Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss - Web Enhancement

[Roman]

I know, I know... the book is not even out yet...

Nonetheless, the nerfing of the demon lords/princes in the book has already caused considerable consternation in the RPG community interested in the matter. Having hoped for an increase in power over the BOVD stats, I myself am also disappointed, but I will leave it at that, since this is not the thread for arguments on this topic.

Still, it is clear the number of those disappointed is substantial. Advancing the demon lords/princes through hit dice is not difficult, but very bland - no new flavourful powers. I doubt WotC would fully print new, more powerful versions of the demon lords/princes in a web enhancement, hence, what I would like to see in a web-enhancement is a list of 'unique' abilities to give to each demon lord/prince as they are advanced in hit dice to bring them to a much higher power level (I would say they should range from CR30 to CR40+). This would to a great extent solve my problem with the weak demon lords/princes (cosmological consistency is the second part of the problem - IMHO demon lords should have a lower limit on power equivalent to a fully advanced balor - the greatest of 'non-unique' demons, but this problem is no longer solvable).

Anybody else would like to see such a web enhancement?

Note: Another thing I would like to see in a web enhancement is flavourful mechanics for augumentation of demon lords/princes on their own layers in their citadels and mechanics for control over layers, but since the demon lords/princes have been so depowered, the above takes priority in my opinion.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would rather see a Web enhancement that would be of immediate use to a group using this book in a campaign, no offense. Ramped up stats for creatures that will almost certainly never see use in a game (especially given the audience that would want ramped-up stats is the group least likely to use them as monsters to kill and loot) would be less useful to me than the listing of minor Abyssal layers Erik mentioned in the other thread. More destinations for player characters to end up is immediately useful to me. More stats for non-combatant (for me) BBEGs is less so.

 

[Alzrius]

Anybody else would like to see such a web enhancement?

Freakin' A!

 

[catsclaw227]

I'd like to see a web enhancement that states the original intention that the stats in the book were meant to reflect the demon when encountered outside his/her/it's plane.

 

[Graf]

As other threads have discussed recently epic level is very lightly supported right now.

While having a lot of divine-level powers plugged onto demon lords is interesting it doesn’t seem tremendously useful.

I'd like to see a web enhancement that states the original intention that the stats in the book were meant to reflect the demon when encountered outside his/her/it's plane.

This, is a touch silly, in the context of 3.5.
Aspects (of gods one feels compelled to note) are in the low teens. Why would CRs of demon-aspects need to be vastly more powerful?

If demon lords are powers on their own planes in your game then aren’t you happy you’ve got stats for them off plane, so you can easily use them in your game? (Why do you need to see a lot of 35 CR demons?)
Conversely why do you feel threatened by the fact that a published book detours from your personal vision. Just ignore the books, warn your players that you’re ignoring the books and move on.

 

[BogusMagus]

I don’t know about the original intension, but the book states that samples of Demon Lord Aspects, which are “considerably weaker”, will be shown as web enhancement.

Well, WotC could change the web enhancement, or do another one, to satisfy these requests, but it seems like the web enhancement is already written, and just waiting for the book’s street date.

 

[Roman]

I don’t know about the original intension, but the book states that samples of Demon Lord Aspects, which are “considerably weaker”, will be shown as web enhancement.

Ouch! That is a hit right below the waistline!

Well, WotC could change the web enhancement, or do another one, to satisfy these requests, but it seems like the web enhancement is already written, and just waiting for the book’s street date.

If you have indeed seen a statement along the lines of that in the first paragraph of your post, than it is indeed most likely already written. Like I said, ouch!

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Anybody else would like to see such a web enhancement?

I'm not interested in the slightest. I think it's a very small but very vocal minority who give a damn about this.

 

[Deadguy]

And I'd have to agree with you mhacdebhandia. I want tools that are useful for the vast majority of the campaigns that I play in or will run.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And I'd have to agree with you mhacdebhandia. I want tools that are useful for the vast majority of the campaigns that I play in or will run.

I get the idea that most of ENWorld doesn't play D&D any more, but just views the books as reading material. That's not wrong, but it does change their priorities. Usefulness can take a back seat to more purely academic issues; how many angels can fit on the head of a pin can become of paramount importance, since the issue of pinhead angels not coming up during play isn't an issue to them.