AD&D Monster Manual (1st Edition)

Well here we are finally, the 1st edition Monster Manual and the first ever official AD&D product.  This one was well known for it's cover art, probably considering it was the first ever hardcover book.  Speaking of the artwork, we haven't really discussed the level of D&D art in a while.  It's...getting better, I guess?  It's still nothing to write home about, but it's starting to show some signs of maturity.

The format is instantly recognizable to consumers of later versions and set the standard template of a stat block plus a picture, then a few paragraphs describing the creature in more detail.  The tone here is still very much "here is a collection of numbers to fight".  Most of the text is taken up with the creature's combat abilities, with perhaps a brief visual description and maybe a sentence or two describing the creature's ecology and how it fits into a larger world.

Having said that, let's dive into some of the more interesting entries:

• Demons are back, and instead of just being "type X" demons, they now have the familiar names that would stick through later editions.  In addition we get some new demon princes: Juiblex and Yeenoghu.  Note that while demons are noted as coming from the Abyss, the concept of the demon princes each ruling over a layer of the Abyss does not exist yet.
• Not to be outdone, devils make their first appearance in D&D material.  Several arch-devils appear here too, namely Asmodeus (9th layer), Baalzebul (6th and 7th layer), Dispater (2nd layer), and Geryon (5th layer).
• In the text for the demons and devils we get the first glimpses of D&D theology.  In the entry for manes we have the note, "Those dead which go to the 666 layers of the demonic abyss become manes....Certain manes will be used to form shadows or ghasts (qqv), depending on the greatness of their evil in material life."  Similarly, the entry for lemures states, "The lemures are the form which the dead whom inhabit the Nine Hells are put in...After being in hell for a certain time lemures will be chosen to form wraiths and spectres."  There is also an entry for larva, noting that they are the souls of the selfishly (neutral) evil, and that hags trade them to both demons and devils to be turned into quasits and imps.  The entry for quasits mentions that they can be turned into type I or type II demons for successful service, so we have the beginnings of the concept that demons and devils are gradually promoted to higher and higher forms starting from the souls of the dead, although it is not quite explicitly stated.
• Gary must really have loved him some dinosaurs, because the list of them included here is...thorough.  In addition, there are a number of other prehistoric creatures such as mastodons and saber-tooth tigers.  It must have been an interest of his.
• The section on dragons re-introduces the chromatic and metallic dragons, both of which have already appeared in earlier material.  I've noted this in a previous blog post on the original boxed set, but rules for subduing dragons reappear here, and again, it's rather ludicrously easy.  But what makes it even better are the statements afterwards about what you can do with subdued dragons.  First, take this gem: "Larger towns and cities will usually have a market for dragons."  I'm just not even going to comment on the concept of a city having an active, ongoing trade in subdued dragons.  But the best?  "Subdued dragons can be ridden."  Hell yeah!
• A platinum dragon and chromatic dragon were briefly mentioned in Supplement I, but here they get full entries as the Bahamut and Tiamat we know and love.  Tiamat is listed as ruling the first layer of hell, while Bahamut dwells in a palace behind the east wind.
• I'm both amused and chagrined by creatures introduced just for the sake of making an adventuring party's life harder.  It's a symptom of the early sensibilities of the game where the DM's purpose was basically just to try to kill the player characters.  The Ear Seeker is a perfect example of that.  The intention is that every time a character puts their ear up to a wooden door to listen for noise, they might get infected by ear seekers, which naturally leads to death unless cured.  I tag these kinds of creatures as "adventurers' banes".  There are several more here, some of which we have seen before like the lurker above, and some which are new like the infamous mimic.
• Drow make their very first appearance here.  It's just a very brief blurb under the elf entry, however.  It will not be until module G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King that they really appear in earnest.
• The beholder appears again here of course, but we also get our very first beholder-kin: the Eye of the Deep.
• I discovered that it was this product that introduced X-were creatures, which I've never been fond of.  There is a lengthy section on lycanthropes, or course, all of which are "were-X" (werewolf, wererat, etc.).  But it also has an entry for the jackalwere, and briefly mentions the wolfwere.  Whereas a werewolf is a man who can transform into a wolf, a wolfwere is a wolf that can transform into a man, because why not?  Later products (and especially Ravenloft) would introduce a wider range of X-were creatures, but I've always felt they were rather ridiculous.
• As a final note, I find it amusing that the text blurb on the back cover for the quasit doesn't actually match the text in the creature's entry inside.

That's all for this product.  It's been fun seeing the very first monster book in its original form.  Some of D&D's most iconic elements are the monsters it introduced or at least codified that still heavily influence fantasy RPG concepts even today, and this is exactly why I set out on this project in the first place.  Join me again next time as we go back to the Dragon.