Back in the halcyon days of shoulder pads, cassette tapes, and Ronald Reagan’s second term, TSR decided that what Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) players really needed was more monsters. A lot more monsters. Enter Monster Manual II (1983), the imaginatively titled follow up to 1977’s original Monster Manual and a critical addition to the monster buffet that defined AD&D’s First Edition.

Compiled and written by the ever industrious Gary Gygax himself, Monster Manual II was TSR’s way of saying: “Hey, remember when we released modules, magazine articles, and boxed sets full of unique creatures? Let’s collect all that weirdness, polish it up, and put it between two covers. Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s make it even harder for your players to survive.”

The Stats, Ma’am, Just the Stats

Monster Manual II was published in 1983 as a hardcover, running 160 pages, and featuring the usual two-column layout that screams “80s TSR.” The book contains over 250 monsters, many of which were originally introduced in Dragon Magazine, various adventure modules (Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth being a major contributor), or Gary’s own campaign notes from the exalted, terrifying halls of Greyhawk.

The layout is mostly consistent with the original Monster Manual alphabetical entries with combat statistics, habitat details, and a charmingly matter of fact approach to truly bonkers concepts. Want to know how fast a tarrasque can run? It’s right there. Want to know how many hit dice an aerial servant has? Boom, handled. Want to know why any druid in their right mind would ever try to tame a symbiotic jelly? Well… let’s just say “high Wisdom” doesn’t always mean “good decisions.”

Gygax Unleashed

One of the unique things about Monster Manual II is that it’s probably the most “Gygaxian” of the core monster books. By 1983, Gary Gygax had been pushed further from the day to day gameplay side of TSR and was focusing on world building and narrative heavy campaigns (not to mention writing Gord the Rogue novels). But here, in MMII, we get pure Gygax a man who, when faced with the idea of a “monster book,” replied not with restraint but with unbridled creative chaos.

In Gygax’s capable hands, the Monster Manual II becomes not just a compendium of beasts, but an insight into the twisted ecosystem of the D&D multiverse. There’s logic here just a deeply arcane, often terrifying kind of logic.

For instance, MMII doesn’t just give us more demons it gives us the entire freaking demon taxonomy. Suddenly you’ve got your Tanar’ri, your Baalrogs-that-aren’t-Balrogs-we-swear, and enough unpronounceable abyssal hierarchy to send your campaign into full Dante’s Inferno mode.

And don’t forget devils. Oh yes, this was the era when the Blood War a celestial bureaucracy of cosmic evil was being quietly constructed behind the scenes. The book is crawling with devils, daemons, demodands, and other “D words” that all want to destroy, corrupt, or just plain digest you. Lawful Evil, meet Chaotic Evil. Place your bets.

Highlights from the Monster Buffet

With over 250 creatures, there’s a smorgasbord of the sublime, the ridiculous, and the straight-up nightmarish. Let’s take a tour of some standouts, shall we?

Tarrasque

Arguably the most infamous creature in MMII, the Tarrasque is the closest thing AD&D had to Godzilla. It’s a 70 foot tall juggernaut of destruction with 300 hit points, immunity to most forms of magic, and a bad attitude. Killing it requires not only dropping its HP to zero but also casting wish to make sure it stays dead.

This monster is the ultimate DM power move. Players getting too cocky? Summon the Tarrasque. City getting too peaceful? Release the Tarrasque. DM just wants to watch the world burn? You know what to do.

Grell

This floating horror looks like a brain with a beak and a bunch of dangling tentacles basically, someone mashed up The Flying Spaghetti Monster and Cthulhu’s lesser known cousin. The grell is intelligent, paralyzes its prey, and floats eerily around dungeons like it’s looking for its misplaced car keys.

It’s also a great way to freak out new players. “No, that’s not a trap. That’s a creature. Roll initiative.”

Cat Lord

The Cat Lord is what happens when you give a deity level portfolio to a sassy feline. Aloof, smug, and deeply powerful, the Cat Lord rules over all felines in the multiverse. Why? Because Gary Gygax said so.

The Cat Lord is also one of those rare monsters that can be both an ally and a foe. Cat goes both ways, baby.

Meenlock

These creatures embody the horror aesthetic that started creeping into AD&D in the early ’80s. Meenlocks are small, evil, insectoid things that telepathically torment their victims, slowly turning them into meenlocks over several days of psychological warfare.

They’re like if Kafka’s The Metamorphosis met Event Horizon and somehow ended up in a fantasy campaign.

Swanmay

Not everything in MMII is nightmare fuel. Swanmay are gentle, nature loving women who can transform into swans and hang out with rangers and druids. They’re lawful good, rare, and kind of like D&D’s answer to swan princesses.

Also, they’re immune to charm and sleep, so if your bard gets any ideas, remind him he’s about to get smote.

Brain Mole

Yes, you read that right. A brain mole. It’s a tiny psionic rodent that lives underground and feeds on brain waves. Brain. Waves.

Is it dangerous? Only to psionic characters, really. Is it hilarious? Absolutely. Does it make you wonder what kind of campaign Gary was running? Constantly.

Monsters with Lore

Monster Manual II did something clever it didn’t just dump monsters into the book and call it a day. Many entries are steeped in Greyhawk lore, which helped flesh out the world Gygax had been quietly building for over a decade. You get factions, rivalries, societal structures, and hints of planar politics all within the monster entries.

Take, for example, the Githyanki and Githzerai, who make another appearance here. These extraplanar humanoids are embroiled in an endless war and have a backstory more complex than most player characters. You also get expansions on the Elemental Planes, the Abyss, and the Nine Hells, which begins to plant the seeds for the Planescape setting a decade later.

The Art of Terror (and Humor)

The artwork in Monster Manual II is very much a product of its time. While it doesn’t quite hit the iconic highs of the original Monster Manual or the Fiend Folio, there are plenty of gems.

Some illustrations are wonderfully evocative. Others are… well, let’s just say your players might laugh before they scream. For every menacing tarrasque stomping a castle, there’s a goofy quesar that looks like a rejected He-Man toy. But that’s part of the charm. MMII walks a tightrope between grimdark and Saturday morning cartoon, and somehow it works.

Artists like Jim Holloway, Jeff Easley, and Larry Elmore all contribute, lending the book a visual style that was both cohesive and characterful sometimes elegant, sometimes bizarre, always memorable.

The Mechanical Impact

Mechanically, Monster Manual II leaned hard into the simulationist philosophy of AD&D. Monsters had incredibly detailed stat blocks, complete with morale scores, treasure types, number appearing (random encounter tables galore!), and even average lair population sizes.

One of the book’s more useful additions was the extended series of encounter tables in the appendices, neatly sorted by terrain and climate. This made it much easier for DMs to populate their worlds with appropriate threats. Want to know what’s lurking in the arctic tundra during winter? Flip to the appendix and find out. Spoiler: it’s probably not friendly.

There’s also a treasure trove of planar monsters, giving DMs more ammo to challenge high-level characters. By the time a party was teleporting across dimensions and shaking hands with demigods, they needed more than just trolls and ogres. MMII delivered with slaadi, daemons, elementals, and enough outsiders to make Doctor Strange take notes.

Reception and Legacy

When Monster Manual II dropped, it was met with enthusiasm. TSR fans had a serious appetite for new content, and a book packed with monsters many already seen in Dragon Magazine or hard-to-find modules was exactly what they wanted. Plus, it was written by Gygax, which gave it an air of authority, even as the company’s internal politics grew increasingly stormy.

Today, MMII holds a kind of cult classic status. While it was eventually superseded by later editions and their own monster tomes (hello, Monster Manual III in 3.5e), there’s something ineffably cool about MMII. It’s raw. It’s weird. It’s a little messy. But it’s pure, uncut Gygaxian D&D.

For collectors, it’s a must-have. For dungeon masters, it’s still a rich resource, even if you have to translate THAC0 math and initiative quirks. And for fans of classic fantasy weirdness, it’s a glorious window into an era when monsters weren’t just stat blocks they were expressions of creative chaos.

Final Thoughts: Long Live the Weird

Monster Manual II may not have the same cultural cachet as the original Monster Manual, but it deserves serious love. It captures a moment in time when D&D was still figuring itself out part wargame, part improv theater, part fever dream and it celebrates that creative chaos in every tentacled horror and brain-eating rodent.

Whether you’re a hardened grognard or a curious newcomer, MMII has something for you. Want to run a dungeon with invisible stalkers, symbiotic jellies, and a cat deity? It’s in there. Want to send your players to Hell literally? Covered. Want to make your ranger cry with a pack of flind-led gnolls? Oh yes. You’re welcome.

So next time your players breeze through an encounter and start acting like gods, pull out Monster Manual II and introduce them to the tarrasque.

Then just sit back and roll for initiative.