Editing Fiend Factory

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'''Fiend Factory''' was an article series that ran in the early issues of [[White Dwarf]], in the days when that magazine was devoted to all manner of RPG systems prior to [[Games Workshop]] founding its own multiverse of game systems and thus turfing out rivals to focus on their own product. The Fiend Factory was a series connected to [[Dungeons & Dragons]], and was a place where fan-submitted monsters would be edited and then printed for the perusal and interest of players and [[Dungeon Master]]s across the world. A surprising number of fan-favorite D&D monsters got their start here, and the [[splatbook]] "[[Fiend Folio]]" was actually intended to be something of a Greatest Hits Collection of submissions to this article series.

Considering how that book is received... yeah, you have been warned in terms of quality.

Its precursor was "Monsters Mild and Malign", which only ran two articles in total in White Dwarf issues #4 and 5, before being renamed to the arguably catchier Fiend Factory. Its successor was the even shorter-lived [[Creature Catalog]] of [[Dragon Magazine]], which only saw six articles in total released over the course of Dragon's lifespan, covering D&D editions 1-3.

==Index of Fiends==
Because 1d4chan is awesome, we're gonna tell you what issues of White Dwarf had Fiend Factory articles in them, and what monsters were in each one.

===White Dwarf #6===
'''[[Needleman]]:''' A green-skinned forest-stalking humanoid covered in iron-hard spikes like pine needles, which it can launch as projectiles. Created when a Raise Dead goes wrong on a body lying amongst pine needles, but is not undead.

'''Throat Leech:''' A leech that lives in water and swims down the gullets of drinkers to suck blood from inside their throat, suffocating them.

'''Mite:''' A really small, nasty, [[goblin]] like creature.

'''Bonesnapper:''' A small (5ft tall) carnivorous dinosaur that loves to gnaw on bones, and which collects human jawbones as a status symbol.

'''The Fiend:''' Strange fiendish-looking creatures descended from a "fallen angel" and "the evil god Pan", which are normally evil, but temporarily switch alignment due to guilt when they kill somebody. This was reinvented in the Fiend Folio as the [[Forlarren]].

'''[[Disenchanter]]:''' A spindly blue dromedary camel with an elephantine snout that feeds on magic.

'''[[Nilbog]]:''' A "reverse goblin" that is harmed by healing effects and healed by attacks.

===White Dwarf #7===
'''[[Necrophidius]]:''' A bone [[golem]] variant constructed in the image of a [[naga]].

'''Rover:''' An expy of the guardian "monster" from the 70s suspense TV show, ''The Prisoner''.

'''Living Wall:''' A relative of the Gelatinous Cube that pretends to be a stone wall. Was reworked in the [[Fiend Folio]] as the Stunjelly. Not to be confused with the [[Ravenloft]] living wall.

'''Volt:''' A strangely shaped flying beastie that attacks with a whiplike tail that delivers electric shocks.

'''Gluey:''' A strange creature that resembles a [[mummy]], but covered in sticky glue, which it can use to trap weapons. Was probably reworked into the [[Adherer]].

'''Squonk:''' An ugly vole-like creature that sits around all the time weeping at its own ugliness.

'''Eye Killer:''' A strange fiendish creature that resembles a bat-snake hybrid with a lethal gaze attack.

'''Witherweed:''' Predatory ground-covering vines that emit poisonous smoke when burned.

'''Withra:''' A "comedic" spin on the Wraith to create a defective version that is immune to magical weapons but harmed by normal ones, can't be turned, and on the off-chance it ''does'' hit, will instantly dissipate but also give the victim +1 level (assuming they survive the d6 damage it inflicted).

===White Dwarf #8===
'''Tween:''' A strange wraith-like being that bonds with a "host" and grants them increased luck... by draining it from tehir traveling companions.

'''Chaoticus Symbioticus:''' A slime that bonds symbiotically with powerful predators, using illusions (fake treasure + making its "host" look less powerful) to lure adventurers into fatal confrontations. Was renamed the Symbiotic Jelly in the Fiend Folio.

'''Stinwicodech:''' A bizarre frog-headed ape-thing whose tongue attack will first boost a random [[ability score]] by +1d6, but then will cause it to decrease it by -1d6 if it hits a second time.

'''Whirler:''' A malicious air [[elemental]] in the guise of a miniature whirlwind that seeks to envelop victims so it can tear them apart.

'''[[Carbuncle]]:''' A malicious, armadillo-like monster that uses the valuable gem it grows to wheedle its way into groups, where it then sows discord.

'''Coffer Corpse:''' A spiteful undead created from somebody whose funerary rites were never completed, and who now fights to keep from being sent on.

'''Rock Beast:''' A malevolent earth [[elemental]] in the form of a  living boulder that seeks to crush organic creatrues that come within range.

'''Turung:''' A strange hairy malicious thing that can cast Web and Anti-Magic Shell. Outright called out as one of the worst monsters submitted to Fiend Factory by that point.

===White Dwarf #9===
'''Svarf:''' Blue-skinned, orange-eyed humanoids that act as "the mediary between [[goblin]]s and [[kobold]]s". Basically the root-stock for the later [[Xvart]].

'''Dokon:''' An intelligent talking ape that will not attack unless it is attacked or robbed first, in which case it will fight to avenge itself or recover its treasure. If it wasn't for the fact that this came out in Oct/Nov 1978, one might think that this was a Donkey Kong reference.

'''Imorph:''' A strange slime that slowly shapes itself into a duplicant of the individual it's fighting.

'''Stair Stalker:''' A green hairy thing always found obsessively walking up and down a staircase.

'''Whipper:''' A mobile plant that attacks with two deadly flailing vines.

'''Flying Fish:''' A giant lungfish that levitates through internal sacs of hydrogen.

'''Urchin:''' Flying pincushions.

'''[[Umpleby]]:''' A dimwitted, shaggy humanoid that uses static electricity to defend itself.

'''Nasnas:''' A bizarre monster that looks like a human somehow cleaved in half down the middle.

===White Dwarf #10===
'''Blink Skeleton:''' A skeleton that can teleport around at random.

'''Inverse Monster:''' The Nilbog's "temporal inversion" applied to any other monster.

'''Mimble:''' A strange, insane little monster that is both possessed of incredible regenerative powers that make it indestructible and a hard-core masochist.

'''Familiar:''' A variant familiar in the form of a black cat that guards a wizard's chest of magical items. It has nine lives, and each time it is killed before the 9th is expended, it returns to life stronger than it was before. Was given the clearer name of ''Guardian Familiar'' in the Fiend Folio.

'''Sandman:''' An elemental of sand who can put victims to sleep.

'''Eastern Skeleton:''' A skeleton with the fighting skills of a [[monk]].

'''Warlock Cat:''' A "demon-familiar" in the form of an ethereal tiger that is a powerful combatant, but demands a daily human or demihuman meal and will eat its "master" if they don't pick somebody. Was reworked into the Hellcat in the Fiend Folio, which was a little less stupidly useless as a familiar, but still not worth it, since it now demanded a weekly meal.

'''Bragger:''' An obnoxious nigh-invulnerable imp-like creature that incessantly talks about how great and terrible it is.

===White Dwarf #11===
'''Lauren:''' A bizarre, three-headed, three-eyed, -three-armed, three-legged, hermaphroditic humanoid. Later known as the Tirapheg.

'''Spook:''' A generic winding-sheet type ghost... with the plower to instantly convert a player into another Spook upon hit.

'''Witherstench:''' A stinkier-than-normal skunk.

'''Tribe of the Stone:''' A race of reptilian humanoids from the [[Underdark]] that abduct humans to turn them into more of their own race.

'''[[Berbalang]]:''' A winged [[goblinoid]] with the power to astrally project itself.

'''Sheet Phantom:''' A haunted cloth that strangles victims to death and then animates their body as a Sheet Ghoul.

'''Lapidan:''' A mass of killer rope.

'''Devil Dog:''' A white-furred, blue-eyed dog that stalks cold regions for food.

===White Dwarf #12===
'''Assassin Bug:''' 2ft tall fly-like bug-men that use living humanoids as incubators for their young.

'''Iron Pig:''' An attempt at making a cheaper version of the iron [[golem]]. As a pig.

'''[[Grell]]:''' A tentacled giant brain with a beak that eats people.

'''[[Hook Horror]]:'' A clawed fiend from the [[Underdark]].

'''[[Githyanki]]:''' An evil race of humanoid [[gish|warrior-wizards]] escaped from slavery by the [[illithid]]s.

'''Giant Bloodworm:''' An overgrown leech.

'''Desert Raider:''' A desert-dwelling race of humans with solid blue eyes that wear water-recycling body-suits, known to use [[Purple Worm]] teeth as daggers. Basically a knock-off of the Fremen from [[Dune]]

'''Three-Headed Skrat:''' A skeletal-looking serpent that pops out of fissures and uses illusions to make itself look like it has three heads.

===White Dwarf #13===
''Doombat:''' An undead bat with a whipping barbed tail that carries a [[ghoul]]-like paralytic touch.

'''Terithran:''' A magic-hating humanoid from the [[Ethereal Plane]] that seeks to destroy magic.

'''[[Imp]]s:''' Four new [[elemental]] versions of imps; Fire, Smoke, Steam and Molten (Lava). Possibly the ancestors of the [[Mephit]].

'''Shadow Demon:''' A fiend trapped in the form of a living shadow.

===White Dwarf #14===
'''Gurgotch:''' A demonic black elephant.

'''Mindweb:''' An ephemeral entity that enslaves bans of other monsters and forcibly links them into a singular hive mind.

'''Energy Cyclone:''' A whirling vortex of glowing light.

'''Ice Maiden:''' An [[elemental]] of ice in the form of a beautiful naked woman with icy hair, pale skin and blue eyes that possess a Flesh to Ice gaze attack, essentially an icy variant of the [[medusa]].

'''Gazer:''' A variant [[Beholder]] that looks like a sphere with a mouth, a center eye, a ring of 10 small eyes around the central eye, four eyes around the mouth, and skin patterned so that it looks to be covered in eyes.

===White Dwarf #15===
'''Heat Monster:''' A metal sphere that radiates intense heat and sporadically throws fireballs at its enemies.

'''Tacharanid:''' A shapeshifting monster that adopts new forms to compensate for weaknesses of its previous forms.

'''Dragon Dog:''' A firebreathing dog, basically an upscaled Hell Hound.

'''Russian Doll Monster:''' A hulking humanoid beast that has the size and stats of a [[Stone Giant]], but only has 10 HP. Each time those are depleted, it disintegrates to reveal a smaller monster, with stats akin to a progressively weaker monster. In turn, it fights as a [[Hill Giant]] (10HP), [[Ogre]] (10 hp), [[Bugbear]] (9HP), [[Gnoll]] (8 HP), [[Hobgoblin]] (7 HP), [[Orc]] (6 HP), [[Goblin]] (5 HP) and finally a [[Kobold]] (4 HP). The whole thing is an elaborate nested [[construct]] (or perhaps illusion) being controlled from its core by a [[Leprechaun]], which upon being exposed will turn invisible, grab the nearest bit of loot, and then flee for its life.

'''Time Freezer:''' Peaceful, shaggy, ape-like humanoid with the ability to put others into temporal stasis, which it uses to escape danger.

'''Pebble Gnome:''' Dour, timid, diminutive [[gnome]] characterized by its total immunity to all magic, malign or beneficial.

===White Dwarf #16===
'''Tenser Beast:''' A self-propelled Tenser's Floating Disk turned into a weapon by its creator, making it into a flying blade.

'''[[Manscorpion]]:''' A race of [[centaur]] style scorpion-human hybrids that serve as agents of a God of Neutrality.

'''Ogress:''' A female [[half-ogre]] that uses magical trinkets to disguise itself as a human woman.

'''Wrecker:''' A super-powered Iron [[Golem]] created to guard a powerful magical artifact.

'''Plantman:''' A hideous-looking humanoid plant with a single dead-white eye and long tentacles that end in lamprey-like mouths for arms. They are based on the plant men from the Barsoom novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This is the full description:

A plant/human mutation, the plantman is generally human in form and stands 10'-12' high. It has two sinuous arms like elephants' trunks, at the end of each of which is a mouth with razor-sharp teeth. The creature is almost hairless and a ghastly blue in colour; a thick mass of jet black hair, each strand looking like a fat worm and in constant writhing motion, tops the head. There is a single, dead-white eye in the centre of the forehead circled by a broad ring of white 'flesh'. The nose is a ragged, inflamed hole in the centre of the face. The plantman moves on flat, broad feet each 3' long and the creature has a thick tail 6' long which is used in attack as well as for balance.

The plantman's mode of attack varies according to the circumstances. If there is sufficient space for it to do so, it will leap high in the air over its intended victim and lash downwards with its tail, such an attack being rolled as if for a monster with 8 hit dice and delivering 1-20 damage if successful. Otherwise it will attack with the mouths on the ends of its arms, each doing 2-8 damage (these attacks are resolved on the normal table). For each successful mouth attack there is a 75% chance that the mouth will attach to the victim's body, doing an additional 1-4 points of damage and sucking away body fluids (reduce constitution by 1 point for each successful attack of this type, the lost points being recovered at the rate of 1 point per hour).

Plantmen are extremely simple creatures, having only the most basic of nervous systems. They will usually be found grazing in valleys of woodlands, for they are basically vegetarian, eating by running their 'hands' over vegetation. They have a deep respect for clerics and will only attack members of this class if highly provoked; they are in great awe of druids and will never attack members of the druid class. They are too stupid to be trained to obey even the simplest of commands.

===White Dwarf #17===
'''Night Rider:''' Malevolent, light-averse humans who seek to conquer with armies of men, [[orc]]s and [[troll]]s.

'''Spice Worms:''' Giant worms, complete with [[Swallow Whole]] attack, that produce a spice that grants clairvoyant abilities. A shameless pastiche of [[Dune]].

'''Heat Skeleton:''' A more powerful [[skeleton]] that can Heat Metal at will.

'''Bodach:''' A strange, ugly little humanoid, like a goblin with clawed bird's feet.

'''Green Worm:''' A giant worm (but not as big as a [[Purple Worm]]) with a deadly poisonous sting.

'''Goom:''' A species of [[slime]] most notable for its tar-like adhesiveness.

===White Dwarf #18===
'''Mandrake People:''' Humanoid plants who inhabit the forests, and who hate humans for harvesting their unborn babies - mandrakes - as aphrodisiacs.

'''Hound of Kerenos:''' A variant Hell Hound that is tied to Ice rather than Fire.

'''Phung:''' An insane mantis-headed humanoid that loves to scare people to death, taken from Jack Vance's "City of the Chasch" novel.

'''Couerl:''' A monstrous cat with a mane of tentacles. Distantly related to the [[Displacer Beast]].

===White Dwarf #19===
'''Empipath:''' Small furry creatures that drive people into fits of emotion-driven madness.

'''Stormbiter:''' A lesser [[elemental]] of sand that only emerges when sandstorms drive them wild.

'''Undead Horse:''' [[Skeleton]] and [[zombie]] versions of the common horse.

'''[[Werefox]]:''' A [[kitsune]]-inspired [[therianthrope]] characterized by always being female and absolutely ''hating'' religion, seeking only to dupe or kill priests and burn down temples. It has extremely powerful affinity for the [[illusionist]] arts.

'''Darkhawk:''' A rotting undead falcon with a deadly gaze attack.

===White Dwarf #20===
'''Creeper:''' A shambling slimy monster with tentacles for arms that feeds on blood.

'''Water Leaper:''' Annoying aquatic predators that resemble fin-winged snakes with the heads of frogs.

'''Slime Beast:''' A mass of malevolent mud that can either sludge about like a [[slime]] or assume a crudely humanoid form.

'''Frog-Folk:''' Evil, brutish, cannibalistic humanoid frogs. Possibly an earlier draft of [[grung]] and/or [[bullywug]]s.

'''Melodemon:''' A fiend resembling a giant snake with a stinger on its tail and the head of an anthropomorphic alligator.

'''Cauldron-Born:''' Unique undead always created in batches; as one batch-member falls, the remainder get stronger.

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]] [[Category: Monsters]]