Endur
First Post
FIENDISH CODEX I: HORDES OF THE ABYSS
By Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona
Wizards of the Coast product number 953757200
160-page hardback, $29.95
This is a fantastic book and highly recommended for all GMs who want to use Demons in their campaign. I rate this book five stars (excellent).
The best parts of this book: Great artwork, informative material, lots of fluff that is interesting to read, written by experts in their subject. No prestige classes in this book, giving room for more focus on demonic content.
The worst parts of this book: Lots of problems with the stat blocks that have been written about elsewhere. Particularly the new format for stat blocks which doesn't tell you how hit points are calcualated for monsters, i.e. for Rutterkin you have 37hp (5HD) you are not told how the hit points were calculated, whether the hit dice are 8 sided, 12 sided, whether there are other bonuses to increase the hit points, etc.. Likewise, the notes on some monsters that power attack bonuses were figured in ... unfortunately, since they don't show you how the bonuses were figured in, the stat blocks may be wrong and you have to double check everything to figure out where they went wrong. I don't want to harp on this, but WOTC books are getting worse not better with regards to stat blocks.
The only other bad part about this book is that it is too short. The authors are fantastic and I really wish they had 320 pages to cover this subject instead of 160.
So what does the book cover? Chapter 1 covers demonic lore, chapter 2 covers three demonic subtypes (Loumara, Obyrith, and Tanar'ri) and a dozen demonic races not covered in the Monster Manual (Manes Demons, Goristro, Yochlol, Lilitu, etc.), chapter 3 covers fourteen Demon Lords and Princes (Demogorgon, Graz'zt, Yeenoghu, Malcanthet, etc.), chapter 4 covers Feats and Spells and the Black Cult of Ahm, chapter 5 covers the Abyss as a setting going into details on some of the specific planes.
Lots of artwork in the book. Each of the Demon Lords and demonic races receives one or more illustrations. As well as illustrations for the various demonic planes.
Some of this material is a 3.5 updating of materials previously seen in the Book of Vile Darkness, Dragon, or Dungeon.
The book essentially treats Greyhawk as the default campaign setting, although they never mention the word Greyhawk in the book.
The descriptions of the Demon Lords and Princes incorporates information that recently appeared in Dungeon, in particular with regards to Maure Castle and the feud between Yeenoghu and Malcanthet as well as the recent problems in Sterich. No surprise since some of the authors of this book are highly involved with Dungeon and Dragon magazine.
This book includes Quth-Maren in its discussions and talks about Kiaransalee and Lolth, but does not mention the recent War of the Spider Queen and the events that took place in the City of the Spider Queen module.
This book is a solid resource for anyone using Demons in their campaign. For someone whose campaign is based in Greyhawk or who is using the various modules from Dungeon, you MUST HAVE this book. It is that useful.
If there is something that I wish was in the book that is not, it is more content describing the Abyss. More information on the Queen of Chaos, Miska, and the other figures that are described but briefly. As for the current day demon lords, they too could use even more content. A page or two on each Demon Lord and a page or two on their plane is very helpful, but five or ten pages would be even better.
I strongly recommend this book to all GMs.
By Ed Stark, James Jacobs, and Erik Mona
Wizards of the Coast product number 953757200
160-page hardback, $29.95
This is a fantastic book and highly recommended for all GMs who want to use Demons in their campaign. I rate this book five stars (excellent).
The best parts of this book: Great artwork, informative material, lots of fluff that is interesting to read, written by experts in their subject. No prestige classes in this book, giving room for more focus on demonic content.
The worst parts of this book: Lots of problems with the stat blocks that have been written about elsewhere. Particularly the new format for stat blocks which doesn't tell you how hit points are calcualated for monsters, i.e. for Rutterkin you have 37hp (5HD) you are not told how the hit points were calculated, whether the hit dice are 8 sided, 12 sided, whether there are other bonuses to increase the hit points, etc.. Likewise, the notes on some monsters that power attack bonuses were figured in ... unfortunately, since they don't show you how the bonuses were figured in, the stat blocks may be wrong and you have to double check everything to figure out where they went wrong. I don't want to harp on this, but WOTC books are getting worse not better with regards to stat blocks.
The only other bad part about this book is that it is too short. The authors are fantastic and I really wish they had 320 pages to cover this subject instead of 160.
So what does the book cover? Chapter 1 covers demonic lore, chapter 2 covers three demonic subtypes (Loumara, Obyrith, and Tanar'ri) and a dozen demonic races not covered in the Monster Manual (Manes Demons, Goristro, Yochlol, Lilitu, etc.), chapter 3 covers fourteen Demon Lords and Princes (Demogorgon, Graz'zt, Yeenoghu, Malcanthet, etc.), chapter 4 covers Feats and Spells and the Black Cult of Ahm, chapter 5 covers the Abyss as a setting going into details on some of the specific planes.
Lots of artwork in the book. Each of the Demon Lords and demonic races receives one or more illustrations. As well as illustrations for the various demonic planes.
Some of this material is a 3.5 updating of materials previously seen in the Book of Vile Darkness, Dragon, or Dungeon.
The book essentially treats Greyhawk as the default campaign setting, although they never mention the word Greyhawk in the book.
The descriptions of the Demon Lords and Princes incorporates information that recently appeared in Dungeon, in particular with regards to Maure Castle and the feud between Yeenoghu and Malcanthet as well as the recent problems in Sterich. No surprise since some of the authors of this book are highly involved with Dungeon and Dragon magazine.
This book includes Quth-Maren in its discussions and talks about Kiaransalee and Lolth, but does not mention the recent War of the Spider Queen and the events that took place in the City of the Spider Queen module.
This book is a solid resource for anyone using Demons in their campaign. For someone whose campaign is based in Greyhawk or who is using the various modules from Dungeon, you MUST HAVE this book. It is that useful.
If there is something that I wish was in the book that is not, it is more content describing the Abyss. More information on the Queen of Chaos, Miska, and the other figures that are described but briefly. As for the current day demon lords, they too could use even more content. A page or two on each Demon Lord and a page or two on their plane is very helpful, but five or ten pages would be even better.
I strongly recommend this book to all GMs.
