The Travesty! The Horror! Male Medusae.

[Terwox]

There were male medusae implied in Eberron.

Seems like something a bit insignificant to get worked up over.

Eh, worked up isn't really an accurate description, although I suppose "The Tragedy! The Horror!" may come across as such.

I simply don't like it, and won't be using it. I'd be frustrated if a DM pulled one of these out, but I wouldn't cry foul.

I suppose I was curious how many people would react as strongly as I did about this -- apparently, the answer is not many.

 

[Korgoth]

Honestly, we in the fantasy community have got to start taking a good, hard look at the way gender is used in our media. There really isn't any good reason that I can think for continuing to have female-only medusae.

I agree, let's suck all joy and intellectual content out of our hobby using the might of Political Correctness!

Oy vey.

Anyway... I don't see a need to have male medusae because I don't see a need for every monster to have an ecology or be a breeding species. First of all, not every real species is a breeding species! Mules, for example. Second, you can have "fantasy origins" for some of your monsters. Maybe some are just made of evil. In the case of medusae... why not just have them as the result of a curse? You know, when a woman of great beauty angers the gods or gets zapped with a specific dark ritual, she becomes a medusa. Done, and all without Mutual of Greyhawk's FeyWild Kingdom.

 

[Wolfwood2]

The very first Dragon magazine I ever read had an article about Maeder, the male counterpart to the medusa. I still remember their ability to phase through rock and turn stone to flesh. If they're like that; I'm in.

If they're just males with snake hair and a stone gaze, I won't use them.

 

[Pistonrager]

I swear if they put a male Rusalka in the game though I'll probably have a nerdy aneurysm.

Actually, I remember seeing something to that effect in one of the 3.5 MM's... a fey night in shining armor that lives in a waterfall...can't remember the name...

 

[Lizard]

Uhm...why NOT?

They weren't all female in 3e. Nor in 1e, for that matter.

Where do baby medusas come from?

 

[Jer]

Uhm...why NOT?

They weren't all female in 3e. Nor in 1e, for that matter.

Where do baby medusas come from?

Depends on the world. Like Voss said above - the only Medusa in the world could be the result of a god-curse of some sort. If there's more than one "medusa", they could all be cursed humanoids of some kind. I mean, that's where the Medusa of folklore came from after all.

I once created a world where there were no "baby orcs". No male or female orcs either. All orcs were pretty much genderless and the result of a horrible curse (they were actually a "byproduct" of a nasty curse placed on a particularly evil wizard-king by a set of evil gods). I had a different campaign where there were no "baby goblins/hobgoblins/ogres/trolls" because those races were actually corrupted fey races and basically "incarnated" as fully formed adults when they became corrupt as a punishment by the Fey Court. Killing a goblin just meant that a "new" goblin was "incarnated" somewhere else in the world - ignorant of its previous "life" - to continue its miserable semi-mortal existence until it could somehow claw its way out of its corrupted state and gain the forgiveness of the Fey Court (ha!). My current campaign has no "baby elves" because I stole the corruption idea from my old campaign but instead of being corrupted with evil, elves are "fallen" fey who became infatuated with mortality and voluntarily gave up their immortal status to live out lives among the mortals.

Not every creature needs to follow real-world biology. But, again, I'd want to see where the developers are going with it before coming out against such a "change" - things like male "Medusa" are very easy to ignore if they don't fit one's campaign assumptions.

 

[Andor]

I don't see the problem. If you have more than one, then you need some vaugely plausible way of making more. A ritual that transmuted a creature into one would work, although I see no reason such a curse would only be applicable to women. Sex requires less handwaving.

 

[Lacyon]

Where do baby medusas come from?

Well, when a stork and a cabbage love each other very much...

 

[Aeolius]

Actually, I remember seeing something to that effect in one of the 3.5 MM's... a fey night in shining armor that lives in a waterfall...can't remember the name...

Fossergrim. They've been in D&D since the 1e D&DG.

 

[Pistonrager]

I agree, let's suck all joy and intellectual content out of our hobby using the might of Political Correctness!

Oy vey.

Anyway... I don't see a need to have male medusae because I don't see a need for every monster to have an ecology or be a breeding species. First of all, not every real species is a breeding species! Mules, for example. Second, you can have "fantasy origins" for some of your monsters. Maybe some are just made of evil. In the case of medusae... why not just have them as the result of a curse? You know, when a woman of great beauty angers the gods or gets zapped with a specific dark ritual, she becomes a medusa. Done, and all without Mutual of Greyhawk's FeyWild Kingdom.

There is nothing politically correct in assuming a living sentient being has the ability to propagate or indeed that there are two sexes of each type of creature. The real problem isn't gender equality, it's that some people are stuck in the ways of the past. As such people are uncomfortable with change and the idea that things may be different from the way we like them.

God's willy nilly cursing hot chicks? messed up dark cultists that turn people into a medusa for no reason? it makes less sense than a self propagating species.

Oh and your reference to the mule is moot, it still had a male and female parent, though they aren't of the same species. So maybe in your world they are god cursed, man cursed or the result of a freaky beholder yuan-ti mating which fully explains it's rarity...

I guess the point I'm trying to make is, your knee-jerk reaction of honking about political correctness is a problem, people reacted the same way to the idea of a male succubus(the incubus) and it was a problem then too. I'm not a feminist, and frankly the majority of the feminist movement is utterly retarded in my opinion, but thinking a male of a classicly female creature exists isn't even a stretch, I regularly pretend I have the ability to shoot fire and bees from my hands, but that's my own RPing experience. But feel free to have your medusae spawn however you like, as long as there is a reason for it. Gods or Cultists as long as it's consistent and thematically fits.