Hordes of the Abyss: Q&A

[Ripzerai]

The Kiaransalee thing makes perfect sense. Wow.

 

[BOZ]

Designer Interview

excellent!

Here's one on a more personal level, for Erik Mona. How did you manage to get on this book in the first place? Was this project inspired by work on Dragon Magazine's Demonomicon articles, or were those articles conversely inspired because you knew you'd be working on this book--or did both projects come about separately and happen to be a happy coincidence?

Heh, cool, that was my question (slightly edited). and I really liked Erik's answer. It was actually directed at him and James Jacobs, but of course James was not involved with the interview.

One of the sources I used was the first edition Deities & Demigods, as a few entities from that tome were said to live in the Abyss. I'm thinking specifically of Ma Yuan, the Chinese slayer of the gods and Dahak, an apocalyptic dragon spirit. Both are now imprisoned in the Wells of Darkness, a layer mentioned on the poster map that accompanied the Planescape Planes of Chaos boxed set. Other inhabitants of the Wells include the villain from my first ever RPGA tournament (The Ebulon Affair), plenty of folks from the infamous list of demons on page 35 of the first edition Monster Manual 2, and two demon lords from old Dungeon adventures.

Wicked awesome!

Let's say I want to kill Orcus, but I don't want to have to wait until 20th level to do it. Will the book support campaigns that aim at tackling the Abyss at lower levels? In other words, how can PCs take on archfiends which themselves can take on deities?

All I can say is, Rip be careful what you post - you might just get an answer.

a few I threw in for fun but which got cut for space (The Mansion of the Rake, Woeful Escarand, Spirac)

Heh, cool! I hope to see those in a web enhancement. Mansion of the Rake, as in the lair of the vampire god Kanchelsis?



*****

OK, a few other questions I posted did not get answered. Reposting them here, hoping for an answer.

Besides full demon lords, will other significant epic demons be making appearances? Such as classics like Kerzit, or Hacamuli?

Will there be stats for any non-demon monsters of the Abyss, such as the Thunderbeast? Anything else us old-timers might recognize?

Also, there is the question of demon lords who became gods in second edition AD&D, and are now back to being just demon lords again (Demogorgon, Baphomet, Sess'innek, Kostchtchie, Yeenoghu, Juiblex). Is there going to be an in-game explanation of how that power shift happened?

How much influence, if any, did the Gord novels play in the writing of FC1?

Did you consult Gary Gygax, Monte Cook, or anyone else who had done significant work with D&D's demons in preparing your book?

are you including the unique Type VI, V, and IV demons from ye olde first edition AD&D? for example, the balors Alzoll, Errtu, Ndulu, Ter-Soth, and Wendonai?

 

[BOZ]

Thought I'd mention I too will soon be recieving a copy of FC I: Hordes of the Abyss.

i have to wait till Thursday at the earliest - i need my last $25 to get me through tomorrow.

 

[Erik Mona]

Mansion of the Rake, as in the lair of the vampire god Kanchelsis?

The same. Some of the most obscure stuff I came up with was to fit in this section. It is a real shame that it was cut and I really hope we can get it out in the form of a web enhacement or a Dragon article or whatever.

Besides full demon lords, will other significant epic demons be making appearances? Such as classics like Kerzit, or Hacamuli?

Those two are not mentioned, but there are a crapload of references to other minor demon lords in Chapter 5.

Will there be stats for any non-demon monsters of the Abyss, such as the Thunderbeast? Anything else us old-timers might recognize?

Old timers will find more to recognize here than in most recent releases, I suspect. That said, we didn't have room for non-demon monsters. The thunderbeast was recently updated in the Shackled City Adventure Path hardcover, which is available from Paizo Publishing.

Also, there is the question of demon lords who became gods in second edition AD&D, and are now back to being just demon lords again (Demogorgon, Baphomet, Sess'innek, Kostchtchie, Yeenoghu, Juiblex). Is there going to be an in-game explanation of how that power shift happened?

No.

How much influence, if any, did the Gord novels play in the writing of FC1?

Not much, except that I tried not to blatantly invalidate anything on purpose. I am a great fan of Gary Gygax and my view of the D&D multiverse is definitely colored by his descriptions of it in official D&D books and elsewhere. I'd say it was a thematic influence, an influence in "tone" more than anything else.

Did you consult Gary Gygax, Monte Cook, or anyone else who had done significant work with D&D's demons in preparing your book?

I have not discussed the Abyss with Gary, and since Monte is my DM every Monday night I think I may have asked him if he knew anything about one of the throw-away demons from Planescape, but not much beyond that. I've had a pretty good idea what I've wanted to do with the Abyss for a very long time (most of both appendices were written almost a decade ago), so once I got the assignment I hit the ground running.

are you including the unique Type VI, V, and IV demons from ye olde first edition AD&D? for example, the balors Alzoll, Errtu, Ndulu, Ter-Soth, and Wendonai?

I mentioned at least one of the nalfeshnees in my write-up of the Woeful Escarand layer, which was unfortunately cut for space. I love the illustration for it in the online web preview. This is another thing I hope makes it out to you guys in some manner.

Glad to see some of you enjoying what I did with the Demonweb pits. If I'd thought of it in time, I would have asked that the book be dedicated to Dave Sutherland III, who was really the first person to take us into the Abyss.

--Erik Mona

 

[demiurge1138]

Those two are not mentioned, but there are a crapload of references to other minor demon lords in Chapter 5.

Kerzit's actually mentioned in the appendix of demon lords. His concern is, of course, the Tome of the Black Heart.

Demiurge out.

 

[BOZ]

thanks for the answers! i can't wait!

 

[sckeener]

i have to wait till Thursday at the earliest - i need my last $25 to get me through tomorrow.

I feel for you. I got mine yesterday at work early in the day....then it just sat there tempting me all day long...the clock just seemed to stop...

From what little I have read so far, I'm loving the book.

Though I wish it was a bit longer...say 240 pgs or 320 pages.

 

[Shade]

Erik -

Was Dahak simply name-dropped on the map for the Wells of Darkness, or was his writeup cut for space? Or am I just not seeing it?

So far, the Wells writeup is one of my favorite parts of the book. Lots of interesting plot hooks there.

 

[Razz]

Ok so I got the book today and read through it and noticed, of course, the difference between the Demon Lords stats in here, BoVD, and Demonomicon.

I'd like to say, what were you guys thinking with these weak demon lords, seriously?

Ok, I'd have no problem using these guys and upgrading. None at all. But what sucks is they're inconsistent with each other when you compare the two (or three) of them between the FC1, BoVD, and Demonomicon.

For example, they wrote Baphomet in Demonomicon with damage reduction 20/epic. But here in FC1 they write it as DR 20/cold iron and good. Then they say add Epic for the upgrade.

So which is it? Is Baphomet's DR 20/good, cold iron, and epic or just 20/epic?

Another inconsistency are the ability scores. Baphomet, for example, has 30 Strength in Demonomicon, yet has 33 in FC1. Then it's vice versa with the Constitution score.

Yet one more inconsistency are the abilities. They took away Graz'zt's item mastery as was given to him in BoVD. Baphomet's breath weapon deals 12d6 damage and not 20d6 as in Demoncomicon. His bestial curse ability is also gone! Another thing is the summon tanar'ri abilities are changed around all weird. Baphomet summons 1d6 bulezaus or 1 goristro yet in Demonomicon it's 1d3+1 bulezau or 1 goristro (clearly, the stronger one oddly has the weaker summon?)

The rest of the book is looking good so far, but I have to say I wouldn't mind these "base level" demon lords if the writers kept their abilities consistent.

I wonder what other abilities Pale Night was originally supposed to have, but was cut due to the "weakening"?

My uses for these guys in FC1 is simple, they're all aspects of the true demon lord going from weakest to highest: Aspects, FC1 type/BoVD type (whichever is better), Demonomicon type, and (for my games) Demonomicon type with triple Hit Dice and Paragon template as their true form...heh heh.

 

[Erik Mona]

Erik -

Was Dahak simply name-dropped on the map for the Wells of Darkness, or was his writeup cut for space? Or am I just not seeing it?

So far, the Wells writeup is one of my favorite parts of the book. Lots of interesting plot hooks there.

It's just on the map. I think I simply forgot to give Dahak a paragraph when I was writing the damn thing.

--Erik