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Monsters in the 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

The second edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game features both a higher number of books of monsters—"many tied to their growing stable of campaign worlds"—and more extensive monster descriptions than both earlier and later editions, with usually one page in length. Next to a description, monster entries in this edition contained standardized sections covering combat, their habit and society, and their role in the eco-system. While later editions gave the various creatures all the attributes which player characters had, 2nd edition only listed intelligence, a characteristic important for creating challenging encounters in the game.

The 2nd edition also uses a unique format in the form of Monstrous Compendiums of loose sheets that could be collected in a folder, allowing for a combination of monster books together with individual monster pages from boxed sets. This "unruly" format was abandoned again in 1993 in favor of bound books. In parallel with this change, the 2nd edition introduced colored images for each monster, which became standard in later editions of the game. Referencing Wizards of the Coast art director Dawn Murin, GameSpy author Allan Rausch found that until the 2nd edition the artwork depicting monsters was influenced by the popular culture of the late 1970s. As a result, creatures that were fearsome by description were not taken seriously due to ill-suited visuals. Likewise, humanoid monsters too closely resembled humans to be compelling. In the view of Rausch as well as Backstab reviewer Michaël Croitoriu, the Planescape setting marked a turning point for these shortcomings, which also had a significant impact on the presentation of the 3rd edition.

The second edition's monsters were based on original inventions, fantasy literature, and mythologies from various cultures. Many monsters were updated from earlier editions, but the 2nd edition also introduced a great number of new creatures.

Some types, such as devils and demons, were initially removed by TSR in response to a moral panic promoted by Patricia Pulling's advocacy group Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD). These were later reintroduced, sometimes with different names to avoid complaints.

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Monsters in the 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

TSR 2102 – MC1 – Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989)

TSR 2103 – MC2 – Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (1989)

TSR 2104 – MC3 – Monstrous Compendium – Forgotten Realms Appendix (1989)

TSR 2105 – MC4 – Monstrous Compendium – Dragonlance Appendix (1990)

TSR 2107 – MC5 – Monstrous Compendium – Greyhawk Appendix (1990)

TSR 2116 – MC6 – Monstrous Compendium – Kara-Tur Appendix (1990)

TSR 2109 – MC7 – Monstrous Compendium – Spelljammer Appendix (1990)

TSR 2118 – MC8 – Monstrous Compendium – Outer Planes Appendix (1991)

TSR 2119 – MC9 – Monstrous Compendium – Spelljammer Appendix (1991)

TSR 2122 – MC10 – Monstrous Compendium – Ravenloft Appendix (1991)

TSR 2125 – MC11 – Monstrous Compendium – Forgotten Realms Appendix II (1991)

TSR 2405 – MC12 – Monstrous Compendium – Dark Sun Appendix: Terrors of the Desert (1992)

TSR 2129 – MC13 – Monstrous Compendium – Al-Qadim Appendix (1992)

TSR 2132 – MC14 – Monstrous Compendium – Fiend Folio Appendix (1992)

TSR 2139 – MC15 – Monstrous Compendium – Ravenloft Appendix II: Children of the Night (1993)

TSR 2140 – Monstrous Manual (1993)

TSR 2602 – Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994)

TSR 2501 – Monstrous Compendium – Mystara Appendix (1994)

TSR 2153 – Monstrous Compendium – Ravenloft Appendix III: Creatures of Darkness (1994)

Monstrous Compendium Annuals

Volume One

Volume Two

Volume Three

Volume Four

TSR 2433 – Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix II: Terrors Beyond Tyr (1995)

TSR 2613 – Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II (1995)

TSR 2162 – Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Appendices I and II (1996)

TSR 2524 – Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1996)

TSR 2635 – Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix III (1998)

TSR 3140 – Birthright – Blood Spawn: Creatures of Light and Shadow (2000)

Other sources

Spelljammer

Forgotten Realms

Dragonlance

Al-Qadim

Planescape

Dark Sun

Birthright

Greyhawk

Core AD&D sources

Dragon

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