The Travesty! The Horror! Male Medusae.

[Korgoth]

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.

Fail. That's not what I was saying was politically correct... it was the remark about "Honestly, we in the fantasy community have got to start taking a good, hard look at the way gender is used in our media."

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.

You don't need to be telling me why I do or don't like something. I can tell you myself, if you care to know. The "medusae" (the gorgon sisters) are a Greek mythological idea, and I like Greek mythology (it was one of the things that made D&D seem cool... I was into Greek myth before I was into D&D). As I already said, I don't need every monster to be a breeding species. Sometimes, Monster = Freak.

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.

Only if "moot" means demonstrative. The point is that not every species is a true breeding species. Sometimes you get hybrids or freaks. Medusae (for example) could be one of those. Same reason I don't use female Minotaurs. It's a man-bull monster (in fact, the myth makes it a human-bull crossbreed, if you've read it). There are no Chick-o-taurs because I don't consider Minotaurs to be "cow people". I consider them to be monsters.

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.

Oh, well as long as I've got your permission.

 

[DonAdam]

[ YOUTUBE CRYBABY FACE ] Leave Night Hags Alllooooonnneeee!!! [ /YOUTUBE CRYBABY FACE ]

+5 points, sir.

 

[Aeolius]

Would this be a bad time to interject that I made locathah hermaphroditic (as some fish are) and my reef hags are born parthenogenetically ("virgin birth", as happens sometimes with sharks and other critters) from sea hags?

 

[Crothian]

Choosing to not use a monster that appears in the MM is not a house rule.

 

[Thunderfoot]

There was a great Ecology of ... in the Dragon Magazine a few years back about Maedar (Male medusae).

Instead of Flesh to Stone, they had the ability to turn Stone to Flesh - the story goes, they hide in the shadows until their sweetie-pea has made a few statues, they come out, bust the thing up with their fists (extremely strong) and then reverse the process so they could both feed. Human shashimi with a great blood sauce.

I've always tried to keep my players in the dark (so to speak) about these little beasties, because, when their comrades come up missing after a run in, its quiet enjoyable when they find out much much later that they were used as food. If they find out that is.

 

[Goobermunch]

Could you take the time to express this thought without the rape joke? Thanks

I would think that discussions of Greek Mythology might be the only place where rape jokes are appropriate. Zeus was a notorious transspecies rapist.

--G

 

[Lizard]

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.

Uhm...may I be the 1000th person on this thread to point out this is NOT a change, that, as far as I can tell, medusas in D&D have always been gendered?

 

[Terwox]

Would this be a bad time to interject that I made locathah hermaphroditic (as some fish are) and my reef hags are born parthenogenetically ("virgin birth", as happens sometimes with sharks and other critters) from sea hags?

Dragons in my games consciously choose their own gender upon reaching young adulthood.

AKA, I like to rip off Patricia Wrede whenever possible.

I like the hags giving birth! You could do some really neat stuff with that, I think I'm going to rip that off too.

First 4E skill challenge: "Midwifery."

Side note: Not using a monster from the MM is is a house rule if summoning spells include the monster. House-ruling out the celestial and abyssal templates will wreck your default choices of summons for level 1 in 3E, and some low-magic campaigns do this.

House rule may have not been the best word, however, it is accurate enough to contain previous pages of discussion with everyone knowing what the poll entailed, so let's be done with any semantics discussion.

 

[IanB]

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

Oy vey.

Yeah, the equating of "old ugly and female" with "evil" is highly intellectual.

 

[Aeolius]

I like the hags giving birth! You could do some really neat stuff with that, I think I'm going to rip that off too.

In "Ecology of the Greenhag" in DRAGON #125, the annis is described as being the daughter of a greenhag, while greenhags are daughters of night hags. Most of my games use that article as holy text.

You could also reference the movie "Beastmaster", where the hags "steal" an unborn infant, by transferring it into a cow. That was the basis for my hag-only PrC, the Body Snatcher.