trancejeremy
Adventurer
This is a large hardcover, 220 pages and priced at $29.95. It's more expensive than similarly sized books from some publishers (like Ritual & Relics from White Wolf), but the same price as some (the Sovereign Stone Campaign book, for instance). It's a very heavy book, heavier than any other d20 hardback I have, so the paper is apparently pretty decent quality.
The premise of the book is to describe and detail demons, devils, and evil critters from the real world, taken from most cultures mythology and religion. Summerian, Judeo Christian, Indian, Asian, North American, African, pretty much all over.
There are a total of 172 critters described. They get a minimum of at least 1 page, with 2 pages being devoted to the most powerful or interesting. The top, left, and right margins are virtually non-existant, and the bottom margin is only an inch or so, so each page is packed with text.
Each critter is also illustrated. While the artwork is somewhat crude, this is apparently deliberate - much of the art seems derived or inspired by actual books on demons or drawings of those critters. If you're read an old book on demonology or the like, most the art in it is from wood cuttings, and is somewhat grotesque.
The text is generally very well done. The critters seem well researched, varied (though there is a lot of the beautiful woman that does something bad to you type), and are described in terms of appearance, behavior, history, and such.
A lot of the creatures are unique. It's hard to tell in many cases, because of editing and terminology problems. (This book contains such notables as Abraxas, Ahriman, Asmodeus, Astaroth, Azazel, Baal, Beelzebub, Belial, Lilith, Lucifer, Mammon, Samael, Satanchia, and Tiamat.)
Many of these critters are also treated as deities, with all the relevent deity info given (most of these get 2 pages devoted to them). In some cases, it's not a unique creature that is worshipped, but an archetype. Some people might find a problem with this, but not me. Some of the monsters in the MM are also re-done, such as the Succubus, Nixie, and Djinn, which might annoy some. But not me.
Unfortunately, this book has a lot of flaws that did annoy me.
The most glaring problem is the d20 stats. While he's a nice guy, and creative (I've chatted with him a couple of times about his old game, Dark Conspiracy), Lester Smith seems to have problems understanding and creating stats in virtually every game system he's written for. d20 is no exception. The main culprit is his (and their, it's a relatively common problem in this book) use of damage reduction in lieu of giving hit points.
For an example, Ravana, King of the Rakshasas. He has a challenge rating of 23, but has a whopping 34 hit points (that's sarcasm). While he does have a damage reduction (10/+5), that's way too few. Even relatively low level characters can do more than 10 points of damage in one attack, thus being able to hurt him. Ravana also had a mightly +3 attack bonus with his swords, and can cast spells as a 5th level wizard. Fearsome indeed!
Thankfully, though, Mr. Smith's contributions to the book are few (though as I point out, some other authors share his problem). A more accurately statted demon is Rahu, an ancient Indian demon-god. He has a CR of 20, 810 hp, +22 attack bonus, a ton of feats and abilities. Now that is an opponent to be feared...
Another problem is the use of the terms "Tanar'ri" and "Baatezu" instead of "Demon" and "Devil". While this was apparently the case in 2nd Edition AD&D, in 3rd Edition D&D they are apparently just factions - the terms demon and devil are back in use. And in place of "Hell" and "Heaven", they similar use "Baator" and "Elysium". For instance, under the Lucifer entry, it alters the famous saying to, "Better to reign in Baator than serve in Elysium.", which is just silly.
A similar flaw is that this book has taken some mythological beings, mostly fey and spirits, and altered them into demons or devils. For instance, the Surem. They are basically a race of small, somewhat grouchy dwarves who lived in ancient Mexico and the Southwest of US. In this book, they are altered to demons. (BTW, this is another one of Mr. Smith's creations. It's Hit Dice are listed as "Once per 2d8+", your guess is as good as mine as to what he meant by that...).
There are a couple editing errors like that. For instance, the Shedim & Shetan seem to have their text mixed up a bit. It doesn't help that the illustrations are almost identical. Abraxas is called Abraxus in places. There are some terminology problems as well. Solitary instead of Unique for unique beings.
Lastly, there is a section written by long-time TSR guy Jim Ward (famous for the Drawmij spells, which is his name backwards...) on how to summon demons. This section is a nice idea, but has two main flaws. The first of all is that is doesn't make a lot of sense, rule wise. The main problem is that some spells are listed as being 10th and 12th level, but also, the rules just aren't very good. Better to dig up the rules/spells from the old module, S4 or Unearthed Arcana.
Secondly, the text is hard to read in this section. For some reason, they added a whole lot artwork here. Really awful artwork, and completely unrelated to the book. It's mostly depections of "Dragonelves", from their own setting (they have a card game and 3 d20 modules). A lot of this art is poorly done, but much of it is actually grotesque - skeletal bodies with fully fleshed heads. Very creepy.
To sum up, I really like this book. Judged as a book, it's very interesting to read. However, as a gaming reference book, the problem with the stats is pretty glaring in places. GMs will definitely have to alter some of the stats or reduce the CRs of some critters. Not a lot of work, but the fact that it's necessary is a large negative. The other problems are annoying, but not major. In many ways it's a sort of primitive product, almost like from 1st edition (or pre 1st edition) D&D.
In my opinion, the text of the critters themselves is on par with than the text in Green Ronin's Legions of Hell), but the stats are nowhere as good (in most cases). But the level of content is much higher for the buck than that book (that was 64 pages and $15, this is twice the price but with triple the content).
I would say it's very useful (almost a must buy) for those running a campaign that features lots of devils and demons. It should also be good for Deadlands d20, Weird Wars, and other horror based d20 games set on historical earth. It's also moderately useful as a critter book. Overly and easily offended religious types might want to pass this, since it contains a fair amount of demons from their lore.
The premise of the book is to describe and detail demons, devils, and evil critters from the real world, taken from most cultures mythology and religion. Summerian, Judeo Christian, Indian, Asian, North American, African, pretty much all over.
There are a total of 172 critters described. They get a minimum of at least 1 page, with 2 pages being devoted to the most powerful or interesting. The top, left, and right margins are virtually non-existant, and the bottom margin is only an inch or so, so each page is packed with text.
Each critter is also illustrated. While the artwork is somewhat crude, this is apparently deliberate - much of the art seems derived or inspired by actual books on demons or drawings of those critters. If you're read an old book on demonology or the like, most the art in it is from wood cuttings, and is somewhat grotesque.
The text is generally very well done. The critters seem well researched, varied (though there is a lot of the beautiful woman that does something bad to you type), and are described in terms of appearance, behavior, history, and such.
A lot of the creatures are unique. It's hard to tell in many cases, because of editing and terminology problems. (This book contains such notables as Abraxas, Ahriman, Asmodeus, Astaroth, Azazel, Baal, Beelzebub, Belial, Lilith, Lucifer, Mammon, Samael, Satanchia, and Tiamat.)
Many of these critters are also treated as deities, with all the relevent deity info given (most of these get 2 pages devoted to them). In some cases, it's not a unique creature that is worshipped, but an archetype. Some people might find a problem with this, but not me. Some of the monsters in the MM are also re-done, such as the Succubus, Nixie, and Djinn, which might annoy some. But not me.
Unfortunately, this book has a lot of flaws that did annoy me.
The most glaring problem is the d20 stats. While he's a nice guy, and creative (I've chatted with him a couple of times about his old game, Dark Conspiracy), Lester Smith seems to have problems understanding and creating stats in virtually every game system he's written for. d20 is no exception. The main culprit is his (and their, it's a relatively common problem in this book) use of damage reduction in lieu of giving hit points.
For an example, Ravana, King of the Rakshasas. He has a challenge rating of 23, but has a whopping 34 hit points (that's sarcasm). While he does have a damage reduction (10/+5), that's way too few. Even relatively low level characters can do more than 10 points of damage in one attack, thus being able to hurt him. Ravana also had a mightly +3 attack bonus with his swords, and can cast spells as a 5th level wizard. Fearsome indeed!
Thankfully, though, Mr. Smith's contributions to the book are few (though as I point out, some other authors share his problem). A more accurately statted demon is Rahu, an ancient Indian demon-god. He has a CR of 20, 810 hp, +22 attack bonus, a ton of feats and abilities. Now that is an opponent to be feared...
Another problem is the use of the terms "Tanar'ri" and "Baatezu" instead of "Demon" and "Devil". While this was apparently the case in 2nd Edition AD&D, in 3rd Edition D&D they are apparently just factions - the terms demon and devil are back in use. And in place of "Hell" and "Heaven", they similar use "Baator" and "Elysium". For instance, under the Lucifer entry, it alters the famous saying to, "Better to reign in Baator than serve in Elysium.", which is just silly.
A similar flaw is that this book has taken some mythological beings, mostly fey and spirits, and altered them into demons or devils. For instance, the Surem. They are basically a race of small, somewhat grouchy dwarves who lived in ancient Mexico and the Southwest of US. In this book, they are altered to demons. (BTW, this is another one of Mr. Smith's creations. It's Hit Dice are listed as "Once per 2d8+", your guess is as good as mine as to what he meant by that...).
There are a couple editing errors like that. For instance, the Shedim & Shetan seem to have their text mixed up a bit. It doesn't help that the illustrations are almost identical. Abraxas is called Abraxus in places. There are some terminology problems as well. Solitary instead of Unique for unique beings.
Lastly, there is a section written by long-time TSR guy Jim Ward (famous for the Drawmij spells, which is his name backwards...) on how to summon demons. This section is a nice idea, but has two main flaws. The first of all is that is doesn't make a lot of sense, rule wise. The main problem is that some spells are listed as being 10th and 12th level, but also, the rules just aren't very good. Better to dig up the rules/spells from the old module, S4 or Unearthed Arcana.
Secondly, the text is hard to read in this section. For some reason, they added a whole lot artwork here. Really awful artwork, and completely unrelated to the book. It's mostly depections of "Dragonelves", from their own setting (they have a card game and 3 d20 modules). A lot of this art is poorly done, but much of it is actually grotesque - skeletal bodies with fully fleshed heads. Very creepy.
To sum up, I really like this book. Judged as a book, it's very interesting to read. However, as a gaming reference book, the problem with the stats is pretty glaring in places. GMs will definitely have to alter some of the stats or reduce the CRs of some critters. Not a lot of work, but the fact that it's necessary is a large negative. The other problems are annoying, but not major. In many ways it's a sort of primitive product, almost like from 1st edition (or pre 1st edition) D&D.
In my opinion, the text of the critters themselves is on par with than the text in Green Ronin's Legions of Hell), but the stats are nowhere as good (in most cases). But the level of content is much higher for the buck than that book (that was 64 pages and $15, this is twice the price but with triple the content).
I would say it's very useful (almost a must buy) for those running a campaign that features lots of devils and demons. It should also be good for Deadlands d20, Weird Wars, and other horror based d20 games set on historical earth. It's also moderately useful as a critter book. Overly and easily offended religious types might want to pass this, since it contains a fair amount of demons from their lore.
