Hordes of the Abyss: Q&A

[Erik Mona]

Erik and James,
I looked through the book yesterday and, while I didn't have the money to buy the book on the spot, this is my first WOTC must buy since the release of the 3.0 core books!

I know what you mean. I had sworn off doing any more freelance until this opportunity came up, and I jumped at the chance for much the same reasons. Of course, once I was done I once again swore off doing any more freelance, reasoning that WotC had given me the coolest assignment I could hope for.

That held for about three months, until I got my current assignment.

Btw, did I overlook Lolth or was she not included? If she was not included, was there a specific reason?

Lolth's Abyssal layer, the Demonweb, is pretty extensively detailed. She does not appear in the book because doing do would essentially repeat information already in Deities & Demigods and Faiths & Pantheons. We were already re-covering a lot of ground, and since Lolth is now better termed a god than a demon, we felt like it was ok to leave her out this time.

--Erik

 

[Mouseferatu]

Finally got my copy today. Haven't read too much of it yet, but damn, there's some great stuff in here. Kudos, guys.

It's even enough for me to forgive the misspelling of Turaglas.

 

[glass]

Got the book wednesday, but I haven't had time to go over it in detail yet (mayhem at work plus England vs Trinidad & Tobago plus gaming night last night = not much time for reading).

However, everything I have looked at in my skimmings has been brilliant!*

(* Well, everything except the under-CRed demon lords, but that has been discussed to death, and no product is perfect).


glass.

 

[sckeener]

Graz'zt's son Athux (msp? Don't have the book in front of me.)

I know that CR and LA are different...but when I look at Athux's levels and his race, I was thinking he is pretty equal to his dad. He's got 17 levels and then +4 LA for Half-fiend and +2 for Drow....that equals daddy Graz'zt's CR. If Athux was a player, I'd treat his CR as character levels plus level adjustment....

Since Athux's stats aren't fleshed out in the book like Graz'zt's....is he supposed to be so close in power to daddy? I mean...I'm not comparing other supplements to FC1....I'm just looking at FC1. Is Athux supposed to be so powerful?

 

[Shade]

I know what you mean. I had sworn off doing any more freelance until this opportunity came up, and I jumped at the chance for much the same reasons. Of course, once I was done I once again swore off doing any more freelance, reasoning that WotC had given me the coolest assignment I could hope for.

That held for about three months, until I got my current assignment.

You tease!

Since I correctly guessed Fiendish Codex I when you began dropping hints, I'll take a stab at this one too. I can only think of one thing you like more than demons...and that is Greyhawk. Plus, you would seem to be one of the "go to" guys for such a topic.

If it isn't Greyhawk-related, I'm betting it's something concerning the planes.

 

[Shade]

Just rambling off random things that made me grin after work today: the Obyriths encountering Sun-Sing in quasielemental vacuum, Pale Night's involvement on the layer of Androlynne, a nice integration of the Queen of Chaos into the context of what we knew about lower planar history from the Blood War timeline, Charon and the Marraenoloths given reference, the unified Baernaloth origin myth of the fiends given mention, and the various Factions named and their interest in the Abyss detailed.

The Sun Sing bit was an especially nice easter egg.

I'm also eating up all the name-dropping of unupdated old critters, like the bone colossus, draeden, and foo creatures.

 

[Shade]

BTW, Fiendish Aspects II: Dagon, Malcanthet, Orcus is up.

 

[James Jacobs]

Graz'zt's son Athux (msp? Don't have the book in front of me.)

I know that CR and LA are different...but when I look at Athux's levels and his race, I was thinking he is pretty equal to his dad. He's got 17 levels and then +4 LA for Half-fiend and +2 for Drow....that equals daddy Graz'zt's CR. If Athux was a player, I'd treat his CR as character levels plus level adjustment....

Since Athux's stats aren't fleshed out in the book like Graz'zt's....is he supposed to be so close in power to daddy? I mean...I'm not comparing other supplements to FC1....I'm just looking at FC1. Is Athux supposed to be so powerful?

Yes; Athux's levels are correct. He was first introduced in Shackled City, although he didn't play a huge role in the adventure (he's actually never encountered by the PCs, in fact).

 

[Uder]

Graz'zt's son Athux (msp? Don't have the book in front of me.)

I know that CR and LA are different...but when I look at Athux's levels and his race, I was thinking he is pretty equal to his dad. He's got 17 levels and then +4 LA for Half-fiend and +2 for Drow....that equals daddy Graz'zt's CR. If Athux was a player, I'd treat his CR as character levels plus level adjustment....

As you note yourself, they're different. Try comparing effective levels as a starting point if you want to compare their relative power. Or if you insist on comparing CR's, at least use CR's for both. From your notes above, it looks like Athux is CR21 (+3 for half-fiend, +1 for drow).

 

[johnnype]

James & Erik,

All this talk about content that had to be dropped makes me wonder why you didn't reduce the font size. That's what they did with the FRCS and I'm thankful every time I have to reference the book. We all know that there isn't going to be a Hordes of the Abyss II and rather than have all the wonderful info spread over countless issues of Dragon and endless web enhancements, I for one would have preferred to have it all in one place.

Just a thought.