Editing Cloaker (section)

==AD&D 2e==
[[File:Cloaker MC FR.jpg|right|300px]]
The cloaker first appeared for second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the initial Forgotten Realms appendix of the Monstrous Compendium series (1989). In this set, the creature receives a detailed description: "When a cloaker is first seen, it is almost impossible to distinguish this monster from a common black cloak. The monster's back has two rows of eye spots running down it that look much like buttons, and the two ivory-colored claws on its upper edge can easily be mistaken for bone clasps.

When it unfurls itself and moves to attack, however, its true nature becomes all too obvious. At this point, its white underside is clear and the monster's face is fully visible. This face, with the glow of its two piercing, red eyes and the needle-like fangs that line its mouth, is a truly horrible sight. At this point, the monster also uncurls the whip-like tail at its trailing edge and begins to swish it back and forth in anticipation." The cloaker's entry is reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993), which states that the cloaker is related to another dungeon-dwelling creature known as the trapper.

The sea cloaker is detailed again in the adventure module LNA2 Newhon (1990), Lankhmar: City of Adventure (1993), and Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar (1996).

The cloaker lord first appears in the Forgotten Realms setting boxed set, Menzoberranzan (1992), in the booklet "Book One: The City". The cloaker lord is described as a superior subrace of the cloaker, larger and more intelligent than a cloaker, with a bat-like form. A cloaker lord has the ability to naturally dominate a lesser cloaker, and in the events depicted in the boxed set, the cloaker lords of Menzoberranzan "have recently come to rule their lesser brethren, drawing normally-solitary cloakers together into loose raiding bands, and forcing other monsters ... into servitude." This entry also mentions that a cloaker lord near death can devour a cloaker, and if the cloaker lord survives a few more days it will split apart, "giving birth" to a new cloaker lord and a number of baby cloakers.

Three cloaker variants for the Ravenloft setting are introduced in Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Appendix III: Creatures of Darkness (1994). The shadow cloaker is described as a parasite believed to have originated from the Demiplane of Shadow that attaches to another creature, and uses this host to drain the life force of other creatures. The resplendent cloaker is described as a "benign symbiont" that gives off a dazzling glow, and somehow feeds by healing the wounds of its host; however, if injured, the resplendent cloaker will drain hit points from its host to heal itself. The undead cloaker is described as a Chaotic Evil creature believed to be the undead remains of a resplendent cloaker that has had its life drained away by an undead creature; what appears to be a tattered cloak is really the creature’s rotting flesh. An undead cloaker attaches itself to a host, and uses that host to drain the life energy from living creatures, turning them into zombies.

A cloaker society also features in Wolfgang Baur's "Kingdom of the [[Ghouls]]", ''Dungeon'' #70; they're allied to [[derp|the big bad of that saga]].