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Designed by: Lucas Anderson, Bum Lee, Daniel King, Jack Weighill, Jonathan Swadley, Sharkside, Aaryan Balu, Sebastian Yūe, Basil Wright

April Fool’s Day isn’t exactly a beloved holiday; most of us actually dread the influx of cruel pranks and corporate marketing gags. But for D&D it provides a treasure in the form of 10 Foolish Foes, a jokester-themed monster supplement from the “Holidanger” team that brought us 12 Christmas Slays, 10 Monsters of Midsummer, and 10 Hazards of Love.

April Fool’s doesn’t feature central figures, festive feasting or unique decorations. Instead the designers took a step back to wider cultural figures, myths, and legends that are associated with trickery, mischief, and deception.

The result is a fun variety of creatures and NPCs inspired by real-world cultures and fairy tales, along with some funny new ideas.

From the real-world we’re given high-powered statblocks for Anansi (CR 17), a clever figure from African folklore often associated with spiders, Sun Wukong (CR 21), also known as the Monkey King and his magic staff, and Loki (CR 24), Norse god of mischief and consummate shape-changer. I like the addition of bolstering the statblocks with magical items, both new and old, as well as the Further Reading sidebars that point to where we can learn more about these legendary figures.

As with the previous holiday monster books, there are some creative and fun ideas in these statblocks. The CR 12 Frog Prince is surprisingly powerful, damaging attackers with his poisonous skin (4d10!) and attacking with three different attacks, each for an average of 21-28 damage. If his tongue lash hits, he can also use his Kiss attack, which is a biiitttt uncomfortable, yet also a classic Frog Prince maneuver. I like the idea of aggressively polymorphing party members into frogs every single round!

The Supreme Justice of the Kangaroo Court is literally a kangaroo wearing judge robes and headress and wielding a giant warhammer-size gavel, with traits, legendary actions, and lair actions such as Court Adjourned, Go to Jail, and Justice is Blind. The goblinoid Pranksmith is another fun idea. It’s a goblin with a bunch of classic jokester gear like a whoopie cushion and hand buzzer. But in D&D the whoopie cushion casts Stinking Cloud and the hand buzzer uses Shocking Grasp.

pranksmith

Each monster entry features three detailed adventure hooks that provide a variety of ideas on how to use them. For the Pranksmith, the party could meet her at a marketplace and buy some of her wares, they could battle her as a boss of a goblin tribe that’s been harassing a nearby village, or they could unknowingly foil her plans when they prevent one of these joke-traps from going off during a royal ball.

In a first for this series of holiday monsters, we’re also given over half a dozen bonus monsters variants, which are legit funny riffs on creatures from the Monster Manual. I’m partial to the Invisible Talker (replace Stealth with the Gibbering trait from the Gibbering Mouther), the Owlbear-Bear (it’s just a brown bear), and the Were-Human (a wolf that shape-changes into a commoner, aw).

The artwork for each monster is a treat, and as another added bonus, token images are provided as a separate downloadable .zip file. Given the lame holiday it’s based on, I didn’t think 10 Foolish Foes would become one of my favorite holiday-themed monster books, but like many of their victims, I’ve been proven wrong!

Pros:

  • Statblocks for trickster figures and gods across many real-world cultures and legends.
  • Four fun jokester magic items carried and sold by the Prankster.
  • Funny bonus monster variants, such as the Invisible Talker and Were-Human.
  • Token art for each monster.

Cons:

  • None!

The Verdict: Instead of solely relying on joke monsters, 10 Foolish foes explores cultural legends and trickster gods, most of who would be more interested in talking than fighting.

This review has been sponsored by the publisher Find more reviews on my website and YouTube channel.

Support my work by using affiliate links for shopping and pledging via Patreon.