Slaad

The slaad (pluralized as slaadi or slaads) is a fictional monster in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. They are Outsiders that resemble giant humanoid toads of various colors.

Publication history

Development and licensing

The slaadi were created by Charles Stross for the Fiend Factory column in White Dwarf magazine. It was later compiled (along with many other monsters submitted to the magazine) into the TSR UK book, Fiend Folio Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign (1981). Stross said of their creation,

For much of their existence, the slaadi were the subject of jokes by D&D players due to their distinctly frog-like appearance, which was overemphasized in early artistic depictions of the monsters. With the advent of the Planescape campaign setting, TSR, Inc. made an effort to create a more appropriately fearsome image of the slaadi, with their toad qualities toned down in favor of showing their more frightening aspects as beings of pure chaos. This Planescape envisioning of the slaadi carried forth into the 3rd Edition of the D&D game and has persisted ever since.