ORCUS! EXCLUSIVE! ESCAPIST!

The Escapist has an awesome preview of Orcus himself! And by preview, I mean the stats -- along with some background features for Out of the Abyss. He's a CR 26 monster, wielding his famous wand. Also interesting his the quote from Chris Perkins, who clarified that the PCs would not fight him directly, but that "Fortunately, Out of the Abyss gives characters the chance to amass a small army and also turn the demon lords against one another, thus weakening them. There are also a couple other ways to banish the demon lords back to the Abyss, which is the party's ultimate goal."

For more, click on either of the images below! For tons more Out of the Abyss coverage, click here! It comes out September 15th (or the 4th in preferred stores - that's next Friday!)

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[Ristamar]

As far as Juiblex spelling, it seems Wizards is using that spelling - the demon lord cards they were handing out at GenCon even list the phonetic pronunciation as [JOO-ee-blex]. FWIW, I honestly thought it was Jubilex as well!

Huh. Looks like you're right. The unofficial articles I was looking at regarding Rage of Demons we're all misspelling it.

 

[bganon]

Looks like with the wand, Orcus doesn't really need actions; that thing can conjure 3 liches and a demilich out of thin air each day. Technically they last until destroyed or dismissed, so given enough time... infinite liches!

 

[I'm A Banana]

I see he's got no real defense against the Wand of Viscid Globs, so this should be a cakewalk!

 

[Jraynack]

I see he's got no real defense against the Wand of Viscid Globs, so this should be a cakewalk!

Surrounded by dead bodies and walking corpses which, on occasion, expel alcoholic gas, Orcus should be fine.

https://writersforensicsblog.wordpr...ll-a-decaying-corpse-actually-produce-alcohol

 

[MonsterEnvy]

He is very powerful.

Anyway my only issue with the art is the fact that his neck and his belly were not arranged properly with the rest of him on the art.

View attachment 69987

Edit note this is an earlier version of the art.

 

[Saplatt]

Whelp, I guess the adventure has foes above CR 4 after all.

 

[Scorpio616]

Reading his abilities a little closer, he seems to suffer from limited actions. Might be fun to let him use the wand as a bonus action, or in place of a wand attack.

I think the undead he conjures kinda helps with the action economy issue.

+15 Con save with Magic Resistance, nice! Looks like his Legendary resistances won't be burned off by the Magic of Ki's Stunning Fist.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I like the fact that his CHA is 25.

Now when the feylock in my party says "I am clearly the prettiest, behold my 20 Charisma!" I can say, "Well, that's nice, but you're still homely and plain next to a giant obese stinking goat-skull-headed demon lord of undeath."

Also good to prevent Banish-bombing.

 

[Scorpio616]

PCs will have PLENTY to Banish when Orcus Deep Strikes 500HP worth of undead around the Party. All of a sudden the Demi-Lich's anemic HP doesn't seem like that much of a hinderance...

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Wow. Orcus' stats are really anemic. He can't even cast Animate Dead without his wand.