Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2008985" data-attributes="member: 172">Armies of the AbyssGreen 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 LookArmies 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 LookArmies of the Abyss is divided into four chapters plus an appendix.Into the AbyssThe 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 ServeThe 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 RuleThe 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 AbyssThe 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.AppendicesThere 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.ConclusionArmies 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</blockquote>

Verification