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 Masters 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 goblins and kobolds". 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.