D&D 2E I don't own any Planescape. What interesting things did it do with Tanar'ri?

[RangerWickett]

I read some Planescape books ages ago, but I never owned any myself. I remember the setting bent expectations a bit by giving philosophical underpinnings for all sorts of planar beings. And I know about the Blood War. But were the demons/tanar'ri of Planescape ever anything more nuanced than "inherently destructive monsters that swarm"?

 

[Orius]

Other than constructing the Ships of Chaos with the Doomguard and Orcus coming back to life, I don't really recall demons doing much of anything interesting in Planescape. Most of the attention was given to the devils and yugoloths.

 

[Dire Bare]

I read some Planescape books ages ago, but I never owned any myself. I remember the setting bent expectations a bit by giving philosophical underpinnings for all sorts of planar beings. And I know about the Blood War. But were the demons/tanar'ri of Planescape ever anything more nuanced than "inherently destructive monsters that swarm"?

It's been a while, but . . . .

Planescape often presented classic D&D baddies (and goodies) in atypical situations. Fiends weren't always evil, celestials weren't always good. That was interesting.

I think the idea of the Blood War started with Planescape, although perhaps it was pulled from earlier D&D lore. Mostly Planescape fleshed out the planes, including the lower planes, and gave us more demons and devils than we had before.

So, not terribly different from the classics, but more stuff, presented with a different tone.

By the time we got to Planescape, TSR was less afraid of angry mom's and of using terms like "demon" and "devil", but "tanar'ri" and "baatezu" were a part of 2nd Edition lore . . . so we started getting lawful and chaotic fiends that were outside of those categories. It seemed to be moving towards "tanar'ri" as the prominent family or race of demons, but there were others, like the obyrith. Same with the devils. Kytons were originally presented as fiendish, living in Hell, but not actually baatezu.

I miss those terms myself. I don't mind using "demon" and "devil", but . . . "tanar'ri" and "baatezu" are so much more evocative to me. My head canon sees those terms as what the fiends call themselves, and its mortals who use imprecise terms like demon or devil.

 

[Orius]

The Blood War concept originated in MC8, the Outer Planes appendix, but TSR didn't really do anything with it in core. Most of the Blood War stuff was Planescape.

 

[AverageMojito]

Planescape often presented classic D&D baddies (and goodies) in atypical situations. Fiends weren't always evil, celestials weren't always good. That was interesting.

Not even a fiend is pure evil now, smh. I swear to you these new designers will ruin the game...

EDIT: (Just enough dose of sarcasm)

 

[Dire Bare]

Not even a fiend is pure evil now, smh. I swear to you these new designers will ruin the game...

Huh? What are you talking about?

We're talking about the Planescape campaign setting for . . . 2ND EDITION D&D. Almost 30 years ago my man.

Yeah, these new designers . . . . .

 

[Voadam]

Sigil was neutral ground so you could have marilith waitresses who would not immediately kill you.

Tieflings were from all fiendish backgrounds but demons seemed the most common, contrasted with 4e's all devils. Succubi and Grazzt influences for the bloodlines continuing on the Alu Demon and Cambion traditions from 1e.

Harbinger House is an adventure focused on a succubus.

In the Abyss is an adventure going into the Abyss and focusing on the blood war.

Dead Gods is a big adventure focused on a demon lord's plot.

 

[Alzrius]

Hellbound: The Blood War (affiliate link) put forward the idea that the fiends (tanar'ri, baatezu, and yugoloths) can't innately teleport; it's actually the work of a single creature whom the 'loths covertly control. In the adventure in the boxed set, they've decided that it's time to start exerting more direct control over the Lower Planes, and revoke that power, returning it only to those fiends whom swear binding oaths to them.

Naturally, this particular development didn't last very long, and other than a few vague references in later products, was completely gone by the time 3rd Edition rolled around.

 

[Jer]

Naturally, this particular development didn't last very long, and other than a few vague references in later products, was completely gone by the time 3rd Edition rolled around.

It was a bad idea. Planescape really had a thing for wanting to elevate the Daemons/Yugoloths up to where the Demons and Devils were - which I liked - but it often came by pulling down the Demons/Devils instead of elevating the Yugoloths - which I did not like.

 

[Voadam]

Hellbound: The Blood War (affiliate link) put forward the idea that the fiends (tanar'ri, baatezu, and yugoloths) can't innately teleport; it's actually the work of a single creature whom the 'loths covertly control. In the adventure in the boxed set, they've decided that it's time to start exerting more direct control over the Lower Planes, and revoke that power, returning it only to those fiends whom swear binding oaths to them.

Naturally, this particular development didn't last very long, and other than a few vague references in later products, was completely gone by the time 3rd Edition rolled around.

That's unfortunate as common in combat teleporting to escape or hit and run was a really annoying gameplay consequence in 3e. I much prefered the style of 3e Diablo demons or the 4e mechanical setup where they had different flavorful abilities that felt demonic in game play.