Armies of the Abyss

[Upper_Krust]

Hi Erik!

While a handful of unique demon lords (around 20 hit dice) are detailed in the book, the 21 godlike demon princes are not given stats.

Do you mention the status of the Prince (eg. Demigod, Lesser etc.?).

I'm only asking as going by Manual of the Planes/Deities & Demigods it seems WotC doesn't allow such beings above Quasi/Hero-deity (a silly notion though, if you ask me).

There were a number of reasons I chose to do it that way:

1) It'd take about 3 pages each to do all the stats.

...well, 3 columns - so I suppose 2 pages. Looking forward to see the write-ups.

2) Epic creatures are so powerful as to become parodies of the system unless they are being fought by Epic characters. I figured most people wouldn't be playing Epic campaigns, and that such stats would be a waste of space for the majority of readers.

Probably the right choice unless you're utilising Epic or Divine level content, I agree.

3) The Epic rules, in any event, are not part of the SRD. I could have just done insanely powerful demons by extrapolating the core rules,

What made you deviate from the successful Legions of Hell formula - with a handful of Dukes (about a quarter of the book) detailed at around CR15-20!?

but that would be a good stopgap for only a short while, since characters using the soon-to-be-released Epic rules would be able to dispatch such critters with ease.

I agree...based on what rumours I have heard; you know more about such things than us!

4) I'm personally not that into the whole "I killed Thor" type of roleplaying, and figured that most of the people I was writing the book for weren't, either.

There is a lot more to 'stats for gods' than the popular munchkin misconception!

That said, there are a number of "high level" challenges in the book, including a CR 25 Armageddon Beast that would make an interesting foe for a tarrasque.

Would it defeat Monkey from Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts though!?

 

[The Traveler]

Would it defeat Monkey from Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts though!?

I'm still waiting for the "Monkey King versus Thor" thread to crop up here

 

[Erik Mona]

Legions of Hell has unique devils ranging from CR 12 to CR 24. In total, there are 15 such beings.

Armies of the Abyss has unique demons ranging from CR 13 to CR 21 (with the "might as well be unique" Armageddon Beast at CR 25). In total, there are 5 such beings.

Given that the prince and thaumaturge sections took up the space they did, I decided to maximize the rest of the space with "races" of demons instead of individual critters. I'd say the most popular criticism of Legions of Hell was that it contained too many unique beings, so I decided to err in favor of the multitudes.

--Erik

 

[Tewligan]

I'm still in the process of reading through mine as I get the spare time, but I'm supa-impressed - Mr. Mona, I salute you. Also, I'm glad that the princes weren't statted up - that would have taken up a lot of space with numbers that I would never use.
I quite like the thaumaturge - although I don't know if I'd allow him as PC option in my campaign, he'd make a keen villain. I think that I would keep two charisma scores for the character as he became more corrupted - one for casting purposes, and the other for social interactions. After all, a gaping eyesocket may screw up your Diplomacy checks, but it shouldn't affect your spellcasting. Unless, I suppose, you assume that the corruption is twisting him psychically as well as physically so that he no longer has the inner strength to master the more powerful magic.

 

[Psion]

It's good. It didn't inspire me the same way LoH did, and I wasn't impressed with the Thaumaturge, but the layout is nice and the book is very high on production values.

 

[Nightfall]

So can we expect a reveiw soon?

 

[Pramas]

Some people have asked me about the Abyssal Dragon template that's listed in the credits. Even after printing on the inside covers, we just didn't have room for it in the final product (had to cut some great art too; ah well). The Abyssal Dragon will be appearing as a web enhancement on our site shortly though, so you all can add it to your roster of evil.

 

[Erik Mona]

Shameless *bump*.

--Erik

 

[Nightfall]

Well at least you got ONE very positive review there Erik. I think we can say Armies is a worthy successor to LoH...at least from Psion veiw, even if LoH was, IHHO, better.

 

[Erik Mona]

Um, gee, thanks, Nightfall.

I think.

--Erik