The second book of monsters in the first edition AD&D rule books. Many of the monsters were of limited interest, such as the nilbog and flumph. Perhaps TSR's UK audience found them more useful than us U.S. gamers, or perhaps the Fiend Folio was an early TSR exercise in fluffing out a work that wasn't really fit for publication. It simply did not compare with the original Monster Manual, nor with Monster Manual II. One of its strongest points was the intricate White Dwarf-ish artwork. It is firmly in what I consider the (inferior) "second wave" of AD&D hardcover rules.

the fiend folio was worth every penny. the few, non-fluff, creatures in the fiend folio were very good. it's write-ups introduced gamers to many great humanoid cultures like Drow and Svirfneblin.
the entries on Githzerai & Githyanki were rich in detail and plot devices, letting them survive to be used highly in PlaneScape.
and the fiend folio gave us little jerky bastards like the Jermlaine to teach power gamers that size doesn't matter.

The Fiend Folio was not created by TSR but was rather the work of their UK licensee at the time Games Workshop. A number of the creatures had previously appeared in White Dwarf.

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