D&D 5E Chains of Asmodeus: Official 286-Page Nine Hells Book & Adventure Released!

For Extra Life, the children's hospital charity, Wizards of the Coast just released Chains of Asmodeus on DMsGuild in PDF format. Written by James Ohlen and Adrian Tchaikovsky, this book includes an adventure for levels 11-20, stat blocks for Asmodeus and the other archdevils, a corruption mechanic, and more.

Arcanum Worlds Presents: Chains of Asmodeus
Chains of Asmodeus is a 286-page source book and adventure for the Nine Hells written by legendary game designer James Ohlen (Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins) and award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time, The Tiger and the Wolf, The Doors of Eden). This book is beautifully illustrated with haunting art from Sergei Sarichev, Sergey Musin, Julian Calle, Sebastion Kowoll, Paul Adams, Luis Lasahido, and the Aaron Sims Company.

Travel through the Nine Hells to save your soul in this tome that includes:

• 50+ High Challenge Monsters
• Stat Blocks for Asmodeus, Lord of the Nine, and all major Archdevils
• 20+ Infernal Magic Items
• New Item Corruption Mechanic
• Details on all Layers of the Nine Hells, with Beautifully Illustrated Maps created by John Stevenson
• A Fiendish Adventure for Levels 11-20

The book includes full stat blocks for Asmodeus (CR30), Beelzebub, Belial, Dispater, Fierna, Glasya, Levistus, Mammon, Mephistopheles, and more including Bel, Zariel, and a ton of monsters and NPCs.

You can pick it up for $29.99 on DMsGuild.

 

[humble minion]

Also, I absolutely LOVE the Children of Time series and did not know Adrian Tchaikovsky was a game writer as well. Cool.

I genuinely have no idea why Adrian Tchaikovsky doesn't get more recognition. He's got a list as long as your arm of high-quality output, almost nobody writes more books faster, he just won a Hugo, but he seems to have largely slipped under the geek culture radar and doesn't get talked about much.

I frigging loved Shadows of the Apt, and that badly needs to be a D&D setting, by the way. And his WH40K novel was one of the better ones in recent years too.

 

[Hussar]

I ran the Extra Life adventure Infernal Machine Rebuild and it was a FANTASTIC adventure.

I'm really probably going to give this one a go too.

 

[vecna00]

I just saw this listed and came here to see if it was posted!

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Just because I am often crfitical on this front, I want to say:

Good job WotC for releasing this as a PDF and not just a D&D Beyond exclusive.

Also, I absolutely LOVE the Children of Time series and did not know Adrian Tchaikovsky was a game writer as well. Cool.

Apparently when the Hugos called him to tell him Children of Time had won a Hugo for best series, the call came during his D&D game

 

[beta-ray]

A… a… PDF? Wow. Cool.

 

[dave2008]

Just picked it up (I do love me some archdevils). I haven't had a chance to go into much detail yet, but the monsters look interesting at first glance.

 

[Clint_L]

I genuinely have no idea why Adrian Tchaikovsky doesn't get more recognition. He's got a list as long as your arm of high-quality output, almost nobody writes more books faster, he just won a Hugo, but he seems to have largely slipped under the geek culture radar and doesn't get talked about much.

I frigging loved Shadows of the Apt, and that badly needs to be a D&D setting, by the way. And his WH40K novel was one of the better ones in recent years too.

His Children of Time series is fantastic, as is his Final Architect series. I dunno about him being under the radar these days, though. Certainly in sci-fi circles he has a big following!

 

[Storyteller Hero]

I just bought it since I'm working on a big project with stats for an avatar of Asmodeus and I have a lore pamphlet for Asmodeus on DMsGuild that contains a hefty Afterlife section for the Nine Hells - I've been consolidating the "official" lore from all editions to make a "lore to rule them all", and WotC putting its stamp on this book makes it more or less "official". Fortunately, they didn't heavily retcon the Nine Hells so I'll only have to make some minor changes in the next update for the pamphlet.

I was wondering how they would approach Asmodeus' stat block and it's more or less the same style as other previously published aspect stat blocks. It feels like the stat block should be spiked upwards but the authors limited themselves to stay within the current bounds of established 5e monsters that a 20th level party can potentially fight, or at least where the monster-building table in the DMG cuts off at. I'm planning a very different approach for my own book's Asmodeus stat block, which might go well in this adventure for people wanting something a bit more "spicy".

I'm kind of disappointed that in a certain section's lore text they would relegate epic level and 10th+ level spells to 9th level, which is kind of sloppy. Making 9th level spells more or less the catch-all for all magic above 8th level is one of those things that is obviously going to be RE-retconned at some point.

The art is gorgeous. I like some of the new monsters and NPCs they added. I'm happy that Halruua gets a small shout out - it's one of my favorite Realms in FR.

I think the book's design space would have been far improved if a comprehensive set of official epic level rules were established.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I'm looking forward to it and @Storyteller Hero's pamphlet when I'm ready to migrate the campaign to the Nine Hells

 

[Reynard]

So how is the actual adventure? How long is it? What levels does it cover? Is it a sequel to Descent into Avernus in any way?