Illithidae (in Lords of Madness)

[BOZ]

Illithidae (in Lords of Madness)

I think this might be a first for 3E. these were conversions of some obscure monsters that had previously only appeared in an old issue of Dragon mag (#150 to be precise). Sure, I had seen some monsters, like the Eye of Fear and Flame, that hadn’t been seen in an even greater time, but I’m sure more gamers are familiar with books like the old Fiend Folio than with issues of Dragon from 1989.

So, I’m curious. Does this represent a trend or a fluke? Is WotC going to make use of older material from more obscure sources that hasn’t seen the light of day in some time (I don’t know if the upcoming Dragon Magazine anthology was WotC’s idea or Paizo’s alone) or was this just one of the designers really paying attention to something that was forgotten by most people, and is not likely to happen again?

I would have liked to see more of this (I was checking the Neogi section for their gods listed in the old Ecology article, for example), but I’ll take instances like this as a good sign.

 

[demiurge1138]

Well, The Twilight World isn't that obscure - it's widely regarded, by people who remember that far back, as one of Dragon's greatest articles.

Sadly, though, it's probably a fluke. Since illithids were a major focus of the book, they pulled out all the illithid resources they could muster and converted what was cool (for example, I'm very happy they covered the vampiric mind flayer).

Demiurge out.

 

[Darkness]

I'm just glad I finally know what an urophion is. (There are two in Die, Vecna, Die but IIRC no information on what they are/do.)

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Well, The Twilight World isn't that obscure - it's widely regarded, by people who remember that far back, as one of Dragon's greatest articles.

Sadly, though, it's probably a fluke. Since illithids were a major focus of the book, they pulled out all the illithid resources they could muster and converted what was cool (for example, I'm very happy they covered the vampiric mind flayer).

Demiurge out.

That is one of my all time favorite articles. Even used it in a homebrew-rules Star Trek game I ran.

The more I hear, the more I may have to buy Lords of Madness. Dang it.

 

[Tzarevitch]

That is one of my all time favorite articles. Even used it in a homebrew-rules Star Trek game I ran.

The more I hear, the more I may have to buy Lords of Madness. Dang it.

The illithidae were a real blast from the past. The sunset world article was also one of my favorite Dragon articles of all time. I used it a long time ago in a Planescape campaign.

Tzarevitch

 

[Psion]

Permit me the freedom of speaking a bit broader than this specific sub-example.

I found that there was not all that much new about Lords of Madness when it came to the classic abberation baddies (Aboleths, Beholders, and Mind Flayers). Mostly, the new stuff was the new creatures like esp. the Tsochar.

Much of the book is revamping of material from disparate sources. And you know what? I'm okay with that. There have been so many different sources on these creatures, that no GM is likely to have a bulk of them. But to have a complete picture of these creatures, you have to follow frequent references to some of these old works like the Illithiad or Eye, tyrant. Even if you happen to own these references, they may have frequent inconsistancies with one another, and are not written to 3.5. Collecting the best of this material in a single reference and addressing inconsistencies and edition differences has produced what I feel is not a book that is startlingly new and innovative, but one that is very practical and helps bring together some ideas that are fundamental to the identity of the game* in an engaging self-consistant and playable manner.

* - C'mon, without the likes of Mind Flayers, isn't D&D really a stone's throw from Tolkien and Lieber with Vance magic?

 

[Darkness]

C'mon, without the likes of Mind Flayers, isn't D&D really a stone's throw from Tolkien and Lieber with Vance magic?

Yeah. And with them, it's the same - plus some Lovecraft.

 

[BOZ]

I'm just glad I finally know what an urophion is. (There are two in Die, Vecna, Die but IIRC no information on what they are/do.)

they've been in the Creature Catalog for a long time - you should have asked.

 

[BOZ]

Collecting the best of this material in a single reference and addressing inconsistencies and edition differences has produced what I feel is not a book that is startlingly new and innovative, but one that is very practical and helps bring together some ideas that are fundamental to the identity of the game* in an engaging self-consistant and playable manner.

i have to agree, and you know what - that's why i liked this book so much.

 

[Darkness]

they've been in the Creature Catalog for a long time - you should have asked.

True, I should have.