Hordes of the Abyss.

[BOZ]

OK, i've spent enough time on this thread for now...

Revisited and revised or introduced for the first time we have the following; armanite, bar-lgura, broodswarm, bulezau, chasme, dybbuk, ekolid, goristro, guecubu, lilitu, mane, molydeus, nabassu, rutterkin, sibriex and yochlol.

glad to see all the demons from BoVD (except the babau who is in the 3.5 MM, and the shadow demon who i never really considered to be part of the demons despite the name), as well as the armanite and goristro from MotP and yochlol getting an official 3.5 update. and of course, like everyone else, glad to see the molydeus finally joining 3E. i can understand seeing the bulezau and nabassu being reprinted here, as hardcovers have a tendency to get more use than magazines for many folks. i'm assuming that the others (broodswarm, dybbuk, ekolid, guecubu, lilitu, and sibriex) are new?

does the book have stats for any non-demon monsters? does the index of all printed demons have info on all Abyssal inhabitants, or just demons?

Name, title, concerns, layer. They also have notes. d for deceased, f for female, 0 for obyrith. A - indicates that they don't actually have a laryer of the abyss.

how many names from that list would you be willing to reproduce?

for one thing, i wanted to write a Wikipedia stub for Obox-ob, but i know nothing about him other than his name. i added ones for Malcanthet and Dagon today, and all the other 14 main lords already had one.

 

[Ripzerai]

However, shortly after the printing of the Fiend Folio, we have the 3.5 MM - in which our good ol' Balor went up to 20 in both HD and CR.

The fiends in the Fiend Folio were designed with that in mind. The FF is almost a 3.5 edition book, with the exception of how weapon resistances work. I tend to call it "D&D 3.4."

when I look at archdemons, I think of them on about the same tier of power as altraloths, archomentals, and slaad lords.

I don't think it has anything to do with edition or even product line, but only the preferences of the individual designers. Lester Smith and Wolfgang Baur evidently thought it would be a good idea to provide stats for a few Abyssal lords, for those campaigns that got high enough level to challenge them. Ed Bonny thought that statting altraloths and slaad lords would make for a good couple of Dragon Magazine articles. And we know Monte Cook likes stats for archomentals. Colin McComb, on the other hand, made much of the godlike status of the planar lords, and treated them as beyond the ken of game statistics in On Hallowed Ground, Hellbound, Faces of Evil, Planes of Conflict, Planes of Law, and Dragon #223.

 

[BOZ]

so, in other words, the left hand either didn't know or simply didn't care what the right hand was doing?

sounds like not much has changed...

 

[Sammael]

The fiends in the Fiend Folio were designed with that in mind. The FF is almost a 3.5 edition book, with the exception of how weapon resistances work. I tend to call it "D&D 3.4."

It wouldn't be the first (or the last) time that lack of communication within WotC resulted in contradicting material. Hell, half the time after the writers turn over their stuff to the editors, the editors mangle it horribly without ever bothering to even notify - much less consult with - the writers. So we end up with stuff that is completely opposite from what the writers intended it to be.

 

[Kyanus Ren]

Demonomicon Artilces vs. Fiendish Codex 1

With the knowledge that FC1's Demon Lords will be powered down from their counterparts in the Dragon Articles, will we ever get to see treatment of Grazzt, Orcus and Demogorgon in the pages of Dragon? I must say, the power levels in Dragon and the amount of information there is perfect. I would be deeply disappointed to see the 3 most famous demon lords (And my favorites) get less treatment than some lesser known ones. So hopefully they will be appearing in the not too distant future.

Erik or James, any chance to comment?

 

[glass]

It pays to have the chickens as your allies when seeking the fnord.

When seeking the what? That sentance just stops....


glass.

 

[Imruphel]

Does it explain why tanar'ri are immune to electricity?

I'm still wondering about that since 2E. It seems to have been a random design decision (like most things relating to the design of the tanar'ri) but was wondering whether it had been explained.

 

[Delta]

That actually confuses me more.
So now we'll have a Forgotten Realms Lolth and a 'D&D' spider goddess?
It's the whole Tiamat vs Dragonlance all over again!

I expect that someday WOTC (might be years in the future) will decide they need a "Crisis on Infinite Planes" to collapse everything back down to to one D&D cosmology, for the sake of brand identity.

 

[arntof]

The articles in Dragon are great, so I really hope Jacobs will make some about the big three(at least Graz`zt).

The power levels there are quite perfect.

 

[Staffan]

I hope not. I like to keep different settings different. If you're going to connect the different settings, do so through the phlogiston, not the astral plane.