Editing Myconid (section)

==2nd Edition==
[[File:Myconid MCV2.jpg|right|300px]]
[[File:Myconid MM 2e.png|right|300px]]
The myconids featured quite prominently in 2nd Edition, starting with two full pages in the Monstrous Compendium Volume Two. The artwork shows a myconid whose eyes have migrated from its stalk to the dome on on the top of its head. This myconid also has only three fingers on each hand, although the text still specifies two fingers plus two thumbs. We also learn here that fungus folk have wide feet with vestigial toes.

The abilities of the myconids are largely unchanged from 1st Edition, but the ranges of most of the spore effects are capped at 40 feet. The description of the animator spores also gives stats for a typical animated corpse (it has 1 HD and 2 claw attacks for 1-3/1-3 damage). We learn that myconids have a typical lifespan of 24 years, growing 1 HD (and two feet) every four years.

Myconids don't feed directly off the fungi they farm, but off the soil nutrients left by decaying fungi. They are a peaceful race and conflict between myconids is unheard of. Myconids have no desire to conquer anyone and would prefer to be left alone. They view humanoids as violent, insane species out to conquer others. They have trouble trusting any humanoids, generally expecting them to become violent at any moment. Even when approached peacefully, they tend to be suspicious of outsiders.

Communal myconid space includes mounds of moss-covered stones that double up as seats and beds. The fungus folk also share a large garden area, where they eat and drink, and where the king grows potion ingredients. Dead myconid kings are buried beneath the mounds while other dead are buried near the gardens. The only myconids usually found outside of their community are work details looking for dead creatures they can bring back for their king to animate.

At first glance, the artwork on card #368 of the 1991 AD&D Trading Cards looks like someone has coloured in the black and white picture from the Monstrous Compendium, but it is actually a completely new picture, just of exactly the same myconid. It has a pale purple skin and yellow eyes.

In the Monstrous Manual hardcover collection, the text and statistics are reprinted exactly as they first appeared in the Monstrous Compendium, but there is a new colour picture and the myconid's eyes have returned to their normal place on its stem.

The article Familiar Faces in Dragon #200 suggests a 1 HD myconid as an alternative [[familiar]] for an [[Underdark]] [[mage]], and PHBR11: The Complete Ranger's Handbook suggests that myconid could also be followers for [[ranger]]s, but notes that such a follower has low trainability.

The Night Below includes an opportunity for adventurers to free a small group of myconids from an unusual persecutor. An insane, exiled male [[drow]] suffers from the delusion that he is a minor god of fungi, and he has acquired a wand of plant charming to assist him in his quest for followers. Together with his band of gas spores, ascomoids and, strangely, [[wererat]]s, the drow is attempting to forcibly convert the confused myconids.

Shards of the Day in Dungeon #60 is an [[Underdark]] adventure where the resident myconids are being experimented on by [[illithid]]s. The mind flayers are trying to perfect dust of contrariness, and have chosen the fungus folk as test subjects. This adventure is also notable as containing what seems to be the first myconid with a name. The king is called Reyseta.

Myconids feature in The Gates of Firestorm Peak as potential allies for the adventurers. In an area known as the Twisted Caverns, the myconids live in a state of constant warfare with the local population of troll mutates. This pressure has turned these fungus folk into far more aggressive specimens than most. They have set up a variety of traps in strategic areas of the caverns, including covered pits filled with dangerous molds and key entrances crossed by webs lined with hallucinogenic powders.

Their social structure is also slightly different with the king having bodyguards (5 HD) who, like him, remain apart from the circles and assist in the defence of the colony. The king keeps clubs coated with dangerous yellow mold next to the boulder which serves as his throne. Despite their more war-like countenance, the myconids remains peaceful creatures at heart, and are willing to communicate with the adventurers. If they agree to destroy the myconids' main enemy, the king will send one of his bodyguards to assist, as well as sharing healing potions.

In the encounter with the king it is noted that myconids do not bend easily, and spend most of their lives standing.

The adventure Uzaglu of the Underdark in Dungeon #67 features an [[undead]] myconid king, named Uzaglu. The leader of a myconid colony destroyed by [[derr]]o, the king was raised by a derro [[Necromancer|necromantic]] spell and now serves the [[dwarves]]. Because he is undead, Uzaglu's spores do not simply animate corpses, but instead create dimly intelligent undead. The animation process causes them to become partially frozen by rigor mortis, so these creatures have limited flexibility and move around by hopping. This, combined with an abhorrent need to bite people, gives them the name hanuk arazuul or "hopping vampires". The touch of one of Uzaglu's minions has the same effect as [[mummy]] rot.

Uzaglu himself is bloated and his flesh is milky and decayed. He is perpetually surrounding by the equivalent of a 30' diameter stinking cloud, and can produce some unusual spores, including preserver spores which slow the rate of decay of his minions, a semi-paralytic spore and a death spore which fills the lungs causing suffocation.

During the 2nd Edition era, TSR (and later WotC) released a bewildering range of D&D starter sets. Some of these were intended as introductions to basic D&D, some as introductions to AD&D, some used their own not-quite-compatible-with-any-edition rules, and others (like Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Game: Diablo II Edition) were just strange licensing deals. Perhaps because a peaceful mushroom man is an appealing creature to include in a set potentially aimed at younger children, myconids featured in many of these sets, including the Introduction to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Game, the Complete Starter Set and the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Game. All three of these sets reuse the artwork from the Monstrous Manual, and have simplified abilities and only a brief description.

Also produced during the 2nd Edition era was the Spellfire collectable card game. The myconid featured on card #89 of The Underdark expansion, using the Monstrous Manual art.