delericho
Legend
I'll confess at this point that I looked it up before posting.
D&D 2E [COMPLETE] Looking back at the limited series: Player's Option, Monstrous Arcana, Odyssey, and more!
Nikosandros
Golden Procrastinator
I think that it is easy (at least to those who have played both editions of AD&D) to overlook that detail, because in 1e, magic-users actually do get an automatic new spell at each new level.
Voadam
Legend
It has been so long that I had forgotten this. Partially from the one long term 1e/2e campaign where I played a magic user for 14 levels and this did not happen, it was all spell acquisitions and trading. Thinking back though I vaguely remember earlier as a 1e DM rolling randomly for a spell for the PC magic user and him getting things like sepia snake sigil as a 3rd level spell at 5th level.
1e DMG page 39:
Spells Beyond Those At Start:
Naturally, magic-user player characters will do their utmost to acquire books of spells and scrolls in order to complete their own spell books. To those acquired, the magic-user will add 1 (and ONLY 1) spell when he or she actually gains an experience level (q.v.). Therefore, most will be frantically attempting to purchase or cozen spells from non-player character magic-users, or even from other player character magic-users.
Orius
Legend
The 2e rules are messy and contradictory on the matter (as with just about everything else!).
PHB:
Chapter 3, Classes:
Specialists automatically gain a new spell of the specialist's school every time they gain a new spell level. In most cases, this will be once every two levels, except for the three level gap between spell levels 5 and 6. The DM can either choose the spell himself, or let the player choose. The implication here is that mages do not.
However --
Chapter 7: Magic
Under Learning Spells, it says a character may or may not receive new spells at a new level, depending on what the DM says. So OTOH, a wizard might gain at least one spell every time he levels up depending on the DM, and maybe more spells. In any case, the player has to roll to learn the spells except for the specialists' automatic spells.
Since everything is put in the DM's lap, we're going to have to check the DMG.
Chapter 7 once again, page 61 in the 1995 version:
The DMG states the character gains a new spell every spell level. If the DM lets the player choose the spell the player has to roll to learn the spell, unless the wizard is a specialist, in which case the spell is supposed to be from the specialist's school. If the DM chooses, the wizard automatically gets the spell.
But wait, there's more!
Spells & Magic, Chapter 1, page 15:
Mages add one new spell for every spell level. It is not stated that the mage needs to roll to learn the spell, but I think it's implied from the following section on specialists. Specialists automatically get a spell from their school everytime they gain a new experience level which does not require a roll. In any case, this spell is assumed to be the result of research the wizard's been doing between levels.
So yeah it's a mess. In my current 2e game, I initially allowed the party mage to get a free spell every experience level because of the muddled nature of the rules until I caught my mistake. I think the problem might stem from the rules copying and pasting from 1e in some sections while 2e changed the rules in other sections. I wouldn't bother seeing what the 1e DMG says because of this, since the mess may be a result of mixing 1e and 2e where things were supposed to have changed. Also keep in mind that 2e is merging the 1e rules for magic-users and illusionists into a single set of wizard rules in the core books with Spells & Magic providing errata later.
PHB:
Chapter 3, Classes:
Specialists automatically gain a new spell of the specialist's school every time they gain a new spell level. In most cases, this will be once every two levels, except for the three level gap between spell levels 5 and 6. The DM can either choose the spell himself, or let the player choose. The implication here is that mages do not.
However --
Chapter 7: Magic
Under Learning Spells, it says a character may or may not receive new spells at a new level, depending on what the DM says. So OTOH, a wizard might gain at least one spell every time he levels up depending on the DM, and maybe more spells. In any case, the player has to roll to learn the spells except for the specialists' automatic spells.
Since everything is put in the DM's lap, we're going to have to check the DMG.
Chapter 7 once again, page 61 in the 1995 version:
The DMG states the character gains a new spell every spell level. If the DM lets the player choose the spell the player has to roll to learn the spell, unless the wizard is a specialist, in which case the spell is supposed to be from the specialist's school. If the DM chooses, the wizard automatically gets the spell.
But wait, there's more!
Spells & Magic, Chapter 1, page 15:
Mages add one new spell for every spell level. It is not stated that the mage needs to roll to learn the spell, but I think it's implied from the following section on specialists. Specialists automatically get a spell from their school everytime they gain a new experience level which does not require a roll. In any case, this spell is assumed to be the result of research the wizard's been doing between levels.
So yeah it's a mess. In my current 2e game, I initially allowed the party mage to get a free spell every experience level because of the muddled nature of the rules until I caught my mistake. I think the problem might stem from the rules copying and pasting from 1e in some sections while 2e changed the rules in other sections. I wouldn't bother seeing what the 1e DMG says because of this, since the mess may be a result of mixing 1e and 2e where things were supposed to have changed. Also keep in mind that 2e is merging the 1e rules for magic-users and illusionists into a single set of wizard rules in the core books with Spells & Magic providing errata later.
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Alzrius
The EN World kitten
And now, to close out the Odyssey line in general and Jakandor in particular, we come to Jakandor 3: This Time It's Personal Jakandor, Land of Legend. Here is where the material of the first two books is put into a practical context, overviewing the nature of a Jakandor campaign and presenting several adventures in that regard.
Needless to say, the whole thing's a bit of a mess.
Okay, no, that's a bit unfair on my part. It's just that this book seems content to review the premises inherent to Jakandor as a setting, rather than showing how to truly build on them. After two prior books with a combined page-count of almost two hundred-fifty pages, I suppose I was expecting more out of a one hundred forty-four adventure book. I mean, I thought this would be the Jakandor equivalent of The Great Pendragon Campaign or something like that. Instead, it seems more like Jakandor's version of how the Clue movie ended, offering different possibilities of varying plausibility.
I mean, an adventure where foreign characters arrive on Jakandor? Doesn't that necessarily imply that there's a wider world beyond the island, running completely counter to the deep-dives that the previous two products did on the internal politics that drove the Knorr and Charonti into conflict to begin with, which were predicated on both sides not realizing that there was a wider world beyond the sea?
More notable than that, however, is this book's frank admission that a peaceful resolution between the Knorr and the Charonti is most likely impossible. While it has an adventure with a group of Knorr and Charonti outcasts living together in an old temple, that seems to be designed as the exception that proves the rule. The text here openly points out that, while the two civilizations are more similar than they might seem at first (both are ethnocentric societies whose values staunchly reject assimilating/incorporating other cultures into their own), their values run completely counter to one another, and so the thought of making peace with the other side is literally beyond the conception of most of their respective peoples. The back cover talks about how the campaign will "either unite the two nations or destroy them," but the latter seems far and away more likely than the former.
And here I thought this was supposed to be a fantasy game, rather than a hot-take on America today. rimshot
Now, there's some cool stuff here in terms of fleshing out the island itself (new sites and random encounter tables, which I like despite Shannon Appelcline's snarky take on it over on the book's sales page on DriveThruRPG), and the rules for sending the Knorr "mechs" against the Charonti's necromantic creations. It even has a couple of new monsters, so it's not like there's nothing useful here, but if the previous books were bags full of groceries, this is a recipe book for a list of side dishes more than a primer on how to cook a four-course meal.
I mentioned before how Jeff Grubb conceived of Jakandor as being the setting for a campaign of modest length, one that you played over the summer before it reached its natural conclusion and your group moved on to something else. To that end, I really thought that this book would chart out a fairly clear campaign structure, providing a roadmap for the sort of buildup-climax-resolution you'd expect to see in a scenario where two differing nations sat on the brink of war.
But in many ways, this book follows Jakandor's style of subverting typical tropes, in this case refusing to provide any sort of simple (or "right") answer about which side is justified. A debate and switch this is not, but at the same time it leans heavily away from wanting PCs of either culture to resolve things peacefully; certainly, a mixed party of Knorr and Charonti characters (the aforementioned mutual exiles notwithstanding) seems self-evidently off the proverbial table. The end result is that the players are likely going to recognize that their own side is being somewhat hypocritical, even as the book seemingly wants them to just go with it anyway and try to wipe the other guys out. Somehow I see more than a few groups not being entirely okay with that.
Ultimately, Jakandor is an interesting experiment, but if the players want to walk the tightrope to get the "best ending" (i.e. peace between the Knorr and Charonti), the DM is going to have to thread that needle on their own.
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
Needless to say, the whole thing's a bit of a mess.
Okay, no, that's a bit unfair on my part. It's just that this book seems content to review the premises inherent to Jakandor as a setting, rather than showing how to truly build on them. After two prior books with a combined page-count of almost two hundred-fifty pages, I suppose I was expecting more out of a one hundred forty-four adventure book. I mean, I thought this would be the Jakandor equivalent of The Great Pendragon Campaign or something like that. Instead, it seems more like Jakandor's version of how the Clue movie ended, offering different possibilities of varying plausibility.
I mean, an adventure where foreign characters arrive on Jakandor? Doesn't that necessarily imply that there's a wider world beyond the island, running completely counter to the deep-dives that the previous two products did on the internal politics that drove the Knorr and Charonti into conflict to begin with, which were predicated on both sides not realizing that there was a wider world beyond the sea?
More notable than that, however, is this book's frank admission that a peaceful resolution between the Knorr and the Charonti is most likely impossible. While it has an adventure with a group of Knorr and Charonti outcasts living together in an old temple, that seems to be designed as the exception that proves the rule. The text here openly points out that, while the two civilizations are more similar than they might seem at first (both are ethnocentric societies whose values staunchly reject assimilating/incorporating other cultures into their own), their values run completely counter to one another, and so the thought of making peace with the other side is literally beyond the conception of most of their respective peoples. The back cover talks about how the campaign will "either unite the two nations or destroy them," but the latter seems far and away more likely than the former.
And here I thought this was supposed to be a fantasy game, rather than a hot-take on America today. rimshot
Now, there's some cool stuff here in terms of fleshing out the island itself (new sites and random encounter tables, which I like despite Shannon Appelcline's snarky take on it over on the book's sales page on DriveThruRPG), and the rules for sending the Knorr "mechs" against the Charonti's necromantic creations. It even has a couple of new monsters, so it's not like there's nothing useful here, but if the previous books were bags full of groceries, this is a recipe book for a list of side dishes more than a primer on how to cook a four-course meal.
I mentioned before how Jeff Grubb conceived of Jakandor as being the setting for a campaign of modest length, one that you played over the summer before it reached its natural conclusion and your group moved on to something else. To that end, I really thought that this book would chart out a fairly clear campaign structure, providing a roadmap for the sort of buildup-climax-resolution you'd expect to see in a scenario where two differing nations sat on the brink of war.
But in many ways, this book follows Jakandor's style of subverting typical tropes, in this case refusing to provide any sort of simple (or "right") answer about which side is justified. A debate and switch this is not, but at the same time it leans heavily away from wanting PCs of either culture to resolve things peacefully; certainly, a mixed party of Knorr and Charonti characters (the aforementioned mutual exiles notwithstanding) seems self-evidently off the proverbial table. The end result is that the players are likely going to recognize that their own side is being somewhat hypocritical, even as the book seemingly wants them to just go with it anyway and try to wipe the other guys out. Somehow I see more than a few groups not being entirely okay with that.
Ultimately, Jakandor is an interesting experiment, but if the players want to walk the tightrope to get the "best ending" (i.e. peace between the Knorr and Charonti), the DM is going to have to thread that needle on their own.
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
Last edited:
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
The last two limited series served to alternately play up classic D&Disms and take the game in new directions in the form of the Tomes and Odyssey series, respectively. But the next few items on our list, representing the Monstrous Arcana line, were an attempt to do both at once, putting new spins on some of the game's most classic monsters.
Of course, for me the Monstrous Arcana books are a source of mild frustration. I've spoken before about how I eschewed buying adventures in favor of sourcebooks during the AD&D 2E era, owing to a combination of limited funds and thinking that sourcebooks offered greater utility. The result is that I ended up missing out on some great adventures, and nowhere is that more true than here. Each of the Monstrous Arcana supplements had a trilogy of adventures that spotlighted their particular monsters, and – from what I've been given to understand, since I still don't have any of them – they were all top-quality products, and in many cases provided their own insights into the nature of the monsters in question, building on the sourcebooks.
Of course, none of that was known to me when I first laid eyes on I, Tyrant, the first Monstrous Arcana sourcebook. All I thought at the time was, "wow, this is the coolest beholder sourcebook ever!"
And really, that's a statement that's as true now as it was in 1996. While splatbooks devoted to particular monsters had existed prior to this (just look at FOR1 Draconomicon), and would readily proliferate over time with products like Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness, Demonomicon, and numerous third-party offerings such as Mayfair Games Lizardmen and Giants to Mongoose Publishing's Slayer's Guides, and quite a few more!
But while I, Tyrant didn't invent the concept of the "ecology sourcebook" – which elevated the idea of taking a deep-dive into a single monster from an article in Dragon magazine to an entire book unto itself – it certainly helped to popularize it. This brought all of the lore about beholders, from the bits and pieces scattered throughout various Forgotten Realms supplements (Ed Greenwood really took a shine to these guys, hence Xanathar, beholder cults, and Manshoon's alliances with them), Spelljammer supplements (which gave us quite a few "beholder-kin") and even the Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II, which gave us the oft-forgotten observer, yet another beholder-kin.
It's worth noting that this was one of the more visually-impressive books to come out for AD&D 2E, and I'm not just making an eyeball pun here. On the DriveThruRPG sales page for this product, Shannon Appelcline notes that this is a coffee table book with twice the usual number of interior illustrations that sourcebooks usually had. It certainly looks the part, as it's absolutely replete with artwork! Don't even get me started on the poster in the back of the book; while I regret detaching it now, I still can't get over that impressive lineup of the different beholder types!
So what was actually in the book? Well, as I alluded to above, this was essentially an expanded ecology on them. It went over their physical construction (noting that their flight was nonmagical, which was apparently a point of contention back in the back), their psychology (they had a conscious mind, and a subconscious that heavily screened out anything their conscious mind found too upsetting; insert American partisanship joke here), and their typical plans and activities, before moving on to things like new items that they've invented over time, how beholder cities work, and overviewing the beholder gods from DMGR4 Monster Mythology.
Naturally, a large part of this was to highlight that beholders were crazy, powerful, and dangerous. But it also underlined that they were intelligent monsters; while this had been played up previously, I like to think that this underlined that these weren't simple cavern-dwellers, hatching plans that they'd never enact, but were (as the title said) tyrants who individually had the power to dominate everything in a given region. The major thing which stunted their potential was that they were far more interested in warring with each other (a quirk of their psychology) than with pursuing goals against humanoids. Which I suppose makes sense; between a hairless monkey with a stick and a razor-toothed flying sphere with numerous magical eye-beams (and an anti-magic ray in case any of the monkeys learned how to cast spells), which one would you be more concerned about?
If there's one criticism I can make with regard to I, Tyrant, it's that it feels more like a compilation than an expansion on beholders. I said at the beginning of this post that the Monstrous Arcana series put a new spin on old monsters, but it felt like there was only a little of that here. I mean, I liked some of the new beholder items – a humanoid-shaped suit of armor that a beholder could plunk itself inside of and control, or special mirrors designed to reflect their eye-beams – but for the most part this retread old ground rather than breaking anything new. Heck, the opening mention of Ronassic of Sigil, who'd be name-dropped again in the final Monstrous Arcana sourcebook before appearing personally in Die Vecna Die!, is arguably the biggest addition to the D&D canon here. Maybe the new material was saved for Eye of Pain, Eye of Doom, and Eye to Eye, this sourcebook's adventure trilogy?
That's not to suggest that this book isn't a good one. As far as I'm concerned, it's still the go-to book for information on beholders in D&D, regardless of your edition of choice. But this book is a reference/compilation of lore rather than a source of it, and doesn't really do much to elevate its subject creatures from how they were presented initially.
But don't worry, we'll see more of that in the next Monstrous Arcana sourcebook.
P. S. Has anyone else ever wanted to make a beholder bard that sings the Ayeyaiyai song?
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
Of course, for me the Monstrous Arcana books are a source of mild frustration. I've spoken before about how I eschewed buying adventures in favor of sourcebooks during the AD&D 2E era, owing to a combination of limited funds and thinking that sourcebooks offered greater utility. The result is that I ended up missing out on some great adventures, and nowhere is that more true than here. Each of the Monstrous Arcana supplements had a trilogy of adventures that spotlighted their particular monsters, and – from what I've been given to understand, since I still don't have any of them – they were all top-quality products, and in many cases provided their own insights into the nature of the monsters in question, building on the sourcebooks.
Of course, none of that was known to me when I first laid eyes on I, Tyrant, the first Monstrous Arcana sourcebook. All I thought at the time was, "wow, this is the coolest beholder sourcebook ever!"
And really, that's a statement that's as true now as it was in 1996. While splatbooks devoted to particular monsters had existed prior to this (just look at FOR1 Draconomicon), and would readily proliferate over time with products like Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness, Demonomicon, and numerous third-party offerings such as Mayfair Games Lizardmen and Giants to Mongoose Publishing's Slayer's Guides, and quite a few more!
But while I, Tyrant didn't invent the concept of the "ecology sourcebook" – which elevated the idea of taking a deep-dive into a single monster from an article in Dragon magazine to an entire book unto itself – it certainly helped to popularize it. This brought all of the lore about beholders, from the bits and pieces scattered throughout various Forgotten Realms supplements (Ed Greenwood really took a shine to these guys, hence Xanathar, beholder cults, and Manshoon's alliances with them), Spelljammer supplements (which gave us quite a few "beholder-kin") and even the Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II, which gave us the oft-forgotten observer, yet another beholder-kin.
It's worth noting that this was one of the more visually-impressive books to come out for AD&D 2E, and I'm not just making an eyeball pun here. On the DriveThruRPG sales page for this product, Shannon Appelcline notes that this is a coffee table book with twice the usual number of interior illustrations that sourcebooks usually had. It certainly looks the part, as it's absolutely replete with artwork! Don't even get me started on the poster in the back of the book; while I regret detaching it now, I still can't get over that impressive lineup of the different beholder types!
So what was actually in the book? Well, as I alluded to above, this was essentially an expanded ecology on them. It went over their physical construction (noting that their flight was nonmagical, which was apparently a point of contention back in the back), their psychology (they had a conscious mind, and a subconscious that heavily screened out anything their conscious mind found too upsetting; insert American partisanship joke here), and their typical plans and activities, before moving on to things like new items that they've invented over time, how beholder cities work, and overviewing the beholder gods from DMGR4 Monster Mythology.
Naturally, a large part of this was to highlight that beholders were crazy, powerful, and dangerous. But it also underlined that they were intelligent monsters; while this had been played up previously, I like to think that this underlined that these weren't simple cavern-dwellers, hatching plans that they'd never enact, but were (as the title said) tyrants who individually had the power to dominate everything in a given region. The major thing which stunted their potential was that they were far more interested in warring with each other (a quirk of their psychology) than with pursuing goals against humanoids. Which I suppose makes sense; between a hairless monkey with a stick and a razor-toothed flying sphere with numerous magical eye-beams (and an anti-magic ray in case any of the monkeys learned how to cast spells), which one would you be more concerned about?
If there's one criticism I can make with regard to I, Tyrant, it's that it feels more like a compilation than an expansion on beholders. I said at the beginning of this post that the Monstrous Arcana series put a new spin on old monsters, but it felt like there was only a little of that here. I mean, I liked some of the new beholder items – a humanoid-shaped suit of armor that a beholder could plunk itself inside of and control, or special mirrors designed to reflect their eye-beams – but for the most part this retread old ground rather than breaking anything new. Heck, the opening mention of Ronassic of Sigil, who'd be name-dropped again in the final Monstrous Arcana sourcebook before appearing personally in Die Vecna Die!, is arguably the biggest addition to the D&D canon here. Maybe the new material was saved for Eye of Pain, Eye of Doom, and Eye to Eye, this sourcebook's adventure trilogy?
That's not to suggest that this book isn't a good one. As far as I'm concerned, it's still the go-to book for information on beholders in D&D, regardless of your edition of choice. But this book is a reference/compilation of lore rather than a source of it, and doesn't really do much to elevate its subject creatures from how they were presented initially.
But don't worry, we'll see more of that in the next Monstrous Arcana sourcebook.
P. S. Has anyone else ever wanted to make a beholder bard that sings the Ayeyaiyai song?
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
Voadam
Legend
I am also a fan of Goodman Games' Complete Guide to Beholders which puts a spin on them as projections into our universe of an elder god/void entity.
Voadam
Legend
I am the same way in prioritizing acquiring sourcebooks over adventures. I don't have any of the monstrous arcana module trilogies either.
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
Second in the Monstrous Arcana series, The Sea Devils is a book I recall liking more than I expected to when I first picked it up. Somewhat surprisingly, that's still the case now.
I call that surprising because, if you remember my take on DMGR9 Of Ships and the Sea (which was a companion piece to this), I mention how undersea adventuring doesn't really do it for me. And yet, this book about a race of evil fish-people managed to not only pique my interest, but still holds up after quite a few years of hindsight. Why is that?
My suspicion is that part of it has to do with the fact that an effort is made to highlight the psychology and sociology of these creatures, which was desperately needed. I didn't realize until much later on that the subjects of the Monstrous Arcana series – beholders, sahuagin, and illithids – were all Lawful Evil in nature, which highlights how they're capable of working together as part of an organized society. While beholders had already received some work on this via Spelljammer and the Forgotten Realms, and illithids were presented as a unified threat almost from the get-go, the sahuagin needed more work in this area, and it was done well here, presenting the eponymous sea devils as being possessed of a fierce racial pride that formed the bedrock of a very strict (but still flexible) social cohesion, one in which their religion plays only a moderate role. (Also, this book again makes mention of Ronassic of Sigil as an in-character source; were all of these mentions supposed to be building toward anything besides a shared in-world reference?)
That leads me to the second thing which made this book intriguing: it played up the mystery of the sahuagin's origins. While Sekolah, from DMGR4 Monster Mythology is presented as the patron of the sahuagin race, this supplement underlines how the sahuagin don't refer to him as their creator deity. In fact, the book takes pains to point out how the sahuagin are unusual in that they not only have four-armed mutations with some regularity, but also have malenti (i.e. sahuagin who are born looking like sea elves instead of fish-people) born every so often. And, the book tells us, the anatomy of a sahuagin's organs strangely resembles that of a new monster introduced here, the anguiliians.
Looking back now, it seems obvious that this was all fodder for the trilogy of adventures tied back to this sourcebook, Evil Tide, Night of the Shark, and Sea of Blood, though I didn't realize that at the time. As it stands, the overview of those variant sahuagins, along with an updated expansion of their specialty priests of sekolah, weresharks and sharkweres (the latter being an "antherion"; does anyone else remember them? They were animals that could become people, rather than people which could become animals), all made for a surprisingly diverse array of creatures which existed in the ecosystem around sahuagin territory.
On a mild tangent, while the sales pages for this book notes that the sahuagin weren't inspired by Lovecraft's deep ones, the listings for the adventures talk about how they nevertheless evoke that same theme. While I haven't read those (yet), that seems like a bit of an odd way to go; the kuo-toa always struck me as being much more akin to the deep ones than the sahuagin.
Likewise, I can't help but note that, unless I've somehow managed to miss the reference all this time, there's nothing here about how to pronounce "sahuagin." I had to go back to that old "Ay pronunseeAYshun gyd" article in Dragon #93 to find that (it's sa-HWA-gin, as it turns out, with that last "g" being hard like "grove"). Speaking of which, this sourcebook got a mild expansion in Dragon #239 which, honestly, didn't add very much. I mean, sahuagin armor and goggles to protect their eyes from bright light are only moderately interesting; the chemical substance that's ignited by water and used to fight scrags (marine trolls) was a little more so, but the entire thing seemed like little more than stuff from the cutting room floor.
Another aspect of what made this book so appealing was its smart use (but not overreliance) on mechanics to flesh things out. While I suspect that this is the grognard in me talking, I found it interesting (and, these days, nostalgic) to have the overview of a sahuagin village note that they have 1d4x10 hatchings and 2d4x10 unhatched eggs, and that for every 10 sahuagin females present there's a 10% chance for a priestess, who will be 5th level and have 1d4 assistants, each of which is level 1-4. Things like this make my dice hand itch (in a good way, I mean). Don't even get me started on how they actually provide stats for a racial hero among the sahuagin, plus stats for Sekolah's avatar!
Overall, this is an excellent example of how to take a slightly more prosaic – at least compared to beholders and illithids – race and make them interesting. Raising questions whose answers are only hinted at, fleshing out and tying together various disparate aspects of their presentation, laying down a smart collection of flavor text and giving it supporting game mechanics; this is how it's done. Things like this almost make me want to run an underwater campaign, particularly since Sea of Fallen Stars introduced "noble malenti," who've broken away from the sahuagins' malevolent influence, as a PC race.
Of course, I still consider this the weakest of the three Monstrous Arcana books, at least in terms of its subject. Beholders and mind flayers were already cool before their respective sourcebooks came out, whereas the sahuagin seem like they needed this to elevate them to the point of being noticed. It's no coincidence that, when D&D Third Edition came out, WotC had no problem with releasing sahuagin under the Open Game License, whereas beholders and illithids were kept out of the hands of third-party publishers (not withstanding a few early products that came out as part of the "gentlemens' agreement" that was in place before the OGL was formally released).
It's with that in mind that we look toward the final Monstrous Arcana book. Whereas up to now, we got moderately-interesting coverage of a cool monster, and good coverage of an okay monster, we finally get an excellent write-up of an awesome monster...
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
I call that surprising because, if you remember my take on DMGR9 Of Ships and the Sea (which was a companion piece to this), I mention how undersea adventuring doesn't really do it for me. And yet, this book about a race of evil fish-people managed to not only pique my interest, but still holds up after quite a few years of hindsight. Why is that?
My suspicion is that part of it has to do with the fact that an effort is made to highlight the psychology and sociology of these creatures, which was desperately needed. I didn't realize until much later on that the subjects of the Monstrous Arcana series – beholders, sahuagin, and illithids – were all Lawful Evil in nature, which highlights how they're capable of working together as part of an organized society. While beholders had already received some work on this via Spelljammer and the Forgotten Realms, and illithids were presented as a unified threat almost from the get-go, the sahuagin needed more work in this area, and it was done well here, presenting the eponymous sea devils as being possessed of a fierce racial pride that formed the bedrock of a very strict (but still flexible) social cohesion, one in which their religion plays only a moderate role. (Also, this book again makes mention of Ronassic of Sigil as an in-character source; were all of these mentions supposed to be building toward anything besides a shared in-world reference?)
That leads me to the second thing which made this book intriguing: it played up the mystery of the sahuagin's origins. While Sekolah, from DMGR4 Monster Mythology is presented as the patron of the sahuagin race, this supplement underlines how the sahuagin don't refer to him as their creator deity. In fact, the book takes pains to point out how the sahuagin are unusual in that they not only have four-armed mutations with some regularity, but also have malenti (i.e. sahuagin who are born looking like sea elves instead of fish-people) born every so often. And, the book tells us, the anatomy of a sahuagin's organs strangely resembles that of a new monster introduced here, the anguiliians.
Looking back now, it seems obvious that this was all fodder for the trilogy of adventures tied back to this sourcebook, Evil Tide, Night of the Shark, and Sea of Blood, though I didn't realize that at the time. As it stands, the overview of those variant sahuagins, along with an updated expansion of their specialty priests of sekolah, weresharks and sharkweres (the latter being an "antherion"; does anyone else remember them? They were animals that could become people, rather than people which could become animals), all made for a surprisingly diverse array of creatures which existed in the ecosystem around sahuagin territory.
On a mild tangent, while the sales pages for this book notes that the sahuagin weren't inspired by Lovecraft's deep ones, the listings for the adventures talk about how they nevertheless evoke that same theme. While I haven't read those (yet), that seems like a bit of an odd way to go; the kuo-toa always struck me as being much more akin to the deep ones than the sahuagin.
Likewise, I can't help but note that, unless I've somehow managed to miss the reference all this time, there's nothing here about how to pronounce "sahuagin." I had to go back to that old "Ay pronunseeAYshun gyd" article in Dragon #93 to find that (it's sa-HWA-gin, as it turns out, with that last "g" being hard like "grove"). Speaking of which, this sourcebook got a mild expansion in Dragon #239 which, honestly, didn't add very much. I mean, sahuagin armor and goggles to protect their eyes from bright light are only moderately interesting; the chemical substance that's ignited by water and used to fight scrags (marine trolls) was a little more so, but the entire thing seemed like little more than stuff from the cutting room floor.
Another aspect of what made this book so appealing was its smart use (but not overreliance) on mechanics to flesh things out. While I suspect that this is the grognard in me talking, I found it interesting (and, these days, nostalgic) to have the overview of a sahuagin village note that they have 1d4x10 hatchings and 2d4x10 unhatched eggs, and that for every 10 sahuagin females present there's a 10% chance for a priestess, who will be 5th level and have 1d4 assistants, each of which is level 1-4. Things like this make my dice hand itch (in a good way, I mean). Don't even get me started on how they actually provide stats for a racial hero among the sahuagin, plus stats for Sekolah's avatar!
Overall, this is an excellent example of how to take a slightly more prosaic – at least compared to beholders and illithids – race and make them interesting. Raising questions whose answers are only hinted at, fleshing out and tying together various disparate aspects of their presentation, laying down a smart collection of flavor text and giving it supporting game mechanics; this is how it's done. Things like this almost make me want to run an underwater campaign, particularly since Sea of Fallen Stars introduced "noble malenti," who've broken away from the sahuagins' malevolent influence, as a PC race.
Of course, I still consider this the weakest of the three Monstrous Arcana books, at least in terms of its subject. Beholders and mind flayers were already cool before their respective sourcebooks came out, whereas the sahuagin seem like they needed this to elevate them to the point of being noticed. It's no coincidence that, when D&D Third Edition came out, WotC had no problem with releasing sahuagin under the Open Game License, whereas beholders and illithids were kept out of the hands of third-party publishers (not withstanding a few early products that came out as part of the "gentlemens' agreement" that was in place before the OGL was formally released).
It's with that in mind that we look toward the final Monstrous Arcana book. Whereas up to now, we got moderately-interesting coverage of a cool monster, and good coverage of an okay monster, we finally get an excellent write-up of an awesome monster...
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