Back in the day, White Dwarf magazine was the British answer to the Dragon, and its regular "Fiend Factory" column was a source of many monsters for early D&D games. In fact, the first edition Fiend Folio (1981) was largely a collection of monsters submitted to WD. This 3e conversion is part of an ongoing project to resurrect some interesting WD monsters that, for one reason or another, fell by the wayside.

The evil cormorant debuted in "Chronicle Monsters" by Lewis Pulsipher, from White Dwarf 16 (Dec 1979/Jan 1980). This article converted several monsters from Stephen Donaldson's fantasy trilogy the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever into AD&D terms. Pulsipher was a frequent contributor to both the Dragon and White Dwarf; his most famed D&D contribution is probably the Elemental Princes of Evil. His Donaldson conversion proved so popular that it was reprinted in the first Best of the White Dwarf collection.

This large, blackish bird with a serpentine neck and long bill seems to regard you with surprising malevolence.

Evil Cormorant CR 1

Evil cormorant

Always NE Small magical beast

Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft; Listen +3, Spot +3

AC 13, touch 12, flat-footed 12
(+1 size, +1 Dex, +1 natural)

hp 6 (1 HD)

Immune sleep

Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +2

Spd 10 ft (2 squares), fly 50 ft (average)

Melee bite +3 (1d4-1)

Space 5 ft; Reach 5 ft

Base Atk +1; Grp -4

Abilities Str 8, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 3, Wis 14, Cha 9

SQ acidic blood

Feats Weapon Finesse

Skills Listen +3, Spot +3

Environment any marsh

Organization flock (2-20)

Treasure none

Advancement 2–3 HD (Small)

Acidic Blood (Ex) The blood of these birds is a weak acid. Attackers that do damage to an evil cormorant with a slashing or piercing melee attack must immediately make a DC 11 Reflex save or take 1d6 points of acid damage. The save DC is Constitution based.

Evil cormorants are a cursed relative of the normal cormorant.