Monster Lore - Volo's Guide to Monsters

Monster Lore. Volo has encountered many monsters in his day, few as odious or as ornery as the ones described herein. This chapter takes several iconic D&D monsters and provides additional information about their origins, their dispositions and behaviors, and their lairs-above and beyond what is written in the Monster Manual. To give every monster such grand treatment would require too many pages to count, so we winnowed down the list to nine groups of creatures that have a lot going for them and tend to get used often in D&D campaigns: Beholders Goblinoids Mind flayers Giants Hags Orcs Gnolls Kobolds Yuan-ti If you plunder this chapter for ideas and maps the next time you create an adventure or a villain, then this material has served its purpose. We hope that, as you explore each monster section, you'll come up with new ways to challenge and entertain your players, as well as find new things that you can borrow for your own D&D campaign. Let each entry spark your imagination! The lore in this chapter represents the perspective of Volo and is mostly limited to the Forgotten Realms. In the Realms and elsewhere in the D&D multiverse, reality is more varied than the idiosyncratic views presented here. DM, use the material that inspires you and leave the rest. Beholders: Bad Dreams Come True To those who would seek to conquer beholders or merely understand them, nearly everything about their quarry is unfathomable. These bizarre creatures are possessed of alien intelligence, inhuman forms of perception, and the ability to shape reality through force of will-or even by their mere presence. Inside the comfortable confines of its subterranean lair, a beholder is nearly unassailable thanks to the combination of its peerless intellect and the brutal effects of its eye rays. Some of the behaviors and motivations that beholders exhibit are analogous to those of humans and other intelligent creatures. The difference is one of degree. For instance, where a prideful, confiden...