A quick question... I did a quick look through my 3rd ed. books, and found the entry for Firenewts in Monsters of Faerun. (I was toying with the idea of firenewts in a new query)
Now, almost all my pre-3.0 books are still boxed up after moving this summer, so I can't really flip through them, but does anyone remember where Firenewts first appeared? I seem to recall them being in the original Fiend Folio (or maybe MM2), but did they originally appear in any published adventures?
And were they originally FR monsters? I remembering encountering them in a desert enviroment in Greyhawk, not the jungles of Chult, although it may have been a homebrew adventure and not a published one.
The firenewt first appeared (officially) in the 1st Ed Fiend Folio. All the creatures published in the (1e) MM, MM2, and Fiend Folio were Greyhawk creatures.
So, firenewts, and other creatures such as death knights, drow, gith races, and shades, are all GREYHAWK (despite what other "canon" might have developed later... hope this doesn't start a flame war!). ;-)
The other PC-race gods also started in Greyhawk, too.
Thanks, thats what I remembered ;-)
I just thought it odd that they made it into 3rd Edition in Monsters of Faerun, and not the new MM2, Fiend Folio, etc. (And bullywugs were in Monsters of Faerun too?)
Creative Director
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There's actually a fair amount of non-FR monsters in Monsters of Faerun. When WotC decided to do that book, 3rd Edition was still in its infancy and no one really knew what loomed in the future—they wern't sure, for example, if there'd ever be another monster book after Monsters of Faerun. As a result, some of the old favorite "generic" monsters (like bullywugs, abishai, leucrotta, perytons, and fire newts and their giant striders) got grandfathered in to the book.
In hindsight, it's a little unfortunate, since a lot of those monsters had even richer traditions in Greyhawk than they ever did in Faerun, but I can certainly understand the mindset at the time that wanted them in the game in SOME way...
Thanks for the responses everyone.
After my proof reader goes through the query, I'll send it in... I actually went though some of the boxes in storage and dug out my old (AD&D) Fiend Folio, and several monsters from there are in this latest query, not just firenewts and their strider mounts.
I had forgotten how many monsters I consider iconic or classic are in that book, and now are staples of D&D... like Slaad or Drow.
Now for my next query, all I need to do is come up with a compelling plot that revolves around crabmen... ;-)