Evard’s Black Tentacles. Melf’s Acid Arrow. Leomund’s Tiny Hut. Have you ever looked at these spells and thought, man, who are these people? If so, this post is for you!
Mordenkainen, Tasha, and Fizban: the great wizards of D&D history

Evard’s Black Tentacles. Melf’s Acid Arrow. Leomund’s Tiny Hut. Have you ever looked at these spells and thought, man, who are these people? If so, this post is for you!
There are some quite contentious claims out there about the origins of D&D’s creature catalogue. Was D&D inspired primarily by Tolkien and European folklore, for example, or was it more international? How many monsters did Gary Gygax invent, and how many are based on real-life mythologies?