Demonology: The Dark Road

[Tuerny]

Demonology: The Dark Road, designed by Matthew Sprange, is the first in Mongoose Publishing's Encyclopedia Arcane series of d20 products. Designed to be used in most any setting, Demonology: The Dark Road provides a system for dealing with the arcane summoning of fiends.

The Book
Demonology: The Dark Road, a standard laminated, perfectbound, book, is sixty-four pages long. The inside front cover has drawings of several fiends on the page of a book. The inside back cover has a drawing of an insane demonologist's handwriting on the other page of the same book. The margins are filled with a variety of arcane items, appearing on a book shelf.
The cover illustration, by Anne Stokes, shows a demonologist summoning a vrock. The interior art, by a variety of different artists, is comprised of pictures of demons. The artwork is of mixed quality and matches the theme of the book.


The Meat/The Good/The Bad
Demonology is divided into fifteen sections, each covering a different aspect of demonology. Intertwined with the text are a variety of small flavor pieces, including bits of a short story detailing the rise and fall of a young demonologist named Santado.
The Introduction provides the standard introduction to one of Mongoose's books, providing an overview of demonology, the encyclopedia arcane series, and this book in particular.
Demonology-An Overview explains some of the assumptions that the book works under. That Demonology is a tool no more evil or good than a sword is but that by following it you stand a great chance of becoming corrupted. That through demonology one can summon demons far earlier than you would be able to through the normal arcane channels but at the same time you must have to deal with the risk of losing control once you call upon that demon. That when they refer to demons they actually refer to most fiendish outsiders, including such beings as devils, hell hounds, and nightmares.
To Tread the Dark Road introduces the three prestige classes that make up the practitioners of demonology: the Demonologist, the Binder, and the Possessed. The Binder and the Possessed prestige classes require levels of a class skill restricted to Demonologists, Binders, and the Possessed, and will need to gain levels of Demonologist before they can be entered. The Demonologist is the classic and core practitioner of demonology, gaining increasing power over controlling demons and instructing them as they gain in levels. The Binder are specialized practitioners of demonology who use their skill and knowledge to bind demons into items. The Possessed are those demonologists who seek to gain the powers of demons by exchanging pieces of their souls for the ability to force a demon to possess them. These prestige classes are largely flavorful and interesting, providing sufficient variety to cover all of the specialized practices of demonology covered in this book.
The Art of Summoning - First Steps provides an introduction to the mechanics of summoning and controlling demons. In the Demonology: The Dark Road system summoning and controlling demons are resolved by an opposed d20 check versus the demon's challenge rating +10 with modifiers depending on a number of things including the demonologists level, high ability scores in the appropriate ability score, quality of materials, and speed of the ritual. Also discussed is the cost of failure in both the summoning and control rituals. The basic rules for summoning and control are simple and efficient, making the most out of the d20 system.
The Art of Summoning - The Neophyte introduces more advanced rules and uses for demon summoning. Methods are introduced for siphoning demonic energy to gain extra spell slots for a day, to summon multiple demons, to deal with named demons, to make blood sacrifices, to summon with other demonologists, demonic possession, dismissing demons, and demonic familiars. These rules do a good job in adding flavor to the base system, providing several uses of summoned demons beyond the traditional seek out and kill missions.
The Art of Summoning - The Dark Road introduces more advances rules and uses for demons. Self-possession, soul sacrifice, soul servitude, and bound demons are all discussed. Like the Art of Summoning - The Neophyte, The Dark Road is largely centered around flavorful additions to the base system. Of particular interest is the bound demon section, which provides an alternate way to create magical items. Binding demons does not require any experience points, but the binding of demons into an object has its own potential pitfalls, the most painful of which is the potential for the demon to escape.
Demonological Feats introduces five new feats related to the practice of demonology. Most appear to be relatively balanced, but one, Dismiss Demon, is a bit too much and another, Permanent Control, is questionable. Using it allows one to use a full round action to attempt a dismiss roll, using the character’s charisma as a modifier, vs. 10+the demon' challenge rating. If it succeeds than the character is able to force the demon back to their home plane without a saving throw, a spell resistance check, or anything else. Permanent Control is also somewhat questionable as it allows the character to gain permanent control over one demon of challenge rating 5 or less after they have summoned and controlled.
Magical Items introduces a number of new demonology-related magical items. These are a mix between general utility items that help in rolls involved in the process of demon summoning and controlling and more flavorful items that produce more interesting results. Some samples include the Mask of Disguise, which conceals any disfigurements caused by possession at the time of the mask's acquisition, but will not conceal any further disfigurement caused by future possessions, and the Ring of the Balor, a minor artifact which allows the character to automatically summon a balor as a standard action. The character must still make a control roll, however, and if he fails than the balor will attack the wearer, kill him, and destroy the ring.
Help for Game Masters provides a six page discussion on how to handle demonology in the campaign, starting with a note saying not to panic. Topics covered include characters in demonology, considerations of alignment, research and study, summoning and controlling, of instruction and will, named demons, possession, and other evil outsiders. The advice given is sound and helpful, and sheds useful light on how to handle demonology in the campaign.
Other Races covers how various monstrous races, such as drow, goblinoids, and yuan-ti deal with demonology. The advice is largely interesting and well tailored to each of the races, but very little of it is that surprising.
Demonic Entities discusses the demonic entities and families of the infernal realms. The majority of the material goes into detail about each of the appropriate infernal creatures introduced in the Monster Manual, discussing their most frequent use, the demonic family they belong to, the pentagram component needed to summon them, and the summoning focus. This information is useful and provides a good model for fitting demons from other sources (such as Legions of Hell and the Creature Collection books) into the system.
The book concludes with designer's notes, the d20 and OGL licenses, and a summary of the rules introduced in the book.

Rating: 4/5
Demonology: The Dark Road is a solid and interesting introduction to the Encyclopedia Arcane line of books. If you are at all interested in demonology, even if you do not intend to use the one included, than this is a helpful addition to your gaming library. The book really does fell like a self-contained and complete system, and leaves me looking forward to the next book in the series.

 

[Psion]

Demonology: The Dark Road

Mongoose's first set of d20 books were the Slayer's Guides, adding details to some classical D&D creatures like Hobgoblins and Gnolls. Demonology: The Dark Road is the first in a new series of books from Mongoose entitled the Encyclopedia Arcane. The books in the Encyclopedia Arcane series will focus on different methods of arcane magic for use with the d20 system. In addition to Demonology, follow-up books will detail Necromancy and "Wild Spellcraft."

Demonology: The Dark Road details (as you might guess) game mechanics for players wishing to pursue the binding of creatures from the planes of evil to do the bidding of their arcane spellcasting characters. Departing with the convention of the D&D / d20 game, Demonology: The Dark Road refers to all evil outsiders generically as demons, not just the chaotic ones.

A First Look

Demonology: The Dark Road is a 64-page softcover book. The cover depicts a man calling forth some sort of beaked demonic creature (probably a Vrock Tanar’ri) against a backdrop of a lab with a pentagram.

The interior of the book is black and white. Decent artwork -- primarily of demons -- decorates the book. A variety of artists contributed to the book, yet the most eye-pleasing to me is the work of Eric Lofgren, whose artwork you may recognize from FFG’s Traps & Treachery.

As with the Slayer's Guides, I feel that the use of space is not good. The space between paragraphs and white space is not as glaring, but there is the same large line spacing and font size. Additionally, the price per page is a little high in my estimation. Compare it to other recent books of similar printing format. Demonology: The Dark Road is 64 pages at a price of $13.99. Necromancer Games' Rappan Athuk 2 is 64 pages at the price of $11.95, and has a higher text density.

A Deeper Look

Demonology: The Dark Road is divided into a large number of small sections instead of a few chapters. More generally, the book is divided into broad sections including introductory material, the prestige classes, game mechanics for the summoning and binding of evil outsiders, supplemental mechanics (such as feats and magic items), and some afterthoughts including advice for GMs, details on how some races use demonology, and specifics on what materials are required to summon the standard evil outsiders described in the MM and SRD.

The basis of the book is the prestige classes. Three prestige classes in the book can use the its methods for demon summoning. The demonologist is pretty much the most basic practitioner of demonology. Beyond access to the use of the demonology rules, the demonologist gains abilities allowing it to exercise greater control over the creatures called and to call more of them.

There are two more specialized demonology prestige classes. They too can use the demonology rules, but they receive other abilities instead of improvements in calling demons. The binder receives the ability to bind fiends into objects and create a special class of magic items. The possessed voluntarily allows a fiend to co-occupy his or her body and in the process gain some of the fiend's abilities.

The classes may prove a little powerful for many campaigns. Though using the demonology abilities entails some risk, the prestige classes still receive a considerable array of abilities in addition to more skills than a wizard or sorcerer and full spellcasting advancement.

Unlike in AEG's Evil, the demonology rules in Demonology: The Dark Road do not simply ignore the already existing means of dealing with outsiders. The demonology rules are presented, however, as an alternative to the existing rules, a "more risky" method with potentially greater rewards. Demonologists are not assumed to automatically be collaborating with fiends, but instead are merely engaging in a risky form of magic. This perspective perhaps makes the book more accessible for non-evil (but foolhardy) PCs.

The book presents a straightforward mechanic for dealing with fiends. There are basically two steps: summoning the fiend and controlling the fiend. Both of these tasks require a roll. A standard d20 roll is used, with modifiers according to the character's demonology class level and a number of other factors.

The difficulty of these checks depends on the CR of the summoned fiend. Summoning requires a roll with a DC of 10 + the fiend'’s CR. Controlling the fiend is a bit more difficult, requiring 10 plus double the fiend's CR. As you might imagine, the fiend who is summoned but not controlled tends to be a significant problem for the demonologist.

The author intentionally places control in the GM's hands by requiring that a demonologist character acquire texts detailing the demons and rituals before attempting to summon a given type of outsider. While fundamentally wise, the possibility still exists that a campaign could get out of hand if the GM makes a bad call.

There are two sections on magic items. One is general magic items that are of interest to demonologists; the other gives details for items created by the binder prestige class binding fiends to objects. Some misunderstandings of the rules shine through here. For example, with regard to demonic wands and staves, the author states that they can be recharged as normal magical wands and staves. The D&D 3e / d20 System, however, provides no standard method for recharging items.

The demonology feats are primarily targeted at members of the book's prestige classes. They allow characters to do things such as speed up the summoning rituals, issue more complex commands, and bring fiends under their permanent control.

The remainder of the book is more details, rhetoric, and ideas. Though some of the additional material is interesting, much of it seems like material from which only a few GMs will get much value. For example, the section on other races is likely to be overridden by the specifics of a GM's campaign, if any of the creatures are even used at all.

Throughout the book are a number of fiction sidebars detailing the exploits of some demonologists. They are generally better written and more interesting than the similar sidebars that appeared in the Slayer's Guides.

Summary

The book provides an interesting and mechanically solid alternative method to the standard d20 summoning rules. A GM who adopts these rules should find that they create a lot of interesting possibilities, but they are bound to add a measure of randomness and chaos to a campaign in the hands of PCs.

The book sacrifices breadth for depth. As such, it will be most useful in a campaign chiefly concerned with demonology. It may be a little narrow to justify the purpose of buying it in a campaign with a broader focus, especially considering the text density and cost of the book.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Demonology was one of the most anticipated D20 books for me and it delivered handsomely.

One problem I always had with DnD is that it always assumed certain fantasy stereotypes and very frequently failed to provide the justification for them in terms of rule mechanics.
Everybody knows, for example, that sometimes you need a whole lot of cultists working together for prolonged periods of time to bring forward a truly powerful spell and yet there was nothing in DnD rules explaining this until SSS came up Ritual Magic.
Similarly, it is a staple of fantasy that trafficking with fiends is a quick but extremely dangerous route to power but traditional summoning spells always failed to convey this in terms of game mechanics.

Demonology corrects this historic oversight and also demonstrates how adaptable d20 system in fact is to non-Vancian magical systems. With the minimum of new mechanics – just two d20 rolls and their modifications this book introduces the demonology that has the true feel of the demonology of myth and fantasy. Everything one can imagine demonologist doing, from sacrificing a chicken to selling one’s soul is covered and yet no heaps of tables are needed, not even the lists of new spells.
To see how revolutionary this is it suffices to notice that for a sufficiently low magic world it is perfectly conceivable to make Demonology the only magic there is; in fact it would be perfectly sensible choice for many a fantasy a setting. Then this 64 page book succeeds in something that has long been claimed to be impossible, creates fully functional alternative magical system for DnD. On top of this, this alternate system blends seamlessly with the traditional system in almost perfectly self balanced way – making it nearly universally applicable.

As a great admirer of simplicity in rules and someone who for long was looking for the ways to incorporate some traditional images of fantasy – like that of the Faustus into DnD game I have to say that this book stroke me right into nerve. I am eagerly expecting the new “Encylopaedia Arcane” releases but I even they will be able to match this book. I would give it a 6 if I could.

 

[Simon Collins]

Beware! This review contains major spoilers.

Demonology: The Dark Road is a sourcebook dealing with summoning, binding and controlling demons (and devils) for the D&D game. Note that the author does not distinguish between demons and devils in the text - they are all classed as demons - my review will use the same presumption for simplicities sake. It costs $13.99.

Presentation: This is a softback book with a page count of 64. The front cover has a nice picture of a demonologist summoning a demon within a pentagram (Lesson One: Never stand inside the summoning circle when summoning a demon!!). The back cover contains information on the book, on a black background. The inside front cover portrays four demons whilst the back cover shows an insane letter. The first page contains credits and contents and the penultimate page shows the OGL and D20 Licence. The text is restricted, as usual in Mongoose Publishing's products, by a fairly wide margin and plenty of white space between paragraphs and around drawings. The internal black and white artwork is generally good (in fact some of it is better than the front cover).

Whats Inside: A two page introduction covers the purpose of the Encyclopaedia Arcane series and demonology itself, with some flavour text. A three-page overview of demonology deals with corruption and how to avoid it, the terminology of demonology, and the dangers of demonology. The six-page section entitled To Tread The Dark Road deals with why someone begins to practice demonology and the types of practitioners, before going on to detail three prestige classes - the Demonologist, the Binder and the Possessed. The next (8 page) section, The Art Of Summoning - First Steps, deals with research and study, summoning rituals, the risks of summoning, required knowledge, some rules on Summoning (with an example), shifting the odds (modifiers to summoning), controlling the demon, and the consequences of failure. The Art Of Summoning - The Neophyte (8 pages) deals with siphoning demonic energy, multiple summonings, named demons, blood sacrifices, group summonings, possession (including an example using the rules), accidental possession, possessing others, driving out the demon, dismissing demons, and demonic familiars. The Art Of Summoning - The Dark Road (6 pages) deals with powerful demonologists, covering self-possession (letting a demon possess you), soul sacrifices, and soul servitude (all with related rules information). The following section, Bound Demons, deals with binding demons into items (including creating demonic armour and demonic weapons through the process) over 6 pages. The next page has four demonological feats (Change Instruction, Dismiss Demon, Permanent Control and Quicken Summoning). Two pages of magical items follow. Next is a section giving advice to DMs who want to introduce demonology into their campaigns (including alignment considerations and rules clarifications). A two page section looks at other races who might use demonology (e.g. drow, hags, Yuan-ti). Next is a ten page section entitled Demonic Entities which deals with soul harvesting, demonic families/types, and ritual components, followed by a description for all the demons from the Monster Manual, complete with illustrations (huzzah!), demon-type, and summoning information. The book finishes with a page of notes from the designer that clarifies a few of the issues within the main text, and a final rules summary.

The Good: Interesting prestige classes, a workable set of rules for essentially a (limited) new magic system for demonology (using DCs as per the skills system), binding demons into items, blood sacrifices, selling your soul for power, new feats - the list goes on of all the creative stuff that can be found in this book. This is a major step up from the Slayer's Guides. And what's more, it seems to be well-balanced enough at first glance to be usable for PCs (as the designer's notes encourage you to do).

The Bad: I'd like to have seen some new demons (but hey, Green Ronin have plenty) and the book suffered from Mongoose Publishing's spacious layout once more. Thats about it really.

Conclusion: This book had my mind racing with ideas as I read through it, and I'm looking forward to incorporating ideas from it in my next adventure. Not only useful for DMs though, this is worthwhile getting as a player too. All round a huge improvement on previous Mongoose products and definitely worth the money.

 

[DM_Jeff]

Demonology
by Matthew Sprange
Cover art by Anne Stokes
$14.95 64-page d20 sourcebook for DM`s and players alike.
Demonology is a big, meaty sourcebook on the most vilest of fantasy character delving: summoning and controlling demons!

Demonology: The Dark Road is the first in Mongoose Publishing`s “Encyclopedia Arcane” series. Taking a break from the Slayer`s Guides (see archive link above) they have taken their first step into a larger world. To begin, while the Slayers Guides broke new ground, this pretty much blows you away. An initial read-through immediately reveals the true usefulness of the work, as every campaign I`ve run has involved summoned infernals somewhere in the story. Yes, infernals, as in even though it`s called Demonology, it involves summoning, controlling and dealing with all evil denizens of the lower planes.

First, the layout is typical of Mongoose Publishing`s professional-looking style. Artwork continues to be excellent, Anne Stokes as the cover artist has joined Brian Wilson of Privateer Press as one of my new favorites. Infernal fans will find beautiful, awesome renditions of our favorite fiends from various Mongoose artists within, covering all in the Monster Manual from WotC.

This book is truly a sourcebook in all ways, and best, it`s for both players and DM`s truly and all the way through. This overjoyed my wife (who plays in my campaign) who immediately dug into it and was quite impressed.

As a quick overview, this manual contains essays and rules, yes full cool d20 rules for dealing with infernals. In keeping with the d20 system theories, the rules are elegant, easy to grasp and intuitive. They also managed to cram a lot of modifiers into the rules involving all the popular knowledge and lore of demon summoning into modifiers to the rolls but this system is quick and easy while allowing a lot of DM input and flavor.

First, we get a look into the unique approach Mongoose took in the subject. The Dark Path isn`t just also a tagline for the book, it`s a philosophy that`s hinted at heavily in the overall tone: Demonology is not in and of itself evil! How more evil is in than a mighty broadsword? Can`t that sword be used by the valiant village champion defending the weak as sure as the troll raider who comes to pillage? Demonology is a tool, but one with a much higher price than a broadsword! You see, it`s seductive, one might even say `easy` at first and when dealing with the likes of imps and other lowly outsiders.

To begin, we`re introduced to demonology, and then there are three very well put together d20 Prestige Classes concerning the dark art. For those noting a general lack of numbers in the Slayer`s Guides, you`ll be happy to see that Mongoose has great attention to detail and respect for the system they are writing for. These classes are the Summoner (one who calls demons to do specific requests), the Binder (an arcane caster who binds infernals INTO magic items, creating items with new, unique and powerful abilities above the norm) and the Possessed (who calls forth demons into his own body, enhancing his own abilities to superhuman levels). Only this last one actually has “any non-good” as an alignment requirement. Speaking of requirements, it`s possible for an arcane caster to achieve the Summoner prestige class at second level!

Important side track here: a reader may get the impression this is all a bunch of high-level toys to spoil his carefully balanced game. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I`ll tell you about one of the last chapters in the book, “Help for the DM” which give firm control over to the DM and the impact the rules have on their campaign. In essence, it`s how far are your players willing to push their luck? The temptation to summon greater and greater infernals as your levels and abilities increase is great, but there is ALWAYS a chance of failure, and that failure can be catastrophic.

The process and rules can briefly summed up as follows: First, a demonologist must find lore concerning the type of infernal he wishes to deal with (right there putting that in the DM`s corner). Second, using a new skill (Knowledge: Demon Lore) the PC must research the information. Second comes preparation. You see, the pentagrams and rituals vary from demon to demon, and then between subtypes, named demons, etc. These are all well discussed in the text, even exacting information for the typical infernals of the D&D game. Next comes the summoning, an incredibly simple yet wonderfully diverse mechanic revolving around a DC of 10 plus the infernal creature`s Challenge Rating! This not only shows elegance of design, but allows all other creatures from the any other d20 publisher with infernal Open Game Content (*cough*, Green Ronin, Sword & Sorcery, *cough*) to be added to the mixture and rule system with ease. Last comes controlling your summoned beast. A DC of 10 plus twice the CR of the creature, allowing you to issue a 9-word command. Added to this system are dozens of awesome roleplaying modifiers. You can take your time, do extra research, use abilities gained from being one of the demonologist prestige classes, and other demon lore as game mechanic modifiers to the summoning and controlling rolls. Special heads up goes to Alexander Fennell, probably one of the best editors of any d20 product, as he keeps all this straight with accurate page cross-referencing and good examples of the rules in action throughout making it a friendly book all around!

In between all this we get excellent essays and studies of Demonological magic, some great mood-enhancing pieces written from the point of view of aspiring demonologists, and a discussion on demonology magic in the different intelligent fantasy races (this is an excellent plot-building piece). New demonology feats allow for longer summoning, more exacting or longer-phrased commands, and a host of other cool abilities, no fluff! In addition to all this is a large collection of new magic and demon-enhanced magic items, all with full well-researched d20 stats: prices, requirements, etc.

Mongoose`s next book in this series in Necromancy, and it too takes a unique spin on the idea of negative energy surrounding the recently deceased and the Necromancer`s ability to bend that to his will. Mongoose has published a solid, excellent fully-integrated product for all fantasy d20 games in Demonology, and I expect this trend to continue. As it`s OGL material I would love to see other publishers use this work in their manuals for D&D. An invaluable resource that deserves a spot on any serious gamer`s shelf.

-Jeff Ibach

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Welcome, mortal, to Demonology – The Dark Road. Within these secret pages you will find the most forbidden knowledge of all – that of summoning, binding and ultimately controlling the demons, devils and fiends of the infernal planes. This book is not for the faint of heart for only the strongest of wills may dare to dabble in the blackest art of all. The perils are great and the dangers terrifying but for those willing to gamble their very souls, the rewards are far greater than any mortal can possibly conceive.

 

[trancejeremy]

I've been meaning to pick this up, and finally did, after reading the various good reviews on it. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed in the actual product. While they are perhaps the best Demonology rules for d20 (others appear in Evil, Dragon Lords of Melnibone & the Encyclopedia of Devils & Demons), they're not that great. And the rules are quite sparse - most of the book is fluff.

It's a 64 page book, decently priced at $14 (Not cheap, not expesive, about average, if not a bit more). The outside margins are gigantic, 1 1/2 inches by my measurement. But at least they put a graphic in the margin, it's not just white space. And the covers are used for illustrations, which is a nice touch.

As I said, the rules are fairly sparse. They can be summed on one page (and fact are, at the end). Besides that, you get 3 demonology related prestige classes - The Demonologist, The Binder, and The Possessed. The Demonologist summons demons, the Binder binds them into items, and the Possessed deliberately lets the demon possess himself to take advantage of their magical powers. (Demonology BTW means dealing with any evil outsider, or at least Devils and Demons, not just d20 defined Demons).

There's a page of feats, nothing exciting. Then a few magic items. Then it ends with some fluff for DMs - including a recap of all the demons from the MM.

So, it this a bad product? Not exactly. It's just not very good.

I would have liked to have seem better rules, ones that reflect demonology in the real world and in fiction. The rules in the book aren't terrible, but much like the ones in Evil, there is very little reason to ever summon demons. In this book, the summoner can basically give a demon one 9 word order. Big deal! Is someone going to risk life and limb for that, basically what could be done with a Summon Monster spell. Hrrmph.

I would have also liked some more demons, and rules for new demons. Instead we just get a recap of the MM. Again, hrrmph. Nice drawings, though. (I love the Imp - he's got the most evil look on his face I've ever seen)

To sum up, while visually a nice product, and the text is well written, this book seems almost useless. Admittedly, I do have several other d20 books on the subject, so this might appeal to people who have nothing, and I am interested in demonology, so I might be really picky. But I still think this is a pretty weak product.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Heh.