D&D 2E I don't own any Planescape. What interesting things did it do with Tanar'ri?

[AverageMojito]

Huh? What are you talking about?

We're talking about the Planescape campaign setting for . . . 2ND EDITION D&D. Almost 30 years ago my man.

Yeah, these new designers . . . . .

I edited my post to add a simple sentence

I know my joke was unrelated to the topic... yet I could not resist. Sometimes it feels good to see that different ideas have always been there, in the very old tomes. I didn't (and don't) mean to derail the thread, I was just having fun

EDIT: I felt some part of my wording was a bit condescending.

 

[Orius]

That's unfortunate as common in combat teleporting to escape or hit and run was a really annoying gameplay consequence in 3e. I much prefered the style of 3e Diablo demons or the 4e mechanical setup where they had different flavorful abilities that felt demonic in game play.

The problem was metaplot. Don't get me wrong, Hellbound's plot was great, it's just that subsequent modules shouldn't necessarily assume it's a given. On the upside, Hellbound doesn't step on the toes of player agency like a lot of metaplot does.

 

[FriendlyFiend]

Ah, all this talk reminds me how much I miss 2E-era 'loths. The joy of pulling the carpet out from underneath the players as their characters discover there are baddies quietly working behind the scenes, manipulating those oh-so-evil tanar'ri and baatezu. sigh

 

[TarionzCousin]

Faces of Evil: The Fiends might be exactly what you're looking for.

 

[Thunderfoot]

It's been a while, but . . . .

Planescape often presented classic D&D baddies (and goodies) in atypical situations. Fiends weren't always evil, celestials weren't always good. That was interesting.

I think the idea of the Blood War started with Planescape, although perhaps it was pulled from earlier D&D lore. Mostly Planescape fleshed out the planes, including the lower planes, and gave us more demons and devils than we had before.

So, not terribly different from the classics, but more stuff, presented with a different tone.

By the time we got to Planescape, TSR was less afraid of angry mom's and of using terms like "demon" and "devil", but "tanar'ri" and "baatezu" were a part of 2nd Edition lore . . . so we started getting lawful and chaotic fiends that were outside of those categories. It seemed to be moving towards "tanar'ri" as the prominent family or race of demons, but there were others, like the obyrith. Same with the devils. Kytons were originally presented as fiendish, living in Hell, but not actually baatezu.

I miss those terms myself. I don't mind using "demon" and "devil", but . . . "tanar'ri" and "baatezu" are so much more evocative to me. My head canon sees those terms as what the fiends call themselves, and its mortals who use imprecise terms like demon or devil.

If you've never done so, I suggest reading the 'Myth Adventures' series by Robert Asprin. It's full of comedy and corny puns, but it does a great job of describing exactly this.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I hated Planescape, but that was mostly because I still used the old 1e designations. (type I, etc. and the Satanic panic by damned. heh)

More over it wasn't really my cup o tea. But it WAS well written. I just prefered my evil more ... evil.