploring ancient overgrown ruins. No Aarakocra are planned, but I can see where they might come in.
So moving swiftly on, and second monster in we've already come to our first Boss-type "I lurk at the bottom of the dungeon waiting for my chance to TPK your arses" creature....
the Aboleth
...which is also, interestingly, the first psionic creature we encounter. I've already mentioned that this book was the first to do with role playing that I ever bought, so I have quite a clear memory of reading the entry from the Aboleth and thinking, What the hell is all this Dis/Sci/Dev and EW, II PsC +1 TS IF TW nonsense? God, when you think about it, early psionics was bloody complicated.
The Aboleth, for those who don't know, is a "loathsome amphibious creature" that basically looks like a 20' sturgeon with three eyes, four tentacles, and - get this - "four pulsating blue-black orifices [which] line the bottom of its body and secrete gray slime that smells like rancid grease." So don't invite it to dinner. It'll make such a mess of the carpet.
I'd be surprised if you don't know this monster back to front already, though - the Aboleth has been a stalwart of the early mid-level game, in my experience, through all the editions; it makes at least one appearance per campaign, and always gets a familiar groan from players. Like when they encounter Mind Flayers, or Grell.
The Aboleth has a number of nasty abilities - favourite among them being the way it can touch you with its tentacles and turn your skin into a transparent membrane that has to be in permanent contact with water or else cause you a heck of a lot of damage. It can also try to force you into slavery through its telepathy, which can be negated by, apparently a remove curse or dispel magic spell.
That last ability is typical of the eccentricites and inconsistencies of AD&D 2nd edition design, actually. A psionic-based attack which is cancelled through magical spells which, when you think about it logically, shouldn't make a difference. Telepathy is neither a curse nor magic, so why on earth would remove curse or dispel magic work to negate it? Well, the obvious answer is that the designers thought up this cool ability, but realised that most parties don't have any sort of defence against psionic attack - so they had to crowbar in a magical defence instead.
I think of this sort of thing as being part of AD&D's charm, but I can understand why the 3.X edition fans hate it so much. It's everywhere in this book, though, so get used to it.
Be careful man. I dug my copy out a few weeks ago (just for the nostalgia, see...) and now I'm in the midst of putting together a Birthright game. 2e, for all it's warts, is refreshing in it's own way. My game, using purely the PHB + BRCS for chargen, is surprisingly low on crunch...
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So I wrote up this adventure when 4e came out. It's pretty okay..[/size]
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The Monstrous Manual is tied with ICE's Creatures of Middle-Earth for my all-time favorite FRPG bestiary.
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), the world was ruled and fought over by three races: the aaracockra, the thri-kreen, and the lizard folk. The ancient ruins of all three races can still be found if you know where to look, and each houses both magic and dangers the world hasn't seen since those far ancient days. The current, degenerate forms of all three races shun such places, and call them cursed, so adventurers looking to plunder these primordial cities shouldn't look for help from the descendants of their builders. 
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