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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 2009019" data-attributes="member: 2205">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!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Chapter 1: Into the AbyssThe 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 ServeChapter 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 RuleIn 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 AbyssThis 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 MagicIncludes 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...ConclusionsI 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!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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