Hordes of the Abyss: Q&A

[Sammael]

That's not a sentiment shared by many. I prefer creature illustrations to at least have a semblance of realistic proportions and musculature. Baxa, on the other hand, draws shapeless blobs.

 

[Knight Otu]

An example of Baxa's "artwork," the Fiend Folio demodands (gehreleths):

Well, they look fiendish, as I recall, they don't contradict the description (or not too much, I do seem to recall some size problems now), so my opinion is that this example doesn't leave much reason to worry for me.

 

[Shemeska]

An example of Baxa's "artwork,"[/IMG]

Baxa's artwork has grown on me over time. I didn't particularly care for his style at first, but I've come to appreciate it since then. My drooling is however reserved for Steve Prescott, Adam Rex, Tony Di, and Arnie Swekel.

 

[Ripzerai]

That's not a sentiment shared by many. I prefer creature illustrations to at least have a semblance of realistic proportions and musculature. Baxa, on the other hand, draws shapeless blobs.

Debating the merits of artwork isn't the purpose of this thread, so I'll just let the folks at home browse his website and make up their own minds.

 

[M.L. Martin]

I've long been a fan of Baxa's line art. His painted work, though, doesn't tend to be as appealing. One of the losses of the 'all color, all the time' approach of the current gaming industry, I suppose.

Matthew L. Martin

 

[Sammael]

You are right, Rip. Sorry for the derailment. There are actually some pieces on his site that I like.

To return to the topic at hand, how detailed is the demon physiology section? Does it take into account that 3.x demons, being outsiders, do not need to eat or sleep? What about reproduction? I thought that the way Planescape handled the reproduction of evil outsiders was one of its weakest points, so I'm curious as to how the FC1 approaches this subject.

 

[BOZ]

It's in the lists of Appendix 1&2.
Zzyczesiya: "The Ungrasped", rules The Forgotten Land (3rd). Concerns; confused & malevolent ignorance.

I can't find any details, and there probably isn't any.
Maybe something in the short description of the minor layers? (To be WE?)

LOL! looks like Erik must have dug Colin McComb's idea: http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2711184&postcount=174


Hey Bogus, does this appendix contain the majority of the lords listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_lord_(Dungeons_&_Dragons) ?

any lords from that wiki list omitted from the FC1 appendix? Any new lords from the FC1 appendix not on that wiki list?

 

[BOZ]

My book is out on loan so it'll be a few days before I have it.

death to the infidel!

Obox-ob and Dagon were mentioned in the list of undefined demon lords in the original MMII.

actually, Dagon did get a slight bit of definition, at least more of the other lords listed on that same page:

"Some layers of the Abyss are devoid of most of the typical inhabitants of other levels. The liquid plane ruled by Dagon, for instance, does have hezrou (type II) and a form of dretch, but the other inhabitants are octopi, squids, kraken, sea snakes, eels, weird fish, and horrible fish-monsters."

Obox-ob: Prince of Vermin. Obyrith. Shaped like Scorpion/Spider/Human mixed–up. Was once the Prince of Demons, but was killed once by the Queen of Chaos. Rules Zionyn (663th). Worshipped by some cults.

Dagon: Prince of the Depth. Obyrith. Looks like Fish/Octopus crossbreed. Rules Shadowsea (89th). Served by aquatic demons (esp. Wastrilith) & worshipped by aquatic races (Kraken, Chuuls, Sea Hags, Water Nagas, Kuo-toa, etc.).

Malacanthet: Queen of the Succubi. Tanar’ri. Rules? Shendilavri (570th)(Somehow, she and her layer are missing from Appendix 1&2.). Served by Incubi, Succubi, Lilitus.

Sweet!

indeed!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obox-ob
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagon_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcanthet

Zuggtmoy (CR 21) (She looks totally different from ToEE. Is it Dragon Mag look?)

Possibly. does she look like this?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuggtmoy

From WotC's Site:

"For the D&D website, we’re planning a horde of content to coincide with Fiendish Codex 1. For starters, R&D came to the website team with a request; while the FC1 sourcebook contains a number of demon lords (just take a look at the Table of Contents to find out which ones), R&D wanted a fair representation of their aspects. These will appear on the website throughout the month – 11 aspects in all.

Material cut from the sourcebooks due to space considerations often make ideal web enhancements; unfortunately, not every book has this available. This month, however, we have been given such “cutting room floor” material for FC1—including a new monster, a new detailed abyssal layer, and several short layer descriptions. Plus, we’ll offer a look at the artwork of D&D’s demons throughout the editions, tactics & tips for combating various demonic foes, and even more specialized half-fiend templates."

That last paragraph gets my heart all a'flutter.

again - sweet! think that player layers WE will be up before or after the book is widely available? and good going to Erik for pitching that idea to the staff!

Baxa's artwork has grown on me over time. I didn't particularly care for his style at first, but I've come to appreciate it since then.

yeah, that's basically my stance as well. he's still not my preferred artist in most cases, but i'm no longer annoyed to see his work.

 

[Psion]

I've come to associate Baxa with Dark Sun. I really don't like his work anywhere else.

 

[BryonD]

Layer 666 is not detailed (so you can make it as eeeeeevul as you want). I also retconned the two existing post-666 layers by changing their first digit to "5", so there are no longer any official layers beyond 666. There are hundreds of "available" layer slots from 1-666, so there's really no reason to push beyond that number, other than to piss off long-time players.

So says I.

--Erik

So, am I the only one that finds this post vastly ironic?

I mean, couldn't they have just detailed Layer 666 at around an evil quotient of 21 and provided guidelines for advancement?

And they don't want to piss off long-time players, so they focus on the number of layers in the abyss. But they nerf demon lords without a pause.

:\