Fiendish Codex II next month--Any scoop/rumors/etc.?

[Shade]

I think it's kinda funny that the authors of these various books keep advancing a timeline and shift around the leadership of Hell. Since 1e, there have been an awful lot of Lords of the Xth circles.

Of course, if you also have Book of Fiends/Legions of Hell then you've got yet more options for Hellish leadership.

I think this is the main reason that demons have eclipsed devils in popularity over the years. The infinite nature of the Abyss allows a designer/DM to more easily create a new ruler and just drop it in. I know that's one of the main reasons I prefer demons.

 

[Desdichado]

Their motivations--and therefore the amount of forethought needed to "successfully" run them--are also a lot simpler and easier for a lot of DMs to grok, I'd imagine.

I don't actually have much interest in the law/chaos axis of alignment so I tend to lump the fiends together and see their "type"--baatezu, tanar'ri, or even oni, demodand, yugoloth, obiryth, or "other"--heck, I'll even throw stuff like efreet and slaadi in there--as not very important, and my versions of the lower planes tend to feature all of the fiends much more on the same page about basic motivations and whatnot. I prefer to see archdevils and demon princes alike as the heads of lower planes "city states" each with their own Machiavellian courts of nobles and retainers, and each making and breaking alliances with each other all over the place.

I suppose in many ways, that is more like the Abyss than Hell, but like I said; the law/chaos axis of alignment doesn't interest me very much.

 

[Nightfall]

Well chaos interests me because a) Orcus wouldn't settle for being a lord of Hell. He want it all. and b) fiends and outsiders are two different things. While Slaadi can be considered "fiendish" the fact is all they care about is themselves and maybe an agenda or two. Fiends, on the other hand, in general, like to commit acts of evil. Chaos/law fiends, it's all the same. Evil is still a definable trait among them. Lumping all the outsiders together just seems wrong.

While Psion can and does have multiple hells, I'm sure he'd be the first to admit "Slaadi don't belong in Hell." At least I hope not.

Don't get me wrong, I love Legions of Hell, Book of Fiends AND Tome of Horror Arch Devils. I just accept the fact that sometimes Hell changes in ways I don't expect. Advancing the time line or no. Also the fact, if some of the arch devils didn't fall, the PCs would be mad if it didn't have some occurrence, especially thanks to them.

 

[BOZ]

having changes in hell makes sense, but making sense out of all the changes is the challenge.

 

[Nightfall]

This is true Boz. I have hard enough time changing my underwear! Okay maybe not that hard but still!

 

[Evilhalfling]

any new comments from people who got this for X-mas?

 

[Aus_Snow]

any new comments from people who got this for X-mas?

Not yet - it hasn't arrived yet, but when it does, I'll post my thoughts. . . whatever they might be.

Looking forward to it getting here, I must admit. Along with some other Christmas goodies.

 

[Pants]

any new comments from people who got this for X-mas?

Haven't read through it all yet.

First impressions:
Not a big fan of the converted monsters. The amnizu, in particular, feels decidedly 'unfinished.' Its regeneration is not given a detailed description, its SLA's have been pared down A LOT. I'm all for streamlining and cutting out redundant (or useless) SLA's, but this kinda went too far.

The updated abishai are good though they still got gipped with a crummy picture (seems to be a recurring trend throughout editions).

The Narzugon lost its cool gaze attack. The xerfilstyx, in particular, lost some of its cooler (albeit fairly annoying to deal with) abilities.

The writeup on the River Styx mentions that the memory loss isn't permanent. I always thought it was, but I may be wrong.

The table for devil advancement fails to mention where some of the new devils fit into the advancement. I'm not sure if this was intentional having just flipped through the chapter, but it's worth noting if other people want to correct me.

The Pact Primeval part is kinda blah, but if viewed primarily as JUST baatorian propaganda it's actually kinda cool then.

The part on devilish pacts is pretty cool.

The overall flavor text is really good, especially the writeups on the layers of Hell.

The malebranche and nupperibo pictures are fantastic! Bel looks much cooler now too. Otoh, Levistus has the worst picture evar.

No Ancient Baatorians

Just first impressions, more thoughts as I delve deeper.

 

[Shemeska]

The writeup on the River Styx mentions that the memory loss isn't permanent. I always thought it was, but I may be wrong.

Previous descriptions had it being permenant upon direct exposure/immersion or ingestion, and it handicaps the river to have it be otherwise IMO. Though in theory the memories could be recovered since they tended to eventually sediment on the bottom of the river in physical form like pebbles or tiny pearls (that hydroloths among others tended to collect and hoard).

 

[Pants]

Previous descriptions had it being permenant upon direct exposure/immersion or ingestion, and it handicaps the river to have it be otherwise IMO.

I believe full exposure was reduced to a number of days, IIRC.