Armies of the Abyss

[Messageboard Golem]

Get an up-close and personal look at the masters of chaos, the demons. An endless variety of demons populate the infinity of the Abyss, and volume 2 of the Book of Fiends gives you the lowdown on over two dozen new demons and more than a score of demon princes, courtesy of Living Greyhawk Gazetteer author and Polyhedron editor Erik Mona. The book also introduces the thaumaturge, a new divine spellcasting class that gains its powers from demon princes...for a price.

 

[Psion]

Armies of the Abyss

Green Ronin's first foray into non-adventure products for the d20 system, Legions of Hell was an instant hit. Not only did it strike a note with me, it won wide critical acclaim and an award or two. It had a variety of interesting foes for the players, some of them unique villains. Further, to book was lavishly illustrated and each entry was seed with interesting plot ideas.

Of course, when the announced that there would be a follow up product describing denizens of the Abyss, it soon became a widely anticipated product. So, can it live up to the expectations? Let's take a look.

A First Look

Armies of the Abyss is a 64 page perfect bound softcover book priced at $14.95. This is the same as its predecessor and rather typical of a d20 system product of this size.

The cover art is by Brom, and depicts a muscular winged demon.

The interior is black and white, and features artists Toren "MacBin" Atkinson, Tom Baxa, Brian Despain, Chris Keefe, Sam Wood, and Drew Baker. Overall, the quality of the art is well done and has a certain, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it passed up Green Ronin's earlier efforts in Legions of Hell and Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts.

The interior layout is very nice. The creatures don't strictly begin on page breaks, thus it seems that the use of space is better as there is no white space owing to having insufficient material to fill a page. Only a single column is used on each page, which keeps it from looking as cluttered as the WotC MM.

A Deeper Look

Armies of the Abyss is divided into four chapters plus an appendix.

Into the Abyss

The first chapter is introductory nature and lays out the history of the Abyss. As with Legions of Hell, Armies of the Abyss does invent some new conventions for the plane of the Abyss, but stays within walking distance of the canon version of the Abyss.

One of the new creations is the qlippoth, a "new" race of demon that exists in the Abyss in addition to the Tanar'ri. The qlippoth supposedly ruled the abyss in pre-mortal times, but were dispersed by the might of the eladrin. The tanar'ri were merely slaves at that time, but after the eladrin smashed their masters, they became powerful. Some races of qlippoth remain, and they have their own racial traits distinct from the tanar'ri.

In addition to this, the chapter covers details such as the nature of demon lords and princes, the role of souls in attaining power among demons, and the afterlife of chaotic evil souls in the abyss.

Those Who Serve

The second chapter introduces a new core class, the thaumaturge. The book's interpretation of the thaumaturge is a divine spellcaster who serves a demon prince. The spellcasting ability of the class is very similar to the cleric. They use the cleric spell list and, similar to clerics, they get two domains from their patron, though there are a number of new domains appropriate to these fell lords. A thaumaturge must perform a ritual called an obedience to regain their spellcasting ability each day; the nature of the obedience is determined by the demon prince that the character follows.

Unlike clerics, thaumaturges have saving throws and combat abilities on par with a wizard, but get a familiar. As they gain levels they get "corruptions" that are random and may be beneficial or baneful. And, of course, their soul belongs to their demon prince upon death. The book says that this grisly fate can be bypass by "resurrection spells or the like." This is a very vague statement; does "the like" include raise dead, or like death effects is only resurrection effective?

In addition to the class, there are 4 new feats for use with the class. These are abyssal familiar, adept summoner (increased duration of summon monster spells), master summoner (extends range of summon monster spells), and influence chaos warp (allows less random corruptions).

Overall, I don't find the thaumaturge that compelling to integrate into the campagn. Although the obediences and corruptions are interesting elements, ultimately they seem like a rewarmed and weak cleric to me.

Those Who Rule

The third chapter details demon princes. They do not have statistics beyond domains and favored weapons, used for clerics and thaumaturges. However, there are notes on their nature and the domains that they rule, as well as the obediences required of their thaumaturges. The demon princes seem to be based mostly upon mythological sources, but are adapted to fit the D&D concept of the Abyss.

The demon princes cover a variety of domains (including several new ones; see the appendix on demonic magic.) They essentially cover a complete pantheon excluding entities of law and good. One variant that the book suggests is a campaign wherein the gods are dead, and only the depraved lords of the abyss remain.

In addition to the bumper crop of new demon princes, there are rules for adapting the more familiar ones from the D&D canon to use the thaumaturge, including only domains and . However, those that don't have names drawn from mythology are renamed. For example, the demon queen of the dark elves is "arachnadia."

Creatures of the Abyss

The meat of the book, the third chapter describes various inhabitants of the Abyss. As with Legions of Hell, some of these creatures are unique, in this case demon lords. These creatures have high CRs, from 13 to 21, and include such creatures as Rahu the Tormentor (a demon lord specializing in anatomy and the inflicting of pain) and the lady of the qlippoth who schemes to play the eladrin against the tanar'ri to once again restore her race to power.

The bulk of the chapter, however, is the more populous beasts of the abyss. The creatures range from a CR of 2 for the mandragoras, small demons who serve well at familiars, to a CR of 25 for the awe-inspiring armageddon beasts. The creatures include tanar'ri and the new demons, qlippoths, as well as some other creatures like constructs and undead.

Some of the creatures are:
-Alrune: A creature inspired by Norwegian and Germanic myths, the Alrune has the appearance of a beautiful woman from the torso up, but it has a hideous fanged tentacle in the place of its lower body as well as batlike wings and woody arms. Alrunes often intervene and exact revenge on behalf of women who have made token services to an idol representing the alrune; in return the alrune attempts to turn the beneficiary of this service to the followers of the demon princess Nocticula.
-Armageddon beast: A seven-headed ten-horned monstrosity (sound familiar?) harvested from a hostile plane of the Abyss and used as killing machines. The armageddon beast is very difficult to harm, has vorpal claws, and each head has a breath weapon. One breath weapon has an effect similar to a sphere of anihilation, utterly destroying the target if they fail the save.
-Razorwire Golem: Masses of animated razored wire, these constructs are remnants of an ancient war that helped earn the tanar'ri sway over the abyss. They are totally immune to blunt weapons. This only makes sense, but I am a little uncertain how piercing weapons would harm one either.
-Incubus: The male counterpart of the succubus, the incubus' abilities do not exactly mirror those of the succubus. An incubus does have the alternate form ability, but can also torment its subject with erotic dreams which it uses in an attempt to corrupt its victim. If it fails to corrupt, its kiss can kill the victim.
-Paigoel: A creature belonging to neither the tanar'ri or qlippoth races, the paigoel has ten arms, and can use tem all in combat.
-Skulldugger: A form of demonic undead that can only be made by certain demon lords. It has spell like abilities similar to demons, is immune to turning due to the fact it is animated by soul magic instead of negative energy, and the demon prince who created it can see through its eyes.
-Solesik: A worm-like demon, the solesik's signature abilities is the garble field that makes speech and casting of spells with verbal components difficult, and its bite which drains languages from the victim.

Overall, the creatures are interesting and have abilities and techniques distinct enough that they cover new ground from that of the demons in the Monster Manual. Though the creatures span a wide range of CRs, there are few in the 13-18 range that is addressed by demons in the MM.

Appendices

There are three appendices: an appendix on demonic magic, a listing of demons by CR, and a bibliography.

The demonic magic section introduces new domains, primarily intended for use by thaumaturges, but they could easily be used for clerics. The new domains introduced are catastrophe, change, crippling, disease, eloquence, fear, pain, pleasure, prophecy, and subterfuge. New spells are provided for these domains such as femurburst (ouch!), greater contagion, and phantasmal lover.

Most of the spells are well conceived, but I found the concept of phantasmal lover (and its mass version, phantasmal orgy) a bit odd. When I first read it, I thought it might be a spell to distract or seduce an enemy. Not so; the recipient of this spell is cured of all hit point damage, ability damage, blindness, deafness, and disease. Not only is this is a bit powerful for a 4th level spell, but it seems to me like someone was taking Marvin Gaye a little too seriously when he sung about sexual healing.

Conclusion

Armies of the Abyss should be a wonderful resource to torment your players with, especially for challenging PCs whose levels are too low or too high for the existing selection of demons. The demon prince entries could also be a great source of ideas for patrons of enemy cultists. Alas, I was not that enthused by the Thaumaturge class; if you feel that the flavor touches don't make the class worthwhile, you could use the cleric for servants of the demon princes. The new domains and demon princes should be useful in that capacity.

While the layout is more attractive than that of Legions of Hell and uses space better, I still appreciate Legions of Hell more for the plot ideas that each of its creatures offered, and found the creature ideas themselves a little more interesting. That said, if the proportion of unique creatures in Legions of Hell put you off, you might find Armies of the Abyss more enticing as it only details a few such creatures.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Desdichado]

After Legions of Hell my expectations of this book could quite possibly not have been any higher. Legions of Hell, as my review of it shows, is one of my favorite d20 products on the market, including anything produced by Wizards of the Coast. So, although Armies of the Abyss changed authors and format, does this live up to the hype and expectations?

Well, yeah!

Chapter 1: Into the Abyss

The introductory chapter was more fully fleshed out than the equivalent in Legions of Hell. There's a fair amount of information on what demons are all about, their history (including a new element: the qlippoth: a sort of primeval demon who ruled the Abyss before the rise of the tanar'ri. Other than the fact the Manual of the Planes had the same concept for Hell, this is a welcome twist to the mythos.

Chapter 2: Those Who Serve

Chapter 2 gives us a new core class. In general, I don't know how much in favor of new core classes I am, unless of course, they are essential for a given campaign. The Thaumaturge is one such class: it is like a twisted and corrupt cleric recieving divine spells from a demon prince that would be very appropriate for a dark campaign setting. In general, thaumaturges are divine spellcasters with a wizard BAB progression, d6 HD and a cleric saving throw progression. There are a few new feats, spells and domains for them (described elsewhere in the book) and a chart of their special abilites, which amount to gradual corruptions of the physical form. The only problem I have here is that some corruptions give bonuses, some give penalties. Depending on what you roll, you get a very unequal result. But I really like the flavor of the thaumaturge, and with a little tweaking in that regard I could definately see it being used in some campaigns I'd like to run.

Chapter 3: Those Who Rule

In this section, a fairly good number of demon princes are outlined with pictures of most of them, a description of them, their agenda and their "home turf" layer of the Abyss itself. There are also domains associated with each of the demon princes, but no stats. Erik Mona followed Chris Pramas' lead here in invoking Judeo-Christian conventions, including Abaddon (also known as Apollyon, a reference that couldn't have served any purpose except to show that Mona was familiar with the Book of Revelations). Those who belong to Wizards of the Coast intellectual property are detailed only in terms of domains and what the thaumaturge needs to do each day to regain his spells, and some of the names were changed somewhat to "protect the innocent" no doubt.

Chapter 4: Creatures of the Abyss

This section is much smaller than its counterpart in Legions of Hell but that's understandable since so many other things were added in. Like its precedent, there are a fair spread of challenge ratings, from the CR 2 Mandragoras to the CR 25 Armageddon Beast. In addition to the rank and file demons, there are demon lords, somewhere between the arch-fiends like Orcus and the rank and file demons. A few are qlippoth instead of tanar'ri, and a few are undead or other strange type of creature, although not many. A few of my favorites include the Schir, the standard goat-like demon which surprisingly hadn't been used yet (Games Workshop Beastmen are a great miniature to use if you're into that sort of thing), Rahu the Tormentor, a powerful individual, and the locust demons, again taken straight from the Book of Revelations.

Appendix I: Demonic Magic

Includes new domains, and a few new spells. Nothing terribly surprising here, but lots of flavor. I'm still not sure about the Phantasmal Orgy though: that's just a bit weird...

Conclusions

I really enjoyed reading this book. Lots of intriguing characters (although they are mostly very high level and un-statted, so you have to use them as behind the scenes types of guys). The creatures that are included, and the possibility of really dark campaigns where only the truly desperate can cast divine spells are just begging to be played. In all, I'm extremely please with this purchase, and I can't wait for the daemons to get their treatment next!

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtested review.

Armies of the Abyss is Green Ronin's second volume in the Book of Fiends series.

At $14.95 for 64 pages it is fairly average for its type and size for a d20 product, but does make good use of space (including using the inside covers).

The art ranges from average to superb. Though most of it is good, I felt that it wasn't quite up to the quality of some previous Green Ronin releases. The quality of writing and editing are both good.

Chapter One: Into The Abyss (4 pages), discusses the nature of demons and introduce a new type of ancient demon, the Qlippoth, who once ruled the Abyss but were mostly destroyed by celestials. The rest of the chapter deals mainly with the hierarchy of the Abyss, with a brief mention of demons on the material plane.

Chapter Two: Those Who Serve (7 pages), offers up The Thaumaturge class, demon-worshippers who gain their spells from demonic patrons. The thaumaturge suffers physical corruption as he progresses in power. Four related feats (abyssal familiar, adept summoner, master summoner, and influence chaos) are described.

Chapter Three: Those Who Rule (17 pages), gives background information on the twenty one demon princes(ses) that Thaumaturges can worship, including a description of the obedience ritual that is required for the Thaumaturge to gain his spells from his patron.

Chapter Four: Creatures of the Abyss (30 pages), gives 26 demons from CR 2 to 25 with most in the range 4-14.

Appendix 1: Demonic Magic, offers up 10 new domains (catastrophe, change, crippling, disease, eloquence, fear, pain, pleasure, prophecy, and subterfuge), 9 new spells (including fit of coughing and phantasmal orgy), and 6 new diseases related to the Greater Contagion spell. In addition, there is a table listing all demons by CR (including those from the MM) and a short bibliography.

After Legions of Hell being so good, and demons being one of my favourite creature types, Armies of the Abyss had a lot to live up to, and I found myself somewhat disappointed. What I found particularly disappointing was 24 pages of information about a thaumaturge class (which I felt would have been better presented as a short prestige class) and the demon princes they worship (which to my mind could have been provided in 1/3 of the space). This left only half the book for statted demons (though there is also a construct, undead and aberration to further reduce the numbers).

Which led me to my second disappointment: the information on 'demons and the material plane' in chapter one states that "most demons visit the mortal world but briefly", usually due to being summoned. In line with this statement, about half of the demons presented are (as the chapter title suggests I suppose) purely creatures of the abyss; they live in the Abyss and interact with demons, with few or no comments about their interaction with the Material Plane. Only one or two of the presented demons met my hopes for using them as the basis for recurring villains with intricate, cunning and despicably evil plans to corrupt the innocent and destroy the peace of the material plane of my campaign setting. This slant would have set them further apart from the fiends proffered in Legions of Hell, whereas with a very little tweaking, many of the descriptions of the demons in 'Armies' could have sat side by side with the devils in 'Legions'.

That said, there are plenty of interesting and original concepts for demons encapsulated within the text, and some information that sparked adventure ideas. If you are a fan of demon-worshipping cults and are looking for an NPC class that will act as a template for a widespread organisation for enemies, the Thaumaturge class and their demon patrons does offer a viable option, just not one that captured my imagination that well. I felt the book would have been particularly useful to those running adventures that took a path into the Abyss.

In all, I felt the book lacked emphasis on the subtle corruptive and divisive powers that I associate with demons, instead focusing on too many creatures that looked like overgrown intestines with features such as acid spray and other combat-related abilities. The Possessing Fiend showcased in The Shaman's Handbook had far more adventure and horror potential than any of the creatures featured in Armies of the Abyss.

Now don't get me wrong, the book is well written and presented, and brings you demons to fit into your standard D&D cosmology and mindframe. In addition, it adds a well-reasoned slant on demon-worshipping cultists and their 'gods' - the demon princes. But I was hoping for and expecting a lot more from this tome and it mainly failed to deliver.

Best Creature: Stygian Interloper - forms itself from the memories of those who lose their souls in the River Styx. They then seek out friends and family in the Material Plane to cause chaos and betrayal whilst impersonating the lost individual.
Worst Creature: Solesik - a big maggot-like mawed worm that eats language.
Most Useful Creature: Mandragoras - a small demon that is used as a familiar by many demonologists. Only CR2 but has a nice feel and relevant abilities to its use as a spy.
Most Incongruous Creature: Razorwire Golem. Razorwire? Riiiight.

 

[Arnwyn]

"Subtle corruptive and divisive powers" associated with demons? I would be inclined to think "devils". I've always seen demons as more combat-oriented, and this book delivered. The subtle stuff is more for the devils... IMO.

 

[Zoatebix]

I'd be inclined to agree with you, if it weren't for Succubi being demons. Hell, the diabolical equivalent, the Erinyes, even have better combat abilities (well, almost identical stats except that the Erinyes uses weapons, has a higher strength by one point, and a description in the Monster Manual that actually mentions combat). Just because your chaotic evil doesn't mean you can't be devious and corruptive. Devils are more likely to work within a power structure, and demons are more likely to work with individuals, that's all.
Peace!
-Z

 

[Zoatebix]

Whoops, sorry about the typo there; should be 'you're' instead of 'your.' Heh, that was my first post and I didn't want to make a bad impression...

 

[Arnwyn]

I agree with you - the succubi being a great example. However, I wouldn't expect an "emphasis" in this product (as noted in the review above). I didn't mean for my comment to be entirely black & white!

 

[Clint]

Armies of the Abyss is a book from Green Ronin Publishing describing both a host of new demons and a new system of worship for demon worshippers, splitting between these two topics relatively equally.

Physical Description / Criteria for Review:
This 64-page softcover book has a color cover and black and white interiors. I paid cover price, $15.
My fantasy campaign has demons and demon-worshippers in it, and I was looking for a more interesting worship system than what was available in the core books. I have included elements of this book in my campaign.

To adore:
* A new demon-worshipping base class, the Thaumaturge. A Thaumaturge is a divine spellcaster who gains their spellcasting ability from demons much the same way that clerics gain powers from Gods. Thaumaturges must conduct obscene rituals to regain their faith every day, and these rituals differ depending on the Demon Prince chosen to worship. In accordance with the old fantasy standby, these worshippers become physically warped by their faith, ultimately becoming somewhat demonic themselves (not with universally beneficial effects). They are ready-made, despicable villains!
* A complete Demonic Pantheon is described in detail, with twenty-two new Demon Princes to worship. Each Lord is described in terms of their goals, domains, and worshippers. In addition, Thaumaturge rituals are described for each one, making each Thaumaturge subflavor unique. There is enough material in this section to be a foundation of a demon-fighting (or worshipping!) campaign. To top it off, it's modular enough to extract out only the ones that you want for your campaign.
* The black and white artwork is absolutely excellent and evocative of the subjects described.

To love:
* The new demons listed, taking up half the book, are both interesting and unusual. Most monster books don't leave an imprint, but I wanted to use these in my game. The concepts and art really drive each other: just look at the Spineseeker! A full range of challenges is provided, from CR 2 all the way up to CR 25. Combine these with the Monster Manual demons, and you have a full range of unique and interesting enemies to throw at players.
* A listing of new demons ranked by CR is given on the inside back cover, including both the demons presented in this book and the ones listed in the Monster Manual. Green Ronin knows how this book will be used.
* Many new demonic-flavored domains added for the demon worshippers, like Pain, Catastrophe, Fear, Subterfuge. They use both arcane and divine spells, as well as custom spells listed in the book. These new domains add grit and distinction to the class.
* The text density is high, with a large number of words per page. Maximum value packed into this small book.
* The text quality is high, with universally well written and edited prose. It is never difficult to follow any description. Furthermore, it's all meat, no stories of adventurers meeting a Demon Lord to help get you in the mood.

To like:
* The cover, by Brom, is attractive, but I've seen it before.
* The new spells are interesting and memorable. Most are excellent and logical additions. The pleasure-dreaming-healing spells in particular were amusing in a bad way.
* A Bibliography is given, in case you want to find more information than the huge amount given here.
* The inside covers are used to good effect (Open Gaming License, Monster Index by CR, Bibliography)

To note:
* While interesting and well written, the section for the Demon Princes runs long for those of us who aren't looking for a whole new full-blown demonic pantheon to add to a game.

Conclusion:
This book is polished and packed with usable information. Balanced and interesting rules content, excellent artwork, detailed and interesting description of how to use demons in your world... it just cries out to be used. The highest praise is that I'm using it now, in my world.